The beer garden near First Tennessee Park offers a handy Tuesday-night special

Let me just say up front that the food at First Tennessee Park is actually pretty good for stadium fare. And when you include the park’s outdoor bar and restaurant Band Box in the mix, you can eat very, very well. But ballparks can be a miserable place to go hunting for Cheap Eats, so here’s a suggestion for baseball fans now that the season is here: Do a little pre-gaming over at Von Elrod’s across the street. If you hit the restaurant’s beer garden on a Tuesday night, you can grab one of the ginormous pretzels from chef Jason Brumm’s kitchen ($4.95, but don’t forget the beer-cheese dipping sauce, which brings the total to $5.90), and then order a Belgian or German beer for half price. I’m a fan of the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (normally $7 for 16 ounces, but $3.50 on Tuesdays). And if you want just the beer, Von Elrod’s runs a Thursday night special on big beers, so a 1-liter stein will range from $5.25 to $7.50. That will ease the sting of those high-priced domestics when the beer man comes calling in the late innings.