By Tommy Birch, Des Moines Register
Shortly after the first pitch on opening night at Principal Park on March 28, Iowa Cubs vendor Alex Gomez walks down a flight of stairs at the baseball stadium and begins to yell.
“Yuuuummeeee, yummy, yummy, yum!”
Many of the people in the section, who have settled into their seats to watch the game, cheer as Gomez makes his way by with his signature selling point.
“It’s so exciting,” Gomez said. “I think it’s the best part — seeing people smiling and laughing and having some fun.”
Gomez brings a lot of that excitement with his well-known yummy, yum pitch to fans. Odds are if you’ve been to the minor league stadium in the last decade, you’ve heard it.
The 53-year-old Gomez is in charge G&G Concessions, a vendor the Cubs have been using for over a decade. In fact, he’s the face of the entire operation because of his energetic personality.
But it’s his catchphrase, which he started about 10 years ago, that is most known. Gomez, who was looking to capture the attention of prospective customers, came up with the long, drawn-out call to fans while selling his product.
“Yuuuummeeee, yummy, yummy, yum.”
He uses it to sell funnel cakes, corn dogs, cotton candy and lemonade. Yummy, indeed. When he saw kids muttering “yummy” when vendors would walk by with their foods, it sparked an idea for him.
“I just tried to figure out what we could do to make it exciting and have some fun outside,” Gomez said.
The move worked. Gomez said business and his fame rapidly rose. Over the years, he’s become part of the Cubs experience, like Cubbie or even the players.
He generates cheers and applause when he belts out his familiar phrase. Gomez is so well known that he’ll sometimes get recognized outside of the park.
His voice is so loud and so recognizable, that fans can often hear him peddling his product over radio broadcasts of home games.
“I would say Alex is a staple of Principal Park,” said Derek Hickey, district manager of Oak View Group Hospitality, which handles the food and beverage around the park.
The job is no small task for Gomez who lives in Cedar Rapids and routinely makes the drive to Des Moines for events at Principal Park or Wells Fargo Arena. Gomez is at pretty much every home game on the Cubs’ schedule. He’ll also work things at Iowa State.
Gomez will occasionally stay in Des Moines. But he usually ventures back and forth between the two cities so he can work and spend time with his family, including his wife and three children.
He said they’ve contemplated moving to Des Moines but would like to wait until their youngest son, who is 12 years old, finishes school. In the meantime, he’s selling product at a high rate.
The travel and the hard work, which usually results in long hours, is well worth it for Gomez.
“It’s fun,” he said.
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at [email protected] or 515-284-8468
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