So, as long as the Dodgers are out here embarassing themselves in this NLCS, I guess now's as good a time as any to mourn the death of the Dodger Dog.
Once upon a time, the Dodger Dog was the ballpark hot dog to end all ballpark hot dog. Find yourself a grilled Super Dodger Dog (which is the beef version, as opposed to the normal pork version) and you've discovered ballpark perfection. It's the Farmer John that Vin Scully used to wax poetic about, talking about its juicy insides, its soft texture, and whirlwind of flavor.
Then the Dodgers ended their decades-long deal with Farmer John and it's all gone to hell ever since.
The new Dodger Dog is made by local meat processor Papa Cantella's. I gave it a chance. How bad could a new hot dog be? Well, I gave it three changes.
First chance came when I attended the Dodgers' Reopening Day. Unfortunately, that night, I underestimated how busy the stadium traffic would be and wasn't able to get into the park until around the 5th inning. By then, most stands were sold out, but by the time I did find a hot dog, I tried it... and I hated it. A bland piece of meat with no real juiciness. Of course, I didn't realize that by grabbing the first dog I could find, I wound up with a pork dog.
So the next time I went to Dodger Stadium, I grabbed the Super Dodger Dog. The beef dog had to be better right? Well, no. There was a thickness that wasn't there before, like a snap that comes with the dog's outer lining. It tasted terrible and I hated it.
Last time came with the NL Wild Card game, where it hit me, "I need to hunt down the grilled Super Dodger Dog." It took me a minute, but I eventually moved on down to the Field level, where I was able to find the grilled dogs. And the result was... ok. That hard outer lining was still there, so I had to adjust to that. The taste was slightly juicier, but it didn't have that lingering meaty juiciness that the old hot dog had. It just wasn't the same.
So as the Dodgers wrap up their postseason, it's a good time to say RIP the Dodger Dog. There will never be another like it again.
