An outraged Twitter user declared it “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” when the makers of Cracker Jack announced recently they were eliminating the prize inside each pack, a staple for more than a century. We thought this was hyperbole at first, but then the company’s marketing writers said Cracker Jack would be updating the snack with “contemporized logo and packaging” and adding a “one-of-a-kind mobile experience, leveraging digital technology.”

Dark days, indeed.

Cracker Jack, as closely connected with the national pastime as its candy caramel coating is with popcorn and peanuts, is no Johnny-come-lately. It debuted at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, or World’s Fair, in 1893, created by William Rueckheim, who with his brother devised the secret recipe. Cracker Jack’s fame was assured when it was featured in a 1908 Tin Pan Alley ditty by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, whose chorus declared:

“Take me out to the ballgame

Take me out with the crowd,

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,

I don’t care if I never get back …”

Their tune has been belted out at ballparks for years, in large part because it’s so easy to sing, even at a full roar. The prizes inside each box of Cracker Jack debuted in 1912, including such treats as a Ty Cobb baseball card, and little metal toys. In 1918, according to one detailed history, a buyer could dig in and find a metal whistle with the logo of Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo. Later on came decoder rings, magnifying glasses and little animals, with metal eventually giving way to plastic. Reportedly, more than 23 billion prizes have been won, and, as is the nature of things, mostly lost. Rare prizes from decades ago fetch good money on eBay.

The Rueckheim family sold the company in 1964. Pepsi Co’s Frito Lay division now owns it, and made the decision to take Cracker Jack into the digital age. Instead of diminutive prizes, the package will contain a buried card with a Q Code. This will enable consumers to download an app onto their iOS or Android devices to “bring the ballpark to life on your mobile device,” with games named Dot Dash, Dance Cam, Get Carded and Baseball Star. One will allow you to make your own baseball card, although we presume most images will remain trapped inside a phone. A spokesman for Cracker Jack said that “with this new redesign, the Cracker Jack brand embraces a modernized, young-at-heart attitude while keeping that treasured feeling of childhood wistfulness.”

In baseball terms, that’s a big swing, but it missed. It’s doubtful the modern and the wistful can truly be reconciled. Nostalgia offers the sweet/sad experience of reaching into the deep box of memory and retrieving all manner of things, some to be discarded, some to be prized. There’s simply no app for that.