SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Baseball season’s now in full swing. Get it? Teams don’t just rely on the game to lure fans these days, or tunes by BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. In recent years, they’ve been rolling out new food offerings. And for a sampling, we sent reporters to ballparks in Philadelphia, Denver and Chicago, where Jessica Pupovac kicks things off.
(SOUNDBITE OF ORGAN MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. I don’t care…
JESSICA PUPOVAC, BYLINE: Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, maybe a hot dog – that’s about all that was on the menu back in the day.
JOHN COMISKEY: You know, we were brought up many years ago. The guy was walking up and down with a buck – bang thing – banging a box, saying, you know, hot dogs. You know what I mean?
PUPOVAC: John Comiskey’s behind a hot dog counter. He says he’s a distant relative of the White Sox’s founder. He started working in food service here almost 30 years ago. And back then, the old park was across the street and still bore his name. And that’s not all that’s changed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Yelling) Hot dogs.
COMISKEY: I mean, they got a multitude of foods out here now for everybody. Everything that they came out with, though, I mean, nice.
PUPOVAC: Hunting down and sampling the new fare at the beginning of each baseball season is like a sport in itself here on the south side of Chicago, where we take our food seriously. Executive sous chef Jesus Vazquez oversees the offerings in the main concourses.
JESUS VAZQUEZ: But I think we’re at, like, 200-something concession stands, if I’m not mistaken. Yeah.
PUPOVAC: I met up with him at Lucky’s. It’s a Korean street food stand they opened last year after the unluckiest season in White Sox history.
VAZQUEZ: We have something new called the Rainbow Bubble Waffle. If you look at it…
PUPOVAC: He was eager to show me one of their very colorful new ice cream treats.
VAZQUEZ: It attracts the inner kid inside me.
PUPOVAC: Wow.
VAZQUEZ: You got gummy bears in it, Nerd Clusters, strawberry sauce, and a really good bubble waffle batter we make in house. So everything is made in house, too, which is pretty cool.
PUPOVAC: He said the new favorite is the tonkatsu dog. It’s a nod to the team’s new home run hitter from Japan, Munetaka Murakami.
VAZQUEZ: It is battered with our in-house batter. We have panko on it, and then we put Kewpie mayo, teriyaki sauce and bonito flakes on it.
PUPOVAC: They’ve clearly had some fun with that Korean hot dog batter.
VAZQUEZ: We have one that’s rolled in Frosted Flakes – sounds kind of weird. But then we have it with ketchup and mustard, and when you try it, it’s like, oh, this actually works. I would have never thought of that – Frosted Flakes, ketchup, mustard. But it works very well.
PUPOVAC: And a hot dog.
VAZQUEZ: And a hot dog. Yeah.
PUPOVAC: They also now have a jibarito, which is a Chicago staple created in the city’s Puerto Rican community, and a burger-hot-dog combo called the Two Bagger. Jonathan Niedospial (ph) had just ordered one when I met him.
JONATHAN NIEDOSPIAL: It’s a half pound beef patty, Vienna sausage, guacamole, grilled jalapenos and poblano aioli slaw. Come on.
PUPOVAC: He gave rave reviews.
NIEDOSPIAL: Mm-mm (ph). Oh, yeah. That’s good.
PUPOVAC: Of course, some things will never change.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD SIZZLING)
PUPOVAC: Like the classics.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I have a beef Polish, grilled onions. And then I’m just missing the mustard. I’m about to go get some right now. It’s a tradition.
PUPOVAC: Like South Side pride.
NIEDOSPIAL: I walked in. I was like, oh, I can smell the onions. I’m like, it’s so much better than Wrigley Field.
PUPOVAC: And like the classic and eternal hope of the die-hard White Sox fans, like Jeremy Kucik (ph).
JEREMY KUCIK: But give it a couple of years, and this place is going to be packed. The future’s coming.
PUPOVAC: For NPR News, I’m Jessica Pupovac in Chicago.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARCHING BAND)
BUFFY GORRILLA, BYLINE: And in Philadelphia, I’m Buffy Gorrilla. Outside the ballpark, Philadelphia Phillies fans dressed in the team’s signature red and white queue as a local middle school marching band plays. Proud parents take pictures. Inside, more fans mill around on a sunny concourse. It is the perfect night for a baseball game and baseball food.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Yelling) Hot dogs.
GORRILLA: There are the classic ballpark offerings, like hot dogs and beer. Or because it’s Philly, you can find a loaded cheesesteak. But this season, it’s a new sweet treat exciting fans like Cassie Corsey (ph) and Garrett Hoffman (ph).
CASSIE CORSEY: I’m eating the Schwarbomb Sundae.
GARRETT HOFFMAN: It’s the Schwarbomb Sundae. It’s a lot of ice cream and a fried Uncrustable in a helmet. Well, in a helmet – what’s not to like?
GORRILLA: This sundae is a big one. Executive chef Vonnie Negron says it’s marketed as sharable because of its size. In addition to the swirling pile of vanilla ice cream, there’s…
VONNIE NEGRON: A deep-fried funnel cake, strawberry Uncrustable and top it with fresh strawberry sauce and fruity cereal.
GORRILLA: The crunch edition works for 16-year-old Carly Wildermuth.
DUMMY REF CARLY WILDERMUTH: I love Fruity Pebbles, so it tastes, like, nostalgic – like cereal on a Sunday morning, watching TV.
GORRILLA: It’s named after Kyle Schwarber, a favorite player of brothers Wyatt (ph) and Eli Odin (ph).
WYATT ODIN: He’s a designated hitter. I don’t know his average, but he’s second in the batter lineup.
GORRILLA: And why do you think he deserves having a sundae named after him?
ELI ODIN: Because he hits a lot of home runs during games.
GORRILLA: The reviews for the Schwarbomb are positive, and a portion of the sales goes to Schwarber’s charity that helps military personnel, first responders and their families. But as Cassie Corsey looks from the full-sized Uncrustable to her puny, black plastic spoon, she wonders.
CORSEY: I don’t know how I’m going to get any of that. That’s pretty fried.
GORRILLA: Enter concession worker, Beth Beideman (ph), in her ninth season at the park. Beideman is wearing dangling Alec Bohm earrings. She has a trick to help fans.
BETH BEIDEMAN: The best way, I think, to eat it is break the Uncrustable in half. Put the ice cream inside of it and eat it like a sandwich.
GORRILLA: As the first home run is scored and the Liberty Bell gongs to mark the achievement, people are still munching their way through the Schwarbomb and will be at it for a while.
For NPR News, I’m Buffy Gorrilla in Philadelphia.
TONY GORMAN, BYLINE: And I’m Tony Gorman in Denver, where the ballpark food had better be good – as the team, the Colorado Rockies, have been struggling. They’re off to a good start this season. But in each of the last three, they’ve lost a hundred games out of 162.
Just outside the gates of Coors Field in downtown Denver, Desiree Martinelli (ph) is here for the love of the game.
DESIREE MARTINELLI: How can you not be romantic about baseball, right? It’s baseball.
GORMAN: Also, the tickets are affordable, says fan, Dan Howell (ph).
DAN HOWELL: You’re not paying $150 for tickets, so you can afford to come and maybe drink a little bit or eat some food, as well. You know, it’s not so tight on the wallet.
MARTINELLI: Who doesn’t love the good totchos (ph) when you get nachos served in a helmet, which is fantastic.
GORMAN: Because it’s the Rockies, you can get Rocky Mountain Oysters, which are not at all seafood, at the game here. And…
BILLY SIMS: The Taco Momalona is new this season. It’s a featured item that we brought out.
GORMAN: Rockies’ executive chef Billy Sims’ Taco Momalona features smoked brisket, pork belly tossed in gold barbecue sauce and Hot Cheetos and avocado cream. It’s huge – enough to feed two to three people.
SIMS: You don’t quite actually grasp the size of the enormity of this taco, and I’ve been asked a thousand times already. How do you eat this? One bite at a time.
GORMAN: There’s also a pizza doughnut, which Sims says its not what people think.
SIMS: It’s like the dough, where we use the base of a glazed doughnut. And then we’re like, you know, what if we just tried, you know, pizza toppings on it – see how it’d turn out. And pleasantly surprised, it works.
GORMAN: Dan Howell is skeptical.
HOWELL: I’m going to have to say no. Just those two things together – that’s almost sacrilegious.
GORMAN: There’s also boozy purple ice cream served in a helmet and a Dubai cinnamon roll. Some of these new items can hit the pockets pretty hard. The Taco Mamalona will cost you $25, and the pizza doughnut is 8.50. But you can still get $3 beers before the first pitch or a standard Rockies dog for about 10 bucks. But to Rockies fans looking for the full baseball experience…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: For what you’re getting, price don’t even matter. It’s – you’re getting the bang for the buck.
MARTINELLI: I would say it definitely is a factor, but it doesn’t stop me, per se, if I really want something.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: I used to be worried a little bit, but I think they brought them down reasonable – you know, the prices. And so I enjoy it all. So everything else – the peanuts, the hot dogs, and you know, time with him.
GORMAN: And hopefully, a few more Rockies wins this season.
For NPR News, I’m Tony Gorman in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATTHEW KAMINSKI’S “GREEN ONIONS”)
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
