PawSox to play as Hot Wieners

The Pawtucket Red Sox—or PawSox to friends—will become the Pawtucket Hot Wieners for a game later this summer. It’s the latest entry in the trend sweeping through every level of minor league baseball, the temporary, food-based, alternate identity.

Wieners—which Rhode Islanders differentiate from hot dogs because you can identify the meat in them; they’re made of beef, pork, veal, and spices—are a local specialty, dating back to Greek immigrants in the early 1900s. Just as Philadelphians will argue over where to get the best cheesesteak and New Yorkers can list the best three pizza joints like they’re the names of their children, so too do those in Pawtucket have a favorite wiener.