Celebrate Hot Dog History at the Ballpark

_Elsa_

The next article that she finds mentions that there is a National Hot Dog Day.  She will have to find out the date for that.

“Tiffi you’re missing the whole game,” says Kimmy.

Tiffi is too busy reading articles but she does look up to see what’s going on.

‘There is no food connected more with America’s Pastime than the humble hot dog. Today, on National Hot Dog Day, the ballpark is the best spot to snare a dog, whether it be a basic Dodger Dog or Fenway Frank, a decked-out Chicago Dog or an elaborate Tamale Dog.

Harry Stevens, the concessionaire extraordinaire who invented the modern scorecard, brought the hot dog to New York City’s Polo Grounds. But that hasn’t stopped various creation myths emerging placing Harry Stevens as the inventor of the modern hot dog. One such creation myth has New York Journal sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan working a game at the Polo Grounds in 1901 (or 1902 or maybe 1903; various accounts have various dates), jotting down a drawing of a dachshunds—a combo of the real dog and the sausage—and labeling the pup as a “hot dog” because he didn’t know how to spell dachshund. Voila! Dorgan invented the term hot dog. Problem is that original drawing has never been found, and the term hot dog as a reference for hot dachshunds had been around for a decade or so. “Dog wagons” sold hot dogs at Yale University as early as 1894, and a 1893 Knoxville Journal article referred to sausages in buns as hot dogs.

Still, even if he didn’t invent the hot dog, Stevens did lay the groundwork for the modern food scene at ballparks. Offering concessions at venues varying as widely as Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden and the Saratoga Race Course, Stevens matched the venue to the food, according to the New York Daily News:

“Baseball crowds are great consumers of hot dogs, peanuts and bottled drinks,” he said. “Heavier food is popular at race tracks. Prizefight crowds go in for mineral waters, near-beer and hot dogs. A boxing crowd is also a great cigar-consuming crowd. Chocolate goes well in spring and fall, but the hot dog is the all-year-round best seller.” ’ (Source)

Tiffi looks at the date when this article was posted and it’s July 17, 2019.  Today being that same day she immediately does a Google search to find out the date for this year. She sees that it’s going to be July 21 so she still has time to celebrate that day. She continues reading the article.

Let’s continue - Hot dog history continued …..

Start at the beginning – Tiffi and Kimmy go to a baseball game