Arthur Reed never dreamed he would one day tread the grass
of a baseball stadium as a competitor while fans screamed
his name from the seats.
In his minor-league cooking debut Sunday at Canal Park, the
43-year-old Akron fuel broker hit a home run. His lamb burgers
took first place in the amateur hamburger cook-off.
``This is the first contest I ever got in,'' said Reed, who
was accompanied by a posse of more than 20 friends and relatives.
Reed won the non-traditional category.
Gwen Von Gunten of Doylestown took first place in the traditional
burger category with her Jack It Up Burgers -- beef burgers
spiked with whiskey, molasses and Worcestershire sauce. Von
Gunten's friends and family, who taste-tested her practice
burgers, were probably just glad it was over.
``I probably made 8 pounds of hamburgers this week alone,''
Von Gunten said.
Von Gunten, Reed and six other finalists cooked their hamburgers
on 6-foot gas grills anchored to an elevated stage just north
of first base. About 100 onlookers broiled in the stands while
hundreds more wolfed down burgers outside the stadium in the
waning hours of the National Hamburger Festival. Attendance
at the two-day celebration of ground meat was an estimated
20,000, organizer Drew Cerza said.
``We had a line to the stadium all day yesterday nonstop,''
said Christy Bell, who helped staff the booth operated by
Louie's Bar & Grille. ``At one point we counted 52 people
in line.''
Louie's was named best hamburger of the festival. Menches
Brothers won best traditional hamburger.
The hamburger hearings held Saturday to determine the birthplace
of the iconic American sandwich resulted in a hung jury, but
there was a decisive winner in the hamburger-eating contest
later that day.
Cuyahoga Falls professional speed eater Dave ``Coondog''
O'Karma gulped down almost five double-decker hamburgers in
eight minutes, beating his closest competitor by two burgers.
O'Karma, who has eaten everything from doughnuts to chili
on the national professional eating circuit, said winning
in Akron was especially sweet.
``There were 1,400 people here watching me eat,'' O'Karma
said. ``It was really cool to be on my home turf. I knew it
was my day.''
The festival was successful enough for a repeat. Cerza, a
Buffalo, N.Y., promoter, said he will stage a second hamburger
festival in Akron next summer.
As for Arthur Reed, he tasted fame on a summer afternoon
when the infield grass was impossibly green and the stands
were filled with fans screaming his name.
Even if it was just a hamburger contest.
