6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: No Rats In Angel Stadium, But Maybe It's The Timing

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Monday, July 21, 2008

No Rats In Angel Stadium, But Maybe It's The Timing

The Angel Stadium rat situation appears to be in better shape this year than in 2007 according to the Orange County Register:

Since then, inspectors have issued 23 more vermin violations at the stadium, none of them major. Of those, eight involved flies, seven involved live or dead cockroaches, six involved mostly old rodent droppings, one involved ants and one involved a live cricket.
The most serious violation involving vermin since last August wasn't even logged as a vermin violation. Last month, inspectors discovered a fly in a bottle of whiskey at the Angels Homeplate Club. They filed it under "Improper Food Storage" – a major violation -- and had the bottle thrown out.
In all, stadium food stands have racked up 152 health-code violations since January – all but two of them minor. The causes range from sticky floors to broken freezers to guacamole left out a little too long.
...
"Our program is in place and we're very satisfied with our maintenance," said Tim Mead, the Angels' vice president of communications. "Is the (rodent) issue behind us? Yes. Absolutely. But that doesn't mean we stop looking for ways to better our systems, better our programs."

Here's an amazing graf:

The food contractor for stadium restaurants, Aramark, now requires its managers to do a nightly cleaning inspection before they leave. The company also has started doing two "deep cleans" of stadium food venues every year – scouring "every nook and cranny," spokesman David Freireich said.

I used to work at Mickey D's, and we scoured the place every frickin' day after close. They weren't doing this before?

Part of the reason the most recent inspections may have turned up fewer violations is because of the Angels' schedule:

Last year, inspectors wrote up more than 400 violations at the stadium between January and mid-July. But the sharp decrease in violations this year is at least partly because of the timing of those inspections.
Inspectors visited stadium food venues 59 times last year between April and mid-July – when the Angels were actually playing ball there. This year, there have been only 25 inspections since the home opener in early April, records show.

Finally, the stadium has adopted a pair of cats from the nearby county animal shelter used as mousers, one of whom is named Angel Eyes. "Maybe that's helped," Angels' VP of communication Tim Mead said.

Labels: angel stadium, rats