Minnesota Twins: Take Me out to the Ballgame, Just Hold the Peanuts

Patrons entering the peanut-free zone at select Minnesota Twins games throughout the year do not enter through Gate 29 by the Will Call Window or Gate 6 by the B Lot.

Rather, they enter though a side door near the light rail station that is protected by two security guards. They will enter an elevator where a host or hostess will escort them up to either Level 3 or 4 in the administration building, located beneath the Budweiser Deck and at about the same level as the cheap seats on the Home Run Porch.

Upon reaching their destination, they will be greeted by a receptionist that will provide them with a yellow wristband. Before getting to their seats, families must sign a wavier that reads:

“I recognize and acknowledge that there are certain risks of physical injury to those with nut and/or food allergies in connection with attending the Minnesota Twins ‘peanut free’ zone during select games.”

After scribbling their John Hancock on the wavier, they must also sign in before grabbing a meal on their way to the balcony. Delaware North Company, the Twins food and beverage service, has the following offerings:

Big Dog w/ Chips

Kettle Korn

Licorice

Bottled Soda

Bottle Beer (Michelob Golden Draft or Bud Light)

All these products are typically found in a ballpark, but there is one obvious omission:

Peanuts.

Take me out to the ballgame/Take me out with the crowd/Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack...

Wait.

Stop right there.

For roughly three million other Americans, exposure to a peanut could trigger anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can occur within seconds of exposure to a peanut.

In fact, peanut dust left after someone has finished a bag of Planters can cause an allergic reaction in many people, including my cousin Alex.

But he loves the game of baseball and enjoys watching it live at Target Field, home of his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins.

“Every kid, if they want to see a ballgame, should be able to do that,” Patrick Klinger, the Twins VP of Marketing, told Bleacher Report. “That’s part of growing up and making memories.”

Klinger had a childhood friend whose mother passed away years ago after suffering an anaphylactic shock from eating a product that had peanut oil.

“I knew the dangers of peanuts,” he says, “[and] I had met a couple of people as well who have children that have had peanut allergies and they just couldn’t bring them to a ballgame because peanuts are synonymous with a baseball game.”

Think about it:

Below the administrative balcony, vendors run up and down the isles yelling, "Peanuts! Peanuts here! Get your peanuts here!"

Charlie Brown and his bat-swinging friends are from the cartoon Peanuts.

And, well, peanuts are an integral part of a song sung at the seventh inning stretch.

“We think everyone should be able to attend a big-league ballgame at some point,” says Klinger, “so we set aside a venue in the Metrodome that was peanut free.”

Imitating an event hosted by a couple major and minor league teams, the Twins did a trial game in 2006. It was a hit, and in each subsequent year, the team has put on an increasing number of peanut-free games.

In the Metrodome, the peanut-free zone was in the “Skybox,” essentially the football press box, which seats 100 people. When the team moved to Target Field in 2010, it was moved to the private balconies off of the administrative buildings in left field, which has a maximum capacity of 60 people.

“It’s not a huge number we’re talking about,” says Klinger. “It was more important for us that we provided a safe venue so that a child who’s a Twins fan can come out and watch the game safely where he and his parents both aren’t concerned about a life-or-death situation.”

The balconies are thoroughly washed before games and have their own peanut-free concessions so patrons are not exposed to peanut products in the concourses. The team works closely with the Anaphylaxis and Food Allergy Association of Minnesota (AFAA) and Delaware North to ensure that they are providing a safe environment.

“More and more people came each time,” Nona Narvaez, who founded the AFAA in 2001 with her husband Jeff Schaefer, told Bleacher Report. The couple has two food-allergic children of elementary school age.

“What we did is we went there and served as hosts and answered the questions because the families are worried that the food might not be safe and they have lots of questions about food allergies.”

Some patrons are allergic exclusively to peanuts. Others have multiple food allergies. To prevent allergic reactions, there is a roped-off section that separates children with multiple allergies from those with just a single peanut allergy.

“We have ingredient books in a lot of our stands that list the ingredients that we have,” Pia McDonough, the operations manager at Delaware North, told Bleacher Report. “If a guest has a question about an allergy, we’re able to have them read the ingredients and see if that’s something they can eat or not eat.”

The AFAA and Delaware North work together to create the ingredient book and provide food that is safe for children with allergies to eat.

“I peruse the ingredient list to make sure that there aren’t any peanut and tree allergens,” said Narvaez, “and make sure there’s no cross-contact in the manufacturing plant.”

There have been a couple of predicaments along the way.

The Delaware North staff originally placed sesame buns in a bin with seedless buns and the representatives from the AFAA had to explain that the cross-contact could lead to an allergic reaction.

“One year we did have sesame seeds up here thinking peanut-free, not necessarily thinking seeds or sesame seeds,” said McDonough, “but there are some people that can’t have those so, therefore, we just eliminated that…and we only put out the plain buns.”

There was another incidence where the condiment containers were brought up from the concourse, and the AFAA had to explain that if you have multiple people touching the dispensers, it is likely they could contain allergens.

“Fortunately,” says Narvaez, “we haven’t had any major problems.”

The peanut-free baseball game has caught on across the nation.

“I’ve been with Delaware North [for] 21 years, and it’s amazing how much more [allergy awareness has] become widespread,” said McDonough. “We were at a baseball game a few years ago with a friend of mine that’s allergic to peanuts and the little boy, he was only six or seven years old, and he knew he shouldn’t be around anybody that had peanuts.”

“This year, more than any other year, we’re beginning to see that other major league teams are doing it,” says Narvaez. “It’s really, really exciting because the Twins really, really paved the way in making that happen nationally.”

According to Delish.com, the Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets and New York Yankees all have a peanut-free zone.

“We have been approached by a lot of teams in the league asking about our program and how it works,” says Klinger. “We’ve been happy to convey that information and I’d love to see it spread to every team in the league.”

On Monday, June 30, Alex witnessed Jamey Carroll hit a pop fly in the ninth that allowed Alexi Casilla to score. The run broke a 6-6 tie with the archrival White Sox.

Beneath the balcony, the crowd erupted in cheers.

Alex sat above the crowd with his brother Jimmy, sister Emily and mother and father, safely removed from the peanut products consumed at the ballpark that night.

In that moment, he made a memory that will last a lifetime.

All quotes were obtained first-hand.

Tom Schreier writes a weekly column for TheFanManifesto.com.

Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3.