. >> reporter: not just any old steamer, mike got it from hall gordon, also known as the former oakland a's hot dog guy. but the steamer isn't hal's, it's from the hot dog vendor who came before him, the late james jim my graff. >> jim, who really started this, he passed away in 2019. jim himself, he just always had a way with his customers and with people and people really felt like they were getting to know an important part of the bay area, you know, baseball scene or something. and i took it in a different way, i just turned myself into a weird mascot. >> reporter: life took hal to d.c. where he's now washington's biggest a's fan. >> so there is no one else to keep this hot dog tradition going, so i had spoken to a friend of mine. >> i talked to hal about doing it. let me do this for the a's. that never came about, but when the ballers came around, hal couldn't do it the full season. >> he just seemed like he also had the weird mental illness that would make him a good hot dog vendor, was dedicated to the city of oakland and dedicated to oakland sports. you know, mike's been doing i