Dan Pashman: Hey everyone, Dan here. Before we get to this week's Reheat, quick reminder that if you haven't done this already, please connect with our show in your podcasting app of choice. Just go to The Sporkful page in Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or whatever it is and click favorite, heart, follow — whatever the thing is in your app, connect with the show, that way you won't miss future episodes. We can hang out more. Go ahead you can do it right now while you're listening. Thanks. 

Dan Pashman: All right, now this week we're reaching back into the deep freezer for a Reheat in honor of the middle of summer. We are reheating an episode from 2015 about the ins and outs of ballpark food, featuring a former ballpark food vendor, a peanut man, and much more. Enjoy!

Dan Pashman: How big is Dublin, North Carolina?

Nile Brisson: If everybody’s at home, we have 315 people.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: This is Nile Brisson, president of Peanut Processors in Dublin, North Carolina. Baseball season is underway! And if someone takes you out to the ball game, they're probably ask them to buy you some peanuts and Cracker Jack. So those are the foods we’re gonna talk about today. Nile’s family’s been in the peanut business for three generations. I asked him to tell me the best way to eat a peanut in the shell.

Nile Brisson: To me, it's between my front two teeth. I just turn it the right direction and put it there — I put a little pressure on it and it pops right open. 

Dan Pashman: So the — you put it so the seam is lined up with your teeth?

Nile Brisson: That's correct. 

Dan Pashman: And then, what, you spit out the shell? 

Nile Brisson: I never put the shell in my mouth. I just put my teeth on it and just give it a little bit of pressure, and as it opens up I can take my fingers and keep pressure on it and it'll pop on right on open. 

Dan Pashman: Very interesting. How do they get the salt into the peanuts that are sold in the shell without cracking the peanuts open?

Nile Brisson: Ideally, what you do is put them in a vat and 100 percent saline solution. Now, you did make the statement without cracking the hull. What happens is is you apply pressure the vessel, the salt water, the same method that I was using my teeth — this pressure does to the peanut and the peanut, if you can visual the hull, it'll somewhat fish mouth a little bit. It'll come open just a little bit at the end and the salt water actually run inside that hull. You get almost no salt through the hull. You really have to open the hull up. Then you evaporate the water away, leaving the salt behind.

Dan Pashman: I've tried eating the entire thing, including the shell. I find it to be quite delicious albeit a little bit salty. Do you ever do that and are there dietary benefits or risks?

Nile Brisson: Well, the only risk is that you would have that I'm aware of, the shell obviously came out of the ground and you may have, for lack of a better term, sand on it. The shell, itself, there's no adverse effects to eating a peanut shell, which is pretty much all fiber. So, but to eat it, I know a lot people, particularly in the northern part of the country, do eat the peanut shell and all. I, per say, do not. I eat the peanut inside. 

Dan Pashman: Do other folks in Dublin in the whole peanut? 

Nile Brisson: I don't know anyone around here that does. 

Dan Pashman: So you're telling me it's only for Yankees? 

Nile Brisson: Uh, well, if you want to put it that way. 

[LAUGHING] 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: This is The Sporkful, it’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters. I’m Dan Pashman. Coming up I’ll talk to sports writer Ted Berg. He was a food vendor at the old Shea Stadium, former home of the NY Mets. We’ll talk about the best and worst assignments that a ballpark vendor can get, and we’ll debate which Cracker Jack prize is the best.

Dan Pashman: But first, a couple of notes. It’s Cracker Jack, not Cracker Jacks, unless you have multiple boxes. We're gonna cover that other classic ballpark food — hotdogs. For that check out our episode called "Hot Dogs and Hot Dougs". 

Dan Pashman: Instead let’s start with the song that inspired this week’s show — "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". The guy who wrote it in 1908 had never even been to a ball game. But that reference to Cracker Jack translated to free advertising the likes of which America has not seen before or since. How much is that worth to parent company Frito Lay? Well, in this classic On the Media story, Mike Pesca found out:

[CROWD CHEERING] 

Mike Pesca: The Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 9-7 at the stadium Wednesday night. The game featured two innings of stellar relief for Mariano Rivera, Tino's Martinez's 24th home run of the season and 41, 714 people simultaneously standing and invoking a brand name consumer non-durable. 

