Royals’ hot-dog race goes viral after accidental bump (or was that a push?)

This Royals fan picked the wrong time to hot dog it, which was ironic because the person was wearing a hot-dog costume at the time.

During the Royals’ epic 10-9 win over the Mariners on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium, Seattle raced to a big lead only to see Kansas City rally for the win.

A similar scene played out during the Royals’ hot-dog derby race.

Relish took a commanding lead and decided to have some fun, turning to point at mustard and ketchup. That was a big mistake because relish took a tumble, allowing mustard to pass and get the win.

Relish had egg on its face (and some dirt) and finished third. When reaching the finish line, relish appeared to fall again. All in all, not a great night for those in green (the Mariners official colors are navy blue, northwest green and silver.

Here is the race from X user The Fake Ned.

Saturday shove

That wasn’t the only noteworthy hot-dog race from the weekend. On Saturday, mustard raced to an early lead but ketchup came on strong at the end.

Strong is the key word, because ketchup bumped into mustard, causing another spill. That allowed ketchup to win the race.

I spoke with Alicia Kotarba, who was in the ketchup costume on what was a muggy Saturday afternoon at The K.

“It was totally accidental,” Kotarba said. “I have no idea what happened. I just knew I was trying to catch up to her at the very end. And she was in my way and I couldn’t run straight anymore. And I was like, if I’m gonna finish, I need her out of my way.

“If you look at the actual footage, she was running at a very clear diagonal where I had no way to the finish line.”

Does that argument pass muster? I’ll let you decide for yourself, but mustard was having none of it.

Sarah Poppa, who was in the mustard costume, evoked the brouhaha surrounding Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, who was shoved to the court during a game last week.

“Mustard here…I was Caitlin Clarked!” Poppa wrote on X.

This might have been the most contentious hot-dog race since Royals vice president of communications Sam Mellinger torched David Boyce and ESPN’s Jeff Passan back when Trey Hillman was managing in Kansas City.

But before anyone thinks the condiment racers hold a beef against one another, let it be known they are friends.

Kotarba, Poppa and Caroline Ross Canfield (relish) attended Notre Dame de Sion High School together.

“As a Kansas City native, it’s a lifelong dream of all three of us who were in this to do it,” said Kotarba, who is now Notre Dame de Sion’s president. “And may the best woman win and we were going to run as fast as we could.”

Kotarba said she and friends won the chance to take part of the hot-dog race at a silent auction at Sion.

My video of the race has gone viral with Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas weighing in on the finish.

“Seeing friends of mine whose random friends that I don’t even know were running polls about whether I should be disqualified,” Kotarba said. “Was it a shove or was she running in? And everyone’s just sending them to me like, do you know this person? Like, I have no idea who they are.

“But people found it entertaining, so I guess it was a victory all the way around.”