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