August 24, 2022 • 20 mins
On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly John Gonzalez sits down with SI Staff Writer Emma Baccellieri for an old-fashioned baseball double-header. First, when the benches clear it's not long before the brawl starts, unless you're a reliever and have to run all the way in from the bullpen. Then, no L.A. Dodgers game is complete without a signature Dodger Dog, but what makes these franks so fantastic...or not?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get started, please rate and review our show
that helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, s I staffer Emma Bachelory joins me for
a delightful baseball related doubleheader. Later on in the show,
we're gonna discuss how and why Dodger Dogs became the
most iconic concession food in all of sports, and whether
(00:22):
they're as good as advertised or gasped overhyped. But first,
if you're a Major league relief pitchers sitting out in
the bullpen, there tends to be a lot of downtime,
a lot of hurry up and wait, except on those
rare occasions when the bench is clear and there's a brawl,
then all of a sudden, you have a long, long
way to go to get in on the action. Emma
talked to several relief pitchers about the long distances they
(00:44):
have to cover when a fight breaks out and the
comedy of errors that usually ensues as a result. I'm
your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. I'm a Bachelory. Welcome back
(01:06):
to Sports Illustrator Weekly. Thank you for having me. All right,
so I love a good baseball brawl. I'm a sucker
for a good fight at a baseball game. One aspect
of it, though, that I hadn't really considered, was the
focus of your latest piece. Kudas to you again for
thinking outside the box. Broad Strokes. Tell us about how
and why you started thinking about relievers sprinting in from
the bullpen when the bench is clear. So this has
(01:28):
been something I've been thinking about since I was a
little kid. Every time you see a fight, whether it's
on TV, and they eventually pan out, and you realize, like,
while these guys have been scuffling or posturing or actually
fighting around home plate, the relievers have been making this
very long jog out from the bullpen and they're just
(01:53):
gonna have to turn around when they get there. And
the same if you're watching it in person. That's always
the few time they've been at a ballpark where I
actually get to to witness it lives. It's like, just
look at them and it looks so silly, like this
idea of them just making this run out of obligation
when they know they can't do anything. And finally decided
(02:13):
it was time to to ask some relievers if they
felt the same way I did. I love that you.
I've been thinking about this since you were a kid.
Now it's in Sports illustrated. I would imagine that the
biggest impediment on this thing, aside from the fact that
it is sort of perfunctory that they have to run
out there and by the time they get out there
(02:33):
they have to turn around and go back. But if
they are going to run out there with any sort
of intent, the biggest impediment would have to be fitness. No,
they expend a lot of oxygen, right, you know, you're
talking about a d fifty yards give or take depending
on where the bullpen is. It's a pretty long way
to go if you're trying to to really sprint it
and not jog it. So by the time you're there,
(02:55):
you know, you'll probably be kind of out of breath,
especially considering like you've probably been and just sitting around
before you were called out there. You're going from just
sitting to flat out sprint. Uh. Yeah, really limits your
chances of effectiveness, even if if time and distance we're
on your side to begin with, which they're not. Yeah,
So it is a long way to go and Pirates
reliever David Bedner told you, by the time they get there,
(03:19):
it's usually broken up anyway, right, So it's just sort
of like this exercise pun intended in futility, get there
and it's already all either it's still going and it's
really bad. But usually if I tell you you have there,
it's all broken up, then he was gonna you have
walk back and talking about it. Everybody's out of breath
and every man anything. Yeah, it's really I think if
(03:44):
you want to get deep about it, like something about
like performative aspects of you know, what it means to
be a good teammate that like everyone knows this is
kind of a force that it's not going to work,
but you still have to do it. Like if you
don't go out and do it, it's going to be like, well,
you know, you don't have his back, you're not coming in.
What's the deal here? You've got to do it, but
(04:05):
everyone knows it's all for not. Also, baseball players are
not always in the best shape. So are there guys
who don't run in, or don't want to run in,
or only kind of slow jogging. I think there are
some No one wanted to really talk about it. Everyone
was like, Oh, of course I sprint out, but yeah,
(04:25):
I can see why you would not want to. It's
I'm sure there there are some, even if I couldn't
get any on the record. Your investigation of this was
just delightful. There were some very funny exchanges that you
had with some of these relievers, including Blue Jay's reliever
Jordan Romano, who told you that there are other issues here.
