Baseball Chat

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Cracker Jack: Peanuts and a prize

By Judith Blake
Seattle Times staff reporter


Baseball is a game of tradition, and one of its traditions is nearly a century old: the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," with its nostalgic nod to a crunchy treat that's even older, Cracker Jack.

When the Seattle Mariners take to Safeco Field on Monday for their home opener of 2005, the crowd will once again warble the old tune during the seventh-inning stretch.

And from the vendors and the concession stands — where sushi and spring rolls now count themselves among the fashionable fare — many fans will snatch up bags or boxes of the caramel-coated popcorn-and-peanut snack known as Cracker Jack, as they've done at baseball games since somewhere around 1900.

Kids and grown-ups alike will tear open the familiar package with the picture of Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo and munch on the sweet, popped corn while they search for the tiny "prize" that's always inside.


Taste hasn't changed

Some will no doubt complain that the prizes aren't what they used to be nor the peanuts as plentiful (see related story ), yet they'll welcome this taste of the tried and true.

In a world of accelerating change, where "new" quickly turns to "old," Cracker Jack's primary feature, its coated popcorn, has stayed essentially the same for more than 100 years.

"The formulation has not changed since 1893," says Jared Dougherty, spokesman for Frito-Lay, the huge snack company that acquired Cracker Jack from Borden Inc. in 1997.

CJ lore says 1893 was the year R.W. Rueckheim introduced the snack at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first world's fair, according to the CJ official Web site. In 1896, Rueckheim's brother Louis discovered a way to keep the molasses-covered pieces from sticking together, though the basic formula remained unchanged.

Cracker Jack was not alone in joining the budding world of processed foods during those turn-of-the-century years. Like the popcorn treat, a number of them remain with us today, among them Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the Hershey chocolate bar and canned tuna.


Irresistible to many

The durable Cracker Jack formula, with its mild hint of molasses, still pleases the taste buds of Alex Jaramillo Jr., a member of the Cracker Jack Collectors Association — yes, there is such a thing — who has amassed thousands of CJ prizes from throughout the product's history. Though the Fontana, Calif., man's interest lies chiefly in the toys, he says he also loves the taste.

"I still eat it today. My refrigerator is full of Cracker Jack," he said, adding the fridge keeps the snack fresher.

Closer to home, 78-year-old Jo Richardson of Yakima, a CJ prize collector for 20 years, admits that while she still enthusiastically collects the toys, she's no longer that wild about eating the snack, which she mostly gives away after opening a box or bag to find the prize.

It's the total package — the taste, the prize, the old-fashioned feel — that holds appeal for those who cannot resist Cracker Jack at a ballgame.


Recent obstacles

Yet even if Cracker Jack is as homey and familiar as the game with which it has long been linked, its life on the American scene has not been completely free of rift or the product immune to the waves of change that constantly wash over the world of food.

Take last summer. That's when the folks who run the concessions at New York's Yankee Stadium decided to replace Cracker Jack with another sweetened popcorn snack, Crunch 'n Munch.

You'd have thought they were replacing wooden baseball bats with plastic swizzle sticks. An uproar ensued. Losing Cracker Jack was more than fans could tolerate. Soon, Cracker Jack was back in Yankee Stadium.

There's no sign of a similar crisis occurring at Safeco, where Cracker Jack appears to be firmly ensconced. Indeed, Cracker Jack is sold at every major-league ballpark in the U.S. and at many minor-league ones.

But the brief controversy at Yankee Stadium points to the stiff competition Cracker Jack faces in various venues, including supermarkets, from Crunch 'n Munch, Fiddle Faddle and other syrup-coated popcorn-and-peanut snacks.

And as part of the often attacked snack-food industry, Cracker Jack and the others must contend with critics' assertion that they're contributing to the national obesity epidemic and other health problems.

In the mid-1990s, when low-fat or no-fat products flooded supermarket shelves, Cracker Jack came out with a fat-free auxiliary version (minus the peanuts), though that product line was later discontinued. Today's product, the original recipe, contains 2 grams of fat (none saturated), 120 calories and 15 grams of sugar per single serving of about 1 ¼ ounce.

Of possibly more interest to dedicated CJ fans is the package their beloved snack comes in. Though a modern version of the traditional box is still available, Cracker Jack now also comes in a foil bag, which Frito-Lay's Dougherty says helps keep the product fresher.

There's always something nibbling away at tradition.