BetUS is a big online sports book. And it has an interest in other ‘big’ things. Not the least of which, it turns out, is MLB ballpark concession Hot Dogs. But when I read the headline on their contest webpage, I just about spat out my coffee…
The mighty Broomstick Dog: Two continuous feet / 60 cm of fan enthusiasm on a bun…
We all carry cultural baggage from our youth. And some of that includes naughty language we picked up on the street. So I was tickled – in a blushing sort of way – by BetUS’s call to, “HELP US FIND THE BIGGEST WIENER IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!”
You kids in the back! Stop snickering!
A noble cause?
Some baseball fanatics might say the promo stunt was for a noble cause. But most us would probably say it’s a thematically fitting tribute to the folks behind the scenes who help bring us the Boys of Summer.
And what better metric than the size of each team’s home park Hot Dog to rate fan fervor?
How it worked
BetUS set out to find the biggest, proudest frankfurter being served this season at every MLB park. And declare a winner based on the lengths to which vendors were willing to go… Well, you get the point.
If you thought there would be little to report after an exhaustive investigation… You’d be wrong. The range of hot dog sizes alone is breathtaking.
What they found
As I suspected, many of the parks (9) offered only standard 6 in. / 15 cm dogs. These folks obviously believe that ‘the game’s the thing’, not the fan food. Eight more parks upped the ante with dogs ranging from 8 in. / 20 cm to 10.5 in. / 26.25 cm. The majority of ‘stadium dogs’ (11) fell predictably in the 12 in. / 30 cm category.
There looked to be a 2-Dog race for the the ‘Grand Chompion’ of the contest. But one of the contenders was disqualified from the quest for the crown by a technicality.
“The [Baltimore] Orioles’ Yard Dog is actually three 12 in. hot dogs stacked on top of each other, making it 36 inches long, but not consecutively,” a footnote to the official contest statistical rundown explains.
And that left the truly monumental, 24 in. / 60 cm Broomstick Dog, served uniquely at Texas Rangers home games, to capture the throne.
The takeaway
Some MLB stadiums are as serious about their cuisine as they are about their teams’ line scores. But others seem to see concession food merely as a service to their fans – albeit, a major money-making service!
One way or the other, the Hot Dog is the one menu choice still available at all Major League parks.
My take
Disclaimer: The 24 in. / 60 cm Broomstick Dog is actually the length of a Little League baseball bat. A standard Big League bat these days averages around 36 in. / 90 cm.
With that point clarified…
The Hot Dog may be a more iconic symbol of Baseball in America than it is of The 4th of July. Even more so, the Hot Dog as we know it is an all-American creation, wrought by the kind of erstwhile immigrants who helped make the country great. The inscription on the Stature of Liberty might well have read, “Give me your tired, your poor, your sausage makers…”
Even more than 100 years after the first truly American Hot Dogs went on sale at Nathan Handwerker’s original Coney Island stand, folks are still finding new ways to embellish and aggrandize their favourite bun-bound bite!
~ Maggie J.