The only thing is it's like you've been sitting a
while and then you've got a full sprint, so like
(04:47):
you're just worried about like your handies, like hopefully one
doesn't glow. If you're going from just sitting to sprinting,
it's a real concern and stretch. You gotta stretch it
out first, exactly. I heard a story from multiple people
about one reliever who wears glasses who had taken his
(05:09):
bosses off to apply some sunscreen when a fight broke
out and ran out there without his glasses on because
he was in such a hurry and then couldn't see anything.
So in addition to the are you stretching question, it's
do you have your glasses on? Is another one for
some people. If you don't have your glasses on. You
might not run to the right spot for the brawl.
You might hit the wrong guy if you throw a punch.
(05:31):
That's no good, right, It's real, real factors to worry
about here. Yeah, these are all things you have to
think about other potential problems. You talk to White Sox
reliever Liam Hendrix, he mentioned some concerns about jumping over
a fence. Yes, apparently he's done this, they said at
least three or four times. We had one in Minnesota.
I just jumped the fence in the bullpens then, and
(05:52):
it was a lot bow down than I thought, and
he has gotten in trouble for it. I'm not supposed
to jump to fence, No, I don't think it's what
a trainer would want. I like that he was. He's
just trying to cut down the travel time hopping over
the fence instead of going around it. I would imagine also, Emma,
that there are some guys who are faster than others.
So do you know, have you identified who the best
(06:14):
sprinter is out of the bullpen? Won a fight happens?
Maybe that's the next step is watching some film to
see if I can figure out who the who the
fastest guy is the one that didn't make it in here.
But who I did talk to you was Devin Williams
the Brewers, who was pretty proud of his speed and
felt like he usually made a pretty good impression on
how fast he got out there. But I didn't go
(06:34):
back and watch enough to really compare myself, so I'll
often fact check anecdotally. Who would you guess, aside from Devon,
if you say, you know what, I would guess, he's
pretty fed, he's pretty fast. That's a good question. I
feel like not so much on fitness, but on passion
and energy. Joe Kelly is standing out to me in
(06:55):
my head right now. This is what use would just
looking out and Kelly's looking at Kelly says, okay, come on,
so he can Kelly's sides wipe them, got a little
punch in, Benny got back up, and he got taken down.
(07:15):
There have been a few that he's been right in
the middle of I feel like he has the the
adrenaline and the drive, even if it's not like the
best natural fitness, to make sure that he's out there
pretty quickly. Adrenaline and drive is good, especially when applied
to relievers because they tend to be a little quirky.
So if you got to get some of those guys
who are a little bit more keyed up and worked
(07:37):
up and see them running out there, it is a
code you do have to go out there. But some
of them are going through the motions of running out
there and pretending like they're actually gonna get into this fight.
Who's not a fighter? Because Hendrick says he can't fight
at all, and he's just out there for moral support, right, yes,
which I appreciated that, you know, it needs to own
(07:58):
up to it into another one. I was Jorge Lopez
of the Orioles. The tail just gave him a work there.
I don't know what he said, if he said something.
Now he's staring him down and they're still yelling from
the Baltimore bench. The bullpens are spilling out as well,
(08:19):
saying that he always likes to think he's going out
there to help break it up, that he's like his
mission is not you know, like how can I get
in there? But how can I make it stop? The peacemaker?
Yeah exactly, And he still doesn't get there in time.
So what about are there guys who can actually scrap
This is you know, I'm dating myself here, but back
in the day, you know, Rob Dibble was a guy
(08:40):
who liked to get into a baseball brawl. John Rocker,
I would guess when he's not like busy cheering on
the January six insurrection would be a guy who would
like to get into a scrap. Other guys now of
the current era where you go, yeah, that's somebody who
would like to get into one, and somebody maybe you
wouldn't want to mess with. No one really wanted to
call anyone else out for it, I think, both because
(09:02):
you know, like it's probably not gonna happen for you,
and also it just a true brawls are so few
and far between nowadays. I don't know if that's a
higher emotional intelligence that we have going on here or
just like a recognition of the risks that were being
pretty silly in so many cases. But yeah, like no
one really had any examples of like, oh yeah, and
(09:25):
I was in the bullpen with this guy who wanted
it um Instead, just a lot of ruminations on the
run itself because they didn't have much to say about
what would happen if you actually got there. The run
itself You've been thinking about this since you were nine
years old. You finally reported it. It is an excellent piece,
very funny reader story on relievers who rumble on SI
(09:46):
dot com. She's one of the first people we'd want
running out of the bullpen to have our back. I'm
a Bachelori. Thank you for this. After the break, Emma
and I get into all things Dodger dogs, including whether
they live up to the hype. I'm a Bachelari. Welcome
(10:10):
back to Sports Illustrative Weekly. Thank you for having me.
