(you’ve not really tasted nacho cheese until you’ve licked it off the chest of The World’s Scrappiest Human)

Though I have no reason to believe the threat to public health described below has anything to do with Rex Hudler’s periodic attacks of the munchies, that’s as good an excuse as any. From the Orange County Register’s Gwendolyn Driscoll.

Discarded peanut shells, the remnants of hot dog buns, sticky ice cream wrappers and nachos coated with tangerine-colored cheese carpet the stands of Angel Stadium “ about 15 tons of garbage on average per game, according to stadium officials.The refuse can sit out for more than 12 hours before it is collected, a time lag that may help account for the 118 vermin violations that county officials logged at stadium kiosks and restaurants over the last 2 ½ years.

Of those reports, 33 represent œmajor violations, in which œrodent activity was observed by health inspectors in a œcritical area of 18 stadium food venues.

œIt should be zero. A restaurant is closed down for these kinds of things, said Richard Sanchez, the director of environmental health for the county Health Care Agency.

In about the same period, San Diego’s Petco Park had two vermin violations and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles had seven, records show.

In the 412 routine inspections of Angel Stadium food venues conducted by the Health Care Agency since 2005, vermin violations were found 25 percent of the time. Major vermin violations were 33 percent of all major food safety violations found at the stadium. Sanchez said that health inspectors generally see pest-related problems at Orange County restaurants œless than 5 percent of the time.

Just to show you I’m not all about bad news this Sunday morning, here’s an early clip from the Angels’ 2007 Season Highlights DVD :