Eating Up Innings In the Seats

Any real baseball fan has heard of the expression "eating up innings." It relates to a pitcher who routinely pitches deep into the game instead of going only five innings, enough to qualify for a win. Many times, these Hurculean efforts cause a premature end to a pitcher's professional life since the human arm a) was not designed to throw a ball that hard and b) is susceptible to all sorts of injury issues. So it is with some fans as well, and I finally have personal experience to confirm this. I could not make it through the ninth on the Leinie Deck at Joannes Park last week.
You'll recall that last year I reported the newest gastronomical trend at sporting events: the all-you-can-shove-in ticket which allows a fan to eat until he or she can eat no more. I think the LA Dodgers started the trend, but it's now everywhere, including Green Bay, home of the Green Bay Bullfrogs who, along with Leinenkugel beer, sponsor the "Leinie Lodge" where for $25 a fan can enjoy both ballyard food and baseball.
Understand this: I'm too cheap to EVER do this myself. The Green Bay Packers sponsored my trip as part of the tour guide/Hall of Fame workers beneift for the summer. Of course, I did have to buy an actual ticket for my wife since she would not let me go alone! There was NO WAY she was going to eat/drink that much so I thought long and hard about accepting the offer...though, ultimately, I just HAD to try it, especially since this might be the only venue in America at which beer is included in the "all-you-can-consume" promotion.
Arriving an hour before game time put us at the end of a rather long line at the "free" beer/food line, but we DID get a free pack of Bullfrog baseball cards...sure to be a collector's item someday. Patrons on the party deck were limited to two items of food at a time, and I selected a pulled pork sandwich and a bratwurst with some chips to go with my first beer. Strangely enough, there was no line at the self-serve soda machine, while the beer line snaked throughout the stadium. Imagine that!
Before the game began, my total stood at 2 1/2 pork sandwiches ( I KNEW she couldn't eat that much!), two brats and three cups of beer. Staring into a descending sun, we waited patiently for the game to begin and the beer line to shorten. Eventually, things got down to baseball, and we were almost treated to a line drive into the right field seats where we were located. That proved to be the only highlight of the night, though. By the time "last call" was issued, I decided that I needed to make recompense for my wife's lack of intestinal capacity so I went back for more and ended up with a soda and some chips. I was definitely not interested in any more animal fat-laden food. I was done by the 7th.
An interesting side note: of the announced attendance of 650 people, there were FAR more on the party deck than there were in the regular seats eating popcorn and drinking $3 beer.
Yesterday, we got called up to Single A baseball in Appleton for the same kind of deal though this time the food was served for 2 hours before the game courtesy of A.G. Edwards. Once again, Carol did not find the food worthy of quantity consumption, but I did my best to equalize things. The baseball was professional and the seats were much better, but having to BUY food inside the stadium seemed too odd given my newly-accustomed habit of eating free at least through the fifth inning to qualify for a win.
Now I know that I'll never be an "innings eater" at baseball games. I probably won't even make the professional ranks, but, like those huge snakes that drop out of trees onto people, I won't be eating for a while!