Screw doing the 999 challenge and killing the inside of my body, I’ll be attending the Indians game Friday to catch em all. What I need to know though is if this is worth the price of admission. If they’re dropping Lures around the park I need to know if there’ll be some good ‘mon running around and not a fucking CP 22 Rattata or 10 Pidgey. There’s nothing worse than going out on a hunt and only seeing shitty Pokemon and having to waste Pokeballs on a Metapod. I’m at level 21 (not to brag) and I don’t want to wrestle a crowd for a few Caterpies and Drowzees. Hopefully a few rare Pokemon make some appearances.
So when we make our way over to Progressive Field on Friday we’ll have to pack a few Lucky Eggs, light up some Incense, and prepare to add to our Pokedex while eating dollar dogs and drinking beers. Sounds like a helluva night to me.
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:
9 hot dogs. 9 beers. 9 innings. The road to immortality begins tonight at Progressive Field. Let's go!
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:
Traffic messed us up. Audible to City Tap for beer #1. Got our work cut out for us. No excuses. Time to power through this setback.
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
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.
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.
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.
Then last night, when our new bullpen buzzsaw arrived to join the team in Cleveland, he immediately noticed the smell of Fireball, Copenhagen straight and ladies perfume:
Bottlegate 