May 27, 2006 / Perspective / The Brooklyn Angle

50 hot diggity dogs!

American poised to gain ‘Nathan’s’ belt

By Gersh Kuntzman

The Brooklyn Paper

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In an astounding triumph that could change the course of American history, a California college student has gone where no American has ever gone, eating 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes last week.

Joey Chestnut, a journeyman on the competitive-eating circuit, stunned the world — and maybe put a scare into five-time world hot dog–eating champion Takeru Kobayashi — by setting a new American record just two months before the annual July 4 contest at Nathan’s in Coney Island.

“This is the greatest thing to happen in the history of American sports,” said Richard Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, the governing body of all stomach-centered sports.

“Chestnut’s accomplishment may change the course of a nation.”

At the very least, the masterful mastication last week in Las Vegas earned Chestnut a plate at the table of champions on July 4.

Kobayashi has treated the contest as his own personal buffet for the last five years, setting the all-time record of 53-1/2 hot dogs and buns (“HDB” in competitive-eating circles) in 2004 and never being challenged.

But last year, he ate “only” 49 HDBs — and some experts think that he’s peaked.

“You know how this sport is,” said George Shea, executive director of the IFOCE. “An athlete can remain at the top of this game for so long. I saw it with [Frank “Hollywood”] Dellarosa. I saw it with [Ed “The Maspeth Monster”] Krachie. And I saw it with [Hirofumi “The Tokyo Terror”] Nakajima.

“Plus, it’s also increasingly difficult to motivate for all the training and conditioning when you’ve won five times — not that I, personally, have ever won anything even once,” Shea added.

“But just ask Lance Armstrong. He could have kept winning the Tour de France, but he walked away. Why? To be honest, I don’t know; he’s kinda tough to get on the phone, but you get the idea.”

Kobayashi did not return repeated emails for comments, but Chestnut — who is also the national grilled cheese (32-1/2 sandwiches in 10 minutes), pork rib (5-1/2 pounds in 12 minutes), waffle (148 ounces in 10 minutes), jalapeno (118 in 10 minutes) and chicken wing (173 wings in 30 minutes) champion — thinks Kobayashi should be scared.

“I haven’t peaked yet,” Chestnut told The Brooklyn Papers. “And I’ll be at the table on July 4th having eaten more than he ate last year.”

Last year, Chestnut ate 32 — very impressive for a rookie, but not enough to challenge Kobayashi.

Like many eaters in the highly superstitious competitive-eating world, Chestnut refused to reveal the secret of his newfound success.

“Let’s just put it this way: Since last year, I spent a lot of time on the circuit, training and getting better,” he said. “Like any athlete, competitive eaters get stronger. This is a physical sport, of course, but it’s also a mental one. ‘Full’ is just a feeling, like being tired. The trick is to suppress it.

“I set a goal and forced my body to accept it.”

Japanese eaters — first Nakajima, then Kazutoyo “The Rabbit” Arai, and finally Kobayashi, who doubled Arai’s record in 2001 by eating 50 for the first time — have won all but once since 1997.

In 1999, a newcomer, Steve “Ralph” Keiner, beat Nakajima — an event so out-of-the-ordinary that it has come to be known in competitive-eating circles as “the Burp.”

As a result of nearly a decade of Japanese domination at our national pastime on our national holiday, many Americans believe that the Mustard Yellow International Belt will always be worn by a foreigner.

Indeed, many Americans today look around and see only our nation’s failures — the war in Iraq, stratospheric gasoline prices, a skyrocketing national debt, poverty, homelessness. But George Shea said he chooses to see a nation reborn by Chestnut’s record-setting victory.

“Certainly, we are demoralized as a nation right now,” he said. “But Chestnut’s achievement puts us on the verge of a new era of national confidence. And if he wins, it will be front-page news. And when I say that, I, of course, mean in The Brooklyn Papers.”