I have no ticket to the dance
Tomorrows the dance and I have no ticket.
I was up all freaking night, bothered that I have been left out. There's one last chance to win a seat, and it takes place TODAY in fact it takes place in about 30 minutes, but I'm stuck at work (probably the only guy in Philly) working on a major project. It's painful to let this opportunity go. Everyone that can beat me has either qualified or already done the three qualifier maximum.
So in exchange for responsibility, I let my dream go and will watch the contest with my family on ESPN. I'll cook up a stack of Nathan's 'bigger than the bun' and we'll scream at the TV like idiots. Coverage starts at noon, the eating starts at 12:40pm est sharp.
The big deal you will hear about is the showdown between Joey Chestnut, the young student from San Jose who can eat 50 HotDogs and Kobyashi from Japan who has once eaten 53 and hasnt lost the contest for 5 years.
But there's more....each of 20 or so competitors up there is also a fan and ironically wont be able to get a good view of the Joey/Koby Showdown. What I know is that each of those eaters has a number in their head and they will be putting up with great discomfort to hit that number and have a respectable showing.
What will they win? Maybe just a folded up yellow ribbon with the words "PARTICIPANT" on it. Thats good enough for me....and next year I'll get one.....
Good Luck to everybody at the table!!!!
5 comments:
So today I actually went out to Coney Island. The weather was nice, hot. I went on the Wonder Wheel - which frightens the shit out of me. I sat on the beach. And I had lunch at Nathans (two plain dogs with saurkraut & ketchup, fries and a lemonade) while they set up the stage for the big show. It would have been cool.
Next year!
It's never pretty when you have to give up the things that really interest you for the things that you tolerate in order to survive (i.e.-work), but you're still working the circuit and next year you'll have that much more experience with which to pursue your dreams. Patience, Padawan.
I'll keep my pompoms on stand-by.
a whole freaking year though...oi!!!
thanks for hanging with me this far!
It would've been awesome to see you there man! Heather and I arrived at Nathan's at 830am and got right up front "seats" (which still sucked because they were off to the left of the stage so all you saw were semi-profiles of the first five eaters and glimpses of the rest. Thankfully we could see the HDB count cards the girls were holding up above Joey and Koby. Great time overall. I'll post pics and a write up tonight.
We went to the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game the night before and they had the final Nathan's qualifier on home plate before the game. We snuck up real close -- right behind the backdrop -- to watch. Denmark took it. Pretty sure he did the deuce. Larue, Lerman, and others were also eating. Crazy Legs, Bertoletti, Subich, Shoudt, and Rich Lefevre were on the field to cheer them on. It was cool to watch them watching them. You're absolutely right, they're fans of the sport too.
Damn, it sounds like such a good time, and I would have loved to go head to head with Denmark on Dogs, he seems pretty intense and around my capacity.
I will fight another day....
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