American Madness

It’s that time of year again, tomorrow is the Fourth of July, meaning it is also time for Nathan’s Famous 4th of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. As per usual it will be at Coney Island and airing on ESPN, both at Noon.

The contestants for this year are a line up of the usual suspects including Joey Chestnut (the reigning champ), Tim ‘Eater X’ Janus, Sonya ‘The Black Widow’ Thomas, Crazy Legs Conti, and Takeru ‘The Tsunami’ Kobayashi.

Now here is the scandal that is rocking the competitive eating world right now: To qualify for the competition you must win a regional qualifier (unless you are the reigning champ, Joey Chestnut got a bye). Despite his impressive 6 first place finishes (from 2001-2006) and his second place finish last year, Kobayashi has not actually participated in a contest since October and has not competed in any of the regional qualifiers for the event. (more…)

Let the outing begin. We know who Client 9 is, and thanks to the Daily News we can now put a (hideous) face on Client 6 (editor’s note, original post had him labeled as Client 5, this was found to be incorrect). Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your viewing pleasure, The Duke of Westminster:

From the New York Daily News, we learn the world’s 46th richest person was not just a member of Emperors Club, he was also a client, having paid for the services of four hookers in 2006 and early 2007.

Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor apparently was tight fisted, as he had to haggle with the girls, this according to Lithuanian prostitute Zana Brazdek.

And it would appear Sir Beefcake liked to request “dangerous” services (i.e. - forgoing the glove).

Which leads me to mention this story I found in the San Jose Mercury News:

Study: 26 percent of female teens have a sexually transmitted disease

Have you been reading some of the competitive eating articles I’ve posted and thought: “I bet I could do that. How hard can it be?”

I think that every now and then while watching competitive eaters. I know I can eat a lot if I have an appetite or not, and if they are eating the right food there are times where I think I could be a competitor, like with Buffalo Wings or Sushi. The I’ll watch something like the Glutton Bowl where the winners ate things like 7 sticks (almost 2lbs) of butter or 128 oz of mayonaisse (about 8lbs worth) and I my gag reflex is triggered just considering it.

But anyway, that is beyond the point, for those of you who think you could be a viable competitor in the world of Competitive Eating and live in the New York area (or are willing to travel to test your chops) there is the 4th Annual Dumpling Eating Contest on August 5th during the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival held in Flushing Meadows. Contestant will have 2 minutes to eat as many dumplings as the possibly can, trying to beat the record of 49 dumplings for men or 33 for women. Even if you can’t stuff that 50th dumpling into your mouth to beat the record, if you make a good showing and place in the top 3 there are cash prizes. The registration deadline is July 31st, so call to enter now!

As I have been blogging on it for the last two weeks I figured it was only fitting to follow up as well with the finally:

In an incredible competition last week Joey Chestnut downed 66 Nathan’s Hot Dogs in 12 minutes (or about 1 every 11 seconds), beating out the odds on favorite Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi and breaking his own record of 59 1/2, set only last month.

Kobasyashi made a nice showing putting away a total of 63 hot dogs even with a “reversal” at the end (which ESPN has the good grace of repeating in slow motion once or twice, not counting what may have appeared on SportsCenter).

Thus ends Kobayashi’s reign, though he vowed to return for the 2008 competition.

New York Roomates Eater X and Crazy Legs Conti ate 43.5 (4th) and 23.5 (13th) hot dogs a piece.

You can watch the full competition in all it’s glory on YouTube:

First Half
Second Half

(Also, you know it was a slow sports week since ESPN showed the Hot Dog Eating Competition, followed by the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee and then on Saturday had the Rock Paper Scissors Championship*)

*Evan O’Dorney, 13, from CA won the Spelling Bee (which actually occurred on May 31st) and I couldn’t find much info on the Rock Paper Scissors Championship, but the 2007 championship will be held on Oct 13th in Ontario Canada, tickets are on sale now.

So you may have noticed that I reported yesterday that The Tsunami, Kobayashi, might not compete in this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest on July 4th.

Well, I was wrong, he is competing. According to his manager, Kobayashi will definitely be competing in the competition. He wants to honor his mother, who passed away in March. During his trip to the U.S. he will also be the draw in the Pizza Hut P’Zone Challenge, where folks get the honor of going head-to-head against The Tsunami in a pizza eating competition, as long as they can explain in 50 words or less why they feel that they should be chosen to go up against him.

Kobayashi has big plans while he is here, let’s hope that the rehab he has done with his jaw this week will be enough to make him a real competitor this year so we can see some serious records broken in the match-up between him and Joey Chestnut. There still remain the skeptics who question whether Kobayashi actually had any jaw injury or not and was just making an excuse in case he looses to Chestnut.

Seriously though, how do you become a competitive eater and still maintain six-pack abs?

In the world of competitive eating, few names are as big as Takeru “the Tsunami” Kobayashi; though, this year Joey Chestnut has been giving him a run for his money, breaking the Tsunami’s record in a qualifying event. All eyes were turned to the official Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championships to be held at Coney Island on July 4th to determine if Chestnut has what it takes to take down the Tsunami.

Unfortunately it is looking questionable if Kobayashi will be competing this year. During training for this years competition, looking to break Chestnut’s record, Kobayashi started to feel jaw pain and reached the point where he could no longer close his mouth. He has been diagnosed with jaw arthritis. While he hopes to be able to compete, it is questionable if he will be at his full eating potential.

Some say it is the fear of going up against Joey Chestnut that is getting to him, some are concerned for his health and well being. Kobayashi has been one of the bigger faces in the competitive eating circuit, currently holding the world records for hamburgers, bratwurst sausages, lobster rolls, cows’ brains and rice balls amongst other things.

In other competitive eating news, New York has a little piece on Eater X and Crazy Legs Conti, New York room-mates who are popular faces on the competitive eating circuit as well and will both be representing New York in this year’s championships.