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Every dog has its last day

This weekend is the last for the regular Major League Baseball season, and that means no ballpark franks for awhile. Jeremy Hobson reports on how the national passtime is a crucial sales time for the hot dog industry.

TEXT OF STORY

Lisa Napoli: It’s the last weekend of the regular season for Major League Baseball. And that may be bad news for diehard fans, but Jeremy Hobson says it’s worse news for another sector of the economy.


Jeremy Hobson: The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council claims baseball stadiums sell enough hot dogs over the course of the season to reach across the country. From Fenway Franks to Dodger Dogs, about 30 million are sold each year.

Janet Riley is the council’s president:

Janet Riley: When you consider how many baseball games are played in a season, how large those stadiums are, and the fact that it’s summertime, baseball season is the number one sports season for hot-dog consumption.

But these days, Riley says, the market has a teeny-weeny problem: the California roll. Hot dogs now compete with sushi, burritos — even ribs.

Riley says franks are still top dog.

Riley: The only place that bucks that trend is Milwaukee, and there, they eat more brats than they do hot dogs. But that’s OK with us.

No word from Pittsburgh on how the end of baseball season will affect the pierogi industry.

In Washington, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.

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