Always excited to have you on the show. You you
write about generally some peculiar topics. Uh, this one near
and dear to my heart. You wrote recently about baseball
and hot dogs, which have this symbiotic relationship. But you
didn't just write about any hot dogs. You wrote about
Dodger dogs. The story builds it as not just an
(10:31):
optional add on to the Dodger Stadium experience. It is
the experience. This feels personal for you. Tell us about
how and why you wanted to write about the Dodger dog. Well,
this was you know, we were coming to Dodger Stadium
for the All Star Game. Obviously, lots of different iconic
pieces of the history there and the team, and I
(10:52):
was just really blown away by how popular the Dodger
dog is compared to every other hot dog in baseball
that you know, you think of hot dogs as being
a big seller at every stadium, and they are, but
it just the Dodger dog just blows the rest away.
Like when you look at the numbers, I mean, it's
selling more than twice as many as the next most
popular hot dog, which is a Yankee stadium. So I
(11:14):
felt like there was something to dig into their So
the Dodger dog, as you mentioned, they sell a ton
of them. It became iconic, even though hot dogs at
games have always been a big deal. So take us
through the history of it. When did the phenomenon start?
The hot dog in baseball kind of grew together in
general through the late eighteen hundreds, early and eighteen hundreds
as baseball was growing. Why don't you try a do
(11:36):
thy good hot dog? Lick it? The hot dog is,
I mean the perfect food for it. It's portable, it
has its own bread carrying case. Remarkably weird way to
describe a bun, but you know it's so you've had
this increase in popularity for the two of them together
over a long time. But then the Dodger dog, you know,
(11:59):
didn't come about into even though there were hot dogs
at epots Field when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, the
Dodger dog as a branded phenomenon didn't come until they
moved west and gone to Los Angeles. And basically what
it was was early sixties. They were looking for a
way to brand their hot dog there and the concessions
manager had thought about billing it as a foot long
(12:20):
because it was close to that, it was about ten inches,
and realized, you know, for selling a tendant chot dog
as you know, longer than the standard six inches, but
we're billing it as a foot long, like someone's going
to measure it, and someone's going to call us out,
Like we can't advertise a tenant shot dog as a
foot long, but you can't also really call it like
a ten inch or like that just sounds weird. So
(12:40):
they needed a name, and they settled on Doddery Dog.
And for oversized appetites, these extra long winers dub dodge
your dogs at the stadium and that was enough to
kind of really make it as give it a name,
a branded presence. It helped that the supplier also made
versions you could buy in the supermarket and we get home,
(13:02):
and really all of that together helped to just take off.
So they avoid the fraud of calling it a foot long.
They get the alliteration in there, which is always good
for marketing. But was there a tipping point where Dodger
dogs as we know them as locals love them here
in Los Angeles? I'm in Los Angeles. People talk about
them all the time. Was there a tipping point when
they really exploded into popularity where people want, yeah, it's
(13:26):
not just a hot dog, it's a Dodger dog. It
seems like it's kind of a self reinforcing thing, if
that makes sense, and that like you know, popular through
the sixties, seventies, early eighties as any hot dog is
at a baseball game, but really it's like the nineties
early two thousand's when it it has gotten to the
point where it has a bit of history to it
and the legacy to it that like it's something you
(13:46):
can make the pilgrimage to get that it's has built
up this like decades long reputation as a hot dog
that just as it became more popular that only helped
increase the idea that something that people should seek out.
And you know, after it had already become baseball's most
popular hot dog, it really just kept increasing the gap
(14:07):
between it and everything behind it. You mentioned that that
the Dodgers some more hot dogs than any other team.
That's an interesting record to have. I guess how many
more are we talking about? Like as it by an exponent,
it's pretty significant. They're on track for about three million
this year. Um, and if you're looking at the second
place team, that would be the Key's with one point
(14:29):
two million. Yeah, so significantly more hot dogs sold in
l A Than in New York. Okay, my question here
is how much is quality and how much is hype?
