Roll Me Out of the Ballpark!

NPR had a piece this morning on the Fifth Third Burger sold at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock, Michigan. It's HUGE!!!

Rex Larsen | The Grand Rapids Press

Josh Kowalczyk, an intern with the West Michigan Whitecaps, tries to get his hands around the Fifth Third Burger.

This article is from "Minor League Concession Item Of The Year" by Darren Rovell in Sports Biz here.

For years, we've given the title of "Concession Item Of The Year" to the Gateway Grizzlies, whose executives seems to have a knack for coming up with the best idea year after year.

In 2006, it was a bacon cheeseburger with donuts as buns.

Then came the deep fried sliders.

Last year, it was the buffalo wing pretzel.

But the West Michigan Whitecaps have our eye this year with this — believed to be the single most caloric item ever offered at a ballpark.

Here are the important details on this absolute gutbuster. It's called the Fifth Third Burger, named after the bank that sponsors the team's ballpark.

It's 5/3 lbs (1.66) of beef with lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, chili and Fritos on an eight-inch sesame seed bun.

The team says it feeds one to four people and sells for $20, and if a person finishes the Fifth Third Burger in one sitting, the team will offer up a Fifth Third Burger T-shirt.

Mickey Graham, the team's director of marketing and media relations, told us that they came up with this burger because it's something fun that people can understand.

Graham added that he thinks it's possible that that the burger will be popular enough that people might show up to the ballpark, buy a ticket to get in, buy a burger and go home.

"We've had people come just for dinner," Graham said. "It actually happens pretty frequently. We take our food pretty seriously."

For the less important details, here is the approximate "nutritional" information:

Fifth Third Burger Nutritional Value

		DAILY VALUE
Calorie	4889	244%
Total Fat	299g	460%
Sat. Fat	199g	597%
Cholesterol	744mg	248%
Sodium	10,887mg	454%
Total Carbs	354g	118%
Protein	198g	105%

After finishing creating a Fifth Third Burger, Todd Guyer compares it with a McDonald's cheesburger.

From "Whitecaps' Fifth Third Burger not for Faint of Heart" by Michael Zuidema | The Grand Rapids Press Read full article here.

Here's what fans can expect from the Fifth Third Burger:

Start with an 8-inch sesame seed bun that requires 1 pound of dough and is made specially for the Whitecaps by Nantucket Baking Co. of Grand Rapids.
Spoon on nearly a cup of chili and place five one-third pound hamburger patties on top of that. (Get it, 5/3 pounds of beef for the Fifth Third Burger?)

Add five slices of American cheese and liberal doses of salsa, nacho cheese and Fritos. Top it off with lettuce, tomato and sour cream, and you have a burger that can be sliced with a pizza cutter and feed four people for $20. Jalapenos are optional.

Each offseason, team officials brainstorm ideas for their next culinary creation. Potential ingredients for this season included cactus, sausage gravy, Spam, fried eggs and grape jelly. Fortunately, not all on one sandwich.

Eventually, the Whitecaps settled on the Fifth Third Burger because it consisted mostly of items that easily can be found at a ballpark.

Other new food options for the season are a Chicago-style hot dog cart and frozen bananas dipped in chocolate.