"hot dog" baseball player, 1954

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:41 PM -0500 5/29/04, Gerald Cohen wrote:
>                                * * *
>
>        This is the earliest example I have thus far for baseball 'hot dog.'
>Its exact meaning isn't clear, although the term is certainly derogatory.
>The previous earliest one is 1959. The 1954 term may have been
>imported to baseball from boxing, where it referred to really
>bad/second-rate fighters
>(so bad that fans would leave for hot dogs and other refreshments).
>Friendlich would likely have been familiar with the boxing term 'hot
>dog,' since his work as a reporter foro the San Francisco Chronicle
>included covering professional
>boxing.
>
Nice antedate, Jerry.  But I wonder about the etymology for the
boxing term, as given in your parenthetical.  Is there evidence that
this is indeed the motivation for calling second-rate fighters hot
dogs, or is that just a (perhaps reasonable) speculation?

Larry