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Columbus sports fans have filled stadiums for all-star contests, playoff matchups, championship clashes and 59 versions The Game at Ohio Stadium.
But about 12 times a season for the past 49 summers, the city has turned away from the likes of Derek Jeter, José Ramirez, Francisco Lindor and other future Major League Baseball stars who've worn a Columbus Clippers uniform as people have stood in line for cheap hot dogs.
Dime-A-Dog Night, a Clippers tradition since professional baseball returned to town in 1977, is as popular as ever. It's responsible for the team's three biggest crowds of 2025, each beyond Huntington Park's 10,100-seat capacity.
The next one is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Aug. 5 at Huntington Park, when the Clippers play the... does it really matter who they play?
"It was initially referred to in the first few seasons as '10 Cent Hot Dog Night,'" said Ken Schnacke, who started working for the Clippers in their first season and will retire in 2026 as the team's president emeritus.
"After we did it a few seasons, the alliteration of Dime-A-Dog just seemed more logical."
Dime-A-Dog dates: Here's the remaining 2025 schedule for Columbus Clippers hot dog promos
If you've stood in line during Dime-A-Dog Night, you know the drill. Ten cents each, a limit of five per person per trip to the counter. Beer and soda, peanuts and Cracker Jack are still full price.
You've got to pass the time waiting somehow, and I started wondering how they pull it all off. So, despite exactly one day's food-service experience at Tex Critter's Pizza Jamboree back in 1982, the Clippers allowed me to work on the other side of the Dime-A-Dog lines for one night, July 22.
Here's my two cents worth on the experience.
"I don't know why I keep doing Dime-A-Dog," Kecia Bullock said as we stood in place behind a stainless-steel counter at LouSeal & Krash's Cuisine — yes, cuisine — beyond Huntington Park's left-field stands.
A hot summer night in a cramped concession stand with a sputtering pop machine and a clueless newspaper writer will make you question your choice of volunteer work. But Bullock and others from Parents of Active Youth work at concession stands for the Clippers, Blue Jackets, Crew and Buckeyes to raise money for youth sports participants and teams.
By 6:05 p.m., we were ready for the gates to open, a full hour before starting pitcher Austin Peterson took the mound against the Buffalo Bison.
Four warming ovens were filled with cooked hot dogs, buns and hot dogs in buns in wrappers. A two-person assembly line finished off more.
If it were a summer cookout, the host would have stood back, admired his party-planning abilities and anticipated the party to come. That's what I did as I surveyed others' work.
A record-scratch of a comment jolted me back to reality.
"These will all be gone in a few minutes," someone told me.
The gates opened.
Heather Reynolds, concessions manager for Levy Restaurants, said her staff at Huntington Park starts preparing hot dogs as early as 4 p.m. on Dime-A-Dog days. This year's dogs are the house brand from Gordon Food Service, made of beef, turkey and pork. Buns come from Klosterman Baking Co., which has three bakeries in Ohio and a distribution center in Columbus.
And yes, Reynolds said, even at Dime-A-Dog Night volumes, hot dogs and buns still don't come packaged in the same numbers.
Dime-A-Dog hot dogs are boiled in Huntington Park kitchens and taken to four concession stands: two LouSeal & Krash counters, another behind the seats along the first-base line and another on the third-base side. "Bunning and bagging," as it's called, starts about 45 minutes before the gates open.
Anywhere from 2,000 to 12,000 hot dogs are cooked, bunned and bagged by the time fans start entering the ballpark, Reynolds said. It all depends on the weather and expected attendance.
I was put on pop and beer duty, which seemed safe enough for all involved. It gave me a good perch at the counter, and I didn't have to do math or handle money, neither of which is a strong suit.
Few bought pop and beer as the first fans reached the counter. Marketing isn't a strong suit, either, but I do know that 10-cent hot dogs are what they call a loss leader. You might get a hot dog for a dime, but you're still paying $10.25 for a large Michelob or Bud Light.
After 49 years, I wondered if Clippers fans were finally onto this whole gimmick? No, I was told. They'll get thirsty after a few hot dogs.
Genius.
And selfishly, it meant I had time to get the hang of pouring a beer with less than four inches of foam. It also meant that by crunch time, I needed to stop acting like I was getting a pop for myself at McDonald's. No more repeated quick taps on the dispenser to fill every cup to the brim.
The lines kept getting longer, and the advance hot-dog supply was dwindling. The bunning-and-bagging duo in the back was working at a fast clip. The dogs really did go quickly, I thought. We must be in the third inning by now.
I caught a corner of the scoreboard. It was still 18 minutes before the start of the game.
You're getting a good deal on Dime-A-Dog Night, but then again, you already knew that. Each 10-cent hot dog sold by the Clippers this summer costs 54 cents to make, Reynolds said. Hot dogs sold at home games every other night of the week range from $2 for a junior dog to $6.50 for all-beef.
