The Wall Street Journal's liveblog reports that Takeru Kobayashi was announced to have eaten 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes at his event in Manhattan today. update AOL Weird News and Deadspin have reports, DNAInfo has a slideshow and The Sports Yahoo has a video (via Gastroboy comment) update July 5 TMZ has a video of the entire event and WireImage has a gallery.

July 4, 2011 at 1:09 pm by ojrifkin · More posts about:Kobayashi (小林尊), New York City | Permalink * Comments (34)

34 Comments »

  1. Tom said

    July 4, 2011 @ 2:12 pm

    If there is video of him actually eating 69 actual Nathan’s dogs, then they may have to give him credit.

  2. nunonabun2 said (Registered November 10, 2009)

    July 4, 2011 @ 2:22 pm

    I think if anyone can out eat Joey it is Kobayashi. But…… What kind of hot dogs were they? Buns? Was it indoors?

  3. Anonymous said

    July 4, 2011 @ 2:34 pm

    It’s all irrelevant. It wasn’t an organized, proper affiliated event.

  4. North Pole said (Registered April 28, 2008)

    July 4, 2011 @ 3:35 pm

    Anonymous – Doesn’t that mean that most events don’t count?

  5. Gastroboy said

    July 4, 2011 @ 5:34 pm

    First upload of kobayashi’s stunt: just a part of it, including the final seconds when, i have to say, the hotdog count goes up too fast. This does happen in MLE contests as well, i mean, Pat goes down from 55 to 53 hotdogs in a flash, joey from 63 to 66 HDBs, or from 81 to 83 krystalls depending on the source (even the final marks where unclear at this contest) and the scoreboards get uploads in chuncks of 5 hotdogs or 5 krystalls at a time. But still, looks like a miscount at some point in the game in Koby’s stunt, which is sad.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWXGlNCEPLQ

  6. Gastroboy said

    July 4, 2011 @ 5:47 pm

    BTW, there are 4 hot dogs left at the end, if you don’t see them you only have to watch the guy who uploads the score after the contest has ended to know for sure there were 4 hot dogs left, who you can tell is thinking the same thing: If they were serving them 5 at a time… It could be either 66 or 71, but never 69.

  7. Anonymous said

    July 4, 2011 @ 5:53 pm

    I just ate 40 dogs on my patio. The neighbors took the video.

  8. anonymous said

    July 4, 2011 @ 6:15 pm

    You don’t know that there is a miscount Gastroboy. Maybe he ate 70. Were you there

  9. Anonymous fan said

    July 4, 2011 @ 6:32 pm

    So what did he win for doing this……..thats right nothing…….well played koby you ate 69 hot dogs for nothing

  10. Gastroboy said

    July 4, 2011 @ 7:24 pm

    @Anon @ 6:15 pm

    You might have typed your response before my second comment was up. It could be either 66 or 71, but it’s very unlikely that he ate 69 HDBs when 4 hot dogs are left at the table at the end of the competition, and they were served 5 at a time. I also pointed out the reaction of the man at the scoreboard, which seems to imply he though the same thing. It could be that he actually ate 69, and something happened with the 2 hotdogs that should be there with the other 4 that were left.

    I can’t tell, i wasn’t there and i wasn’t counting TK HDBs either. I was just pointing out some thing i could tell from the video just uploaded.

  11. Stallion Italian said (Registered August 27, 2010)

    July 4, 2011 @ 8:51 pm

    He got http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jose-cuervo-toasts-takeru-kobayashi-who-needs-an-official-contest-to-be-a-legend-124843329.html
    He had fun, his expressed wish, and no doubt was paid a handsome sum by the owner of the bar. Tomorrow he can eat anywhere he pleases and do anything he wishes. Sounds like a win-win to me.

  12. Mega Munch said

    July 4, 2011 @ 8:51 pm

    I’d like to believe this was 69 Nathan’s dogs, but i can’t. If that were the case though, I’d give Koby full credit as the best hot dog eater on this July 4. If he legitimately ate 69 in 10 minutes, you can argue that he didn’t do it at Nathan’s but I would argue that that makes his feat all the more impressive. To eat 69 HDBs (IF he did it) in front of a small crowd with no competition means Koby did it without being driven by competition and without the adrenaline rush of the big stage.

  13. anonymous said

    July 4, 2011 @ 10:20 pm

    Excellent point Stallion. It is a win-win situation for Kobayashi and he still gets to do whatever contests he chooses.

