Courtesy of the Freep:
Sunflower seed shortage could be a major-league problem
Forget about steroids — sunflower seeds could be a bigger problem for baseball.
"Supplies are going to be very short," said John Sandbakken, director of international marketing at the National Sunflower Association in Bismarck, N.D. "The warehouses will be cleared out and whatever is marketed will be sold. Potentially, stores could run out."
Cold spring temperatures in 2004 in sunflower-rich Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota damaged the most recent crop.
"Doing seeds" has become a baseball tradition from little league to the bigs. Major-league players consume an estimated 300,000 bags of seeds per season.
