Baseball Themed Hot Dog Toppings Bar

Set up a hot dog toppings bar to celebrate the start of baseball season, summer or graduation. This baseball themed party is great for adults and for kids, and you can find most of the supplies at the dollar store.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me of behalf of Ball Park® brand. The opinions and text are all mine. This post also contains affiliate links, for your shopping convenience. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Summer entertaining doesn’t have to be difficult or fancy.

Throw some hot dogs on the grill, put out a few easy baseball-inspired decorations and set up a delicious hot dog toppings bar and you have the makings of a perfect casual summer party. My readers have used this baseball party ideas for graduation and birthday parties, as well as to kick off summer and to mark the start and end of baseball or softball season.

We celebrated the Fourth of July by firing up the grill and bringing the ballpark to our front porch.

Our pick? Ball Park Park’s Finest premium hotdogs, which are made with 100 percent beef and contain no artificial preservatives, no artificial flavors, colors or fillers. There are also no nitrates or nitrites added.

Available in five tasty, bold varieties (Jalapeno Cheddar, Slow Cooked Chili, Signature Seasoned, Slow Smoked Hickory and Cracked Dijon Mustard), these hot dogs are already seasoned. So they’re great served plain, straight off the grill in a bun, which is exactly how my son likes them.

But for the rest of us, some premium toppings were in order. You know, so we’d get to wear our meal as well as eat it!

I  dished up a selection of toppings worth of these dogs — chopped onions, sweet pickle relish, slaw, pineapple and mango salsa (try it!), cheese, bread-and-butter pickles, grilled onions and grilled peppers. Your toppings don’t have to be homemade. I made the chili and grilled the veggies for our toppings bar, but everything else was store bought. And I even sent my husband to the grocery store, so this party was a real breeze for me!

Of course, we had to have homemade hotdog chili. That’s always worth the extra effort, and what you don’t use you can freeze in small portions in a muffin pan.

Did you know the Ball Park® brand was launched in 1957 in response to a request from the owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball team? The Ball Park® Frank was so popular in Motor City that it soon expanded into a national brand with a reputation for great taste and quality. And you can still get Ball Park® franks at Detroit’s Comerica Park.

Or your can bring the big leagues to your grill, like we did!

To make it feel like we were at the ballpark, I used a set of bases I found at the dollar store to make a party banner.

Players lined up at home plate to get their Ball Park Park’s Finest hot dogs. I offered a choice of deli-style buns and pretzel rolls.

Instead of using plates, I bought some hot dog trays like you’d get at the ballpark. I also set up a stack of plastic baskets, lined with picnic napkins.

And rather than setting out a stack of napkins, I took a few minutes to fold some checkered napkins into pinwheels. Aren’t they so summery?

Learn how to fold pinwheel napkins here.

Diners headed to the pitching mound to load up their dogs with their favorite toppings.

So many delicious choices…

Grilled onions, peppers and relish for me…

A Carolina-style dog with chili, slaw and onions on a pretzel bun for my husband.

Yum and so much fun, too.

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ball Park. The opinions and text are all mine.