In consideration of the shockingly large number of people with peanut allergies, Safeco Field is taking the step of providing two “peanut controlled zones” at the stadium during the Mariners’ games on August 5th and September 9th. As reported in the Times’ Mariners Blog and elsewhere, sections 311 and 312 will be cleaned thoroughly the night before each game to rid them of peanut influence and all peanut products will be banned for both games, including the concession stands which won’t sell any peanut products during the peanut ban games.

Why there are so many people with peanut allergies, I don’t know. Since peanuts are one the tastiest and most versatile foods that there are, I really feel for the allergic for not being able to eat and enjoy them. Since I rarely go to baseball games, I’ve never stopped to consider that peanut allergy sufferers would be inhibited from going, but now that the subject’s been raised; yeah, I can totally see how it might suck to be a baseball fan who is allergic to peanuts. While it’s probably impossible to completely eliminate all risk of allergen exposurem I think this is a cool idea and give the M’s a thumbs up for it.

If you’d like to get seats in the peanut free sections during these games, you can get them directly from the Mariners site. [nopeanuts]