AI Summary: This article dives into the world of hot dog vendors at baseball stadiums, sharing stories, history, and the unique culture that surrounds these iconic ballpark figures. Discover legendary vendors, humorous anecdotes, and the important role they play in the baseball experience. Perfect for fans of baseball nostalgia and stadium culture.
I was having a conversation with my old friend “Buddy Feldman” recently, just shooting the breeze on a Friday morning. This post about hot dog vendors is the result of that chat.
A Hot Dog Vendor on Johnny Carson
I told him that I caught the end of Johnny Carson last night. (One of the “rerun channels” shows old Tonight Show episodes six days a week.) Johnny had some dude on who sold hot dogs in the stands at ball games. Here is a highlight:
“I don’t normally go into the bleachers, but one time I did. A man asked me how many dogs my cooler held. I told him 50. He gave me two $100 bills and said, “Give a dog to everyone!”
No idea what made the hot dog vendor so special, but at the end of the show he went into The Tonight Show studio audience and tossed dogs into the crowd during the credits.
Feldman made a great point that the vendor would have to climb the stairs to get his money anyway, so “the tossing of the dog” was all marketing, selling the sizzle.
Feldman continued: “Imagine how heavy that fucking can was? Full of dogs, buns, condiments, napkins, and water to keep it all warm?”
“And the vendor was lugging that massive load up and down stairs all game long, basically for tips,” I added.
It was incredibly hard work, and yet he could sing and toss weenies with pinpoint accuracy
The discussion Feldman and I were having turned to dark comedy. Baseball parks could be dark and dangerous in those days.
A Hot Dog Vendor Gets Robbed at Yankee Stadium – A short work of fiction
Hot dog vendors might even be in jeopardy of being mugged in corridors as they made their way back and forth between the stands and hot dog cookeries.
Imagine a scene out of an old B&W gangster film. A petty crook pushes the tip of a bat into the back of the vendor, giving the impression that the bat is really a rod.
“Clam up and gimme all your dogs, sonny boy!”
After the game is over and the peanut shells have been swept up, the young empresario decides that he “is mad as hell, and not going to take this anymore” and goes to the police.
“I heard someone walking behind me in cleats. It sounded like police on horseback walking down a cobblestone street, so I got my back up. Next thing you know, my dogs are gone and so is my coin. Three innings gone, just like that.”
Before you know it, our hot dog hero is looking at a police lineup, being asked to identify the hoodlum. Behind a one-way mirror, he sees five men, all wearing pinstripes:
- Babe Ruth
- Billy Martin
- Mickey Mantle
- Yogi Berra
- Reggie Jackson
Naturally, Reggie gets framed for the hot dog heist and would trade in his pinstripes for prison stripes:
Systemic racism is real, baseball fans.
Hot Dog Vendors have tossed countless Reggie Bars over the years
Before Reggie Jackson became a Yankee, he joked that if he played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after him. Then Reggie become a Yankee, hit 3 home runs off of 3 consecutive pitches in the 1977 World Series, and they DID name a candy bar after him.
Tommy E. Walton: America’s Hot Dog Vendor
I did some research, and the episode of The Tonight Show I watched originally aired Aug 1, 1986. Johnny’s guests were Charles Grodin/Dom Irrera/Tommy Walton.
Tommy Walton was the name of the hot dog vendor I “met” through Johnny Carson, and he led an remarkable life.
At the park, Tommy would sing blues and gospel while selling dogs, mixing up Take Me Out to the Ballgame with He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands. He’d also work the crowd with one-liners such as:
“Don’t be a meanie, buy your kids a weenie.”
On the Carson show, Tommy gave a sampling of his schtick, to which Johnny remarked, “You know, you may have invented rap!”
That must have been Johnny’s nod to Tommy Walton’s “side project” as a singer. Walton sang on the same bills as Sam Cooke, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry.
Tommy bragged of once selling 38,000 hot dogs in six days, coming a long way from selling vegetables with his father on a mule-drawn wagon during the Great Depression.
Walton served seven years in the US Army, fought in Korea, and won the 1994 Florida Folk Heritage Award.
RIP Tommy Walton. It was a pleasure to meet you posthumously. I wish I had had the opportunity to buy a hot dog from you at the park!
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