By: Ryan Paris
JOLIET, IL – All was well at Slammers stadium. It was your run of the mill 1-0 ballgame heading into the sixth inning. And then 2600 hotdogs dropped out of the sky.
Naturally, many questions are asked when you hear that thousands of frankfurters fell from the heavens. Among them: “how”, “why”, and, “is that a typo?”
This was not a freak accident. There was a sellout crowd here to see the Joliet Slammers break the world record for hotdogs dropped on a baseball field. They had a helicopter ready to drop them and a Guinness adjudicator ready to supervise it.
But a feat like this also raises plenty of logistical questions. Would each hotdog have its own tiny parachute? Would they all meet a grizzly end like the Pop-Tarts mascot in the annual college bowl game? Was Joey Chestnut in attendance?
The answers are no, yes and no, but I’m sure he wished he was here.
Just before the sixth inning, a sea of people lifted their buns off the seats as 700,000 calories, or nearly 500 pounds of meat and bread, trickled out of the helicopter and onto the field hundreds of feet below. The crowd roared with chants of “We want weiners!” and “Drop the weiners!” and even just regular “Weiners! Weiners!”
And it was electric.
“I didn’t believe it” reliever Frank Plesac said, recalling when he first heard about the concept. “I saw the post online and I was like ‘what’s going on here?’”
As food and beverage team members ran out with trays to scoop up the sausages, Slammers players joined them. Some grabbed trays to stack dozens of dogs, others used their hands.
“I wasn’t very surprised by it, to be honest with you,” starting pitcher C.J. Blowers said. “The way these guys run at the spread after games.”
Pitchers and hitters alike made their way back towards the dugout and began to whirl weiners into the stands.
“I hit a guy up in the suites in the chest. I didn’t know I could throw a hotdog that far,” reliever Jordan Powell said.
It was the greatest bullpen session ever. A summer take on a winter snowball fight. Catharsis.
“I wanted to collect as many as possible. I launched at least 50 of them into the stands. It was awesome,” pitcher Brett Sanchez said, foam hotdog hat on head.
But did the downpour of dogs translate into winning baseball? Almost.
It was a very low scoring game. The Slammers (29-31) tied things up with a Bryan Belo single in the seventh, following a rousing speech by owner Bill Murray.
Gateway (38-21) responded in the eighth inning, and looked poised to win until the Slammers staged one last rally in the bottom of the ninth. With Antonio Valdez standing on second base, Belo hit a ground ball and was thrown out on a close play.
But Valdez didn’t stop running. It was as if home plate had turned into the hotdogs he scampered after mere innings ago. But as he went down to slide, Gateway catcher Matthew Lee already had the ball in his mitt. Valdez was out, and the Slammers lost.
Joliet dropped to 0-6 vs Gateway on the season, and look to bounce back tomorrow morning on day camp day. First pitch is at 10:05 am.
For information on season tickets, premium suites or group outings, please visit the Slammers’ official website at www.jolietslammers.com.
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The Joliet Slammers play in downtown Joliet, Illinois, and are members of the professional, independent Frontier League. The Frontier League is the largest MLB Partner League with 16 teams spanning from the Mississippi River to the East Coast. Visit the Slammers online atwww.jolietslammers.com or call the ticket office at 815-722-2287 for more information! Don’t forget to “Like” the Slammers on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/jolietslammers, follow them on Instagram at @jolietslammersofficial or follow them on Twitter at @jolietslammers!
This game recap was written by Ryan Paris.
