Columnist Ken Hoffman judges Nathan’s finals
Ken Hoffman of the Houston Chronicle has a column about serving as a judge at the Nathan’s finals, where he was assigned to keep track of Juris Shibayama’s total. Hoffman did not focus 100% on counting the amount of hot dogs eaten by “Dr. Big Time”:
Even though I was counting Shibayama’s hot dogs, I was videotaping Chestnut and Kobayashi’s furious assault on processed meat and enriched white bread. I looked like a total tourist with my badge and camera dangling from my neck.
While the contest was going on, my cell phone rang. It was my buddy Sean Pendergast. “I’m watching on TV — which judge are you?”
The column reports that the Major League Eating Wii game will be released next week, which would give it a Bastille Day release date and set up the possibility of a crepe eating contest to promote its launch.
George Shea describes how the overtime format was decided on:
“In most matches, we use a one-minute overtime to decide ties,” Shea said. “However, the speed with which Kobayashi and Chestnut eat would have made it very difficult to judge who had eaten more. I felt it would be more decisive to have a five-hot-dog eat-off.”
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Tonto said
July 7, 2008 @ 11:19 pm
Having a five dog eat off would also hugely favor Chestnut since he’s the sprinter with the strong esophogus. Why not stick to the rules?
Carey said
July 8, 2008 @ 8:04 am
A question for anyone who was there (eating or not): How much time did it take for them to come up with the 5 minute eat off after the 10 minutes were up? Also, did anyone else have a jackass for a judge like Juris did? Anyone counting along in their head and the numbers didn’t match?
Mega Munch said
July 8, 2008 @ 8:46 am
George’s comment makes no sense. How does a timed eat-off make it difficult to determine who eats the most regardless of how fast they eat? It’s called counting. At the end of the minute, whoever eats the most, wins! Using his “they’re too fast” rationale, a five hot dog eat-off would be even more difficult to judge!
anonymous said
July 8, 2008 @ 9:19 am
who was juris judge?
Dr. Bigtime said
July 8, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
Fortunately, I can count.