As a baseball fan, there’s nothing better than going to the ballpark, sitting back, and watching a ball game with a big, fat, juicy hot dog in hand.

Penn State baseball hosts several dollar dog sales during the season, so our staff decided to partake in the hot dog per inning challenge during Tuesday’s blowout win over Binghamton.

The rules are simple. For every inning, you eat a hot dog. If you’re lucky, you’ll stop at nine. If it goes to extra innings, you must keep eating hot dogs until the game ends.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, for some of our staffers, it was far from it. Here’s a look at how the competition went.

Matt Brown: Nine Hot Dogs

I’m not going to lie — this was not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn’t have much to eat, so I had plenty of room for dogs for dinner. I planned on channeling my inner Joey Chestnut and downing as many glizzies as I could.

The first two hot dogs were nothing…a walk in the park, you could say. For dogs three through five, I started to feel like I was getting full, but I was already halfway there, and there was no turning back.

I started to hit a wall by number seven, but I pushed through as the Nittany Lions broke the game open with a six-run seventh inning. The excitement of the offense on display pushed me through the seventh and eighth hot dogs. With only one to go, I thought of Vince Carter and said to myself, “I got one more in me.”

With all my strength, I finished off the hot dog as the final out was recorded, successfully completing the challenge from the press box. What can I say… I’m a man of many talents.

Keeley Lamm: Five Hot Dogs

I’m in so much pain, man. I walked into Medlar Field at Lubrano Park with a lot of confidence that I could down nine dogs, but I was humbled so quickly.

I hopped in the massive dollar dog line and grabbed three glizzies to begin my hot dog challenge and took the trio down with ease. I decided it would be best to have a small intermission before my next assortment of hot dogs, and that turned out to be my greatest mistake.

I went back to the hot dog stand to realize that there was a newly instituted two-dog limit per customer. I was crushed. I knew I needed to increase my pace in order to complete the challenge, and I was already falling behind. I took care of my fourth and fifth hot dogs but realized I had hit the wall.

It was a disappointing realization that my dawg dream didn’t come to fruition, but I’ve found comfort in knowing that I can return for more dollar dogs next Tuesday.

@compostbanana

dollar dawgs never again

♬ Hot Dog – Little Apple Band

Brendan Wagner: Nine Hot Dogs

Dogs one and two were a blur…a light snack, if you will. I waited a while to get the hot dogs, which was lowkey stress-inducing. I overheard behind the concession stand, “We may run out of hot dogs,” which was something I did not want to hear.

Hot dog number three was average at best — nothing special about it, just another obstacle in my way of glory. Hot dog number four was not fun. I initially bought four, so by the time I got to this last one, it was cold and the bun was stale. Nonetheless, it was taken down.

As I ate hot dog No. 5, the light in my eyes had begun to fade. The hot dog line looked like the line in front of Champs. I was fighting for my life. Hot dog number six was the wall. No amount of ketchup or mustard would make this hot dog taste good. The air was now cold and my passion for dogs was fading. The three hot dogs in front of me seemed to be an impossible task.

Hot dog number seven was no improvement. It was cold out. The hotdogs were cold. My stomach was full. But in the words of David Goggins, “Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you’re done.”

Hot dog number eight was bad. Every bite was worse than the one before it. But who am I to let one dog take me down? Who would I be to quit on the final lap? I hate to say this, but this final dog did not taste like victory. This was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to eat. I can’t wait to not eat another hot dog for the rest of the year.

Colleen Nersten: 5.5 Hot Dogs

Glizzies are for girls. I wasn’t going to let the sweet boys of Onward State take on the dollar dawg challenge without some competition.

Prior to tonight, I have never eaten more than two hot dogs in one sitting. However, I was confident in my abilities. One and two went down like water. After three and four, I regretted wearing jeans. I consumed dawg No. 5 in silence, as God intended.

This is where it got ugly.

Managing Fraud Gabe Angieri purchased a glizzy early in the game and let it get cold in the crisp 50-degree weather. You can’t let a $1 dog go to waste in this economy. Besides, I wanted to at least become the Top Performing Glizzy Girl.

I raw dogged cold No. 6, and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, I only got half of it down and almost vomited. I do not recommend eating a cold hot dog. It’s a really cursed experience.

Zach Donaldson: Seven Hot Dogs

I ate a light breakfast to make sure I had ample room to consume as many hot dogs as possible. But even with that, this challenge was much harder than I anticipated. The first three were my dinner, so that went well, and they were delightfully delicious. There’s truly nothing better than a ballpark dog on a sunny day. But after Dollar Dog Night, I don’t know if I’ll be able to look at one for a while.

I was already feeling full after my first trip to the snack bar, so I knew I had a long road ahead of me. I had some room for the fourth and fifth dogs, so they still tasted pretty good at that point. I was trying to channel my inner Joey Chestnut to conquer the challenge. I even started pulling up Chestnut film on YouTube to see where I can improve my technique. By the sixth and the seventh hot dogs, I was starting to sputter. They didn’t taste good anymore. I was full-fledged forcing these glizzies down my gullet. I didn’t want to keep going, but I knew I had to for the blog.

