Voting for the first round of the Philadelphia City Paper’s “Philly Madness” has concluded, and the Wing Bowl has lost to The Philadelphia International Cycling Championship by a margin of 43% to 57%.

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The Philadelphia City Paper is running a tournament of Philadelphia related items called “Philly Madness”. The Wing Bowl is currently losing (game 30) to The Philadelphia International Cycling Championship 53% – 47%

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Observer-Reporter has an article about last night’s pierogie eating contest held at the Men’s Culinary Classic in Washington County, PA that was MCed by Crazy Legs Conti. Zach O’Brien won with 18 pierogies in 6 minutes.

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Kotaku illustrates post about MLE game with picture of Gal Sone, who will probably not be in the game
Joystiq thread about MLE game
AICE sets up page about Collegiate Nationals
PittsburghLive.com article about pierogi contest to be MCed by Crazy Legs Conti
Somebody purchased SurfAndStillwell.com and might put a website there.
MegaMunch has a post about his office pizza contest
Come for the baseball stay for the food – Pittsburgh Pirates start all you can eat ticket (via the Big Lead)

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Philly.com reports that the Phillies training camp and the world of competitive eating continue to intersect a week after making a fake trade for a “Kobayashi”:

Moments after learning that his big off-season acquisition would require knee surgery and probably won’t be ready for opening day, Pat Gillick huddled in his office with Charley Kerfeld, one of his top lieutenants, yesterday afternoon.

The laptop computer was open, and Gillick was reading aloud when a reporter entered the room.

Scouting report?

Uh, not really.

Gillick was captivated by the story of a Michigan restaurant that had a 134-pound burger on its menu. Apparently, it took three men to flip the sucker.

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Observer-Reporter announces that Crazy Legs Conti will emcee and judge a pierogi eating contest in Washington County, Pennsylvania at the Men’s Culinary Classic on March 8. The contest will be 6 minutes long and it is not stated if the competition will be IFOCE sanctioned.

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Megamunch has a backstage video of Wing Bowl 16 he recorded in the corridors of the Wachovia Center.

There are over 60 youtube videos labeled with “Wing Bowl 16” This link will bring them up.

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A website about the Wing Bowl 13 documentary “Swallow Your Pride” has been set up at http://www.swallowyourpridefilm.com/ The site has a trailer and a page with “eater cards” about the six competitors featured in the film.

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Megamunch has written a blog entry about Wing Bowl 16 and his attempts at pre-contest tailgating. He was forced to migrate between 4 different parking lots before entering the Wachovia Center to be a part of “Big” Brian Subich’s entourage. Megamunch has a captioned gallery of his trip.

“Humble” Bob Shoudt has also posted his report about his participation in Wing Bowl 16. Like other eaters, he has questions about the counting and ranking of his first round results:

At the end of the 14 minutes, I had eaten 108 wings. I was nervous that would not be enough as these wings were much faster then the cold rocks I had last year.

We waited for a while and then a guy came around and told us if we were in the 2nd round or not. I was told no, so I picked up my stuff. My judge came by and asked where I was sitting for the 2nd round. I said I wasn’t, I didn’t make it. He said “Those guys must have eaten a _ _ _ _ load of wings (refering to the other eaters). I asked him how he scored me. He said 17 and 18s on each plate (5 full plates). I was satisfied that I did not make it as that put me at 17+17+17+17+18 – worst case = 86 plus 6 on the last plate = 92 total. I assumed 92 would not be enough. When they announced that 70 was the 10th place total, I thought they they had just made a mistake. Nope. Next year…

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Pat Bertoletti has a myspace blog entry about his trip to Philadelphia to compete in Wing Bowl 16. He arrived in Philadelphia the morning of the contest at 3:15 am.

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Philip Maramba of the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail went to Punxsutawney, PA on Saturday for the Groundhog Day festivities and then drove an hour to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub to attempt the two pound burger challenge.

