{"id":177079,"date":"2026-03-27T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177079\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:10:11","slug":"i-did-citi-fields-999-challenge-and-it-felt-a-lot-like-watching-the-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177079\/","title":{"rendered":"I did Citi Field’s 999 Challenge \u2014 and it felt a lot like watching the Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

This \u201cchallenge\u201d was the wurst.<\/p>\n

Citi Field tried to glom onto the viral \u201c999 Challenge,\u201d<\/a> in which baseball fans gobble down nine hot dogs and nine beers in nine innings \u2014\u00a0but my attempt to devour the Opening Day<\/a> experience left me filled mostly with disappointment familiar to Mets fans \u2014 and not nearly enough beer.<\/p>\n

I volunteered for the food-centric feat in the name of journalism, of course.\u00a0But the laughably small\u00a02.5-ounce beers and teeny weenies caused mostly a bloated,\u00a0thirsty feeling \u2014 and I was barely able to catch a buzz.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s Georgia Worrell took on the famous \u201c999 Challenge\u201d during the Mets home opener at Citi Field \u2014 and left disappointed. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

At first, I thought the gut-busting undertaking would require Pepto Bismol on-hand and possibly a doctor on-call, so I rang the world\u2019s number-three-ranked competitive eater Geoffrey Esper<\/a>\u00a0for advice.<\/p>\n

He suggested skipping breakfast and changing up hot dog toppings to combat \u201cflavor fatigue\u201d in order to channel my inner Joey Chestnut.<\/p>\n

But after I paid $60 for the \u201c999 Challenge\u201d tray of nine 3.5-inch hot dogs and a single 24-ounce can of Coors (I could have also chosen Heineken) I knew all that prep was for nothing.<\/p>\n

The tall boy was meant to be divided into nine barely-there glasses and sipped at a snail\u2019s pace of one 2.5-ounce cup per each of the game\u2019s innings. That\u2019s only about the size of a double shot glass.<\/p>\n

Lame.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 version of the challenge featured puny 3.5-inch hot dogs and a single 24-ounce can of beer divided among nine small glasses. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cNot full glizzies?!\u201d one fellow disappointed fan moaned at the slider-sized franks, using the slang term for hot dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose hot dogs look so sad,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

The first two mini hot dogs went down easy, and I knocked back my tiny beer in just a couple sips. The little glasses are plastic souvenirs decorated with the Mets logo, which explained the price of the tray.<\/p>\n

Fellow Mets fans couldn\u2019t help but point out how sad the \u201c999\u201d meal looked. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

Worrell found the hot dogs dry and served on stale buns. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

As I ate wiener after wiener \u2014 each served on a cracked and stale bun \u2014 I was dying for more to drink.<\/p>\n

The booze-to-hot-dog ratio was not a winner. I needed more beer.<\/p>\n

But my \u201ccold one\u201d had heated up to the temperature of lukewarm tea by the end of the\u00a0sunny, three-hour affair.<\/p>\n

The beers were served in 2.5-ounce cups that were closer to a shot glass than a pint. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Coors Light tallboy didn\u2019t stay cold for very long in the spring weather. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

By the third inning, I\u2019d kissed the possibility of a buzz goodbye.<\/p>\n

I managed to get the ultra-dry dogs \u2014 which didn\u2019t actually taste that bad \u2014 down with the help of ketchup and mustard. It only took three bites per dog \u2014\u00a0but I still got uncomfortably full\u00a0by the fourth inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My stomach was protruding, and it got so hot, and my fingers started swelling. I was over it.<\/p>\n

It was hard to cheer on the Mets with the Citi Field faithful while holding the \u201c999 Challenge\u201d box. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

Worrell didn\u2019t complete the challenge \u2014 falling 2.5 hot dogs short. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

The giant tray set up on my lap also made it hard to stand up to cheer as the Mets dominated over the Pirates<\/a>, ultimately winning 7 to 11.<\/p>\n

In the end, I drank all 24 ounces of the beer and managed to choke down 6.5 of the dogs before growing wildly bloated and giving up.<\/p>\n

I left feeling hot, tired and grumpy.<\/p>\n

Now, I need a real drink.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Natalie O\u2019Neill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This \u201cchallenge\u201d was the wurst. Citi Field tried to glom onto the viral \u201c999 Challenge,\u201d in which baseball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8978,2031,49012,57,20,9,24,55,54,320,56,58],"class_list":["post-177079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-beer","tag-citi-field","tag-hot-dogs","tag-metro","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-mets","tag-ny","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}