Following up on Thursday’s post about the Cincinnati Reds: in a short item about ballpark food (including gluten-free, a story that our own GC was right on top of), The Big Money‘s Dan Mitchell revives the 1989 Mike Royko column about serving sushi at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, . which can be found at the Orlando Sentinel as well.

…when historians study the decline and fall of the once-great nation known as the United States, they will pinpoint April 1989 as being the beginning of the end….

And they will be able to look to Southern California to see where it began.

More precisely, to San Diego.

And even more specifically, to Jack Murphy Stadium, where the San Diego Padres play baseball.

They will find that in April 1989 the San Diego Padres became the first major league franchise in the long history of America’s great national pastime to sell – brace yourselves – sushi to the fans.

Yes, sushi in the ball park!

Strips of raw or marinated fish, wrapped around a ball of rice with maybe a dab of fish eggs on top – the preferred snack of the yuppiest of yuppies.

I should be surprised, but I’m not. I see now that it was inevitable.

Years ago, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, I complained to my good friend, Slats Grobnik.

”Slats,” I said, ”this is a bad thing for the country. Some day they will be selling sushi in ball parks.”

He said, ”What’s sushi?”

I said, ”I don’t know. But mark my words, Slats, it is sure to happen.”

Royko especially enjoyed attacking San Diego, having feuded with its fans during the ’84 NLCS.