According to an inflation calculator maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a hot dog that costs 10 cents during the first Dime-A-Dog Night in May 1977 would cost 53 cents now if its price had kept up with inflation.
"We had established this as a break-even idea back when we started," Schnacke said. "There was a season when I tried to acknowledge inflation, and we called it Two-Bit (25-cent) Dog Night. That one almost got me run out of town."
Taste test: Pinch some pennies for your summer cookout: Cheap hot dogs are actually pretty good
He has never considered a price increase since. Team spokesman Chris Sprague said Schnacke's successor as team president, Tyler Parsons, "has absolutely no plans to change the tradition of Dime-A-Dogs," either.
Buffalo led, 1-0, on the field after four innings. But three friends were locked in another competition in my part of Huntington Park.
Andrew Belgen, of Gahanna, and his friends, Danielle and Shawn Geckle, of Richwood in Union County, decided to test their endurance with a game that's making the rounds this season online. It's called the 9-9-9 Challenge, in which people take in nine innings of baseball, eat nine hot dogs and drink nine beers.
"Dime-A-Dog Night seemed like a good time to try it," Danielle said.
Hot dogs were running low, and the folks in back added a third person to help supply bunned dogs to the volunteers at the registers. We were beyond bagging at that point. Truth be told, it looked as if we were beyond fully cooking the hot dogs at that point, too.
I heard no complaints, though. Something kept Dime-A-Dog fans remarkably jovial and patient, and I don't think it was beer. No one seemed overly inebriated, either.
Final score: Buffalo 3, Columbus 1, Belgen 9, Danielle Geckle 8, Shawn Geckle 6.
Like the Clippers, Shawn Geckle fell short. He got the beers down — all three did — but the hot-dog challenge proved too daunting.
"I mean, I kind of feel like crap," he said.
Dime-A-Dog Night drew 10,291 fans to Huntington Park on July 22. They bought 17,942 hot dogs, a modest total of 1.7 per person.
I hadn't sat down in four hours. My feet hurt. My back ached. I was hungry. I contributed nothing to that hot-dog total.
I stopped at Wendy's on the way home. "I appreciate you," I told the woman who handed me my food.
And I never meant it more.
Dining reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at [email protected] or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Behind the scenes at Dime-A-Dog Night with the Columbus Clippers
Continue reading...
But about 12 times a season for the past 49 summers, the city has turned away from the likes of Derek Jeter, José Ramirez, Francisco Lindor and other future Major League Baseball stars who've worn a Columbus Clippers uniform as people have stood in line for cheap hot dogs.
Dime-A-Dog Night, a Clippers tradition since professional baseball returned to town in 1977, is as popular as ever. It's responsible for the team's three biggest crowds of 2025, each beyond Huntington Park's 10,100-seat capacity.
The next one is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Aug. 5 at Huntington Park, when the Clippers play the... does it really matter who they play?
"It was initially referred to in the first few seasons as '10 Cent Hot Dog Night,'" said Ken Schnacke, who started working for the Clippers in their first season and will retire in 2026 as the team's president emeritus.
"After we did it a few seasons, the alliteration of Dime-A-Dog just seemed more logical."
Dime-A-Dog dates: Here's the remaining 2025 schedule for Columbus Clippers hot dog promos
If you've stood in line during Dime-A-Dog Night, you know the drill. Ten cents each, a limit of five per person per trip to the counter. Beer and soda, peanuts and Cracker Jack are still full price.
You've got to pass the time waiting somehow, and I started wondering how they pull it all off. So, despite exactly one day's food-service experience at Tex Critter's Pizza Jamboree back in 1982, the Clippers allowed me to work on the other side of the Dime-A-Dog lines for one night, July 22.
Here's my two cents worth on the experience.
Getting ready for the onslaught
"I don't know why I keep doing Dime-A-Dog," Kecia Bullock said as we stood in place behind a stainless-steel counter at LouSeal & Krash's Cuisine — yes, cuisine — beyond Huntington Park's left-field stands.
A hot summer night in a cramped concession stand with a sputtering pop machine and a clueless newspaper writer will make you question your choice of volunteer work. But Bullock and others from Parents of Active Youth work at concession stands for the Clippers, Blue Jackets, Crew and Buckeyes to raise money for youth sports participants and teams.
By 6:05 p.m., we were ready for the gates to open, a full hour before starting pitcher Austin Peterson took the mound against the Buffalo Bison.
Four warming ovens were filled with cooked hot dogs, buns and hot dogs in buns in wrappers. A two-person assembly line finished off more.
If it were a summer cookout, the host would have stood back, admired his party-planning abilities and anticipated the party to come. That's what I did as I surveyed others' work.
A record-scratch of a comment jolted me back to reality.
"These will all be gone in a few minutes," someone told me.
