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For some, beer pong stakes are high
Peter Rusch, left, plays beer pong in a tournament at El Guapo Cantina in Los Angeles. Rusch is one of the organizers behind a Labor-Day weekend tournament with a $10,000 prize.
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Steve Chiotakis: Mark this on your calendar: beer pong season starts tomorrow. Unless you're just out of college, you may not even know what that is. Beer pong is a drinking game turned quasi-sport with big prize money up for grabs. And it's inspired nearly a hundred different leagues across the country. We sent Marketplace's Jeff Tyler to do a little "research" at a local bar. He filed this report.
Mark: I need three in a row.
Jeff Tyler: The rules are simple: Two players square off across a table. In front of each one are 10 plastic cups about a third full of beer. Players take turns tossing ping-pong balls at their rival's cups. When the ball goes in, the opposing player drinks the beer and removes the cup. The last player with cups on the table wins.
At El Guapo Cantina in Los Angeles, 22-year-old Harley Conner paid $10 to enter a beer pong tournament.
Harley Conner: It's not too much, because that includes the beer that we get to play with.
For serious players, beer pong is about sport, not drinking. Losers do more of that, consuming about one beer per game. A tournament in Southern California this weekend has a $10,000 prize.
Organizer Peter Rusch says the money gives beer pong legitimacy. People:
Peter Rusch: Take the game seriously. And not just an issue of getting intoxicated.
Tyler: Not just.
Rusch: Not just.
Other tournaments offer even bigger prizes:
Rusch: The World Series is for $50,000. There's definitely people out there that sit at home and throw ping-pong balls hoping to get better, hoping to win that money.
Dan DiSorbo co-authored "The Book of Beer Pong." He also has a Web site that sells merchandise, like his "ultimate kit."
Dan DiSorbo: It has the cups, the balls, a rack to hold the cups so it avoids spillage. That goes for $15.
This year, he's sold almost two million beer-pong balls and another two million cups.
The owner of the El Guapo Cantina, who goes by the single name Butler, says his Sunday tournaments bring in a lot of extra business.
Butler: They drink on the side, aAnd then when other customers come into the bar, it looks like a crowded, happening place.
Plus, Butler picks-up money playing competitively.
Butler: I won 10 grand in a tournament last week. And overall, you win about a thousand bucks every week just playing pick-up cash games.
Pick-up games aren't enough for the faithful. Fans are circulating a petition to make beer pong an Olympic sport.
In Los Angeles, I'm Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.
I appreciate the diversity of stories found on marketplace. I have listened since '92 as a young boy with my father and grateful your stories are centered around different age groups. This is a great example of the breadth of stories presented--makes me want to go practice beer pong
As a result of this story, I now will no longer listen to Marketplace - either the morning report or any other drivel that APM and this show's producers choose for us to hear. This is not news, this isn't even important. Shame on you for thinking that this was something that educated people would need to hear about.
I was appalled by this "story" which I don't think is "news" -- Our local paper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel rana series earlier this year, "Wasted in Wisconsin" in which the victim of someone drving DWI was killed. There were 72 accounts, one for each of the 72 counties in the state. Wisconsin has a terrible drinking problem, including, I understand, underage drinking and driving.
Please, we do not need more accounts of drinking as a "sport" or in tournamaents or for money! The series is available on www.jsonline.com under "Special Reports." I suggest that your "reporter" and the staff who worked on the beer pong piece read all of the series ASAP!
With all due respect, Mrs. Talarico, beer Pong and a beer Bong are two very different things. During beer pong, one is asked to drink about 3 sips of beer at one time. A beer Bong forces the drinker to take in anywhere from 2-5 full cans of beer at one time without stopping. My guess is that your son aspirated as a result of the latter, which is a terrible tragedy, however it would be nearly impossible for one to aspirate while drinking during a beer pong game.
I was very sad to hear your coverage about beer bong. Our beloved 20 year old son died five years ago playing this very game as sport. He aspirated. Your story should have been more balanced to explain the dangers to this so called game/sport. The idea that this could be played to win money sickens me. My son was a very competitive athelete. He played football and was the captain of his football team. He won the beer bong game and lost his life. I listen to public broadcasting all the time and expect a more balanced view. Please report about the dangers of this beer bong game. Thank you.