[CROWD SINGING "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME"]

Mike Pesca: On Wednesday night, as on most nights throughout the summer, thousands of Americans stood up and sang the words "Cracker Jack". Last year, over 72 million customers saw a major league baseball game and that a certain juncture in each, they were all invited to participate in the most entrenched product placement in American history. 

[VENDOR SELLING CRACKER JACK]

Mike Pesca: It is technically Cracker Jack, not Cracker Jacks, on the box and in the song lyrics. Pluralized or not, Cracker Jack has achieved a singular place in the American psyche, if not consciousness. 

Mike Pesca: So what do you eat when you come to a ball park?

Peter Bernisca:  Of course, you gotta have a hotdog and you always eat Cracker Jacks. 

Mike Pesca: And why? 

Peter Bernisca: Oh, because they're just the best. 

Mike Pesca: Why?

Zenetta Stewart: It was embedded in your mind that you had to eat hotdogs and Cracker Jacks at a baseball game. 

Mike Pesca: WHy? 

Zenetta Stewart: Because they told you to do it, so you just do it. 

Peter Bernisca: It just fits. 

Mike Pesca: I'm gonna keep saying why until you give me the right answer. Why? 

Zenetta Stewart: Okay, say it again.

Mike Pesca: Sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". 

Zenetta Stewart: [SINGING "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME"] Wait, "we'll have some Cracker Kacks", yeah, "at the ol' ball game."  Yeah. 

Mike Pesca: Peter Bernisca and Jeanetta Stewart knew that Cracker Jack and baseball went together because the song lyric plants the association in the mind. But that doesn't always lead to direct action. A stadium vendor told me that sales spike in the second and are almost dead by the 7th inning stretch. The was born out by a visit to the concession stand right after "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". 

Mike Pesca: I see right now you're folding — can you tell me what kind of box you're folding up?

Person 1: Cracker Jack box. 

Mike Pesca: And is that because you're sold out?

Person 1: No. 

Mike Pesca: Due to huge demand?

Person 1: No. 

Mike Pesca: Do you often sell out of Cracker Jacks?

Person 1: No.

Mike Pesca: Do you often sell out of anything? 

Person 1: Yes. 

Mike Pesca: What do you sell out of?

Person 1: Peanuts. 

Mike Pesca: So how much is this mentioned worth to Cracker Jack? Let's say Cracker Jack wasn't in the song. Let's say instead that there was a Cracker Jack ad on the outfield wall of every major league park. According to Scott Macduffie, Vice President of out of home media, for Zenith Media, those types of ads cost a quarter of a million dollars each. It's cheaper to advertise in the minors, but there are 160 minor league stadiums. Conservatively, the price to replace the lyric without outdoor advertising in professional baseball stadiums would be $25 million. Cracker Jack's total sales last year were around $40 million. Does this mean that without baseball there would be no Cracker Jack, or at least no Cracker Jack as we know it?

Paul Lukas: They may of had some difficulties trying to make Cracker Jack contemporary. 

Mike Pesca: Paul Lukas is the author of Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted. He recalls Cracker Jack's attempts to tweak it's brand image through television commercials in the '70s. 

Paul Lukas: I think the lyric of the jingle went something like, "What do you call a kid who can dive like that? You call the kid a Cracker Jack." 

Mike Pesca: [SINGS] You call that kid a Cracker Jack. 

Paul Lukas: You remember! Yeah. And then the tagline at the end of was, "When you're really good, they call you Cracker Jack." And in fact, no they don't. 

Mike Pesca: They stopped calling you Cracker Jack during the Hoover administration and that's one of the reasons why Cracker Jack will remain, not only caramel covered, but sepia tinged. Paul Lukas ... 

Paul Lukas: With snacks, which are sort of in the realm of pop culture when it comes to consumer products, the brand image is at least as important as the product itself and the image and the looks they've gone for with this particular brand is one of nostalgia and I do think a lot of it has to do with the song. It's sort of — in some ways, it's great free advertising but it may also be a bit of a straight jacket. 

Mike Pesca: But Cracker Jack does have one other thing going for it. Yankee stadium groundskeeper, Giovan Treyhearn, has cleaned up hundreds of pounds of Cracker Jack. 

