How come I can never *find* this stuff when I go to games?

So, I have some serious problems with PETA I'm not going to get into in this post, but they're occasionally a good source for information about living veg*n¹. My buddy Leanne pointed me to PETA's Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks for 2007. (They also have a list of vegetarian-friendly minor league parks.)

I'm honestly not that surprised that Citizens Bank Park in Philly was on the list, as I was actually able to find a few of the veg*n options there when I saw some games. (Although not all the delicious things they list at PETA's page. I have a feeling a lot of it is at the restaurants at the park and not the concession stands in the walkways.)

Also unsurprising is Pittsburgh's PNC Park not being on the list. Veg*ns are pretty much stuck with soft pretzels and maybe risking some French fries there.

Honestly, I'd find PETA's list a lot more helpful if it would tell me where I can find all these delicious things at the ballpark, as that's the hard part of this. It doesn't help me to know there are veggie dogs at a particular park if they're hidden, not on a menu, and in one out-of-the-way location, y'know?

And PETA's lack of distinction between vegetarian food and vegan food is understandable from a PR perspective--"Look how easy it is to be vegetarian! You can still get fake hotdogs at the ballpark, even!"--but it's not terribly useful from a practical standpoint of figuring out if I can eat the faux meats on their list, as many have eggs and dairy in them.

I really should get on that original plan I had to contact major league stadiums about what veg*n food they had and where it was located in the park.


¹ veg*n is short for vegan or vegetarian. Because veg*ns are lazy typers.

7/02 Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates

I decided to go see an NL game for two teams I only mildly care about on Monday to break up my drive back to Ohio, primarily because I've heard good things about PNC Park and wanted to check it out.


I'm going to say up front, I found the park a little bit over-rated. This is probably partially the fault of a six-hour drive to get there combined with construction all over the place where the directions I got from the internet told me to go, but I just really wasn't feeling it. There were stairs in weird places, nothing beyond the world of the soft pretzel for me to eat, and the park was clearly designed for someone significantly taller than me, as evidenced by the bar directly in my line of sight from my first-row outfield seats. I'm also not really sure how I feel about the use of the Pirates of the Caribbean music either, but I figure, hey, you got a theme that all the cool kids are into nowadays, might as well milk it, right?

I actually ran into one of their two mascots (the pirate, not the parrot), like, literally, as I was coming out of the bathroom. I am not a big mascot fan, but I do appreciate a mascot that isn't a blatant rip-off of the Phanatic. (I'm talking to you, Slider.)

It was also kind of weird going from the raucous Philadelphia scene to the drudging toward another losing seasonness of Pittsburgh. This is, of course, no real knock on Pirates' fans. It's just weird how the attitudes of different fanbases affects how much I can really enjoy a game. I had the same problem in Philly, actually.

'Cause here's the thing. In Cleveland, you've got two options: if we're down, we can always have a hugely dramatic comeback. And if we're up, we're waiting for the bullpen or defense to blow it. In Philly there was this attitude that when you were down, there was no way you were catching up, and those fans are angry about feeling that way. The Pittsburgh fans? They're just kind of resigned at this point.

Anyway, for all I've heard about the young arms in Pittsburgh, I ended up catching the start of some dude I'd never heard of, (Van Benschoten) who didn't have the best numbers, and looked like he was pulling a Cliff Lee type outing, but ended up coming through with a quality start.

Actually, the game was pretty good through six innings.

And then Kuwata came out of the Pirates' bullpen and gave up 7 runs, and I said, "To heck with this," and committed a cardinal sin by leaving the game early. To be fair, I was worried about traffic and also not falling asleep on the road on the still five hour drive home.

So, yeah, sorry for punking out on you, Pittsburgh.

The park's pretty anyway.

And I ended up getting a Sanchez shirt 'cause the store was all out of Bay ones. And I wept. Or, you know, was kind of disappointed.

Here, have some pictures. Mostly of the Brewers.

6/29 (DH) & 7/01: New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies

So, I wasn't super-informative about where I was going to be when, apparently, but I drove out from the western side of Ohio to the general Reading, Pennsylvania area on June 28, which took about 11 hours, given the fact that I had to stop to pee about a gajillion times on the way. (Note to future roadtrippers through Pennsylvania, the turnpike is kind of 1) crazy 'spensive, 2) chock full o' "construction." I don't really have a problem with one of these things at a time, but if I'm paying $14.50 to drive on your road for five and a half hours, I better be able to drive 65 mph on pretty much all of it, y'know?)

In Reading, I caught up with my girl Leanne, who is a ginormous Phillies fan. (The ginormousness being her fanitude, not her body shape. She is actually rather wee, which is mostly notable because I dig hanging out with people who make me feel less short.) Leanne's AL team in the '90s was the Cleveland Indians, which is, of course, why we are friends, in spite of the fact that I really never paid attention to those teams, because that was when I was in junior high and high school and was mostly into, like, wearing black lipstick and listening to The Cure and occasionally going to minor league hockey games. Um.


