Local hot dog eater on a roll
Jim Reeves –that’s “Buffalo Jim Reeves” in the amped-up world of competitive eating, where everybody has a nickname, a gimmick, a costume, or all three –will chow down today in the granddaddy of all eating contests, the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island.
The contest for the “Mustard Yellow Belt” will be televised live on ESPN starting at noon. Twenty eaters have chewed their way into the competition, including last year’s winner Joey Chestnut and his rival Takeru Kobayashi, who each inhaled 59 hot dogs and buns at the 10-minute time limit and had to face off in a five-dog eat-off.
The other 18 earned the right to compete by winning regional titles, the way Reeves did in Atlanta on June 27, on a brutally hot day that affected eaters and spectators alike.
“Jim Reeves has the heart of a lion,” says George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, which oversees professional competitive eating events and television specials. Shea and his brother Richard also operate the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which keeps the records and organizes contests to ensure the participants’ safety.
Shea, who wears a straw boater hat and fills the air with hyperbole as he narrates the stomach-stuffing events, was master of ceremonies at the Atlanta contest when Reeves qualified for Coney Island. Reeves ate 22 HDBs –competitive-eater shorthand for hot dogs and buns –in 10 minutes, besting his nearest rival by two.
“He had sweat running down his face, and he just kept on going,” says Shea, remembering the sweltering day when even he felt lightheaded. “He’s like a bull.”
Reeves says, “It was 95 degrees when we left to go down there in the morning, By contest time it could have been 100, and there was no shade, so I was pouring water over my head.” The 22 HDBs, he says, “wasn’t my personal best. I did 27ø at Kansas City two weeks ago.”
Anyone with a big appetite who thinks 27ø hot dogs sounds enjoyable –maybe with a little ketchup, mustard and relish –has never seen an eating contest. The eaters shuck the hot dogs of their buns, then dunk the buns in water to make them go down faster.
Reeves is a two-fisted hotdog eater. “My style is to pull two hot dogs out of their buns, and I eat those, then I take the buns, dunk those and eat them separately,” he says.
The IFOCE emphasizes safety, with no one under 18 allowed to participate and medical personnel standing by in case of choking. It discourages speed or quantity training at home.
To counter critics who accuse competitive eaters of gluttony and event organizers of wasting food, the IFOCE raises thousands of dollars for food-related charities, including America’s Second Harvest and local food banks.
Reeves, of Boston, is currently ranked 25th in the world. He holds the world record for eating watermelons (13.22 pounds in 15 minutes) and pork rinds, a deceptive figure of 11.32 ounces in eight minutes, a record he set in Herrod, Ohio, in June.
“That one is a real badge of honor because pork rinds sound benign and they are not,” says Shea. “They are impossible to eat. When you try to eat them quickly, they become like little shards of glass.”
Winning the pork-rind title, says Reeves, “tore my mouth up. They are kind of like little Brillo pads. When you’re just eating them socially, they’re kind of like cheese puffs. But when you’re trying to eat them fast and you are shoving them in your mouth, you are crushing them up with the roof of your mouth, rather than your teeth.”
Reeves was ranked 18th in the world in 2003 and competed at Coney Island in 2004, when he ate 21 HDBs and tied for ninth place. Then, fed up with a work schedule that limited his time with his family, he changed careers, went back to school for a master’s degree, and took a job as a math and computer science teacher at Gowanda High School. He and his wife Terri have three daughters, Emily, 12; Cloe, 6; and Olivia, 4.
Reeves entered his first eating contest at the inaugural National Buffalo Wing Festival and is the only competitive eater who has participated in every wing-eating contest since the Buffalo festival began in 2002.
Reeves is realistic about his chances today.
“I’m not gonna win—unless half the stage collapses and [Joey] Chestnut and [Takeru] Kobayashi are sent to the hospital,” says Reeves, laughing. “On a good day, I think I can do 30 and they can do 60, so there’s no danger of me winning.
“So in that situation, you’ve got to set personal goals.” Because he’s eaten 28 HDBs, he says, “My goal is to do 30. That would put me right in the middle of the pack, just inside the top 10.”
Don’t think that Reeves eats this way all the time. By watching his diet and exercising with the family, he has lost 35 pounds since January and is now competing at 250 pounds. This year he ran in the Corporate Challenge and is looking forward to many more years of competition. “I turned 40 this year, and I feel better than I did at 30,” he says.
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