Because our Dodger dogs really as good as they're made
out to be, or they just doing a really good
(14:51):
job with marketing. I mean, I don't want to besmirch
the Dodger dog. Please feel free to besmirch. I mean,
we're reporters. I want you to do the honest accounting
of what this product is like. There are some things
that make it different. The fact that you can do
it grilled that the classic version is a work rather
than a hundred percent beef. Like, there are some things
(15:11):
that do set it apart, but for the most part,
it's a hot dog um And so I think what
you have is the power of marketing, of hype, and
then also the fact that Dodger Stadium is the biggest
stadium in baseball and they sell it out regularly. That
also helps that you just have more people there. And
then finally, also if you're looking at the other food
options available at Dodger Stadium versus especially some newer stadiums
(15:33):
that have tons of different gourmet options, not an area
that Dodger Stadium has really gotten into as much. When
you're looking at a few of other teams in the
way that they've leaned into luxury concessions and just getting
a real variety of things available at the ballpark. Yeah,
I think all of those come together fine hot dog,
but it's not necessarily anything truly special other than the
(15:56):
fact that you know that the classic grilled work option
is not what you see every were all the time.
But then you have just the number of people who
are there to get it, the other options that's competing
with not as much. And then just the kind of
runaway train effect of the hype and popularity. I mean
long before I moved to Los Angeles. I had been
out to cover the Dodgers in various series before, and
(16:19):
I had heard all the hype around the Dodger Dog.
And I can never really figure out why it was
fetishized so much out here, as opposed to say, the
Yankee Dog or the Philly Frank. Your story kind of
hints at this about how it's a massive component of
the experience of going to a Dodger game. And I
think sometimes Dodger fans l A sports fans in general
(16:39):
get dinged for not really being into the sports so
much as the experience. Is this another indictment of l
A fans that they're more about the Dodger Dogs than
Dodgers Baseball. I'm not sure you'd call it an indictment.
I think it's it's nice that they have something that
they've really like, blatched onto and made a part of
the experience. Do you still want that one of the
(17:00):
kind dog your stadium experience? Well, all you need is
Farmer John Dodger Dogs. It feels very much of a
piece of all those stereotypes. I think, yeah, I mean,
we can dunk on l A. I'm cool. I want
to I want to confess something to you. So again,
I'm from Philly, but I live in l A. And
I have been to Dodger Stadium many many times, in
(17:21):
both the personal and professional capacity. I've eaten my share
of Dodger dogs. And then they're fine. Yeah, like they're
they're okay that I think. I feel like they're overhyped
in the same way that in an out burger is
overhyped out here, which I know, like Angelina has put
your ear muffs on because you're gonna get piste off
about this because I'm criticizing in an out burger, I'm not. Really.
(17:42):
It's a fine burger, but it's not like as good
as I think Californians make it out to me. So
I'm wondering, Emma, you came out here to do the
story on the Dodger dog. What does Emma think about
the Dodger dog. I I am with you on team fine.
It's a fine hot dog, but yes, I seem fine.
I've had them in the past. But while I was
working on this story, I actually I had helmet nachos
(18:05):
one day, and I had a helmet soft serve. The next.
I did not seek out an additional Dodger dog. She's
a professional reporter and went to college specifically for this.
So how many Dodger dogs did you end up eating? Though?
I had one and I was like, just one for
the story. And they changed suppliers this year. There's a
big change up in the Dodgers line up that taint.
(18:26):
The team has now dropped the company that's made Dodgers
dogs for decades. I was trying to mentally compare it
to it had been a few years since I had one,
and I couldn't can't say I could remember the specific
taste of the last supplier. That one also was categorized
is justified hot dog in my head, all the hot
dogs one together. But yeah, it is a perfectly fine
(18:49):
hot dog. Fine hot dog. I guess that's the best
thing that we could say about it in this sentstance.
I got one more for you. This is the most
important question I'm going to ask you before we let
you go. What did you put on your Dodger dog?
Straight up mustard, no relish, nothing else. Class. This is
why we send her to do the important stories. Gang
(19:11):
read her piece about Dodger dogs on SI Dot com.
As far as we're concerned here at SI Weekly, she's
the top dog. I'm a bachelory. Thank you for this,
Thanks for listening everybody, and a reminder to please rate
and review the show. It helps people find us. Sports
Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I
(19:33):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated,
its best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This
episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri,
Jessica your Mooski, and Isaac Lee, who is also our
(19:54):
sound engineer. Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry
swart Out. Our executive producer is our Scott Brody and
me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider
and if you stuck around this song, we leave you
with this. I thought for sure the last question is
going to be is it a sandwich? You know what
I have? I have no pun intended dog in this fight.
