Minor League Baseball Fans Are Upset About Stadium Changing BBQ Nachos

Every now and then a story comes along that has the chance to bring everyone on the Internet together. The Memphis Redbirds deciding to ditch a local BBQ joint for their in-stadium nacho experience this season at AutoZone Park probably isn’t that story, but it’s a noble story worth sharing nonetheless.

LocalMemphis.com, as you can see from the video above, is chasing down the story — which seems to have originated from some angry tweets from Twitter. Turns out the team changed its nacho provider from a local eatery, Rendezvous, to an in-house provider. According to the report the change has “struck out” with fans. Wait, maybe they called it a “swing and a miss.” There are a lot of baseball puns you can incorporate to tell a local news story and hilarious puns distract me.

The report also contains, for my money, the best food-sports quote of the century:

"“If you go to a game at AutoZone Park, you aren’t going for the nachos, but you are probably going to get nachos when you go. So it is an important part of the experience being there,” says Memphian Kevin Cerrito."

Yeah, sure, it’s nice to go to a game to see the future stars of the St. Louis Cardinals play, but nachos are pretty darn imported. All stadium food is important for baseball. If I just want to watch a game, I’ll pull it up on my TV, cell phone or tablet. Going to the park is about cramming as much unhealthy, sodium-rich food down my gullet at possible.

Nachos just might be the best thing going at the stadium, too. For one, nachos are usually (hot take alert) great — even with processed orange liquid cheese you get at the stadium. Better than that, if you get it stacked with jalapenos, salsa, meat, etc. it takes you a couple innings to finish, so your cost/time ratio is going to blow away almost all other stadium eatery options. If you dig in to your pile of grease with a spork you actually end up feeling sophisticated, as it were — pass the cloth napkin.

Lately we’ve written a lot about the crazy menu items offered in ballparks. The Brewers, for instance, now sell deep fried nachos on a stick at Miller Park. Wonderful. Problem is, there’s only so many times you can eat 17 cheeseburgers on one bun or a deep fried doughnut filled with chicken tenders, etc. I’d guess after your third heart attack burger of the season, you’d had enough.

Nachos, like hot dogs, are old reliable.

Just be careful because they’re messy.

So … umm … this post started out about minor league baseball, didn’t it? Sorry to veer off topic. BBQ and nachos tend to have that affect on my simplistic cerebellum.