There is really, really not much happening on the periphery of Cleveland sports right now — the area I pride myself on covering — besides idle chatter. Sure, the Tribe are poised to extract themselves from the AL Central cellar, but that's about it, and analysis of that is best left to the professionals.
Me? I'm sitting here with not much to tell you. Days like this, my mind drifts off from the office, down to my parking spot about a half-mile away, down I-77 or 71, and to the golf courses where I should be spending my afternoons.
Most importantly when it comes to golf — at least for me and my weak, weak game — joy is to be found at the turn with a delicious hot dog. Want to know my favorites around town? No? Too bad. Here's a far from exhaustive or complete list of courses and how they fare wiener-wise.
1. Valleaire — Hands down winner for the plumpest, biggest dog. It's damn tasty, but not the tastiest, but you have to give this Hinckley track credit for filling the bun properly. (Yep, lots of this is going to sound like sexual innuendo. It's not.)
2. Skyland — Another Hinckley course, another delicious dog. The key here is that both the bun AND the dog are grilled. Charring and toasting the bun complete the deal, as a great dog with a crappy bun is really just a semi-crappy hot dog.
3. Sleepy Hollow/Big Met/Manikiki — The Metroparks courses all serve basically the same style hot dog. Nothing spectacular. Nothing special. It's just fine. Sleepy Hollow gets bonus points, however, for the full array of condiments they put out for patrons. At least, this used to be the case. It's been hit or miss this year.
4. Hinckley Hills — I've only ever had a couple of dogs here, mainly during the late Fall or early Spring when the rates are reasonable. Of course, those times means there's not a ton of golfers on the course, which might account for the fact the vendor had to microwave the hot dogs for us. Boo. That is plain poor form.
Am I missing your favorite golf course dog? Leave it in the comments. Admittedly, I only play a couple of different courses on a regular basis.
