Food Allergies

Baseball Stadiums’ Peanut-Free Seating Perturbs Some Fans

Now home to power-washed peanut-free suites.
Now home to power-washed peanut-free suites. Photo: Patrick McDermott/2011 Getty Images

Peanut-free sections at baseball stadiums have been in the works for a while, and now the Post is reporting that Yankee Stadium will again offer peanut-free zones for the upcoming 2012 season, and the Mets will take it further, with “peanut-free seats and a peanut-free menu in thoroughly power-washed and enclosed suites.” It sounds a bit Brave New World, yes, but kids can’t exactly help it if the merest whiff of the sport’s iconic snack sends their throats closing up. However, not all fans are as compassionate.

“Peanuts are more than just sustenance at the ballpark,” said one longtime fan. “It’s as much part of the fabric of baseball as the seventh-inning stretch.” We do have to agree: Baseball and peanuts are like popcorn and movies — inextricable in the ritual of spectatorship and the cultural consciousness; peanuts are in the freaking song, after all. And yet, as much as we wouldn’t want to get shoved into a peanut-free seat, we wouldn’t want to see anyone die or even develop hives. Maybe if everyone would just stop using so much damn Purell

We shell overcome! [NYP]

Baseball Stadiums’ Peanut-Free Seating Perturbs Some Fans