Mike Pesca: How long have you been working at Yankee Stadium. 

Giovan Treyhearn: Oh, I'm at 10 years. 

Mike Pesca: 10 years. 10 years, how many Cracker Jack prizes have you found on the ground?

Giovan Treyhearn: None. They don't never throw away the prize. They always keep the prizes. 

Mike Pesca: If Hallmark had gotten in on the groundfloor of the writing of Happy Birthday, or Francis Scott Key could have somehow known to mention to, say, Woolite, we'd have another contender for most effective product placement ever. But if Francis Scott Key had been that smart, we'd call him Cracker Jack. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: That’s Mike Pesca in an On the Media piece from 2002. Thanks to On the Media and to Mike — you can check out Mike’s daily podcast The Gist wherever you get podcasts.

Dan Pashman: Coming up we’ll talk to Ted Berg. He’s a baseball writer, a food writer, and he used to be a food vender at the old Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets used to play. Ted’s got some stories to tell. We’ll also get into vital issues like ideal Cracker Jack to peanut ratio in a given bite, clustering, and of course, the prizes. Stick around.

["TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME"] 

MUSIC

 

+++BREAK+++

 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Welcome back to another Sporkful Reheat. I'm Dan Pashman. Do you ever go to our show page in your podcasting app and you're scrolling back and you're, oh, that seems like a good episode. How did I miss that? Well, you missed it because you're probably not following our show in your podcasting app, and it's really important that you do. So please, you can do this right now. Go to our show page in your podcasting app of choice, if it's Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you click follow. Other apps, it may be a plus sign or heart or a favorite or the words "subscribe" — whatever it is in your app, it's really important that you click it, that way you won't miss great episodes. It's super quick and easy. You can do it right now. Thank you so much. Now back to this week's Reheat. 

Dan Pashman: Joining me now is a guy who has bought, sold, and eaten both peanuts and Cracker Jack. He’s a baseball writer at USA Today. He’s also written thoughtfully on sandwiches and many other crucial issues of food. And on top of all that, he also used to be a food vendor at the old Shea Stadium, former home of the NY Mets. Ted Berg, welcome to The Sporkful.

Ted Berg: Dan, thanks for having me.

Dan Pashman: My pleasure. Thanks for being here. So you spent a summer as a vendor at Shea. What'd you sell?

Ted Berg: Well, I sold a little bit of everything. They way they do it, it's by seniority. So the more senior guys, the people who've been there for many years largely get the beer. So I never did beer, but I did hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jacks, pretzels, soda — pretty much everything, everything besides beer. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. Now, I don't mean to interrupt you there, Ted, but be careful please. It's Cracker Jack. 

Ted Berg: You say Cracker Jack. 

Dan Pashman: Cracker Jack is correct ... 

Ted Berg: That's the ... 

Dan Pashman: That's the correct ... 

Ted Berg: Right, but what about the song? "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks ... "

Dan Pashman: No, the song is ... 

Ted Berg: No? 

Dan Pashman: Now, if you sold a lot of boxes of them, you could say — maybe then you could argue it would be grammatically correct to say that you sold Cracker Jacks. 

Ted Berg: So what do you call the individual pieces of covered caramel corn? Those are all Cracker Jack? Each Cracker Jack?

Dan Pashman: Yeah. It's like the Utah Jazz [Ted Berg: Okay.] basketball team. Okay? 

Ted Berg: So, like, I have 100 Cracker Jack ... 

Dan Pashman: [SIGHS] Well, that's a good question. 100 ... 

Ted Berg: Like the Miami Heat. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah.

Ted Berg: One single basketball references. 

Dan Pashman: If you have five players on the Heat, what would you call them? 

Ted Berg: Five ... That's actually a daily struggle in sports editing ... 

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: I can tell you that. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] So would you call them five Heats? 

Ted Berg: Five members of the Heat, you'd have to say. 

Dan Pashman: Five members ... So I would call those 100 pieces of Cracker Jack. 

Ted Berg: All right, that's fair. 

Dan Pashman: Okay?

Ted Berg: I'll be careful moving forward. 

