"People shouldn't be afraid of hot dogs."

So says John Gabe, sales manager of Usinger's in Milwaukee. Gabe has been dealing in dogs for some time now. Their certified angus beef franks are the only ones of their kind licensed in the Unites States, he said, and will be the official hotdog of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

A batch will be on hand in Cooperstown Saturday for the Ballpark Frank Tasting sponsored jointly by Slow Food, The Farmers' Museum, Brewery Ommegang and The National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sports writers, journalists and food critics from across the country will be in town judging wieners: boiled, grilled and fried, topped with condiments specific to regions of the country. In the south, they wouldn't dream of sauerkraut, but you'd be hard pressed to find a frank without cole slaw on it. A documentary, "The Hot Dog Program," will be on repeat loop during the festival, detailing the differences in tastes from place to place.

The fledgling local chapter of the international organization Slow Food is kicking into gear with a local theme, ballpark franks, in the spirit of preserving regional specialties and celebrating the quintessential American meal. Stadiums from coast to coast have been invited to participate in the contest and local hot dog and sausage producers will put their buns on the line with butchers and shops from across the country.

Jane Duel, Chief Operating Officer at NYSHA, and Wendy Littlefield, who owns the Brewery Ommegang with husband Don Feinberg, are founders of the local Slow Food chapter and worked together to make the event a reality.

Brewery Ommegang has created a special beer to "compliment the best of the wurst." The catchy Pale Snail acknowledges the symbol of the Slow Food movement, the snail serving as a reminder to take time for enjoyment in a busy world.

Bob Beckman, president of Beckman's Old World Sausage and Jerky Kitchen in Walton, produces sausages and beef jerky made with Ommegang. Tasters can indulge in his products on Saturday. They've already reached the top of North America's tallest peak, Mt. McKinley, when three local climbers recently summited with donated jerky in their rucksacks.

Doug Blackburn is a features writer for the Times Union in Albany, and on Tuesday morning he was working on a story for the paper about the Ballpark Frank Tasting, at which he'll be a judge.

"Knowing Wendy and Don and how skilled they are at putting together neat, one of a kind events, I'm looking forward to it," said Blackburn. "A week from the Fourth of July, could we be doing anything more American? I'm also looking forward to the new beer they're brewing for the occasion. I hope this becomes an annual event."

John Horne of the Baseball Hall of Fame will be giving a presentation about the origin of the relationship between hot dogs and baseball, which he describes as follows:

"Many historians believe the city of St. Louis is credited with matching baseball and hot dogs."

Back then, the Cardinals were called the Browns. The 1892 Browns were owned, Horne said, by saloonkeeper Chris Von der Ahe, who was "quite a showman" and introduced sausages to go with his already popular beer.

A new York concessionaire named Harry Stevens, first sold sausages at the Polo Grounds in the early 1900's.

"On a cold day in April," Horne said, "Stevens realized that the crowd didn't want ice cream and cold drinks. He ordered vendors to carry hot-water tanks containing sausages. He called them dachshund dogs. The vendors would yell, 'Get your red-hot dachshund dogs!"'

But as it turns out, newspaper columnist Tad Dorgan found himself having a slow day. So he hastily sketched a cartoon of a barking dachshund being served up as a ballpark concession. Because he wasn't sure how to spell dachshund so he shortened the saying to 'Get you red hot dogs!"

Rick Sebak, producer of "The Hot Dog Program," traveled across the country sampling dogs at famous stands, places that offered free legal advice with their franks and shops shaped like giant wieners. Sebak said he was already a big hot dog fan, and that even his hesitant crew grew to love them.

"I've decided that what I want now is a wiener with a natural casing," he said. "I mean, if you're going to eat a hot dog and you're an adult, why not?"

"Even though putting it together was exhausting," said Littlefield, "it was a lot of fun. There are a tremendous number of great characters in the hot dog business. I hope people come away with an appreciation of the variety of the products available and, in the Slow Food mode, recognize the smaller producers and those who create hot dogs and sausages locally."