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A video of Thursday’s Nathan’s qualifier at the QVC studio can be seen at http://youtube.com/watch?v=aaYPM12UizE
The New York Times has an article assessing Kobayashi’s impact on competitive eating.
If Kobayashi loses, the contest runs the risk of losing its marquee star.
“People are attracted to the game by individuals, but then they become more familiar with the game and so there’s a path from being a fan of an individual to being a fan of the sport,†Mandelbaum said. “But I’m not sure if people watch this for the same reason people watch sports.â€
Ruth passed the mantle of stardom in baseball to Lou Gehrig, among others, leaving baseball significantly stronger than it was when he started. Time will show whether the interest in hot dog-eating competitions will continue, but having Chestnut around to succeed Kobayashi may be important to keep fans watching.
Historical weather data from JFK airport (which presumably is the same as the weather on Coney Island) is available at wunderground.com. Using this archive, it is difficult to discern any connection between the weather and Kobayashi’s performance at the Nathan’s finals.
(weather data is from approximately 12:50 pm)
2001 50 HDB 71.1 °F / 21.7 °C 93% humidity, overcast
2002 50.5 HDB 96.1 °F / 35.6 °C 40% humidity, partly cloudy
2003 44.5 HDB 81.0 °F / 27.2 °C 72% humidity, clear
2004 53.5 HDB 77.0 °F / 25.0 °C 64% humidity, mostly cloudy
2005 49 HDB 78.1 °F / 25.6 °C 48% humidity, scattered clouds
2006 53.75 HDB 84.9 °F / 29.4 °C 65% humidity, haze
Brian Seiken has uploaded a video of his 2 minute exhibition with Arturo Rios, Jr. on New York cable to http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/msg.html
A listing of the Japanese top 30 places “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho” at #19 in its first week of release.
(From AICE news) Ian Hickman will be interviewed on Mix 103.7 tomorrow morning at 8:35 am eastern. The interview can be listened to online at http://mix1037.com/
Jeannie Moos, who does reports about New York City for CNN, did a segment about Kobayashi’s possible absence from the Nathan’s finals which can be seen at http://www.cnn.com/offbeat/ (video will probably be available only on June 27) Joey Chestnut calls in with a phone interview.
On ESPN’s Sportcenter, several analysts in various sports provided commentary about Kobayashi’s jaw arthritis. Dave “MegaMunch” Shoffner provided a transcription for that segment which follows after the jump.
Jason Fagone did an interview for Metro about his thoughts about Kobayashi’s condition and health issues for competitive eaters:
Are jaw arthritis or other similar problems common among competitors whose careers revolve around shoving ungodly amounts of food down their throats?
Sonya [“The Black Widow†Thomas] complains a lot about her jaw, or at least she did while I was reporting the book. She feels that one of the big bottlenecks in her game is her jaw strength. She’s also kind of insecure about her speed of swallowing. She tells this story to reporters about trying to eat many hard-boiled eggs on stage in front of a lot of people. … She had this terrible moment of seizing up and thinking she was going to choke and die in front of a lot of people. She powered through and she managed to eat some absurd amount of hard-boiled eggs.
(From Nathan Biller) In Jim Caple’s rankings of 101 sporting events for ESPN.com, the Nathan’s finals are #94. The Wing Bowl is #9 on the list of the top 10 events to avoid.
From an email from Brian Seiken:
Around 5-6PM EST SNY the mets station on cable tv will show MLE hot dog exhibition live . Rios myself and possibly Shredder will take part in i think a one or two minute eatoff. on June 27th tommorow Thought i would pass it on.
Newsday reports that Kobayashi’s request for assistance have resulted in him finding a suitable medical professional to treat his condition:
On Tuesday, his United Food Fighters Organization said on its Web site that Kobayashi has found a doctor he can trust and was “creating an environment in which he can dedicate himself to healing.”
“The contest is coming up soon, and we’d happy if everyone kept him in their thoughts,” the group wrote.
