CLEVELAND — Tell me why!
That's the question many Cleveland Guardians fans found themselves asking on Tuesday after the Twitter account for the team's Hot Dog mascots revealed that it had been taking part in a seven-month-long pranking.
Dating back to last November, the first word of every post from the account has been one of the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys' 1999 hit "I Want it That Way" -- in reverse order. The elaborate scheme reached its conclusion on Tuesday, when @CLEHotDogs posted a tweet that began with the first word of the song, "Yeah."
"Yeah, we did it!!!!!!" the account posted. "Hey @backstreetboys fans, check out the first word of our last 232 tweets dating back to November 6th! There might be something special waiting for you!"
Guardians fans responded to the post with shock, awe, and amazement, including 3News' Austin Love, who's no stranger to the hot dogs' antics.
This isn't the first time the Guardians' Hot Dogs have found themselves in the spotlight.
Last year, the mascot trio made headlines when Mustard started the season 0-75 -- and was even demoted to the minor leagues -- in the fifth-inning hot dog race against Ketchup and Onion. Mustard finally won its first race of 2022 during the Guardians' final homestand of the regular season, but not before Austin launched an investigation into the chicanery at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.
Ahead of this season's home opener, the Guardians unveiled a championship belt for its 2023 Hot Dog Derby races. As of Monday, Mustard has won a season-high 12 races, compared to Onion's eight and Ketchup's seven.