  14. Cutter said (Registered November 9, 2010)

    July 4, 2011 @ 11:00 pm

    I agree with Tom. However it is nearly impossible to duplicate conditions exactly from contest to contest, even if he did eat nathans dogs. If he had the desire to be hot dog eating champion he could have just signed a contract like the other contestants. Just a thought, maybe it would have been good if he had a few other independent eaters do it with him as a control group. Like a little rooftop gathering.

  15. shea said

    July 5, 2011 @ 12:01 am

    imissukoby

  16. DaxtheGinger said (Registered April 23, 2011)

    July 5, 2011 @ 2:59 pm

    We are all talking about Kobi and not Joey, so if its 69 or not its his name that is still a buzz a day after. I just hope that he really ate 69 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes and not pulling some hidden mirrors trick.

  17. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:05 pm

    Koby sure is in the press a lot for eating 69 dogs.

    Sixty-nine …. memories …

  18. Larellmarie said (Registered May 9, 2010)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:09 pm

    Rhonda ahahaha, u crack me up!

  19. Stallion Italian said (Registered August 27, 2010)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

    Yes, it is indeed Koby who is getting more press overall. Did anyone read carefully one of his problems with MLE had to do with his ability to do commercials etc. Kobayashi is very very smart and he is the best eater overall bar none. Joey may have beaten him in hotdogs (with perhaps two somewhat “close calls”….) but in other foods, many people have beaten Joey. How many people besides Joey have ever beaten Kobayashi? The best thing that has ever happened to competitive eating for independents may well be Kobayashi getting arrested (and that was really lame……). Whatever happens, the Sheas and Nathans will still rake in the millions. But for eaters, Kobayashi did a lot more than revolutionize the sport when he came upon the scene. He is still THE SCENE no matter what press and drivel is written. Most of it will be forgotten as we will all forget these details. He surely did not pull any tricks. He was ready to eat and beat last year and wanted to eat. Everyone knows that. It was his first opportunity, having come to the US, to have trained with Nathans. They are still trying to woo him back and I hope that they are never successful. The women’s league and bringing eaters from China was great for this year, kept MLE in the game. What are they going to come up with for next year? Do we really think Nathans is going to keep the women’s league and pay as much as the males? Going to be very very interesting and no thanks to MLE.

  20. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:36 pm

    As SI says, it will really be interesting to see if: 1) there’s a separate women’s division next year—-I do not think so—-and 2) if so, will the purse remain the same as the men’s? It will IF there is a separate women’s division.

    However, I think this was a one-time good deal for the ladies. The decision for equal purses was decided under societal pressure not to discriminate. This decision will likely be trumped in 2012 by putting women back together with the men, saving $20K to boot.

    And it will be politically correct, because that action will send the message, “Hey, we saw one woman eat the double deuce and two eat nearly 30 in 2011! The women have, therefore, proven they are basically on par with most of the men, and it would be wrong to put them in a separate contest, based on perceived inequality with the guys, and we believe women deserve equal rights. There’s only one Yellow Mustard Belt, and women deserve the chance to go for it!”

    That’s an answer that the public will not only accept, but may embrace.

  21. ojrifkin said (Registered July 27, 2005)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:46 pm

    Kobayashi lost to 6 people in the Spike TV turkey contest when he had “jawthritis”

    http://eatfeats.com/query.php?_table=contests&id=799

    Nobuyuki Shirota has defeated Kobayashi in Japanese contests.

  22. anonymous said

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:51 pm

    I agree with Rhonda next year sonya larell juliet and maybe stephanie will compete with the men. The rest of them will disperse like flies because they could never make it to the real table to begin with . Maybe they could bend the rules for women as far as qualify for Nathans 15 minimum perhaps? Lets face it 10 was a joke.

  23. Gastroboy said

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:52 pm

    Eatfeats twitter has the full video of the stunt. Its already in youtube as well. I counted 66 hot dogs. The miscount was produced after he gets to 65, when koby takes 2 dogs from behind the plates, from a previous plate (my guess here) and they get counted as two full hotdogs and added to the total of 66. That makes 68. The missing hotdog is a bun from a previous plate that was not eaten. At the end of the contest there are 3 full hot dogs left from the last plate and a bun from a previous plate.

