It is odd to gauge my own reaction to this media release from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The famous Dodger Dog, the meat tube in a bun sold at Dodger Stadium since 1962, is now available at “more than 500” ampm mini-marts in much of Southern California.

My first reaction?

Good news!

Any time I am in SoCal and feel like having a Dodger Dog I don’t have to go to the stadium to get one. I can drop by the nearest ampm — usually attached to Arco gas stations — and, apparently, get two Dodger Dogs for $3.

Which is way cheaper than they cost at Dodger Stadium.

(It is very difficult to find out how much the Dodgers charge for individual items — go ahead, try it — but it appears to have been $5.50 per dog as of the 2015 season.)

And I like Dodger Dogs. Over the course of my life as a fan and a journalist, I probably have averaged two Dodger Dogs per visit to the ballpark.

(In the press box, as of a few years ago, anyway, Dodger Dogs were made available in the media canteen after the fourth inning.)

So, hurrah! A Dodger Dog withing a few blocks of the family home in Long Beach!

My second reaction?

Maybe that’s not a good thing.

I am reminded of a Gary Larson cartoon (perhaps you remember The Far Side?) which showed several hopelessly obese people sitting on the porch of their home, with the neon sign of a fried-chicken place in the background, and one of the bloated characters saying, “Sometimes I wonder if we were better off before the chicken store moved in next door.”

Which somewhat inevitably leads to a deeper examination of the Dodger Dog.

It essentially is a long sausage in a bun, and when people say “it’s like seeing sausage made” … they are talking about something unpleasant or disgusting or shocking to see (like the making of a law in Congress) … and “sausage” is the epitome of “you really don’t want to know”.

Hmm.

Plus, we tend to wonder just how long food items at ampm mini-marts tend to sit under those heat lamps. That Dodger Dog now available at the Arco down on the corner may have been cooked even before the ones you get at Dodger Stadium.

Then there is guilt by association.

Have a look at the hot food options at ampm (no mention of the Dodger Dog, on this web page). If this is their “good stuff” for meals and the Dodger Dog is now part of that lineup …

Mini-marts are, in general, horrifying when it comes to food. Have a look at ampm snacks or bakery … and you realize that anyone over the age of 18 who eats meals at a mini-mart with any sort of regularity … needs an intervention.

And here is the ampm media person, on the relationship with the Dodgers: “Offering the world-famous Dodger Dog gives the team’s fans and our customers one more reason to stop by ampm for that quick bite to eat and too much good stuff!”

Upon reflection, I think I will pass.

Let’s leave the Dodger Dog to visits to Dodger Stadium.