Dan Pashman: Please do. So you said it's sort of based on seniority, the vending. So beer is the best, because I assume people are more likely to tip the beer salesman, so you get more money. 

Ted Berg: Well, also because it costs more. So since it's on commission, the percentage you get is higher. 

Dan Pashman: Ohh! It's on commission. Interesting. I did not realize that. 

Ted Berg: Yeah, and you know ... 

Dan Pashman: So is that the hierarchy, just the more expensive the thing, the better? 

Ted Berg: Oh, well the better something is gonna sell the better. So, you know, it depends on the level. Shea Stadium, you kind of wanted, like, on a nice full day, a mezzanine — you get a lot of fans there, a lot of people buying a lot of beer. That would be like a key pull. If it was less crowded, you certainly don't want to be in the upper deck, because then you're climbing a lot of stairs for not a lot of sales. 

Dan Pashman: So you didn't get to do beer but like what — for your level of modest seniority, what would have been a plum assignment for you?

Ted Berg: I liked getting soda — a lot of people didn't. It's sold pretty well, pretty reliably. Some people complained about the weight of the thing, but I was 19, so it wasn't — I was, you know, tough guy. I thought it was pretty easy to hold a soda around. 

Dan Pashman: And what was like a bottom of the barrel assignment?

Ted Berg: Pretzels on the upper deck. 

Dan Pashman: Why? 

Ted Berg: Well, at Shea stadium, they only had — you know, at each level they had a different center where they distributed the stuff. For whatever reason, you could only get pretzels a the lowest level. 

Dan Pashman: Oh god. 

Ted Berg: So if you got pretzels in the upper deck, you had haul up the big sort of — it was back in those days, it was a big heavy metal, like, bin of pretzels. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Ted Berg: And so you have to haul it back, all the way up to the upper deck. And honestly, I mean, I don't know if you've purchased — and I don't want to diminish the great work done by pretzel vendors everywhere, but [DAN PASHMAN LAUGHS] you want a hot pretzel. And by the time you get a pretzel back to the upper deck, it's just not gonna be that hot and it's not gonna be that good, and so no one really wants to buy a pretzel. If you got a ... If you got pretzels in the upper deck, at least for me, it always seemed like you were being punished. 

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] Hey, did you ever have any secret sales techniques that were like your money go to tricks of the trade?

Ted Berg: Well, I liked to pre-wrap hot bogs, which most people didn't do and which was actually kind of frowned upon. They gave you these tongs and you were supposed to assemble the hotdogs for people when you got there ... 

Dan Pashman: In the seats?

Ted Berg: Yeah, in the seats. And it was a huge pain. I mean, it really slowed you down if you're trying to give someone four or five hotdogs, you gotta, you know, individually put together and wrap each one, and stick the little attachment .. 

Dan Pashman: Stick the dog in the bun ... 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: Put the condiments in, wrap it in the foil ...

Ted Berg: Yeah, so I would just find a, like, the kitchen — put on gloves and wrap them all up beforehand and hoped no one noticed. 

Dan Pashman: Do you have like a classic story from your time there that you can share with us?

Ted Berg: I got spit on by a Yankee fan one time. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: I ... It was a, you know, inner league play game in 2000 when both of the teams were good. So it was always a — you know, The Mets drew pretty well but a  lot of Yankee fans would come to Shea stadium. I was selling hot dogs in the upper deck and a guy — I sold him a hotdog, he bit into it, and he said, "You know buddy, this hot dog isn't cooked." And I said, "Well, you know, is it warm?" And he said, "Yeah, yeah. It's warm. It's not cooked." I said, "Sir, hot dogs are, by nature, pre cooked." 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: And [LAUGHS] ... And he lost it! He lost it!

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] I bet that went over real well Ted. 

Ted Berg: Yeah, he just went nuts. He started yelling. He spit! He spit a piece of hotdog at me. You know, he was ready to — people were holding him back. Like, I don't know what it was. I guess, you know, I was ... I was ...

Dan Pashman: You were right though. 