    66 + 2 hot dogs miscounted + 1 bun left = 69

    I noticed as well that from 40 to 65 his score was 5 HDBs ahead of the real thing, though it started to be over his real score at 25.

    When it’s wrong it’s wrong Koby.

  24. Gastroboy said

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:54 pm

    *when koby takes 2 dogs from behind the last plate*

    It’s an stupid mistake, but it makes the sentence hard to read…

  25. Stallion Italian said (Registered August 27, 2010)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:54 pm

    The turkey problem was due to his TMJ, he probably should not have competed at all. The only other time he was ever defeated was, as you say, by Shirota. I think that was only once. Shirota never came close to him in hotdogs or anything else after that. And then, of course, there was that bear from Kodiak?

  26. Anonymous said

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:55 pm

    Rhonda, I wish there would not be a women’s division next year, but there will be. You are completely wrong in your prediction that there won’t. MLE and Nathan’s are very pleased with the mileage they got out of the extra division. I’ve said it a thousand times here, and I’ll say it again: you write confidently to hide the fact that you don’t actually know what you’re talking about.

  27. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    July 5, 2011 @ 3:56 pm

    You can’t even count the Spike TV events OJ. Koby didn’t even try. Even I could have eaten wings and turkey faster than Koby those days, and I’m being serious.

    Shirota had better be fond of those memories. Unless Koby goes up for another academy award with “Jawthritis;” today he’d beat Shirota with one arm.

    Shirota even lost to one of the female Japanese C-eaters a few years ago (can’t remember which one, however).

  28. Stallion Italian said (Registered August 27, 2010)

    July 5, 2011 @ 4:16 pm

    You do not have to have the inside track on things. If you read just about everything, you can find out lots of things. Usually, only if they come from the person themselves, are they credible. We know that there are so many misquotes and so much spin but because Kobayashi has credible translators, those are the best places to find information. The whole media thing made of Koby’s so called fake jawthritis was exactly that, media stuff by Sheas. He had TMJ but was determined to compete because he was afraid that others would say he didn’t want to go up against Joey and lose. So he competed and I think he actually won but Sheas ruled for Joey. Spike was ridiculous, he should not have competed, period. If you read a recent interview, someone questions why he seems to have less muscle. He says it is because he had to stop weightlifting or perhaps it was power-lifting because you had to crunch your teeth or grit your teeth to do that, and he did not wish to continue to risk his jaw in that way. Shirota beat him once, I believe. Koby always answers, when asked in the past about his record, that Shirota beat him. Shirota stopped competing soon after Nathans but became a television personality in Japan, like Gal Sone, until he left to work for his family’s restaurant. And now back to work, no family restaurant to employ me but it sure is fun to be perhaps like Rhonda and be able to be on flex time and have a boss who loves competitive eating.

  29. Gastroboy said

    July 5, 2011 @ 4:51 pm

    Fact are facts. He did lost to 6 people in that spike show. We can all guess why, but that’s another thing. Other than that, not only shirota and chesnut have beat him. Don’t forget Pat finished ahead of him at krystalls in 2008. He sure had a bad day, overtrained and all that, but as i said facts are facts, and he lost to him as well.

  30. Anonymous said

    July 5, 2011 @ 5:43 pm

    One thing about Rhonda is that she doesn’t claim to know everything and readily admits when she is wrong. Isn’t this site supposed to be fun? Why run her down because she posts confidently? If you really believe she is trying to hide that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, why try to make her feel bad? That’s why I think it is Anonym 355 who doesn’t know what’s going on. I also happen to agree with Rhonda for the record, even thou I hope there is a women’s division next year. That does not mean she can’t make a point.

  31. hamburglar said (Registered September 14, 2008)

    July 5, 2011 @ 8:05 pm

    Unless your name’s “That Japanese Dude”, nobody outside of this website knows who you are.

  32. hmmmm said

    July 6, 2011 @ 10:05 am

    Would love to see Koby set up at the corner of Stillwell next year and do his own event!

  33. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    July 6, 2011 @ 11:32 am

    That’s changing. One or two people know who The Black Widow is, especially after Monday, and they don’t come here.

  34. Anonymous said

    July 6, 2011 @ 11:42 am

    When is Sonya going to get a sponsor and open her own franchise? She would be perfect and attract so many customers. Nathans is known for being stingy. There is a huge opportunity for investors in Sonya. Wish something would happen with that. She needs her own agent.

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