(20:16):
I don't care about that it's a sandwich. It's not
a sandwich. I like to eat them. That's like the
extent of my caring about hot dogs component.
Before we get started, please rate and review our show
that helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, s I staffer Emma Bachelory joins me for
a delightful baseball related doubleheader. Later on in the show,
we're gonna discuss how and why Dodger Dogs became the
most iconic concession food in all of sports, and whether
(00:22):
they're as good as advertised or gasped overhyped. But first,
if you're a Major league relief pitchers sitting out in
the bullpen, there tends to be a lot of downtime,
a lot of hurry up and wait, except on those
rare occasions when the bench is clear and there's a brawl,
then all of a sudden, you have a long, long
way to go to get in on the action. Emma
talked to several relief pitchers about the long distances they
(00:44):
have to cover when a fight breaks out and the
comedy of errors that usually ensues as a result. I'm
your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. I'm a Bachelory. Welcome back
(01:06):
to Sports Illustrator Weekly. Thank you for having me. All right,
so I love a good baseball brawl. I'm a sucker
for a good fight at a baseball game. One aspect
of it, though, that I hadn't really considered, was the
focus of your latest piece. Kudas to you again for
thinking outside the box. Broad Strokes. Tell us about how
and why you started thinking about relievers sprinting in from
the bullpen when the bench is clear. So this has
(01:28):
been something I've been thinking about since I was a
little kid. Every time you see a fight, whether it's
on TV, and they eventually pan out, and you realize, like,
while these guys have been scuffling or posturing or actually
fighting around home plate, the relievers have been making this
very long jog out from the bullpen and they're just
(01:53):
gonna have to turn around when they get there. And
the same if you're watching it in person. That's always
the few time they've been at a ballpark where I
actually get to to witness it lives. It's like, just
look at them and it looks so silly, like this
idea of them just making this run out of obligation
when they know they can't do anything. And finally decided
(02:13):
it was time to to ask some relievers if they
felt the same way I did. I love that you.
I've been thinking about this since you were a kid.
Now it's in Sports illustrated. I would imagine that the
biggest impediment on this thing, aside from the fact that
it is sort of perfunctory that they have to run
out there and by the time they get out there
(02:33):
they have to turn around and go back. But if
they are going to run out there with any sort
of intent, the biggest impediment would have to be fitness. No,
they expend a lot of oxygen, right, you know, you're
talking about a d fifty yards give or take depending
on where the bullpen is. It's a pretty long way
to go if you're trying to to really sprint it
and not jog it. So by the time you're there,
(02:55):
you know, you'll probably be kind of out of breath,
especially considering like you've probably been and just sitting around
before you were called out there. You're going from just
sitting to flat out sprint. Uh. Yeah, really limits your
chances of effectiveness, even if if time and distance we're
on your side to begin with, which they're not. Yeah,
So it is a long way to go and Pirates
reliever David Bedner told you, by the time they get there,
(03:19):
it's usually broken up anyway, right, So it's just sort
of like this exercise pun intended in futility, get there
and it's already all either it's still going and it's
really bad. But usually if I tell you you have there,
it's all broken up, then he was gonna you have
walk back and talking about it. Everybody's out of breath
and every man anything. Yeah, it's really I think if
(03:44):
you want to get deep about it, like something about
like performative aspects of you know, what it means to
be a good teammate that like everyone knows this is
kind of a force that it's not going to work,
but you still have to do it. Like if you
don't go out and do it, it's going to be like, well,
you know, you don't have his back, you're not coming in.
What's the deal here? You've got to do it, but
(04:05):
everyone knows it's all for not. Also, baseball players are
not always in the best shape. So are there guys
who don't run in, or don't want to run in,
or only kind of slow jogging. I think there are
some No one wanted to really talk about it. Everyone
was like, Oh, of course I sprint out, but yeah,
(04:25):
I can see why you would not want to. It's
I'm sure there there are some, even if I couldn't
get any on the record. Your investigation of this was
just delightful. There were some very funny exchanges that you
had with some of these relievers, including Blue Jay's reliever
Jordan Romano, who told you that there are other issues here.
The only thing is it's like you've been sitting a
while and then you've got a full sprint, so like
(04:47):
you're just worried about like your handies, like hopefully one
doesn't glow. If you're going from just sitting to sprinting,
it's a real concern and stretch. You gotta stretch it
out first, exactly. I heard a story from multiple people
about one reliever who wears glasses who had taken his
(05:09):
bosses off to apply some sunscreen when a fight broke
out and ran out there without his glasses on because
he was in such a hurry and then couldn't see anything.
