A true test of the American Dream.
A couple of weeks ago, we took on the elusive 9-9-9 challenge. Basically, for every inning of baseball you watch, you must eat a hotdog and drink a beer. The tie-in to the American Dream should be seeping through the screen right now.
First of all, the challenge is centered around America’s pastime – baseball. The Sooners are really good this year, so it was a real treat to watch them play. Not to toot my own horn, but I had the pleasure of playing with some of those guys in high school (Cade Horton, look him up). Baseball has been played in America for so long and is very much ingrained in our collective culture. Baseball is also a very multicultural sport, with people of all races and ethnicities playing in the major leagues.
The second part of the three-part challenge is the consumption of 9 hotdogs. I think hotdogs and baseball are inextricably linked, with hotdogs being a uniquely American food (there’s a brand of hotdogs called “ballpark”!). Putting down 9 hotdogs is honestly the hardest part of this challenge, there is no feeling like the bloat once you get 5 to 6 dogs down.
Lastly (and hopefully not inappropriately – as Dr. Mintler says, we’re all adults), to complete the trifecta, one must drink 9 beers in the allotted time. Beer obviously has its place in American culture like baseball and hotdogs.
The European mind cannot even begin to comprehend this thing that I am calling a challenge. If you ask someone from any other country to participate, their immediate response would be “Why?”. Ask an American, they will answer “How High?”.
