Ryan Rushton and Jody Matheson, right, celebrate the final Blue Jays loonie dog night of the regular season at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
Ninety minutes before the first pitch, the chase for history is underway. The doors to Rogers Centre open, Blue Jays fans sprint down the concourse to take their spot in hot-dog lines. Mike Lavigne is first.
“Four, please,” he says, before accepting four hot dogs that, over the last three years, have risen to rival peameal bacon as the city’s signature food and demolished notions of American exceptionalism when it comes to hot-dog consumption and baseball.
“It’s my first loonie dog night,” says Lavigne, between bites. “I wanted to be part of this.”
For the uninitiated, loonie dog night is one of those simple ballpark promotions that has morphed into a cultural phenomenon. At every Tuesday home game, Schneiders hot dogs go for just a buck.
Jays fan Deacon McLean. This year, fans polished off 733,412 dogs in just 12 games.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
Over the last couple seasons, the Jays have tracked sales with the kind of precision usually reserved for advanced stats. In 2023, fans scarfed 693,865 dogs over 11 Tuesdays, an average of 1.73 apiece per game. Last year they raised the bar, sending 727,819 down gullets in 13 games, about 1.83 per fan.
This year, Jays fans vaulted into a higher league of gluttony, polishing off 733,412 dogs in just 12 games – an even two per fan. On this, the final loonie dog night of the season, fans came from all over the country for hot dogs, for fellowship and maybe for a little baseball.
“I’m here to make history,” says Jeff Weiler, who, along with four friends, wears a bucket hat emblazoned with hot dogs. “We all fasted today for this. Skipped breakfast and everything.”
They know the stats. If the hot-dog ticker out in right field surpasses 66,588 for the night, fans will have achieved a mildly nauseating milestone: a total of 800,000 loonie dogs consumed for the year.
With the concourse filling up an hour before the first pitch it has yet to crack 1,000.
Weiler and his friends are doing their part, all hoping to eat more than a dozen.
Chloe Carstensen and Zach Townend ride a hot dog shaped see-saw.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
A few feet away, a line-up for a Schneiders T-shirt giveaway stretches more than 100 metres long. Some will wait there for a majority of the game.
As the first pitch is thrown, the ticker creeps into five figures.
Up on the 200 level, there’s a commotion as the patron saints of the hot-dog-eating cause, Jody Matheson and Ryan Rushton, take their customary perch wearing hot-dog suits. People line up to pose for pictures.
“It’s become so fascinating, beyond hot dogs and baseball,” said Matheson. “There’s a different sense of community on these nights. The fans get to compete as well.”
Toronto Blue Jays fan Miyah Wilson-Stewart. The final hot dog tally on Tuesday was 92,896.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
They started wearing the suits to annoy their kids. It became a thing. They appeared on the Jays broadcast. Ryan’s record is 20 hot dogs in a single game. Jody’s is 15. “We keep a spreadsheet,” says Matheson.
Will we surpass 800,000 this game?
“Piece of cake,” he says.
They are amiable and animated with every one of the dozens of fans who approach for pictures – until one dares compare the loonie dog to the Dodger dog and other American rivals.
The vaunted Dodger dog is known throughout baseball as the most popular hot dog in the majors. The Los Angeles Dodgers sell around 2.5-million a year. The U.S. Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, it exists) says that Dodger Stadium sell more hot dogs than any other city in baseball. But that grandiose total only works out to about 30,000 a game. On this night, Toronto had them beat by the second inning.
“The Dodger dog isn’t even a dog,” says Rushton. “And Cleveland has a dollar dog night, too. We went down there had one. Not good.”
By the third inning, the numbers seem stalled: 56,765.
Some fans have their own goals. The 9-9-9 is where spectators eat nine dogs and drink nine beers over nine innings.
Michael Williston proposes to his partner Shannon Macphee. She said yes!DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
Michael Williston knows all about that. This is his sixth loonie dog night. He loves them. But he’s got a new goal for tonight, one that requires a measure of sobriety.
He and his girlfriend live in Halifax. He brought her to Toronto on the pretense that his birthday was on Monday.
“That was all smoke and mirrors,” he says.
Shortly after 8:03 p.m., as the ticker surged past 67,000, securing the 800,000 mark, Williston got down on one knee and thrust out a ring towards his girlfriend, Shannon Macphee.
She says yes.
Soon the crowd envelops the couple, chanting “MVP, MVP, MVP.”
“This is my Eiffel Tower,” he says. “This is my Disneyland. This is the happiest place on Earth.”
The final hot dog tally tonight was 92,896.