So in addition to the are you stretching question, it's
do you have your glasses on? Is another one for
some people. If you don't have your glasses on. You
might not run to the right spot for the brawl.
You might hit the wrong guy if you throw a punch.
(05:31):
That's no good, right, It's real, real factors to worry
about here. Yeah, these are all things you have to
think about other potential problems. You talk to White Sox
reliever Liam Hendrix, he mentioned some concerns about jumping over
a fence. Yes, apparently he's done this, they said at
least three or four times. We had one in Minnesota.
I just jumped the fence in the bullpens then, and
(05:52):
it was a lot bow down than I thought, and
he has gotten in trouble for it. I'm not supposed
to jump to fence, No, I don't think it's what
a trainer would want. I like that he was. He's
just trying to cut down the travel time hopping over
the fence instead of going around it. I would imagine also, Emma,
that there are some guys who are faster than others.
So do you know, have you identified who the best
(06:14):
sprinter is out of the bullpen? Won a fight happens?
Maybe that's the next step is watching some film to
see if I can figure out who the who the
fastest guy is the one that didn't make it in here.
But who I did talk to you was Devin Williams
the Brewers, who was pretty proud of his speed and
felt like he usually made a pretty good impression on
how fast he got out there. But I didn't go
(06:34):
back and watch enough to really compare myself, so I'll
often fact check anecdotally. Who would you guess, aside from Devon,
if you say, you know what, I would guess, he's
pretty fed, he's pretty fast. That's a good question. I
feel like not so much on fitness, but on passion
and energy. Joe Kelly is standing out to me in
(06:55):
my head right now. This is what use would just
looking out and Kelly's looking at Kelly says, okay, come on,
so he can Kelly's sides wipe them, got a little
punch in, Benny got back up, and he got taken down.
(07:15):
There have been a few that he's been right in
the middle of I feel like he has the the
adrenaline and the drive, even if it's not like the
best natural fitness, to make sure that he's out there
pretty quickly. Adrenaline and drive is good, especially when applied
to relievers because they tend to be a little quirky.
So if you got to get some of those guys
who are a little bit more keyed up and worked
(07:37):
up and see them running out there, it is a
code you do have to go out there. But some
of them are going through the motions of running out
there and pretending like they're actually gonna get into this fight.
Who's not a fighter? Because Hendrick says he can't fight
at all, and he's just out there for moral support, right, yes,
which I appreciated that, you know, it needs to own
(07:58):
up to it into another one. I was Jorge Lopez
of the Orioles. The tail just gave him a work there.
I don't know what he said, if he said something.
Now he's staring him down and they're still yelling from
the Baltimore bench. The bullpens are spilling out as well,
(08:19):
saying that he always likes to think he's going out
there to help break it up, that he's like his
mission is not you know, like how can I get
in there? But how can I make it stop? The peacemaker?
Yeah exactly, And he still doesn't get there in time.
So what about are there guys who can actually scrap
This is you know, I'm dating myself here, but back
in the day, you know, Rob Dibble was a guy
(08:40):
who liked to get into a baseball brawl. John Rocker,
I would guess when he's not like busy cheering on
the January six insurrection would be a guy who would
like to get into a scrap. Other guys now of
the current era where you go, yeah, that's somebody who
would like to get into one, and somebody maybe you
wouldn't want to mess with. No one really wanted to
call anyone else out for it, I think, both because
(09:02):
you know, like it's probably not gonna happen for you,
and also it just a true brawls are so few
and far between nowadays. I don't know if that's a
higher emotional intelligence that we have going on here or
just like a recognition of the risks that were being
pretty silly in so many cases. But yeah, like no
one really had any examples of like, oh yeah, and
(09:25):
I was in the bullpen with this guy who wanted
it um Instead, just a lot of ruminations on the
run itself because they didn't have much to say about
what would happen if you actually got there. The run
itself You've been thinking about this since you were nine
years old. You finally reported it. It is an excellent piece,
very funny reader story on relievers who rumble on SI
(09:46):
dot com. She's one of the first people we'd want
running out of the bullpen to have our back. I'm
a Bachelori. Thank you for this. After the break, Emma
and I get into all things Dodger dogs, including whether
they live up to the hype. I'm a Bachelari. Welcome
(10:10):
back to Sports Illustrative Weekly. Thank you for having me.
