BATTER UP!

[2jakes]

(To be fair, if you get a weenie under the stands, it comes off a roller grill. Only the roving vendors still have the steam boxes.)

Roller grill are L7 weenies!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

So are you a collector of old baseball equipment? I have a few old gloves that I've managed to get my hands on, but not a serious collector or anything. I really love old equipment, especially the gloves. I'm not much of a collector of things, but that's one thing I can see myself getting in to.

Not really...I've just picked up vintage baseball stuff through the years as I've found it; I have about 10 gloves, between 1930s and 1960s.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

 

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

View attachment 83926
View attachment 83926

View attachment 83927
View attachment 83928

Good stuff, this!

Rob

 

[2jakes]

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 83926

Using a few internet inflation calculators, $5.5 in 1919 translates into anywhere from $77 to $140 today (I'd bet the high number is closer to reality).

Purely for curiosity sake, I did an internet search and face value for box seats for last year's World Series was ~$450.

Hence, World Series tickets have greatly outstripped inflation - no shock there.

It's probably even worse if one could compare the scalped prices.

 

[2jakes]

Using a few internet inflation calculators, $5.5 in 1919 translates into anywhere from $77 to $140 today (I'd bet the high number is closer to reality).

Purely for curiosity sake, I did an internet search and face value for box seats for last year's World Series was ~$450.

Hence, World Series tickets have greatly outstripped inflation - no shock there.

It's probably even worse if one could compare the scalped prices.

Circa 1906. Carts selling frankfurters in New York City. The price is listed as "3 cents each or 2 for 5 cents".

Unknown date:

What are hot dogs selling for today at the ball park?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The basic, standard Kayem Fenway Frank at Fenway Park is $5.25. You can finish it in three bites.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ - re the last two posts

Using the internet inflation calculators, 3 cents in 1906 is about 75-80 cents today.

So, it appears, hotdog pricing outstripped inflation even more than ticket pricing did.

 

[2jakes]

The basic, standard Kayem Fenway Frank at Fenway Park is $5.25. You can finish it in three bites.

"For dinner: two porterhouse steaks, a double order of head lettuce with Roquefort dressing,
a double order of cottage-fried potatoes, a double order of apple pie a la mode.
First snack at Coney Island: four hotdogs, four bottles of Coca~Cola.
Second snack at Coney Island: the same.
Late snack: same as dinner. All in five or six hours."


“In 1925 I had to go to the hospital after eating 18 hotdogs and blacking
out on the train."

 

[2jakes]

The basic, standard Kayem Fenway Frank at Fenway Park is $5.25. You can finish it in three bites.

Would be nice to compare the taste of hotdogs from both time periods.

I know that the corn in the produce grocery section sold today is super
sweet tasting. Like eating candy.
That’s not the way I remember the taste of the corn-on-the-cob from long
ago.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hot dogs today are actually far more sanitary and wholesome than those of a century ago. Pre-Pure Food laws, anything went for sausage -- sawdust, abattoir floor sweepings, gristle, blood, you name it. Hot dogs had a poisonous reputation in the early years of the 20th century as an adulterated, substandard food, and many people avoided them even into the 1920s for just that reason. The proprietors of the Nathan's stand at Coney Island went so far as to hire pitchmen to dress up in surgeon's smocks and eat hot dogs on the street so the public would think they were "doctor approved."

The story of Babe Ruth's 1925 collapse went down in history as the "Big Belly Ache," but that was, alas, a sanitized story created by the media. In reality, the Big Fellow's problem was a few inches below the belly -- he had a severe case of gonorrhea.

 

[2jakes]

The story of Babe Ruth's 1925 collapse went down in history as the "Big Belly Ache," but that was, alas, a sanitized story created by the media. In reality, the Big Fellow's problem was a few inches below the belly -- he had a severe case of gonorrhea.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hot dogs today are actually far more sanitary and wholesome than those of a century ago. Pre-Pure Food laws, anything went for sausage -- sawdust, abattoir floor sweepings, gristle, blood, you name it. Hot dogs had a poisonous reputation in the early years of the 20th century as an adulterated, substandard food, and many people avoided them even into the 1920s for just that reason. The proprietors of the Nathan's stand at Coney Island went so far as to hire pitchmen to dress up in surgeon's smocks and eat hot dogs on the street so the public would think they were "doctor approved."

The story of Babe Ruth's 1925 collapse went down in history as the "Big Belly Ache," but that was, alas, a sanitized story created by the media. In reality, the Big Fellow's problem was a few inches below the belly -- he had a severe case of gonorrhea.

Even as a libertarian, I have no problem with food safety regulations (a legitimate function of gov't is to prevent people from poisoning each other and if food safety standards are needed to do that, as suing after you're dead is unrewarding, then I'm all for it), but doubt they alone account for (nor do I think you are saying that it does either) a hotdog going from 3 cents (inflation adjusted 80 cents) $5.25. Methinks it has more to do with the "upscaling" and "up-pricing" of baseball / professional sports.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Very much so -- concessions at a ballpark are no different from concessions at a theatre in that respect.

Prices had gone up quite a bit by mid-century. If you went to see the Athletics or Phillies at Shibe Park in 1954, here's what you'd pay:

For comparison, the retail price of a bottled Coke in most of the US in 1954 was still five cents. So even then, the markup was substantial.