(From Krystal Lovers) There will be 4 hours of competitive eating reruns on ESPN2 Saturday night The programs will be one hour long instead of the half hour edited reruns which are often televised.

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OhnoZone.net, a fan blog for skater Apolo Anton Ohno, has a response to this website’s post about the ESPN.com poll

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An ESPN.com poll for the 5 members of the 2006 All-Sports team (which is still open) is the subject of a thread on a forum for fans of speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno. Some commenters helped put their hero in the #1 position in that poll and knock Kobayashi out of his early lead:

Whoa! You definitely CAN vote more than once, with rapid-fire! Just ‘refresh’ the voting results page and click ‘Retry’ when you get the message. I was able to vote again with just 2 clicks – about once per second. Within about 5 minutes I think I single-handedly brought David Eckstein from 1.3% to 1.4%! (Of course I voted for Apolo, too). (I know, I’m a techno-idiot, so if you already know this you can call me stupid – go ahead, I can take it…)

(A commenter on the thread thinks that Sonya Thomas should have been in the poll also)

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All competitive eating programs ever broadcast on ESPN (except for the US Open) will be rerun on ESPN2 starting at 2pm eastern:

2:00 2006 Brat Eating World Championship From Sheboygan, Wis. CC
2:30 2006 World Hamburger Eating Championship From Chattanooga, Tenn. CC
3:00 2004 Hot Dog Eating Contest At Coney Island, N.Y. CC
3:30 2005 Hot Dog Eating Contest At Coney Island, N.Y. CC
4:00 2006 Hot Dog Eating Contest At Coney Island, N.Y. CC

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from an email from Bruce “The Hangman” Pobanz:

Koby is CHOKING.

What a difference a day makes. With 398 Thousand votes already cast, Koby went from FIRST to FOURTH place and is falling fast.

Which FIVE athletes make up your 2006 All-SportsNation Team?

52.3% Apolo Anton Ohno: Speed skater won a gold and two bronze medals at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

44.0% Tiger Woods: Despite the loss of his father, finished 18 under par at the PGA Championship continuing his dominance of the field.

43.9% LaDanian Tomlinson: Explosive back is having the greatest offensive season ever by almost any standard.

43.9% Takeru Kobayashi: World hot dog eating champion (53 3/4) now holds the record for hamburgers (97). What will he scarf down next?

43.0% Reggie Bush: Heisman trophy winner has shown flashes of brilliance in the NFL, scoring four touchdowns against the 49ers.

Go to http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/ballot?event_id=2646 to vote before Koby suffers a reversal and is DQ’ed to 6TH place.

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Takeru Kobayashi appears on ESPN.com’s ballot for the All SportsNation Team along with names like LeBron James, LaDanian Tomlinson and Zinadine Zidane. The top five vote getters will be named to the team.

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The episode of Cheap Seats using footage from the 2004 Nathan’s finals will be rerun at 4pm eastern on ESPN Classic. Cheap Seats will not appear on ESPN Classic after tomorrow, so this is your last chance to see it.

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Not only will the Krystal Square Off finals be televised on ESPN2 on October 28 at 4pm eastern, 1pm Pacific, it will be followed by reruns of the two other televised contests: The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest finals and the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest. The Krystal Square Off finals will be rerun on Oct 29 on ESPN at 3pm eastern, noon Pacific.

I was afraid that the Krystal Square Off program would be preceded by a game that would run long and eat into the broadcast time, but a college football scoreboard show is scheduled before, so if the noon football game runs long, the scoreboard show will be truncated and the Krystal Square Off should start as scheduled.

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I will be teleblogging the broadcast of the Sheboygan Bratfest. It looks like the Hall of Fame induction ceremony will run long.

4:08 – the Reggie White induction is still going on, the whole broadcast will be shown on ESPN2 at 7

5:12 – the telecast has been completely pre-empted. I will try to watch the rerun on ESPN2 at 7.

7:03 – The broadcast opens with a history of the bratwurst festival. The weather report reads “You never sausage a nice day”

7:05 – Footage of Kobayashi working out is shown. Rich Shea predicts 2 eaters will break 50 brats. Sonya is interviewed and said her not being a favorite means less pressure for her.

7:09 – The announced attendance is 5,000. The ways to qualify are listed, which do not say the top 5 ranked get an automatic invitation. Footage of Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti at the qualifier is shown.

7:13 – The world’s largest grill is shown and the preparation method is explained.

7:19 – More bratfest history. A sausage making machine is shown. The first festival was held in 1953.

7:21 – Bratwurst techniques are explained. Chip Simpson is dispayed even though he did not qualify to my recollection.

7:24 – Profile of Joey Chestnut. He drinks a lot of water and has a “capacity run” at least once a week.

7:30 – The top 5 money winners are listed. Kobayashi’s earnings are listed at $100,000 even though I think he has not done any Japanese contest.

7:31 – El Toro, Conti, Bertoletti and Janus are briefly interviewed.

