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A New Jersey man is trying to find the best ballpark hot dog in the country
There are few pleasures in life that rival a hot dog at a baseball game. One man has made it his mission to find the apex of that experience.
New Jersey-based hospitality marketer Rev Ciancio spent the 2026 season attending 77 games at 52 pro ballparks, eating a plain hot dog with mustard at every stop.
Die-hard baseball fan Rev Ciancio ranked 77 different ballpark hot dogs, and a Double-A team in Reading, Pennsylvania took the top spot
According to MiLB.com, Ciancio had a few controls that shaped his experiment. Every hot dog he ordered was only topped with mustard — which he says “levels the playing field” — and eats it in the seventh inning after the crowd sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
“Getting a hot dog with mustard, to me, is a mandatory part of the experience,” Ciancio told MiLB.com.
After chewing on the hot dog — literally and metaphorically — Ciancio then grades the dog on a scale of 1-to-5. The scale is then broken down even further, with Ciancio rating whether its score is “soft, straight, or hard.”
“Within each number, ‘soft,’ ‘straight’ or ‘hard’ shows where it lands. A soft 5 just barely earned the 5, and a hard 5 is perfect,” he explained.
Below, you can find Rev’s top ten and see if there are any you’ve either already had or are worth making the trip to try.
10. Joliet Slammers (NAPBL): A “rock solid” dog.
9. Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Triple-A PHI): “Exactly what a ballpark hot dog is supposed to taste like.”
8. Sussex County Miners (NAPBL): “They’re the only team that I’ve been to that has a ripper, where they’re actually deep-frying the hot dog.”
7. Albuquerque Isotopes (Triple-A COL): “It’s almost foul to highlight how good the hot dog was because there’s so much good there.”
6. Boston Red Sox: “This is one of the Major League stadiums where the lore of the hot dog holds true.”
5. Richmond Flying Squirrels (Double-A SF): “It was just a well-rounded hot dog. Like there was magic and you don’t know why.”
4. Brooklyn Cyclones (High-A NYM): “It’s part of their culture to have a good hot dog.”
3. Chicago Cubs: “I feel like Chicago teams have a right and a duty to produce good hot dogs.”
2. Chicago Dogs (American Association): The poppyseed bun was an “ingredient difference maker.”
1. Reading Fightin Phils (Double-A PHI): “When you eat a hot dog at Reading, it’s as though every single hot dog was individually cooked. One person took one hot dog and made sure it was perfect.”
Reading’s dogs — Berks Packing dogs on a flattop — earned a “hard 5,” which Ciancio called the perfect score.