Anyway, some of Leanne's buds canceled on her, so I got hooked up with tickets to both ends of the day/night Phillies/Mets double-header at Citizens Bank Park last Friday. I'd never been to Citizens Bank Park, and that last time I was in Philly it was part of a fat-camp daytrip when I was, like, 12. (You think I'm kidding?) And the last time I actually, like, saw the Phillies play a game in person was, like, what? 1993? Back before John Kruk had a job on ESPN anyway.

We got up crazy early (for me, anyway), and drove down to the train station and headed into Philly with our many shirts and our sign for Cole Hamels for the night game. I now understand the "Cole Hamels can make SEPTA run on time" joke from Cole Hamels Facts. I mean, not that any other public transportation with which I am moderately familiar is particularly punctual, but SEPTA was notably bad, although we did manage to catch the express to the sports complex once we were in Philly most of the time.

I found Citizens Bank Park a little bit too... much. I don't know. There was a lot of stuff going on. It was a little carnival-y. Also, upper decks in the outfield is, like, a lot of seats. I don't know. This is probably just Jacob's Field being a little more unassuming than the general hugeness of Citizens Bank Park.

Before the first game, we went down and did the whole autograph thing. J.A. Happ was signing really early, and Leanne kind of freaked out because she recognized the dude from all the Reading Phillies games she's gone to. So they had this whole conversation, which was primarily made up of Mr. Happ being all smiles about getting called up, if just for a spot start on Saturday (and for which he wasn't officially called up until they sent Geary down after the double-header, but whatever). Dudes on their first trip to the Big Leagues are pretty much the cutest.

Then Jamie freakin' Moyer came out, and by that point we'd been doing some wandering about and Leanne grabbed my hand and we ran over to the Phillies' side of the park again so she could get her boy's autograph, since she has a crush on every boy... over 40.

Let me take a moment to talk about how pretty much awesome Jamie Moyer was with the local fans. He's apparently a PA guy and came out for about 20-30 minutes before every single game we were at to sign for people. Dude is pretty much awesome with the Philly fans. I tip the cap I am not currently wearing to you, Mr. Moyer.

Eventually we made it up to our seats, which were behind a really cute dude who was scoring the game. At first we thought he was pretty quiet and nice, but then some Mets fan spilled beer on his scorebook, and Mr. Phillies Fan's friends showed up, and by the eighth inning we had a dude who was perfectly willing to heckle a four-year old sitting in front of us. It was kind of amazing, in a horrific and also a little bit awesome kind of way.

Like, you know how you have that friend in your group who's a total jerk to everyone in the group, but he's also a total jerk to everyone outside of your group, too? And he's really funny when he does it, in that completely unapologetic about being an asshole kind of way? So you can't really bring yourself to stop being friends with him because then you'll miss all the hilarity? That was this guy. We almost tried to hook him up with our extra ticket for the night game because we wanted to keep him around, but were too intimidated. Also, a little bit of hilarious asshole sometimes goes a long way, and flipping off four-year olds is really only funny once per week.

So, uh. The Phillies lost that game, which sort of sucked, but I was mostly only rooting for them because, you know, guest!

We got shuffled out of the park in between the games, so we wandered over to the Holiday Inn next door to suck up air conditioning and change our shirts. And buy more waters at a slightly less inflated price than they charge actually in the ball park.

The second game of the day we ended up in the last row of the 300 level in right field, which was pretty sweet. We ended up hanging up our Cole Hamels sign on the fence behind us.

I admit, once it became obvious that 1) Cole Hamels did not bring his A Game to the game, and 2) The Phillies apparently don't believe in patience at the plate, I kind of got distracted by the bickering between Mets and Phillies fans around me. There were some Mets fans in front of us, one of whom kept trying to flirt with every female Phillies fan he could find. And there were a lot of them in our general area. Mr. Mets fan did not flirt with me, but I introduced myself as "an Indians fan in disguise," when he was all upons Leanne, so I mostly got brushed off. Clearly the dude was all about ladies who kind of hate him. Which I mean, whatever, dude. Some people are into skinny blonde girls, some people are into ladies who wear a lot of leather, some people are into David Wright, whatever gets you going, I guess. And he wasn't handsy or anything, just into bantering with ladies who kind of hate his favorite team. I guess I'm okay with that, although I might not be okay with that if, like, you know, some White Sox fan came to the Jake and did that to me.

Across the aisle from us there was the Worst Phillies Fan Ever, who kept touching and clapping at and generally being a dick to the Mets fan sitting in front of him. There may have been a fight.

With an usher.

I don't know. It was a little crazy. There were a lot of people who had been drinking since the start of the day game, I think.

Leanne, who is very pro-being-a-dick-to-Mets-fans-when-they're-in-your-house actually went up and apologized to the Mets fans, and they were kind of, you know, "hey, it's cool. We know you're not all like that." So that was actually a little heartwarming.

The train out of Fern Rock was crazy late getting into the station, and we ended up not getting home until about 1:30 in the morning, so we did not go to a Reading Phillies game the next day, but instead we hung out in our "shirts we don't leave the house in" (That is, her Glavine Mets shirt and my Santana Twins shirt), and watched the Phillies game and then the Marlins game on TV and ate crackers and watched all the back-issues of Teen Girl Squad.