Always excited to have you on the show. You you
write about generally some peculiar topics. Uh, this one near
and dear to my heart. You wrote recently about baseball
and hot dogs, which have this symbiotic relationship. But you
didn't just write about any hot dogs. You wrote about
Dodger dogs. The story builds it as not just an
(10:31):
optional add on to the Dodger Stadium experience. It is
the experience. This feels personal for you. Tell us about
how and why you wanted to write about the Dodger dog. Well,
this was you know, we were coming to Dodger Stadium
for the All Star Game. Obviously, lots of different iconic
pieces of the history there and the team, and I
(10:52):
was just really blown away by how popular the Dodger
dog is compared to every other hot dog in baseball
that you know, you think of hot dogs as being
a big seller at every stadium, and they are, but
it just the Dodger dog just blows the rest away.
Like when you look at the numbers, I mean, it's
selling more than twice as many as the next most
popular hot dog, which is a Yankee stadium. So I
(11:14):
felt like there was something to dig into their So
the Dodger dog, as you mentioned, they sell a ton
of them. It became iconic, even though hot dogs at
games have always been a big deal. So take us
through the history of it. When did the phenomenon start?
The hot dog in baseball kind of grew together in
general through the late eighteen hundreds, early and eighteen hundreds
as baseball was growing. Why don't you try a do
(11:36):
thy good hot dog? Lick it? The hot dog is,
I mean the perfect food for it. It's portable, it
has its own bread carrying case. Remarkably weird way to
describe a bun, but you know it's so you've had
this increase in popularity for the two of them together
over a long time. But then the Dodger dog, you know,
(11:59):
didn't come about into even though there were hot dogs
at epots Field when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, the
Dodger dog as a branded phenomenon didn't come until they
moved west and gone to Los Angeles. And basically what
it was was early sixties. They were looking for a
way to brand their hot dog there and the concessions
manager had thought about billing it as a foot long
(12:20):
because it was close to that, it was about ten inches,
and realized, you know, for selling a tendant chot dog
as you know, longer than the standard six inches, but
we're billing it as a foot long, like someone's going
to measure it, and someone's going to call us out,
Like we can't advertise a tenant shot dog as a
foot long, but you can't also really call it like
a ten inch or like that just sounds weird. So
(12:40):
they needed a name, and they settled on Doddery Dog.
And for oversized appetites, these extra long winers dub dodge
your dogs at the stadium and that was enough to
kind of really make it as give it a name,
a branded presence. It helped that the supplier also made
versions you could buy in the supermarket and we get home,
(13:02):
and really all of that together helped to just take off.
So they avoid the fraud of calling it a foot long.
They get the alliteration in there, which is always good
for marketing. But was there a tipping point where Dodger
dogs as we know them as locals love them here
in Los Angeles? I'm in Los Angeles. People talk about
them all the time. Was there a tipping point when
they really exploded into popularity where people want, yeah, it's
(13:26):
not just a hot dog, it's a Dodger dog. It
seems like it's kind of a self reinforcing thing, if
that makes sense, and that like you know, popular through
the sixties, seventies, early eighties as any hot dog is
at a baseball game, but really it's like the nineties
early two thousand's when it it has gotten to the
point where it has a bit of history to it
and the legacy to it that like it's something you
(13:46):
can make the pilgrimage to get that it's has built
up this like decades long reputation as a hot dog
that just as it became more popular that only helped
increase the idea that something that people should seek out.
And you know, after it had already become baseball's most
popular hot dog, it really just kept increasing the gap
(14:07):
between it and everything behind it. You mentioned that that
the Dodgers some more hot dogs than any other team.
That's an interesting record to have. I guess how many
more are we talking about? Like as it by an exponent,
it's pretty significant. They're on track for about three million
this year. Um, and if you're looking at the second
place team, that would be the Key's with one point
(14:29):
two million. Yeah, so significantly more hot dogs sold in
l A Than in New York. Okay, my question here
is how much is quality and how much is hype?
