Chicago Dogs
Dad and I kick off an epic road trip to see 23 ballparks in 23 days. We visit Impact Field in Rosemont Illinois, where we see the Chicago Dogs -- an independent team playing in the American Association of Professional Baseball -- take on the Kane County Cougars.
Three generations of Burns boys arrived at San Francisco International Airport at a ridiculous hour, a little before 4:00 a.m. We had decided to take an early flight to Chicago that would arrive well before the first game of our massive baseball road trip across the Eastern Midwest. As we often do, Dad and I made a plan to arrive a little earlier than we needed to, then arrived even earlier than that.
My son Danny joined us this time, along for the ride for the first four games of our journey in Chicagoland. Danny knew the ropes: He had been with me for my first baseball road trip in California five years earlier. Dad couldn’t make that trip with us, but he and I had since done three huge baseball road trips in three years — traveling through the Carolinas, Pacific Northwest, and Mid-Atlantic — each ranging from 16 to 20 ballparks over three-week spans. It was just a day before Father’s Day, and I was thrilled that three generations of fathers and sons could be together for our next big travel adventure.
The fight to O’Hare went smoothly enough. We arrived in Chicago and picked up our bags, rental car, and a trio of subs for lunch. After a short rest back at the hotel, we were off to the ballpark.
The first stop on our five-state ballpark tour was Impact Field, home of the Chicago Dogs, an independent club playing in the American Association of Professional Baseball. The 12-team league plays in cities ranging from Winnipeg to Kansas City to Gary, Indiana. The Dogs started play in 2018 and had made the playoffs each of the previous three seasons, losing to the Kansas City Monarchs in the 2023 American Association championship. The team’s most famous alumnus is Carlos Zambrano, a three-time All-Star for the Chicago Cubs who came out of retirement to pitch for the Dogs in 2019.
Impact Field is located in Rosemont, immediately west of O’Hare Airport. Built in 2018 for the arrival of the Dogs, the ballpark seats 6,300, not including private suites, and has a 360-degree open concourse. The Dogs averaged 4,125 fans per game in 2023, second in the league behind the Kane County Cougars, their opponent for the night.
Chicago city flag
For the next three weeks, Dad and I would follow a clear routine upon arrival at our ballparks, beginning with an immediate trip to the team store. There he would make a beeline for the baskets of logo baseballs, while I examined large displays of hats, carefully selecting the one hat per team I allowed myself.
In terms of merchandise alone, the first stop on our road trip was a winner. The Chicago Dogs primary colors are red, white, and sky blue, and the logo includes not only a hot dog but four stars that connect to the design of the Chicago city flag. The look is very sharp, and uniquely Chicago.
Our next order of business was dinner, and we needed no lengthy analysis of concession-stand menus to make our decision: We would of course be having our first-ever Chicago Dogs.
The Chicago-style hot dog is topped with yellow mustard, diced white onions, sweet “neon green” pickle relish, pickled sport peppers, tomatoes, celery salt, and a kosher dill pickle on a poppy seed bun. The combination adds an explosion of fresh flavor to the dog. We were immediately hooked.
The Dogs and Cougars were playing the second game of a three-game set. The teams would finish the season with identical 55-45 records and would meet again in the postseason, with Kane County sweeping the best-of-five division championship series on their way to their first American Association title.
Chicago Dogs center fielder Narciso Crook
The pre-game ceremonies commenced. Two little girls accompanied the Dogs lineup to home plate, highly focused on keeping their feet inside the lines of the batter’s box.
Dogs starting pitcher Steven Lacey got things underway with the first of several thousand pitches we would see over the next three weeks, a called strike to Cougars center fielder Armond Upshaw. Lacey, a 6-foot-3 right-hander in his second season as a Dog, hit Upshaw a few pitches later but made it out of the inning comfortably.
Jack Fox
Jack Fox took the mound for Kane County. Like Lacey, Fox had transitioned into independent baseball right out of college. Others like Upshaw had spent years in the affiliated minor leagues before being forced to find jobs elsewhere. This mixture of stories is what makes independent professional baseball so intriguing: younger guys, veterans with Major League experience, players just looking to extend their careers, and some looking to showcase their skills and get another shot at the big leagues.
Like a tale from the English countryside, the Dogs attacked Fox right away. Chicago shortstop Brantley Bell tripled to right field, and center fielder Narciso Crook — whose 11-year career included a four-game stint with the Chicago Cubs — singled him in. Two batters later, Dogs designated hitter Johnni Turbo, in his 18th season of professional ball, singled home Crook. The home team led 2-0 after one.
I walked down the first-base side to find the Dogs antihero mascot, Ketchup. Chicago Dog connoisseurs consider it against the laws of nature to put the ubiquitous kids condiment on their sacred sausage, so Ketchup is depicted as an evil villain, wearing a mask and a raincoat. The team’s hashtag is more of an ethos that permeates Chicagoland: #NoKetchup.
The Dogs primary mascot is Squeeze, with a mustard-bottle cap and a friendly smile. I found him on the third-base side, near a collection of inflatable attractions for kids. Squeeze did great work connecting with the youngsters and even stuck around for a few extra high-fives while staff members tried to pry him away to another engagement.
It was Mardi Gras Night at the ballpark, with a little pre-game parade around the field plus decorations and kids activities. The weather was warm but comfortable for a Midwestern summer’s evening, and fans were having fun everywhere.
The Cougars pushed a run across in the top of the third, with Lacey giving up three singles but inducing a double play to stem the tide. The Dogs starter carried his 2-1 lead into the seventh inning. Fox settled down after the first, scattering five hits but keeping his runners stranded. We had a game on our hands.
On-field host Hannah Arbitman stayed busy running games between innings, including knockerball, video plinko, inflatable sumo, dizzy bat, hot dog trivia, a plushie toss pitting two sides of the ballpark against each other, and a race involving teams of three wearing the same oversized pair of shorts. (See the episode!)
I took a walk around the concourse to the outfield, where I found a kid playing long toss with a friend in front of the neighboring parking garage as the sun set behind third base.
Lacey ran into small-ball trouble in the seventh. Two walks and a single led to a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly, bringing home two runs and giving Kane County the 3-2 lead. The Cougars picked up another run in the eighth off reliever Davis Pratt to make it 4-2.
It was time for the team’s third mascot, the Rally Pickle, to make an appearance. The masked pickle appeared atop the home dugout, wearing a fleur-de-lys-patterned purple cape for Mardi Gras. The pickle got the crowd whooping, then sprinted through the aisles — hurdling seats to switch rows and avoid traffic without breaking pace — until he reached the visiting dugout. We were ready for a rally.
Jordan Martinson
But it was not to be. Jordan Martinson came on in the ninth to close the door for the Cougars. Martinson spent time at the Double-A and Triple-A level in the Dodgers organization in 2021, amassing an 8.71 ERA before moving on to independent ball the next year. But he had little trouble with the Dogs on this night, setting them down in order to seal the 4-2 win for the Cougars.
The night finished with fireworks sparkling in the gathering dusk beyond left field — the first of eight fireworks displays we would get over the next three weeks. The Chicago Dogs had been a terrific way to start the road trip, but it was time to get back to the hotel to rest up. We’d be at our next ballpark in just 15 hours.