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The Brooklyn Paper claims that Takeru Kobayashi actually ate 65 hot dogs at his rooftop event in Manhattan instead of the claimed 69. A Yardbarker report (via Kobayashi twitter) about the event claims that "credentialled 'spies'" from Nathan's were responsible for the claims of a miscount, but does not name the spies or state what their credentials were. A video with an alternate superimposed has been uploaded to youtube. (via Darren Rovell twitter) update A Gothamist commenter claims that Kobayashi received a $15,000 appearance fee from 230 Fifth, more than Nathan's first place prize money.
The video played before Takeru Kobayashi's hot dog eating exhibition on July 4 documenting his travels and contests over the past year can be viewed online.
The Wall Street Journal's liveblog reports that Takeru Kobayashi was announced to have eaten 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes at his event in Manhattan today. update AOL Weird News and Deadspin have reports, DNAInfo has a slideshow and The Sports Yahoo has a video (via Gastroboy comment) update July 5 TMZ has a video of the entire event and WireImage has a gallery.
Deadspin on Kobayashi’s exile from MLE
Deadspin has a long piece about Kobayashi’s exile from Major League Eating. The most interesting in the blog entry may not be about Kobayashi, but about Joey Chestnut:
The Sheas have also rejected Chestnut when he’s wanted to branch out independently.
“They are hard to deal with at times,” he said.
The author sits in on a hot dog training session with Kobayashi, who hopes to have his own line of hot dogs. Kobayashi says that his “jawthritis” has prevented him from powerlifiting, leading to a loss of muscle mass.
The Daily has a video of Takeru Kobayashi demonstrating his hot dog eating techniques.
The Wall Street Journal's Metropolis blog has an entry about Takeru Kobayashi's hot dog eating event July 4 in Manhattan at 230 FIFTH. Jose Cuervo has a press release praising Kobayashi's independence and says it will give him a free trip to its tequila distillery in Mexico if he outeats the winner of the July 4 Coney Island contest.
Ken Hoffman of the Houston Chronicle calls Takeru Kobayashi's refusal to sign the IFOCE contract "union busting".
OC Chow has information about the Gringo Bandito Taco Challenge that Takeru Kobayashi will compete in. The contest will take place on August 3 in Huntington Beach, CA and award $5000 to the winner. update A website about the contest has been set up at http://www.tacocontest.com/
Time Out New York has an interview with Takeru Kobayashi about spending the night of July 4, 2010 in jail and his event on July 4 this year. updated with link to original interview
Flisted has an interview with Takeru Kobayashi which claims that he is prohibited from appearing near the Nathan's finals site. Kobayashi's advice to new competitive eaters: "do not sign bad contracts".
The Associated Press reports that Takeru Kobayashi will do an eating exhibition at a rooftop bar in Manhattan located at 230 Fifth Avenue during the 2011 Nathan's finals on July 4. update Kobayashi's blog has a press release about the event which will be open to the public. Kobayashi will eat in sync with the televised Nathan's contest.
Sportsbook.com is accepting bets on Takeru Kobayashi in the upcoming Nathan's finals even though he will almost certainly not compete. (Kobayashi has two non-IFOCE contests planned for August.) Sportbook.com also has Nathan's proposition bets on Eric "Badlands" Booker and Crazy Legs Conti who have yet to qualify for the finals.
Kobayashi announces that he will compete in the Gringo Bandito Hot Sauce eating contest on August 3 and face off against "Furious" Pete Czerwinski at PIE in Barrie, Ontario on August 21. Gringo Bandito considered an IFOCE taco eating contest in 2010, but plans did not come to fruition. update "Furious" Pete announces that he will also compete in the Gringo Bandito contest.
Takeru Kobayashi announces that he will compete in a contest somewhere on the west coast on August 3. Dexter Hollander of The Offspring will be involved in the contest.
Kobayashi outtake in SuperFreakonomics
The paperback version of SuperFreakonomics was released today. In 2008, co-author Stephen J. Duber wrote about attending the Nathan’s finals and dining with Kobayashi. The notes section of SuperFreakonomics reports that Dubner’s research was to be part of a chapter about how super talented individuals acquire their talent that was dropped from the published version when other books on that topic appeared. A screen capture of the notes appears after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
Joey Chestnut's victory at Dorney Park was not the only cheesesteak news this weekend. Takeru Kobayashi went to Tony Luke's and dined with Bill "El Wingador" Simmons. Another Philadelphia cheesesteak pilgrimage was made when Paul Wozniak went to Jim's Steaks to pay homage to his mother in law Lynda Kuerth eating 11 sandwiches in 1978 to set the house record, since broken by Bob Shoudt. He wore Lynda's 30+ year old Jim's Steaks T-shirt to the restaurant. (An article from 1978 mentioning the feat)
Takeru Kobayashi appeared in a video to promote what is billed as the first kosher hot dog eating contest.
Takeru Kobayashi reports that he is in serious training for a new unnamed event in August.
Kobayashi calls IFOCE contract a “slave contract”
AOL Weird News has an article about Takeru Kobayashi being removed from the Nathan’s “Wall of Fame” which includes the following statement from Kobayashi via his translator Maggie James:
By not signing their contract, they will erase you from the wall. They are not deep about the spirit of history. They do as they wish. They are not presenting a contract that protects the league as a whole. They only present individual slave contracts which control each player in their category of value. Nothing protects the sport.
A picture of the old wall with Kobayashi still appears on the Nathan’s Famous facebook page.
TMZ has pictures of Takeru Kobayashi with the world's smallest woman and the most pierced woman in the world taken at the recording of an Italian television program about Guinness record holders. Kobayashi has pictures of other record holders on his blog: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Kobayashi on Nathan’s 2010/11 in The Block Magazine
The Block Magazine has an interview with Takeru Kobayashi where he discusses the events at the 2010 Nathan’s finals in more depth than he previously has. Kobayashi’s participation in the 2011 contest appears unlikely:
Even if I were to win the competition [2011 Nathan’s], I don’t think I would feel good about participating in an event held by an organization that has such little respect for me. It wouldn’t be any fun.
Kobayashi will give a talk about his earthquake experience in Japan at the NY Presbyterian Church in Long Island City on Saturday. (via Li Jing twitter)
Competitive eaters & Japan charities
Takeru Kobayashi has set up a page on FirstGiving to facilitate donations to the Red Cross for Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief (via email).
Major League Eating donated $5,000 to Save the Children and will match donations by competitive eaters up to $5,000.
Adam Schefter of ESPN says he will continue to cover the NFL unless he is assigned to Takeru Kobayashi.
Kobayashi's girlfriend/translator Maggie was in the 12th floor of a building in Japan when the earthquake hit and has been posting updates since then at http://twitter.com/MaggieChatter
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