Pesky's Pole and the Hot Dog

One of my favorite historical Web sites is Ballparks.com. It's a treasure trove of information about ballparks of the past and present, and provides pretty good updates on new parks being built (usually you can find better updates on team Web sites, though).

I've been to about half of the current Major League parks, and three or four that are no longer used -- Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Veterans Stadium, and the old Busch Stadium come immediately to mind. I've found the information there to be solid and rich in detail, and have used it to research such things as the now-officially-named Pesky's Pole, which Ballparks.com provides just enough background on:

The right-field stands are only 302 feet from home plate at the foul pole. That foul pole was once nicknamed "Pesky’s Pole." Red Sox pitcher Mel Parnell coined the term, after Pesky hit a home run just beyond the famous pole. That home run was one of only six homers Pesky ever hit at Fenway Park, and it won the game for Parnell.

Ballparks have their own personalities, and although Ballparks.com also has terrific information on basketball and hockey arenas, football stadiums, Olympic stadiums, race tracks, and soccer stadiums, I wouldn't miss any of those parts of the site. Because the baseball stories so rich. Who knew, for example, that the "hot dog" was born at the Polo Grounds?

The phrase "Hot Dog" was coined by NY Journal sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan when he couldn't remember how to spell the word "dachshund" in describing the "red hot dachshund sausages" served at a game here in April 1901.

That's good stuff. Better than I've found in any of the coffee-table ballpark books I've bought or browsed. Check it out.

And congrats to Johnny Pesky. There's the North Pole. The South Pole. And Pesky's Pole. That's somethin'.