This past Saturday at high noon, as the temperature started to climb into the 80s, a crowd of a hundred or so gathered in a tent on the east side of the Sam's Club parking lot at 135th Street in Overland Park. Here was where dreams were achieved but also shattered as 13 contestants gathered for the Nathan's hot dog regional contest.
The winner would move on to the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International
Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island on July 4.
Emceeing was George Shea. Wearing his trademark sports coat and skimmer hat, Shea stoked up the crowd as if this were a once-in-a-lifetime contest -- even as he admitted to the crowd, "We have the production values of a high school play."
As the contestants took the stage, each to his own theme music, the crowd roared.
last two to take the stage were the favorites Tim Brown from Chicago and Jim Reeves of Buffalo, New York. Although Brown and
Reeves had been chatting amiably backstage,
once they were in the limelight each had on his business face. After a
countdown, the contest was on.
How to describe competitive
eating? First of all, it's gross. Many of the eaters
literally fling the hot dogs at their mouths or try to cram three hot
dogs in at once. The crumbs and pieces that miss end up hitting
attendees in the front rows. The contest is 10 minutes long and it
takes about four minutes before the first contestant starts to slow
down. At the eight-minute mark, several were hunched over looking as if
they were on the edge of "reversal of fortune," a nickname for
vomiting and an automatic disqualifier.
Two
competitors finished under 15 hot dogs and watching them try
to eat next to people like Reeves and Brown helped show just how
skilled those two are. While the amateurs got stuck trying to swallow
buns whole, Brown would dip the bun completely in water and and swallow
it without chewing, the entire process taking a matter of seconds.
Reeves did the same and it didn't look like he chewed the dogs
themselves, either.
made it to Coney Island in 2004 and has tried to get back ever
since. "I have finished second place eight or nine times since then,
two times by half a dog," he said. "I'd love to get back. That's why I
flew out here and it'd be great to do it here." Alas, Reeves finished
second again to Brown, who downed 32 hot dogs.
Brown
looked physically ill for several minutes afterward. "Oh man, those
dogs were boiled. I wasn't expecting that. I grill mine and train with
grilled ones. I knew it was going to be tough but that was tougher than
I expected." Brown grabbed his knees and breathed deeply a few times.
By then people were gathering around him wanting autographs and Brown
immediately shot up and began working the crowd. Sickness may be hazard of the job, but when the perk is fame, it's a risk these
contestants are willing to take.
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