Ted Berg: I was absolutely right. But I said it in sort of a snarky way that I guess, you know, upset the Yankee fan. I believe The Mets were winning at the time ... 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: I got the last laugh, because I went down to the security guard and told him that the guy spit on me and he ultimately got kicked out of the game, which made me mad with power for at least a day. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. [LAUGHS] I remember when I was a kid and we would do to ball games, two things that I loved the vendors to do, one was to throw the foods to people, like a bag of peanuts to — like some of the vendors would throw those, even those peanuts, long distances — they had very good aim. Did you ever throw food?

Ted Berg: Oh, definitely. Peanuts are by far the best for that. 

Dan Pashman: The other thing that I loved when I was a kid was the vendor who had a classic call. You know, like "Beer here!" 

[LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: Did you have some patented Ted Berg calls?

Ted Berg: I mixed it up. I tried to — it depends on what you're selling, you know? And you get into a sort of a rhythm of it, so, you know, soda has, like, a sort of short staccato thing.

Dan Pashman: So sell me some soda. 

Ted Berg: SODA. SODA, HERE. SODA ... You know, and I always hammed up the New York accent a little bit. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Ted Berg: Because you're vending at Shea stadium. It's like the most New York guy thing to do. 

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: And I prided myself on being a New York guy. 

Dan Pashman: So when all the vendors ended up in the locker room after the game, were there people speaking with British accents?

Ted Berg: Yeah, yeah!

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: Everybody sort of retired and it's done to navvy. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah, right. Exactly. [LAUGHS] 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: All right, Ted. Let's move on to the actual foods in question here: Peanuts and Cracker Jack — and let's start with peanuts. And to be clear, we're only talking about peanuts in the shell here, the kind you'd eat at ball park. 

Ted Berg: Right. 

Dan Pashman: And I brought some. 

Ted Berg: Oh, excellent. 

[BAG RUSTLES]

Ted Berg: This is a nice bonus. I didn't realize I was getting fed. 

Dan Pashman: You didn't know you were gonna get fed. Yeah, this is a great way to get guests to like you. Here, have a couple peanuts. 

Ted Berg: Gladly. All right. 

Dan Pashman: Now, as you crack a peanut, tell me about your technique. 

Ted Berg: I go with the seam. I think that's standard, right? I try to go with the seam ... 

Dan Pashman: What fingers do you use? So you're using, like, a thumb, [Ted Berg: Yeah.] and a folded finger, like a pinch ... 

Ted Berg: The thumb and the index finger — I crack it open at the seam. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah, that's pretty similar to what I do. Yeah, crack and peel it back. 

Ted Berg: And then sort of pull away the rest and then I eat the delicious flesh of the peanut inside. 

Dan Pashman: What about the little paper stuff that, like, comes around the peanut? Do you eat that too? 

Ted Berg: Oh yeah. I eat that too. That's part of the peanut. 

Dan Pashman: There's a real thrill to getting a triplet peanut. You know, most of them have two, sometimes you get one. 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: You got a triplet right there?

Ted Berg: I have a ruined triplet. It was ... 

Dan Pashman: It's a double with a dud — a third dud. 

Ted Berg: It was — yeah, it was once a triplet. 

Dan Pashman: So when you get a triplet, all three of the peanuts in there tend to be small. When you get a single one, the one peanut is very big. What do you like better: The triplet or the solo?

Ted Berg: I like the triplet. It's the novelty of it. You know, just seeing that extremely — cause what do you get? Like two a bag? Three a bag? 

Dan Pashman: It's rare. 

Ted Berg: And you might get a bunch of the singles and, I mean, who really wants a single peanut? That feels like you've been short changed. 

Dan Pashman: But I mean, you have a whole bag. It's not often that you're gonna run out, you know? 

Ted Berg: Yeah, but it's a higher ratio of work to eating. Right? If you have a single peanut, then you got the crack the shell just you would for a double or a triple. 

Dan Pashman: Let's move on to Cracker Jack. Popcorn to peanut ratio — I think this is the biggest issue in the world of Cracker Jack consumption. I brought some Cracker Jack too. 

Ted Berg: Oh, nice!

[BAG RUSTLES] 

Dan Pashman: Here you go. 

Ted Berg: I'm gonna tell you right now, there's just — no matter how many peanuts are in here, there are not enough peanuts in here. 

Dan Pashman: That's right. And I want ... 

