The 9/9/9 challenge. 9 beers 9 hot dogs 9 innings.
On the surface it doesn’t seem that tough, right? 9 beers over the course of 3 hours? In my sleep. 9 hot dogs? Tough but doable. Combining the two just seems like it wouldn’t be that hard. With the right strategy it could be done. It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done.
I’ve seen this challenge floating around Twitter before and recently Barstool mentioned it. Here’s Katie Nolan trying it back when she was with Guyism in 2013:
So last Friday night’s Indians game v the Oakland Athletics would be the day.
I got downtown around 6:30 at my buddy’s place and we’d Uber over to Progressive Field just in time to make it by first pitch because we’d need every second that we could get. If I’m housing 9 beers and 9 dogs I want to make sure I take advantage of the timing aspect of it.
From the beginning I was fucked:
Gridlocked on the way to the game. Cars everywhere. The only good thing was that I was able to catch a few Pokemon in the backseat of the Uber while we were sitting on Euclid.
We’d have to try and get a beer or dog in us as quickly as possible so we stopped at City Tap and caught a quick inning or so there
Official start time for 9/9/9: 7:30 pm
That pic was snapped at 7:31 pm and the first pitch was thrown at 7:10. I was already 20+ minutes behind and I hadn’t even stepped foot in the ballpark yet.
Once we got into the Prog it was full steam ahead and we made a beeline to the dollar hot dog guy who let it be know that there was no limit on number of hot dogs you could buy. This guy was the best.
We (I use we because I was with my friend Will who has actually sometimes occasionally writes a Cavs article for this site) set up shop on a garbage can next to the women’s restroom (sup) and went to town on some dollar dogs. We each put down 4 dogs within the first 10 or so minutes inside of the ballpark.
Here’s where my strategy got messed up. I tried to keep everything equal.
Ex: If I had 4 dogs, I’d try and be on beer #4
5 dogs, 5 beers etc.
In hindsight I don’t think this was the best strategy. After about an hour the hot dogs built up and mixed with the beer and by the 6th inning I felt like I had an anvil in my stomach. I felt like the blobfish. If you’re going to try this at home I suggest getting 6 or 7 hot dogs down right off the bat. That way you can just coast to 9 beers if you keep up a good pace.
1 hour and 10 minutes into the challenge I wasn’t feeling too great.
Needed some motivation. Reached out to the loyal Twitter followers to give me a little push. If the thought of a dead gorilla doesn’t get you juiced up then you, my friend, do not have a pulse.
6 minutes until the final out and this is all I had left:
I poured that Budweiser in a cup and it was gut check time.
BUT
I couldn’t get it all down
2 little hot dog nubs stood between me and immortality. God dammit.
The Joey Chestnut method of dipping my hot dogs in the beer proved to be gross and ineffective
A couple things:
- If I get a full 9 innings (from first pitch to the Indians batting in the bottom of the 9th) I complete this challenge no problem.
- According to baseball-reference.com the official game time last Friday night was 2 hours and 59 minutes. Shorter than the 2016 MLB average of 3 hours and 26 seconds. Another thing not working in my favor.
- I’ll just be honest- Dollar hot dogs taste like they’re worth a dollar.
- Last Friday I went to the Pizza Hut by my work and had their pizza buffet. TERRIBLE idea. It’s not smart to eat 8 pieces of pizza for lunch when you’re doing an eating challenge later that night. Next time I attempt the 9/9/9 I’ll be on a strict diet leading up to that night’s game.
- I shoved the last 2 bites of the hot dogs in my mouth right after the 3rd and final out of the game was completed. Unfortunately the judges said this wasn’t allowed.
- The 2 guys I was with completed it and I was the only one who didn’t so my confidence is a little shook right now.
- I will be trying this again this season and I will be completing it.
Bottlegate 