7:34 – Introductions, Thomas Denure (Georgetown, WI) , P J Kim (Princeton undergrad), Damon Serignet, Tim Brown (Chicago), Jim Hamrick, Frank Wach, El Toro Jiminez, Erik Denmark, Crazy Legs Conti (wearing a cheese necklace), Rich “the Locust” LeFevre, Tim Janus (carrying handlebars, claimed that Jennifer Annison gave him a gift basket because Vince Vaughn is an eating fan), Bob Shoudt, Pat Bertoletti (“You Talking to Meat” sign), Joey Chestnut, Takeru Kobayashi, Sonya Thomas (wearing the same orange shorts from Nathan’s).

7:45 – the contest starts – no running total (or even a clock) is displayed 🙁

7:47 – the running total is shown – Sonya is 5th , Kobayashi has a 1 – 2 lead over Joey

7:48 – quarter in Koby, Joey, Pat, Bob & Sonya is top 5

7:49 – 6 minutes left, Kobayashi’s lead is now 5/6 brats

7:50 – more helmetcam from P. J. Kim

7:51 – Kobayashi is at 36 at the halfway point

7:52 – Koby 41, Joey 34 with 4 minutes left

7:53 – Rich Shea claims Sonya has a mental block

7:54 – P.J. Kim is interviewed down 42 to 7

7:54 – 25% left Koby 47, Joey 38 Janus has passed Sonya for 5th

7:55 – Sonya is back in 5th, Koby’s lead reaches double digits

7:56 – Final results Koby 58, Joey 45 (who must “learn to love himself” to win Krystal), Pat 38

7:59 – a big check is passed to Kobayashi – he says he could eat more

8:00 – Joey is interviewed – he says he didn’t prepare for this contest like Nathan’s and says he will win Krystal.

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The Johnsonville Bratwurst contest from Sheboygan, WI will be televised on ESPN starting at 4 pm eastern (I think the contest itself will be tape delayed) The program will last an hour and it will be interesting to see what fills the remaining 50 minutes. The contest will be rerun twice on ESPN2.

From Yahoo TV

2006 Brat Eating World Championship
ESPN Aug 05 04:00pm
Special/Sports, 60 Mins.

* 2006 Brat Eating World Championship – Final, ESPN2 Aug 05 07:00pm
* 2006 Brat Eating World Championship – Final, ESPN2 Aug 06 02:00am

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The Sheboygan Press reports that ESPN will broadcast the finals of the Johnsonville Bratwurst contest on August 5 at 4 pm Eastern. Kobayashi will compete in the contest. Press Release

Updated 1:34 PM – registration for the 20 person lottery for the last five entrants to that contest is now open.

7/13 1:31 AM – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article

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ESPN360 has made the full video of the entire Nathan’s finals available at http://broadband.espn.go.com/ivp/splash?ceid=2509202
(At least it is available in theory, it hangs up on me before any footage is displayed. Maybe it will work better tonight when traffic is lighter.)

While waiting for the video to display, you can vote in ESPN’s poll asking what item could you most easily eat 54 of.

From Food Fighter Fan: cyberfyber has uploaded video to youtube he filmed of the contest and yesterday’s weigh in. His contest footage gives an idea of what was going on with all the eaters.

Contest Part I
Contest Part II
Weigh-In Part I
Weigh-In part II
Joey-Kobayashi stare down

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Thanks Andrew skinnyboy Lane. The 2006 Nathan’s finals will be rerun 6 times on ESPN and ESPN2 next week and the 2005 finals will be broadcast on July 3 and 6. A full list of time is available after the jump. Times are in the Eastern Time Zone.

Read the rest of this entry »

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(Thanks Brian Subich) In Monday’s episode of Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic, at 7:30pm and 11:30 pm eastern, the Sklar brothers will offer commentary on the Alka Seltzer 2005 US Open of Competitive Eating.

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nbc30 has an article, gallery and video of Pat Bertoletti at Friday’s goldenpalace.net ice cream contest. The article confuses pounds with gallons.

ESPN displayed a very brief clip of Pat Bertoletti (1 second at most) at the goldenpalace.net ice cream eating contest was shown on the Monday night / Tuesday morning Sportcenter. There might have been a longer video on an earlier edition of sportscenter.

Pat Bertoletti was also named athlete of the week by a Saint Louis Post Dispatch columnist.

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ESPN.com’s Page 2 has a list of its top five articles for 2004-2005 which includes an article on the 2005 Wing Bowl, “The Worst Event Ever” by Jim Caple.

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“Cheap Seats” is a show on ESPN classic which aims to be the sports equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The program stars two comedians who watch old footage of minor sports and make comments they consider humerous. The third season of “Cheap Seats” opens Monday at 10 pm eastern and will feature Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating contest. It is not stated what year’s contest will be used, but it will be either 2004 or 2005 since those are the only two years that ESPN has broadcast the event. The show is 30 minutes so probably only the actual contest will be rerun with none of the accompanying profiles. If the “Cheap Seats” comedians are having writers block thinking of witty insults about IFOCE members, AICE would probably be happy to contribute some.

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Kieran Darcy has a list of the top 10 gluttons in sports on ESPN.com’s Page 2 in which Kobayashi is ranked #1. William “Refrigerator” Perry is #6, which is probably unmerited based on his quitting the 2003 Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest after 5 minutes having just eaten four hot dogs. Darcy also has a list of the top 10 most non-gluttonous athletes. A claim could be made that Sonya Thomas belongs on that list because she eats just one meal a day, exercises 2 hours a day and weighs less than 105 pounds.

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