The Tradition Of Hot Dogs At Baseball Games Isn't As American As We Thought

When you think of baseball, America's pastime, what food comes to mind? We doubt it's peanuts and Cracker Jacks. Hot dogs are the quintessential baseball meal. Even the players can't resist them. In 1968, Detroit Tigers outfielder Gates Brown secretly stashed two hot dogs in his jersey for a dugout snack, then slid into second base and got mustard all over himself. Babe Ruth once slammed a dozen hot dogs and drank eight bottles of soda between the two games of a double header. Then, he went out and crushed three grand slams. Just kidding; he actually got a severe case of indigestion and had to go to the hospital. 

The point is, hot dogs and baseball are inseparable. Their union is as American as apple pie, right? Not quite. Hot dogs were actually introduced to baseball by one of two European immigrants. 

There were no ballpark hot dogs in the early decades of baseball. In fact, there were no concessions at all. Fans had to bring their own food to the games if they wanted something to munch on. These were typically sandwiches, establishing handheld foods as a ballpark must. Historians are torn on which of the two European immigrants deserves the credit for the quintessential baseball food, so let's meet the contenders.

Candidate number one is Chris Von der Ahe, a pioneer of the modern ballpark experience. Von der Ahe was born in Hille, Germany in either 1850 or 1851 (sources differ) and immigrated to the United States sometime in his late teens. He ultimately settled in St. Louis, where he opened a saloon near a baseball field that hosted amateur competitions. Many of the fans would stop by Von der Ahe's establishment after games, and the German quickly came to recognize that baseball's popularity presented great financial opportunities. As luck would have it, his proximity to the ballpark led him to meet Alfred Spink, a journalist who wanted to start a professional team in St. Louis. Spink asked Von der Ahe to help him sell stock in the franchise, and sure enough, Von der Ahe sold it — to himself.

Von der Ahe was now the majority owner of the newly-formed St. Louis Browns, although he knew next to nothing about baseball. At the grand opening of the newly-renovated ballpark in 1882, he proudly declared it had the largest diamond in the world, not realizing that all baseball diamonds are the same size. However, Von der Ahe was a sharp businessman, attracting a broader fanbase by adding novelty attractions to the ballpark, including sideshows and a water slide. He also pioneered ballpark concessions, and, being a German sausage lover, frankfurters were an obvious choice. However, not everyone agrees that Van der Ahe sold hot dogs at his stadium.

Many baseball historians credit London native Harry M. Stevens for introducing hot dogs to baseball. Stevens fell in love with the game of baseball, becoming one of the earliest stat-obsessed fans. This led him to devise a new type of scorecard that spectators could use to track player performances, and he sold them in the same way many modern concessionaires do: by walking up and down the aisles and shouting at the top of his lungs. Stevens ultimately earned a concession contract from an enterprising ballpark owner in St. Louis whose name was, you guessed it, Chris Von der Ahe. Stevens came to realize he could make more money selling food, and he traveled from ballpark to ballpark offering snacks and beverages.

There's a fun piece of lore surrounding Henry Stevens. He originally sold ice cream until he found himself at New York's famous Polo Grounds on an unusually chilly afternoon in 1901. Realizing the fans needed a hot meal, he ran out and grabbed a heap of sausages. Some say that Stevens's concession business is responsible for the name "hot dog." They were originally known as "dachshund sausages," and when a New York cartoonist named Tad Dorgan attended a game, he drew a picture of a wiener dog in a bun. However, he couldn't spell "dachshund," so he called it a hot dog. The trouble is, no record of this cartoon exists, and dachshund sausages had been referred to as hot dogs in publications as early as the 1890s. Name aside, baseball fans can thank either Von der Ahe or Stevens for making hot dogs a ballpark staple.