(from Baseball Think Factory) The Pittsburgh Pirates blog Mondesi’s House has a report about watching yesterday’s game from the section offering all you can eat food. The blogger actually only saw the last seven innings of the game because the first trip to the refreshment stand required waiting in line 30 minutes.

My final tally: a burger, two hot dogs, an order of nachos, and three Diet Pepsis. It’s not much more than I’d eat at a family cookout, especially spread over three hours.

Actually, I didn’t see much “abuse” from the AYCE customers. It’s not as if there was some enormous guy walking back and forth the entire game with four burgers in his hand at all times. The speed of the line clearly discourages a lot of people. Some employees looked like they were trying to keep up with the crush; others looked like they were moving in suuuuper—slooooow—-motion.

• AOL FanHouse responds to Canadian Catholic newspaper’s criticism of the eating contest held on Mike & Mike in the Morning (The first competitive eating post on FanHouse since Sonya Thomas oversaw a contest at a Washington Capitals game)
• Hall Hoover begins selling T shirts
• May 24 Pittsburgh Nathan’s qualifier to take place at Greensburg Sam’s Club
• Something for the 2005 commenter who wanted more posts about female Hollywood celebrities
• Pittsburgh area hot wing contest today (from “Bubba”)
• All you can eat seats at Minnesota Twins games Monday and Tuesday
• 68 year old German man, Heinz Asthoff, eats up to 12,000 calories a day without gaining weight (translated German article)
• Video of Takuya Yamamoto and Tomoko Miyake attempting eating challenges

• York (PA) Revolution to offer all you can eat seats where you can enjoy the company of former Baltimore Orioles
• Japanese commercial featuring a ramen eating contest
• Pat Bertoletti posts a picture of a hot dog training session (see above) to a yardbarker comment (The Waffle House belt is to remind Pat that Joey can be beat)
• Kansas State Games to have a hot dog eating contest July 18
• UK hot dog eating contest May 23
• Twins closer Joe Nathan to appear (but not compete) at tomorrow’s Nathan’s qualifier
• Today is Cookie Jarvis’ birthday according to a comment
• Furious Pete has posted an article about the Collegiate Nationals to bodybuilding.com
• China and the Philippines ban conversion of rice paddies to golf courses (via Freakonomics)
• Chicago Nathan’s qualifier next weekend to take place in Matteson
  

• Lake Tahoe jalapeno eating contest May 3, $150 first prize
• San Diego Tribune front page story about the Collegiate Nationals draws criticism
• Minnesota Twins have AYCE tickets for May 19/20
• “Furious” Pete reports eating 50 wings in 3 minutes
• “Doughman” triathlon / eating contest in Durham, NC May 24
• Crocodile Egg eating contest in Thailand

• Juliet Lee has updated her WriteNow page with information about her last two contests
• Hall Hunt says the press release for the sweet corn eating contest announces that Sonya Thomas, Crazy Legs Conti and Joe LaRue will compete
• Wing Tut wants the next UEPa meeting to take place in the Pittsburgh Pirates AYCE section
• Steakbellie has thoughts about the new rankings, the MLE video game and Nathan’s
• Wing Kong also has thoughts on Nathan’s
• Charlotte Nascar track to offer AYCE seats (from the Hangman)
• Dan Rubenstein, who is traveling around the country producing videos for Sports Illustrated, competes in the qualifier for the Collegiate Nationals

Sun Sentinel has an article about Hall Hunt and Joe LaRue viewing a recent Miami Heat game in the all you can eat section. Hall wrote a blog entry about his trip south. Both Hunt and LaRue are expected to compete in the corn eating contest next week.

• Deadspin on the Collegiate Nationals
  
• Mike Golic receives a bib from a fan for his upcoming contest
• “Eating Levi” gets into the Newport Beach Film Festival
• NPR podcast on all you can eat sections at ballparks
• Milk Bone eating contest for humans
• Parody of a hot dog eating contest documentary

Registration for Nathan’s qualifiers opens at noon eastern today

Added 11:15 pm

• Article about “Furious” Pete Czerwinski in which he attempts to break his personal record for a 72 ounce steak
• “Black Day” eating contest for South Korean lovelorn
• Leader board for journalists in the Oakland A’s all you can eat section (PG rated pictures) via Deadspin

(From Baseball Think Factory) InsideBayArea.com has an article about viewing an Oakland A’s game from the all you can eat section of McAfee Coliseum. The reporter dined with Eric Louie, who competed in the 2007 asparagus eating contest. Louie consumed 12 hot dogs during the game and wrote an article about his trip to the ballpark. FreelanceNews.com also has an article about the section.

