"Tom was an honest, very capable restaurateur," Peter O'Malley, the former Dodgers owner, explained on the phone Monday when asked about the legacy left by the man who started Arthur Foods Services, Inc., which had all the food stops for the team at Dodger Stadium once it opened, following up for what he did for them when they were at the Coliseum after moving out from Brooklyn in 1958.

"The Dodger Dog was definitely his idea; he deserves all the credit," said O'Malley. "It worked out all the details about the extra long casings with the Clougherty family at Farmer John, and they brought it to us one day and asked if they could try an extra-long hot dog.

"We said, sure, try it out. Everyone respected his judgment, and we respected him since the late '50s, when he was doing the concessions for us at the Coliseum. There was no harm in trying it out. And it was a hit from the start."

Those who've been going to games at Dodger Stadium forever probably think they've always had the extra-longs for sale. Mark Langill, the team's historian, notes through his research that the first references to Dodger Dogs in the game programs were in 1970 -- the first year Peter O'Malley took over as team president. A hot dog at the stadium could have been unofficially called a "Dodger Dog" without it necessarily being the longer version. A program ad for Farmer John has the tagline: "Try the Dodger Dogs at the Stadium."

Morrell meats were the first provider of the stadium hot dogs, through Arthur's company, until Vernon-based Farmer John came aboard later in the 70s. (Hormel Meats recently purchased Farmer John).

The famous Dodger Dog has become a symbol of the team. A food stop at Universal CityWalk (above) carries the name. The team has since created a stuff Dodger Dot character and a bottle-head (a bobble-weiner?) figure for sale at the Top of the Park store.

From a 1988 story in Nation's Restaurant News about ballpark food, Arthur knew that the more simple the menu was, the better. And what could be more simple than a Dodger Dog, an idea he had from eating Nathan's footlongs back in Coney Island when he was a kid.

"There's something American about a hot dog," said Arthur. "As a rule, hungry people don't go to ball games. Most of the people who attend Dodger games have already had dinner and just want one or two hot dogs and maybe a bag of peanuts."

Two years later, in a story in the L.A. Times, Arthur explained why new food products are a survival of the fittest, and why sticking with the basics usually works best.

"We don't put an emphasis (on) what the fans should buy," Arthur said. "You can't force-feed anything on people. We're dealing with a pretty intelligent group of fans. You might sell something to them one time, but the second-time sale won't be there. We look for the guy who makes his mind up on the way to the park that he's going to have a hot dog.

"We're trying to focus on the family-the guy who takes his wife, kids and maybe the neighbor kids. The blue level at Dodger Stadium
is the family crowd, and that's where the real action is."

From a business standpoint, it's tough to say that anything has sold better than a Dodger Dog at the stadium, grilled, boiled or otherwise. The USA Today graphic above shows that the Dodgers are the leaders in hot dog sales every year, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, mostly because of that novelty wiener is no longer just a running joke. Outside of "buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack," the hot dog is probably the most identified ballpark food through the years.

O'Malley points out that it was Arthur's background as an artist that led to his creativity in the food department.

Arthur, a World War II veteran, attended Art Center School of Design and USC School of Architecture as he pursued a dream to become a cartoonist and illustrator. Out of necessity, he started a food and drink vending business at L.A. movie theatres that developed into contracts with the Coliseum and Sports Arena, and eventually Dodger Stadium. He retired in 1991 when it became too costly to operate the food stuff and the Dodgers hired a bigger company.

Now, as for the fact that the Dodger Dog may not be the healthiest of health foods available at the stadium, no one really seems to care. On the Farmer John Website, you can see that a 76-gram Dodger Dog extra-long "meat weiner" (as opposed to the 76-gram extra-long FrankFooter beef frank) does pack alot of "junk": 190 calories, 21 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 50 mg of cholesterol, 780 mg of sodium and 8 grams of protein.

And fans continue to love all 10 inches of 'em.

"I don't know of any other club that sells a hot dog that long," said O'Malley. "Or anyone that has sold one over this long a time."