It turns out the giant rats that ex-Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he saw hanging out at Wrigley Field are actually busy taking shits all over Guaranteed Rate Field. According to Sports Illustrated the home of the White Sox ranked 18th in the 2017 MLB Ballpark Food Safety Rankings.
Before we get into the gross details, here’s how SI determined its rankings.
Sports Illustrated used data from 28 local health departments to compile a comprehensive ranking of ballpark food safety across the league based on the most recent inspection of the stadium. Public records requests to Cleveland’s Progressive Field and Detroit’s Comerica Park went unfulfilled, leaving them off this list.
Violations: Observed practices that break a municipality’s food code. For example, broken equipment or evidence of rodents. The median number of violations across the league was 58.
Critical violations: Citations linked to the spread of foodborne illnesses or, if an inspector had not been there to correct the violation, could have led to these risk factors. Health departments determine violation severity and mark that on inspection reports. Some divide violations into three categories, using terminology similar to “Priority,” “Priority foundation” and “Basic.” The first two are critical in our report. The median number of critical violations across the league was 24.
So, out of the 28 MLB ballparks in this list, Guaranteed Rate Field ranked 18th and here’s why.
Cold food held up to 30 degrees above regulated temperature? Dozens of mice droppings in multiple locations? Flies under prep tables? The mid-June inspection at Guaranteed Rate Field revealed a plethora of violations—many critical—in Chicago. Other critical problems related to poor hygienic practices, like missing or inaccessible hand sinks or employees not washing hands before putting on new gloves. The stadium also failed its first inspection last year, before improving in follow-ups.
There were 48 total violations and 28 critical violations at the Rate(?) Is that the nickname? Anyway, no stadium is perfect even though Safeco Field in Seattle only had 5 total violations and only one critical violation, but at least White Sox fans don’t have to attend game in Tampa Bay because holy fuck that place is a real dump.
Total violations: 241 | Critical violations: 105
With a staggering 105 critical violations in 2017, Tropicana Field brings up the rear in our rankings. Two food entities (the catering kitchen and the stand outside Section 303) tallied over 20 violations each. Violations ranged from the observed presence of live insects to black mold accumulating inside an ice bin. An employee was observed handling hot dogs and cash without washing hands in between. An ESPN report from seven years ago found that every inspected stand at Tropicana had at least one critical violation. That number has dropped from 100% to about 50%, but the Tampa Bay stadium still leads the way in eye-popping food safety numbers.
By the way, Wrigley Field had the third fewest violations and ranked 8th.
While Wrigley registered the third-fewest critical violations, the iconic ballpark missed out on a top-five finish because it only had 43 inspected stands. The critical issues involved either foods at improper temperatures (tomatoes and lettuce 55° , potato salad 50° , Italian beef 115° and beef sandwiches 105° ) or improper rodent- and insect-proofing measures on kitchen doors. No rodent activity was observed. Inspectors did ultimately dispose of 25 pounds of food. Over half of the inspected entities, though, registered no violations.
But at the end of the day who really cares, right? I mean, we eat hot dogs after all.
