LANSING - Amy Thompson is a huge Lansing Lugnuts fan, but one of her favorite reasons for visiting Oldsmobile Park is the wide array of foods she can fill up on.
“It’s usually food you can’t have at your house,” said Thompson, an eighth-grader at Holt Junior High School, while munching on her giant New York Pretzel.
And at Oldsmobile Park, 505 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing, and other baseball facilities across the state, the menu has become much broader than the typical ballpark provisions of hot dogs, peanuts and beer.
During a Lansing Lugnuts game, baseball fans can choose from racks of ribs, bags of cinnamon roasted almonds, root beer floats, chef salads or a veggie pita.
“The smells of the barbecue or roasted nuts really get people down here and onto the concourse where they’ll buy other foods as well,” said Jason Wilson, manager of food and beverages at Oldsmobile Park.
The aroma of barbecue engulfs the east side of the park, where “Leg-man” Ricky Robinson grills turkey wings, barbecued pork chops and ribtips for the locally owned Turkeyman.
“The people here love Turkeyman and they’re glad we’re here,” Robinson said. “There are some consistent fans of us.”
Spectators wandering around the 11,000-person capacity stadium say they always bring their appetites and their baseball mitts to the ball games.
“Turkey drumsticks are all I want to eat at a baseball game,” Lansing resident Sam Postema said as he eyed a steaming foot-long drumstick.
Fans can also walk toward the center of the concourse and find some not-so-ordinary peanuts. Dana Douglas, owner of Cinnamon Roasted Almonds, Pecans and Cashews, cooks her products in an on-site nut-roaster.
“It’s a ball game - you’ve gotta have nuts,” she said.
Vegetarians or health-conscious individuals also can find something to satisfy their hunger. The Sparrow Healthy Heart Cart serves up vegetable pitas, salads, granola and turkey sandwiches.
The variety of selections isn’t just limited to Lugnuts fans.
Detroit Tigers fans received a smorgasbord of new restaurants and amenities when Comerica Park, 2100 Woodward Ave. in Detroit, opened last year. The $300 million ballpark provides baseball fans with carnival rides, one of the country’s largest scoreboards and well-seasoned food from around the world.
Steve Facione, vice president of Olympia Entertainment, a management company that operates the park’s concession stands and merchandise stores, said the stadium offers traditional and nontraditional baseball foods.
“We know that fans clearly still like their hot dogs - that is the tradition,” Facione said. “But we’ve had some great response to the variety.”
Concession stands in the park’s food court serve Greek gyros, Philly steak hoagies, grand slam slider burgers and portobello mushroom sandwiches.
“We have some interesting sandwiches and foods,” he said.