Ted Berg: Look! Look at this handful I got. 

Dan Pashman: The first handful you got has how many peanuts in there? 

Ted Berg: Zero peanuts. Zero peanuts. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Ted Berg: It's all popcorn. And we all know that's how Cracker Jack is pulling one over on us. Right? Cause popcorn is practically free. And peanuts are ... 

Dan Pashman: Expensive. I don't have the fact to back it up, but I'm quite confident that there are fewer peanuts in a serving of Cracker Jack now, than there were when I was a kid. 

Ted Berg: I think you might be right, but I always would be concerned that that's like a little bit of a maybe just us getting older and the world getting a little bit sadder and we notice fewer peanuts. 

Dan Pashman: We just sound old. 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Right. But I think they've also cut back on the caramel, because the lack of caramel coating — see the caramel coating, not only adds flavor, but the other think that it does is that it fuses the popcorn and peanuts to each other, and it creates clusters. And I noticed that in an entire bag of Cracker Jack, I did not get a single cluster. No two pieces of food were fused to each other. 

Ted Berg: And that's a shame. That's a shame. But I would say, to me, and maybe this is just an adulthood — I'm cool with the amount of caramel they're using right now. I think anymore than that, and it's like ... It's dessert. And, to me, a Cracker Jack should just be a snack time thing. 

Dan Pashman: I get that and I guess I don't disagree, but my concern is that the other advantage that cluster-fication provides is that it holds some peanuts up at the top of the bag. Because all of the peanuts sink — the few peanuts they give you sink to the bottom. When you have clusters, it fuses some peanuts and they stay at the top of the bag. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Let's talk about the prizes. We got to talk about the prizes. 

Ted Berg: It's tattoos or get out. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: Right? Who wants — I can't remember, even as a little kid, ever wanting anything in there besides a tattoo. You, basically — you dig out the prize to see if it's a tattoo, and if it's not a tattoo — I don't even know what the other ones are. 

Dan Pashman: I — I mean, I got a pirate sticker in one of my bags. I have a feeling they might not even do the tattoos anymore. Let me open my bag ...

Ted Berg: Cause they'd have some ink that turns out we'll all get cancer from? 

Dan Pashman: Probably. Either that, or cause it costs one penny more. 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: Dig in to your bag, see what you got. What's your prize? 

Ted Berg: Oh, here we go. Surprise inside. 

[BAG RUSTLING] 

Ted Berg: I got a dog — a very cute dog sticker. I guess, you could make this sort of a temporary tattoo if you just stuck it on yourself. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] You know the first Cracker Jack box with a toy surprise appeared in 1912. Since then, more than 23 billion trinkets, cars and other prizes have been given out. Some vintage Cracker Jack prizes are valued at more than $7,000. 

Ted Berg: That is incredible. I, now — and meanwhile, here I'm sticking Bingo on my sweatshirt. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. [LAUGHS] 

Ted Berg: And I should have saved this, maybe in — right before I die, I can move it for 5,000 bucks. 

Dan Pashman: This could have been your nest egg, Ted. 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: You blew it. 

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: I got the exact same pirate's sticker that I got in the last bag. It's called "Vintage C.J."

Ted Berg: So are we — ohh, that's a pretty cool sticker. 

Dan Pashman: I'll bet that this exact sticker ... 

Ted Berg:Way cooler than my dog. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah, I mean — do you want to trade?

Ted Berg: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: I'll trade you. Here you go. 

Ted Berg: That's sweet. 

Dan Pashman: All right, I'll take the dog. Aw, he's cute. 

Ted Berg: Yeah, this pirate's pretty awesome. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Well, Ted Berg, baseball writer at USA Today, he's also the man behind the Ted Quarters blog, follow in Twitter @OGTedBerg. Is that right?

Ted Berg: That's right. Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: All right, Ted. Thanks so much. 

Ted Berg: Yeah, thanks for having me. 

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: One note, we did reach out to Frito Lay — they bought Cracker Jack in 1997. They couldn’t comment on changes to the recipe before that, but they did say that since 1997, there has been no reduction in the peanut to popcorn ratio. In fact, they say two years ago they added more peanuts. So maybe Ted’s right, maybe we’re just getting a little older and sadder.