The gates opened.
You must be registered for see images attach
Bunning and bagging
Heather Reynolds, concessions manager for Levy Restaurants, said her staff at Huntington Park starts preparing hot dogs as early as 4 p.m. on Dime-A-Dog days. This year's dogs are the house brand from Gordon Food Service, made of beef, turkey and pork. Buns come from Klosterman Baking Co., which has three bakeries in Ohio and a distribution center in Columbus.
And yes, Reynolds said, even at Dime-A-Dog Night volumes, hot dogs and buns still don't come packaged in the same numbers.
Dime-A-Dog hot dogs are boiled in Huntington Park kitchens and taken to four concession stands: two LouSeal & Krash counters, another behind the seats along the first-base line and another on the third-base side. "Bunning and bagging," as it's called, starts about 45 minutes before the gates open.
Anywhere from 2,000 to 12,000 hot dogs are cooked, bunned and bagged by the time fans start entering the ballpark, Reynolds said. It all depends on the weather and expected attendance.
10 cents a dog; 1,025 cents a beer
I was put on pop and beer duty, which seemed safe enough for all involved. It gave me a good perch at the counter, and I didn't have to do math or handle money, neither of which is a strong suit.
Few bought pop and beer as the first fans reached the counter. Marketing isn't a strong suit, either, but I do know that 10-cent hot dogs are what they call a loss leader. You might get a hot dog for a dime, but you're still paying $10.25 for a large Michelob or Bud Light.
After 49 years, I wondered if Clippers fans were finally onto this whole gimmick? No, I was told. They'll get thirsty after a few hot dogs.
Genius.
And selfishly, it meant I had time to get the hang of pouring a beer with less than four inches of foam. It also meant that by crunch time, I needed to stop acting like I was getting a pop for myself at McDonald's. No more repeated quick taps on the dispenser to fill every cup to the brim.
The lines kept getting longer, and the advance hot-dog supply was dwindling. The bunning-and-bagging duo in the back was working at a fast clip. The dogs really did go quickly, I thought. We must be in the third inning by now.
I caught a corner of the scoreboard. It was still 18 minutes before the start of the game.
The real cost of your 10-cent hot dog
You're getting a good deal on Dime-A-Dog Night, but then again, you already knew that. Each 10-cent hot dog sold by the Clippers this summer costs 54 cents to make, Reynolds said. Hot dogs sold at home games every other night of the week range from $2 for a junior dog to $6.50 for all-beef.
According to an inflation calculator maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a hot dog that costs 10 cents during the first Dime-A-Dog Night in May 1977 would cost 53 cents now if its price had kept up with inflation.
"We had established this as a break-even idea back when we started," Schnacke said. "There was a season when I tried to acknowledge inflation, and we called it Two-Bit (25-cent) Dog Night. That one almost got me run out of town."
Taste test: Pinch some pennies for your summer cookout: Cheap hot dogs are actually pretty good
He has never considered a price increase since. Team spokesman Chris Sprague said Schnacke's successor as team president, Tyler Parsons, "has absolutely no plans to change the tradition of Dime-A-Dogs," either.
You must be registered for see images
Are Clippers fans up to the 9-9-9 Challenge?
Buffalo led, 1-0, on the field after four innings. But three friends were locked in another competition in my part of Huntington Park.
Andrew Belgen, of Gahanna, and his friends, Danielle and Shawn Geckle, of Richwood in Union County, decided to test their endurance with a game that's making the rounds this season online. It's called the 9-9-9 Challenge, in which people take in nine innings of baseball, eat nine hot dogs and drink nine beers.
"Dime-A-Dog Night seemed like a good time to try it," Danielle said.
Hot dogs were running low, and the folks in back added a third person to help supply bunned dogs to the volunteers at the registers. We were beyond bagging at that point. Truth be told, it looked as if we were beyond fully cooking the hot dogs at that point, too.
I heard no complaints, though. Something kept Dime-A-Dog fans remarkably jovial and patient, and I don't think it was beer. No one seemed overly inebriated, either.
The final score...
Final score: Buffalo 3, Columbus 1, Belgen 9, Danielle Geckle 8, Shawn Geckle 6.
Like the Clippers, Shawn Geckle fell short. He got the beers down — all three did — but the hot-dog challenge proved too daunting.
"I mean, I kind of feel like crap," he said.
Dime-A-Dog Night drew 10,291 fans to Huntington Park on July 22. They bought 17,942 hot dogs, a modest total of 1.7 per person.
I hadn't sat down in four hours. My feet hurt. My back ached. I was hungry. I contributed nothing to that hot-dog total.
I stopped at Wendy's on the way home. "I appreciate you," I told the woman who handed me my food.
And I never meant it more.
Dining reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at [email protected] or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Behind the scenes at Dime-A-Dog Night with the Columbus Clippers
Continue reading...
