Take Me Out to the Ball Game: BYO Snacks

Last Sunday, I finally got to check out the new Yankee Stadium. And when I say "finally," I mean I made my semi-annual trip. Yep - I am not exactly what you'd call a die-hard fan. However, I am a fan of most stadium food. Baseball just makes hot dogs taste better. But while I love peanuts and cracker jack, I hate paying stadium prices for food. Plus, call me crazy, but I like to eat a vegetable or two with my lunch, and ketchup or sauerkraut does not count. So the past few times I've gone to 161st Street, I've hauled a bag of snacks with me. Yes, you can bring food into Yankee Stadium. However, the rules (and enforcement of such rules) are a little vague. No glass or cans. No plastic bottles. But apparently water bottles that are still factory sealed are an exception. And you used to have to carry everything in a clear plastic bag, but now the standard plastic grocery bag seems to be acceptable. On Sunday, security barely gave my bag a look, and I had quite a load, including: -Frozen lemonade juice boxes -Frozen water bottles -Baked Kettle Chips -Chocolate chip cookies from "Our Daily Bread" in Union Square Greenmarket -Baby carrots, sugar snap peas (also from the greenmarket) and hummus -Grapes -Cashews Yes, it was a bit excessive and no, we did not polish everything off. But it was really nice to crunch on carrots instead of electric-blue cotton candy. And although it was a pain to carry everything from my apartment, on the subway and up to the nosebleed seats, it was super nice to have a virtual buffet at my seat, instead of having to get up during the middle of an inning. Or worse, wait for a vendor to show up with a soggy hot dog. Instead, we enjoyed garlic fries from the field level seating tier before taking our nosebleed seats. I ducked out after the first inning to grab dogs and kraut from a stand on the terrace level. And perhaps best of all, I didn't feel the need to parttake of the stadium's own "farmers market" (nice idea, but cannot compare to the real thing!).