Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Haylie Shipp
Haylie Shipp
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I'm Haylie Shipp.

The bat cracks at a baseball field. You quickly rub off the peanut dust from your hands so you can join the audience clapping. Peanuts and baseball go way back and I wanted to understand what that relationship was, so this week I had a chance to talk to Lauren Highfill Williams. She is with the National Peanut Board...

"That combination was born in 1895 when, kind of an enterprising ballpark concessioner began selling advertising space on baseball score cards and one of his clients was a peanut company."

Rather than actually writing a check, that peanut company asked if they could pay in product.

"The gentleman then sold those peanuts at the ball park and that's kind of how it all started. And, you know, if you think about watching baseball games, sitting in the stands, you know, there's a lot of downtime so it's nice to have something to do with your hands and crack open those peanut shells and have a little snack while you're waiting for all the excitement to happen."

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks, right? "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" written in 1908 after peanuts had solidified their place in the sport.

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