The information originally appeared on Kobayashi’s news page
There will not be a MLE event on Spike TV in the second quarter of 2007, but there will be a competitive eating themed program on this week when the episode of CSI about the death of a competitive eater, which originally ran Thanksgiving weekend 2005, is rerun on Thursday at 7pm eastern
IFOCE.com reports that Kobayashi’s injury status is listed as “day to day”
Other links
ABC Sports
Deadspin
Brian Seiken has started a page devoted to what he considers mistakes by MLE. The first entries deal with problems at the Shoo Fly Pie contest and Zoo Atlanta Nathan’s qualifier.
Brian Seiken has a video of the entire Molly Pitcher qualifier along with his appearance on WB 11 at http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/pitcherwrap.html
Steakbellie has a gallery of the contest
Wackbag.com has a forum thread devoted to Philbin’s victory
In his most recent blog entry, Kobayashi reports that he is suffering from temporomandibular joint disorder (which is translated from Japanese as gnathal arthropathy), making opening his mouth difficult (automatically translated):
As for the gnathal arthropathy for the food fighter, if you refer to the baseball, kind of those where the pitcher breaks down the elbow.
Speaking honestly, the finishing the fact that it makes cure almost is desperate circumstance to the conference July 4th.
Say, not to be story of the conference of Nathan’s, the serious problem which relates to also future activity.
It is the fatal wound.
In order to cure, repose and long-term remedy are necessary.
update France24 has a translation of Kobayashi’s blog entry
A clip with scenes from the making of the “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho” video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dLN3vQsfaM
A slide show set to “Onno no Ultra”, the B-side of “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho”, can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8oYxKXhKlI
(from Dan Cesareo) A clip of next month’s “Science of Speed Eating” documentary on the National Geographic channel is available on the documentary producer’s website, bigfishdc.com
Contest footage from last summer’s Waffle House contest, Cherokee ribs, and Atlanta Zoo qualifier appears in the preview.
update The clip can be downloaded directly from http://bigfishdc.com/BIG%20FISH/Our%20Work_files/Speedeaters_web.mov
Newsday reports that Nathan’s quarterly earnings increased almost 100% between 2006 and 2007:
Westbury-based Nathan’s, which started as a nickel hot-dog stand in Coney Island in 1916, said it earned $1.2 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 25, compared with earnings of $630,000 in the same period a year ago.
The company said sales in the quarter were $9.8 million, up from $8.7 million in the year-ago period.
A letter to the Brooklyn Paper disputes Gersh Kuntzman’s assertion that Joey Chestnut’s mark of 59.5 received assistance from the Arizona Mills air conditioning:
Gersh is spreading lies — like the one that air-conditioning has a major effect on competitive eaters. It’s false! These eaters have been training — and air conditioning, let me assure you, is not a big factor.
Capacity is the only issue, and air conditioning does not change that.
The author lives in North Carolina, so he had the ability to show off his hot weather hot dog eating expertise at Concord Mills.
Congratulations to Brian Seiken on ten years in competitive eating. He has uploaded a video from his first contest, the Oceanside Nathan’s qualifier on June 21, 1997.
An alternate video for “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho”, set in a candy universe can be seen at http://www.veoh.com/videos/v661588CK67feBz
CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell, who appeared on the Nathan’s finals telecast when he was with ESPN, wrote a blog entry on whether the WWE faking Vince McMahon’s death is grounds for a lawsuit from WWE shareholders. The WWE responded to Rovell’s analysis by pronouncing him a suspect in McMahon’s “murder”.
A 24 minute long video of Natsuko “Gal” Sone competing against a 7 man team (who eat one at a time) in eating a 7 course meal can be seen at http://www.veoh.com/videos/v656058PcZZJK9w
update The contest can also be seen on youtube at http://youtube.com/results?search_query=%22gal+sone%22+%22g%40ki%22&search=
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