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Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest comes to Plant City's Strawberry Festival

 
George Shea says he introduces competitors with a mix of “carnival barker, apocalyptic preacher and sports announcer.”
George Shea says he introduces competitors with a mix of “carnival barker, apocalyptic preacher and sports announcer.”
Published Feb. 26, 2015

PLANT CITY

It's sport, spectacle and awe.

It's simple in theory and difficult in practice.

It's also kind of gross.

It's competitive eating, and no one can say for certain why it's a growing fascination with the American public, but when the Florida Strawberry Festival hosts a Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at 6 p.m. Sunday, it's certain to draw competitors hoping to eat their way into the famed July 4 world championship at Coney Island. And it's certain to draw a crowd.

Maybe not the 40,000 that annually flock to see world record holder Joey Chestnut (69 hotdogs in 10 minutes) take on all challengers, but a crowd nonetheless.

According to festival officials, Nathan's reached out to them last year in the hopes of finding a home for a regional competition. It started simply enough with the hot dog company offering samples from its mobile trailer on the festival grounds.

Now 12 men and 12 women will battle for a trip to New York to face Chestnut and women's world record holder Miki Sudo.

"They felt like our atmosphere was the right fit for their competition," festival spokeswoman Lauren McNair said.

• • •

Nathan's will host the 100th hot dog eating contest this year, but its popularity as a national phenomenon didn't really take off until publicists George and Richard Shea began promoting the event in 1988. They assumed full control of the competition in 1991 and when ESPN began televising it in 2004, it became must-see TV.

Last year, 2.8 million viewers tuned in to watch Chestnut defend his title and Sudo take first in the women's competition. That made the telecast the highest-rated and most-watched hot dog eating contest ever on the ESPN networks.

More than 1 million viewers have tuned in for nine consecutive years.

"Hot dogs might just be the guilty pleasure of American savory cuisine," said Jason Bernstein, ESPN senior director, programming and acquisitions. "Aside from the astonishment and revelry associated with the best gurgitators in the world pushing themselves to the limit each year on July 4, fans might also be somewhat familiar with the notion of downing a few dogs in succession … in a relatively short period of time. Like I said, guilty, meet pleasure."

• • •

George Shea said part of the popularity comes from his shtick in introducing the competitors with a mix of "carnival barker, apocalyptic preacher and sports announcer." He hypes the eaters like Howard Cosell used to hype highlights on Monday Night Football, mixing in colorful nicknames and eye-popping statistics, such as "he ate 11.81 pounds of burritos."

"When we started this in the '90s you had to go out there and fill the tent," Shea said. "No one knew about it and there were no real competitive eaters. So we intended to be dramatic and entertaining to attract participants and an audience."

As the competition grew, people began to call the Shea brothers asking for rules and regulations. So they made them up. If someone asked if they could sanction a different type of eating contest, whether it involved original Buffalo wings in Buffalo, lobster in Maine or oysters in New Orleans, they obliged.

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By 1997, the Sheas formed the International Federation of Competitive Eating, a title as full of pomp and circumstance as humor and hype. Now it's Major League Eating and you can find the latest rankings of its competitive eaters at majorleagueeating.com.

"It's comedic, outrageous and ridiculous, but it's also very real."

• • •

Indeed. The hype can't substitute for the awe-inspiring performances of the competitors. Shea said he once watched Chestnut eat 141 hard-boiled eggs in eight minutes and it blew his mind. Chestnut also once showcased his skills at the original Hooter's in Clearwater, downing 179 breaded wings in 10 minutes.

How does he do it?

According to an ESPN Sports Science report, the average human can consume about 1 liter of food before a nausea reflex kicks in and causes you to stop eating. Competitive eaters, however, train their bodies to ignore the reflex and consequently can consume a capacity four times greater than the average stomach.

The stomach expands at an alarmingly fast rate, displacing other internal organs. ESPN Sports Science reporter John Brenkus likened it to going from 0 to 9 months pregnant in 10 minutes.

Yeah gross, but try looking away. Go ahead.

• • •

Some may ask if the competitions represent the biblical sin of gluttony. Shea said that question doesn't come up nearly as much as the United States' weighty battle with obesity, but he insists the competitions are separate from the health challenge. In fact, most of the competitive eaters are relatively skinny.

They're athletes.

The issue of hunger also arises, but Shea pointed out that Nathan's donated 100,000 hot dogs to a shelter in New York and that Major League Eating often makes donations to food banks.

• • •

In the end, eating competitions have long been a part of the American landscape and the Strawberry Festival. This year alone the festival will host battles involving fried corn on the cob, strawberry spaghetti, corn dogs, strawberry mashed potatoes and, of course, strawberry shortcake.

Nothing, however, quite rivals the fervor surrounding the hot dogs. When Chestnut defeated Japanese eating champion Kobayashi at the 2007 hot dog eating contest, the competition gained iconic status: a bizarre mix of patriotism, puzzlement and wonder.

"That, to me, was the most dramatic contest ever," Shea said. "It had the most emotion and energy. It was a crazy time."

It's still a crazy time.

Contact Ernest Hooper at ehooper@tampabay.com. Follow him @hoop4you.