Sunday (July 1), we headed back into Philly for the next game, for which we had seats in the last row of the 400 level, which was a little bit vertigo-inducing, I admit. The atmosphere at this game was much pleasanter than the first two, and random people gave us soft pretzels and mustard. Leanne also totally abandoned me near Jose Mesa when we were down along the baselines autograph fishing again, so she could run over and see who was signing over by the Mets dugout, since none of the Mets had signed at either game we attended.


By which I mean she got Tom Glavine's autograph and we jumped around and screamed like morons about it for a couple seconds. Uh. As you do. I don't know. Sometimes you just get crushes on dudes over 40. (I still love you, Roger O'Donnell!)

Leanne is totally going to kill me over me publicizing her thing for Glavine.

Anyway, we spent most of the game making lame Teen Girl Squad-inspired jokes about the game ("A-Row'd!" being my favorite, but "CHILDREN!" being the most often stated because there were many cute children in our surrounding area.), and quoting The Dugout at each other, and making lots of jokes about our made-up world about A Very Wee David Wright and his Fondness for Other People and Sometimes Food.

In the realm of the Vegan Baseball Roadtrip, I discovered during the night game that on the Pavilion (200) Level on the right-field side the South Philadelphia Market has vegan gardenburgers. The water ice from Philadelphia Water Ice is also dairy-free. Beyond that, you're stuck with your standard ball-game fare (that is: soft pretzels, and if you're living dangerously, french fries).

We didn't try to do any away-from-the-ballpark eating on our treks due to time constraints and our autograph/photograph obsessions, but there's really not a lot directly near the ballpark anyway, since it's out in this ginormous sports complex that's mostly surrounded by several miles of parking lot. I am only kind of kidding.

You can check out the full photo album from the games here.

My report from PNC Park coming soon.

Hopefully.

The (Vegan) Baseball Roadtrip: An Introduction

One of the things I wanted to do when I first decided to start this blog was to create an archive of the information I accrued about various ballparks and baseball towns, and which veg*n-friendly¹ places were the best to eat. This is primarily because I am from a place far away from my favorite team, and am generally unfamiliar with the Cleveland area, which means that when I go to see my team, I'm always a little bit lost about where to eat and what to do. While a lot of people live in the city where their favorite team plays, many more people live in the region around that city. I also hate calling in places to ask them annoying questions, so I figured other people probably feel much the same way, so an internet source is often something of a service.

What I will be doing is unlikely to be a "roadtrip" per se, primarily because I lack the money to afford the hotel stays that a proper roadtrip would require. However, this summer, I'll be visiting several ballparks as part of a Finally Getting My Bachelor's Degree present for myself.

Links to Helpful Things From Other Blogs

Everywhere
Happy Cow Vegetarian Restaurant Guide: It doesn't have every restaurant in every city, but it's a good starting place if you don't have any idea where to eat in a new city.

Cleveland
From Mistake By the Lake: Parking Prices near Jacob's Field

Seattle
From Marinerds: Safeco Food Project

Posts I Have Made

... I am a big slacker.

Further cities and parks coming soon, so watch this space!

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Before I get this party rolling, here are some straightforward tips I've gotten on eating while traveling from... pretty much every book I've read on the topic (mostly Vegan Freak and How It All Vegan).


1. Ethnic food is your friend
Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican places will often have some sort of veg*n option.

2. Call ahead
Sarah Kramer recommends first of all calling a local health food store to ask what restaurants in town they recommend for vegans. She also recommends calling any restaurant you intend to visit, asking if they can accommodate you ahead of time. That way, if they can't, you'll know before you go there. Personally, I hate making phone calls to places of business for some reason, so this piece of advice is always difficult for me to make.

In this case, also give the ballparks a call. Some ballparks do carry (or have in the past carried) vegetarian faux-hot dogs and the like. It'd be nice to know about that ahead of time so you can have a "hot dog" with your buddies at the game, right?

3. Ask the Internet
This is my own recommendation, but I tend to ask people from the area before I go if they know of any good veg*n restaurants. Sometimes the recommendations are hard to follow, but it's always smart to ask first.

4. Feed yourself!
This is especially useful on actual roadtrips. Vegan Freak recommends "self-catering" from grocery stores, rather than eating food you don't really like from restaurants. If it's a short, day-long trip, you can always pack food. (I recommend checking out the stuff at Vegan Lunch Box, which is for kids, but I'd eat it. It looks delish.) If you live in a very rural area with no good vegan specialty foods outside of a small-ish selection of soymilks or something, check out places like Food Fight Grocery or Vegan Essentials for non-perishable, non-cook items you could pack on a roadtrip.

Eating on the road can be scary, especially if you're a rural vegan like me, who normally eats at home, able to better control the ingredients in one's food. That said, there usually are places to eat, and I'm going to try to figure them out.

¹ veg*n is shorthand for "vegan or vegetarian." It's used... primarily because I'm lazy. For those of you who are not veg*n and might be confused, a vegetarian doesn't eat meat (yes, including fish), while a vegan eschews all animal products and by-products, such as meat, eggs, and dairy.