In other competitive eating Oakland A’s news, Joey Chestnut throwing out the first pitch in a July 2007 A’s game is still the top story on CompetitiveEatingEvents.com

Sports Illustrated recently made its entire archive free. Some competitive eating articles from the last 5 years follow:

• 2008 - article about Wing Bowl 16
• 2007 - Rick Reilly dines with Joey Chestnut in the LA Dodgers all you can eat section
• 2007 - Nathan’s preview about Joey Chestnut
• 2007 - list of IFOCE records
• 2006 - paragraph about planned Wing Bowl movie
• 2006 - Steve Rushin column containing the “degree of a lazy susan” metaphor
• 2004 - post-Nathan’s article

I considered compiling a list of Major League Baseball teams offering all you can eat tickets, but since USA Today has already done that, here is a list of some (but probably not all) minor league teams with AYCE tickets. Please let me know if there are any I have missed.

Lancaster, CA - AYCE Monday tickets are $10
Colorado Springs, CO - AYCE Picnic terrace is $22 ($20 on Tuesdays)
Norwich, CT - AYCE Thursdays
Port St. Lucie, FL - Monday AYCE tickets are $11.99
Rome, GA - $25 AYCE tickets available for all dates
Florence, KY - AYCE Mondays
Springfield, MO - AYCE “Redbird Roost” tickets for $23.50
Hickory, NC - AYCE picnics for groups of 20 or more
Manchester, NH - package tickets for 8 games including AYCE food $16 per game
Lakewood, NJ - package of AYCE tickets to 9 Thursday home games available for $126
Buffalo, NY - packet of AYCE tickets to six games can be purchased for $126
Akron, OH - AYCE picnics available for groups of 25 or more
Mahonig Valley, OH - $17 AYCE Mondays
Oklahoma City, OK - $20 AYCE tickets, $65 for 4
Salem-Keizer, OR - AYCE buffet available for $9.50 additional
Reading, PA - AYCE food can be added to any ticket
Reading, PA - 6 AYCE Ribfests in April and May
Kodak (Knoxville), TN - pregame AYCE buffet available for $9
Corpus Christi, TX - Wednesday AYCE tickets - $19
Midland, TX - AYCE birthday parties available
Ogden, UT - $20 AYCE tickets - also includes a T shirt
Beloit, WI - AYCE tickets any day are available for $25

(Via AOL FanHouse) USA Today has an article about and list of Major League Baseball teams that are offering tickets including all you can eat food. At least 13 of the 30 MLB teams are offering some AYCE tickets.

So how much food do fans in these seats consume?

Ron Ranieri, general manager of concessionaire Aramark at Atlanta’s Turner Field, calculates that a typical all-you-can-eat customer downed: 3.35 hot dogs; one 20-ounce soda; one 7.9-ounce bag of peanuts; one 3-ounce order of nachos and 32 ounces of popcorn.

A press release announces that the Norwich (Connecticut) Defenders will sell tickets to Thursday games that will include all you can eat hamburgers/cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pretzels, and popcorn along with sodas and hot beverages. Tickets will cost $15 for adults and $12 for children. Ed “Cookie” Jarvis will appear at the opening game on April 3 to promote the tickets:

To help introduce this great money saving package, Professional Speed Eater, Ed “Cookie” Jarvis will be adding to the Opening Day festivities, showcasing his incredible eating abilities. Jarvis captured 30 eating titles from 2001-06 including Nathan’s Famous French Fry Eating Contest in 2005 where “Cookie” tackled 4.46 pounds of the famous krinkle cut fries in six minutes. One lucky fan will get to compete against Cookie in a one minute eating contest. Jarvis will be signing autographs and posing for photos throughout the game courtesy of Courant ValuMail.