I ultimately hit a wall at seven and with only about a half inning left in the game, that was all I could consume without having to pray to the porcelain gods. If I learned one thing, it’s that the eight and ninth dogs separate the boys from the men in this challenge. It probably didn’t help that I filled up on condiment calories with ketchup, mustard, and relish on all of my hot dogs. But, I refuse to eat one plain. Sorry, not sorry.

Anna Wiggins: Four Hot Dogs

Dollar Dog Night taught me that you never need more than two glizzies.

As excited as I was to show out to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, I didn’t have much confidence heading into the competition. Despite not eating anything other than a bagel that morning, I knew getting nine dogs down would’ve been a Herculean task. But, I’ve got that dog in me, so I tried nonetheless.

I was pretty hungry when we arrived and after waiting in line for over 20 minutes (the concession stand did not have the infrastructure to handle Dollar Dog Night, but that’s a conversation for another time), the first three went down easily. Too fast, almost.

I happily topped the first dog with the only two ketchup packets that remained in the condiment bucket and gobbled that sucker.

The second and third wieners went down raw (Read: Sans ketchup), and I washed them down with my medium Pepsi.

I was honestly still feeling pretty good post-three glizzies, but my fatal flaw was letting them sit in my stomach. We waited for the fourth inning before heading to grab more glizzies, but by that point, it was perhaps too late for me. A queasiness had already washed over me.

Nevertheless, I persisted. I ~attempted~ to order three more glizzies to take me straight to six innings (these lines were LONG, folks. Efficiency was key). To my dismay, the glizzy ration had begun, and I was only allowed two glizzies at a time. I didn’t realize this was the beginning of the end.

My fourth dog was dangerous. Fortunately, the ketchup bucket had been restocked so the No. 4 wiener was dressed appropriately. I forced that glizzy down, tapped out, and suffered the consequences. I’m still suffering said consequences, actually.

Although my early exit, I deemed it a much better fate than throwing up all over the stands. I’ll get ’em next time.

Adam Babetski: Two Hot Dogs

This is a pathetic total but try not to think any less of me for it. Frankly, I got screwed. I showed up at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park ready to end the lives of a small herd of glizzies until I met my undoing: the line. It was clear, even then, that the stadium simply didn’t have enough hot dogs to feed everyone, especially a group of *very hungry* staffers. Everyone else must have heard the news and managed to squeak through the impending hot dog apocalypse, but I was the first person to be denied at Heaven’s gates. I slumped into my seat on the third base line, envious of the hot dogs being devoured around me.

By the time I got back up to the register, the workers had announced the rationing of hot dogs. I thought this was America! By that point, I realized that it was too late for me to catch up.

I’ll admit that I was amused watching several unnamed staffers fight off impending illnesses, including an incident with a cold, gristly hot dog that deserved a better fate, and another that was unceremoniously slapped to the ground in pursuit of a baseball. I don’t relish how I’m sure they’re feeling right now. In short, though, my effort to complete this challenge was buns. See you next Tuesday, Medlar.

Gabe Angieri: 7.5 Hot Dogs

What a disaster this ended up being.

I showed up at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park in the middle of the first inning, and the line to get a hot dog was absolutely egregious. I could get food at Citi Field by waiting half that time, so I asked a friend to snag me two since he was at the front of the line. Still, the concession workers, who were clearly not prepared for such a large crowd (definitely not their fault, however), were scrambling and kept running out of cooked hot dogs. It was the first inning, and they had already run out of hot dogs. Great start!

Dollar Dog night has turned into a disaster sadly

— Gabe Angieri (@gabeangieri) March 21, 2023

However, I got my two hot dogs eventually and downed them with ease. I was feeling great at this point. An inning or two later, I went back up to a now-shorter concession line with the intent of ordering four glizzies and really putting a dent in this challenge. However, in a shocking turn of events, they started maxing customers out at two hot dogs per order. How are you going to do that on Dollar Dog Night?

They’re maxing us out at two per order. I’m not happy. https://t.co/6tye0NdLo6

— Gabe Angieri (@gabeangieri) March 21, 2023

Because I’m savvy, I ordered two and then had my girlfriend, who was not participating in the challenge (Sad!), use one of her hot dog allotments for me. So, I went back to my seat with three hot dogs and polished them off easily. At this moment, I thought I could do the full nine.

About an inning later, I went up and got four more using the same trick as last time and brought them all back to my seat. After eating two pretty quickly to bring my total to seven, I hit a huge wall. The thought of taking another bite made be want to vomit. I thought I was done.

I waited an inning and a half and went for a bit of glizzy No. 8 and nearly puked. It was cold, and the bun was stale. It was at this moment I knew I was done. I ended up eating 7.5 hot dogs and hated myself for it.

Just spent my night eating 7 hot dogs at a baseball game. I’ve reached a new low

— Gabe Angieri (@gabeangieri) March 22, 2023