Ballpark Bites Ranked
As the World Series gets closer and the dog days of summer baseball get further away, now seems like the appropriate time to look fondly back on ballpark bites of all shapes and sizes and think deeply about which are the most enjoyable to eat during a game.
Using Allen & Ginter’s 30 Ballpark Bite inserts as a master list, we’ve debated and come up with the top five ballpark foods. Yes, this could get divisive.
Did we get the top five wrong? Would you rather have a bratwurst than a hot dog? Does pizza belong in the top five? You can make your voice heard by voting below, and while you’re at it – collect the Ballpark Bites inserts to stare longingly at until we can be back smelling the fresh grass and snacking on deliciousness while the crack of a bat echoes across your stadium next spring.
The Best Ballpark Bites
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No. 5 Popcorn – BPBB-3
Food info
• a relatively low-calorie snack compared to most stadium food, but also deliciously covered in butter and salt
• Americans eat an estimated 17 billion quarts of popcorn each year
Set info
• 13 auto sets
Food history
• native Americans began popping corn thousands of years ago, but in the 1880s Charles Cretor of Chicago developed the mobile popcorn cart
No. 4 Ice Cream – BPBB-17
Food rank info
• refreshing on a hot day
• if put in a little baseball helmet, the ice cream tastes better, and you get a collectible (and memory) that lasts a lifetime
set info
• 135 rip cards
• A&G relic a and b sets total 169 relic cards
food history
• Laich Industries invented the tiny baseball helmet that could hold ice cream in 1965, with the first novelty helmets being distributed as early as 1971 by the Washington senators (later the texas rangers)
No. 3 Nachos – BPBB-11
Food info
• savory, salty, and usually the spiciest choice at the field, nachos are also highly ranked due to sharability
set info
• 350 card base set
Food history
• Frank Liberto developed “nacho cheese” in 1976 and brought his idea of nachos with a dippable cheese sauce to the texas rangers. their first season at Arlington Stadium, nachos brought in $800,000 in sales
No. 2 Chicken Tenders – BPBB-4
food Rank info
• a finger food not unlike the nacho, but more calorically dense and a good source of protein compared to other options
• chicken fingers provide a vehicle for multiple delicious dipping options
set info
• A&G Baseball 2024 includes Ballpark Bites Boxloader inserts and ballpark bites minis inserts
Food History
• Charlie Pappas invented the chicken tender at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1974 by using chicken trimmings and rolling them in batter and frying
No. 1 Hot Dog – BPBB-1
Food rank info
• the first and still the best ballpark snack as you’re able to hold it with one hand, sip a drink with the other, and not worry about much potential for spillage
• baseball stadiums sell roughly 22 million hot dogs per year
set info
• 24 insert sets
• insert sets include 50 states, 2023 World Series Champion Mini, and more
Food history
• Hot dogs became popular at the ballpark in the late 19th century, with most records showing Harry M Stevens as the man to popularize the food in ballparks across the country
Honorable mentions (and the rest of the ballpark setlist:
