Hebrew National, who supplies the all-beef dogs at Comerica Park held a contest over the last month to select the best hot dog hawker. Tonight they announced the winner and it was Charley Marcuse, the operatic hot dog guy. The 4 finalist demo’d their hawking call for the fans tonight. If you’re interested, the finalists can be seen in action here.

Charley was a lightning rod of controversy several years ago when season ticket holders complained. The Tigers told him to stop singing and it somehow became an international story (first reported by Tigerblog).

In any event, whether or not you like Charley, he is headed to New York after winning the contest. He’ll get a first class travel package to see the Tigers take on the Yankees.

If it were up to me the biggest differentiator would be the vendor who came prepared with mustard in a jar and then applied it with a tongue depressor, just like the old days. While the individual packets are probably tremendously more advantageous from a Board of Health perspective, it’s just not the same.

Shortly after winning, Charley and the other finalists were right back at work on a sell out Friday night.