Because our Dodger dogs really as good as they're made
out to be, or they just doing a really good
(14:51):
job with marketing. I mean, I don't want to besmirch
the Dodger dog. Please feel free to besmirch. I mean,
we're reporters. I want you to do the honest accounting
of what this product is like. There are some things
that make it different. The fact that you can do
it grilled that the classic version is a work rather
than a hundred percent beef. Like, there are some things
(15:11):
that do set it apart, but for the most part,
it's a hot dog um And so I think what
you have is the power of marketing, of hype, and
then also the fact that Dodger Stadium is the biggest
stadium in baseball and they sell it out regularly. That
also helps that you just have more people there. And
then finally, also if you're looking at the other food
options available at Dodger Stadium versus especially some newer stadiums
(15:33):
that have tons of different gourmet options, not an area
that Dodger Stadium has really gotten into as much. When
you're looking at a few of other teams in the
way that they've leaned into luxury concessions and just getting
a real variety of things available at the ballpark. Yeah,
I think all of those come together fine hot dog,
but it's not necessarily anything truly special other than the
(15:56):
fact that you know that the classic grilled work option
is not what you see every were all the time.
But then you have just the number of people who
are there to get it, the other options that's competing
with not as much. And then just the kind of
runaway train effect of the hype and popularity. I mean
long before I moved to Los Angeles. I had been
out to cover the Dodgers in various series before, and
(16:19):
I had heard all the hype around the Dodger Dog.
And I can never really figure out why it was
fetishized so much out here, as opposed to say, the
Yankee Dog or the Philly Frank. Your story kind of
hints at this about how it's a massive component of
the experience of going to a Dodger game. And I
think sometimes Dodger fans l A sports fans in general
(16:39):
get dinged for not really being into the sports so
much as the experience. Is this another indictment of l
A fans that they're more about the Dodger Dogs than
Dodgers Baseball. I'm not sure you'd call it an indictment.
I think it's it's nice that they have something that
they've really like, blatched onto and made a part of
the experience. Do you still want that one of the
(17:00):
kind dog your stadium experience? Well, all you need is
Farmer John Dodger Dogs. It feels very much of a
piece of all those stereotypes. I think, yeah, I mean,
we can dunk on l A. I'm cool. I want
to I want to confess something to you. So again,
I'm from Philly, but I live in l A. And
I have been to Dodger Stadium many many times, in
(17:21):
both the personal and professional capacity. I've eaten my share
of Dodger dogs. And then they're fine. Yeah, like they're
they're okay that I think. I feel like they're overhyped
in the same way that in an out burger is
overhyped out here, which I know, like Angelina has put
your ear muffs on because you're gonna get piste off
about this because I'm criticizing in an out burger, I'm not. Really.
(17:42):
It's a fine burger, but it's not like as good
as I think Californians make it out to me. So
I'm wondering, Emma, you came out here to do the
story on the Dodger dog. What does Emma think about
the Dodger dog. I I am with you on team fine.
It's a fine hot dog, but yes, I seem fine.
I've had them in the past. But while I was
working on this story, I actually I had helmet nachos
(18:05):
one day, and I had a helmet soft serve. The next.
I did not seek out an additional Dodger dog. She's
a professional reporter and went to college specifically for this.
So how many Dodger dogs did you end up eating? Though?
I had one and I was like, just one for
the story. And they changed suppliers this year. There's a
big change up in the Dodgers line up that taint.
(18:26):
The team has now dropped the company that's made Dodgers
dogs for decades. I was trying to mentally compare it
to it had been a few years since I had one,
and I couldn't can't say I could remember the specific
taste of the last supplier. That one also was categorized
is justified hot dog in my head, all the hot
dogs one together. But yeah, it is a perfectly fine
(18:49):
hot dog. Fine hot dog. I guess that's the best
thing that we could say about it in this sentstance.
I got one more for you. This is the most
important question I'm going to ask you before we let
you go. What did you put on your Dodger dog?
Straight up mustard, no relish, nothing else. Class. This is
why we send her to do the important stories. Gang
(19:11):
read her piece about Dodger dogs on SI Dot com.
As far as we're concerned here at SI Weekly, she's
the top dog. I'm a bachelory. Thank you for this,
Thanks for listening everybody, and a reminder to please rate
and review the show. It helps people find us. Sports
Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I
(19:33):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated,
its best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This
episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri,
Jessica your Mooski, and Isaac Lee, who is also our
(19:54):
sound engineer. Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry
swart Out. Our executive producer is our Scott Brody and
me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider
and if you stuck around this song, we leave you
with this. I thought for sure the last question is
going to be is it a sandwich? You know what
I have? I have no pun intended dog in this fight.
(20:16):
I don't care about that it's a sandwich. It's not
a sandwich. I like to eat them. That's like the
extent of my caring about hot dogs component.
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