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Angelo Cataldi’s blog has a wrap up of Wing Bowl 16 which closes with the possibility of excluding “pros” from Wing Bowl 17:

We all acknowledge that it would be awesome for a local contestant to win Wing Bowl, but we are carefully governed by the FCC when it comes to all on-air contests. Wing Bowl is open to all contestants, everywhere. With the quality of prizes offered, there’s not much chance that the guys who are best at competitive eating are going to stay away from it.

How can we stop the trend? Well, the best way is to develop another local eater like El Wingador or Heavy Kevvy. So far we haven’t been able to do that, though US Male and Gentleman Gerry have placed in the top five the past two years. Our other possibility is to rewrite the rules to exclude the pros. Do we want to do this for Wing Bowl 17? I’m not sure yet. My first impression is, it’s a step down for Wing Bowl as soon as we eliminate the best eaters available.

AICE would probably dispute the claim that “Wing Bowl is open to all contestants, everywhere”.

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There were 4 eaters who made the second round of the Wing Bowl in both 2007 and 2008. Here is how they performed in the first round both years:

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Wing Bowl 16 results

1 241 wings Joey Chestnut
2 227 Pat Bertoletti
3 205 El Wingador
4 143 US Male
5 139 Gentleman Jerry

Brad Sciullo was #2 after the first round, but disqualified in the second for “snotting a wing”

Feb 4 update
Jill Stoler has a blog entry about attending the pre contest tailgate, but she was unable to miss work to attend the Wing Bowl
about.com has an article & gallery

Feb 2 update
AP article says the next contest for Chestnut is the asparagus contest
Dan Gross column
nj.com article about “El Wingador”
courierpostonline article and gallery
PhillySportsLine gallery
Julio “El Zorro” Davila
Article about 6th place finisher Michael Sarian
article about “Dr. Digestion”
Wing Bowl videos on insidetheiggles.com

update Wing Bowl coverage
Philly.com has videos and galleries
cbs3.com article and slideshow
6abc.com article and video
nbc10.com article and slideshow
MyFoxPhilly.com article with 6 videosand slideshow
CourierPostOnline.com article
Philly.com liveblog
Philebrity liveblog
PhillyMag blog entry
Sports Illustrated article
Angelo Cataldi galleries

The Wing Bowl radio blog is available after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

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The Wing Bowl weigh in is tonight, here are the details from 610WIP.com:

The kick off to Wing Bowl 16 starts at Chickie`s and Pete`s South Philly!!
Don’t Miss the Official Wing Bowl Weigh-In LIVE on Thursday January 31st, From 5p-7p at Chickie’s and Pete’s 1526 Packer Ave, South Philadelphia. Come witness all of the pre Wing Bowl festivities with the introduction of this year`s eaters and get your first look at some of the sexy Wingettes!
For more info about the 2008 Wing Bowl Weigh-In, Call 215-218-0500 or go to www.chickiesandpetes.com

Some more Wing Bowl coverage:
PhillyMag interviews Eric “Steakbellie” Livingston
Erik Denmark blog entry about his Wing Bowl qualification
“Damaging” Doug Canavin profile
Julio “El Zorro” Davila profile
2001 Wing Bowl recollection
Police order to not open parking lots until 4am

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In today’s Wing Bowl column by Dan Gross, Joey Chestnut announces that Wing Bowl 16 will be his final Wing Bowl and that he is not sure about other major upcoming eating contests:

The San Jose State civil engineering major says his rigorous competitive eating schedule interferes with his studies. He also blames the sport and constantly being away from home for the recent breakup with his girlfriend of two years.

Chestnut isn’t sure whether he will defend his Mustard Yellow Belt July 4 at Coney Island, N.Y., in Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog contest. Last year he defeated Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, bringing the title back to the United States.

The column also reports that the son of MLB reliever Tug McGraw is working on constructing Brad Sciullo’s float.

Big Brian Subich emailed the WIP odds for Wing Bowl 16:

10. Boring John 30-1
9. The Wolfman 25-1
8. Steakbellie 25-1
7. Humble Bob Shoudt 20-1
6. The Bulldog 20-1
5. US Male Dave Goldstein 12-1
4. Pat Bertoletti 10-1
3. BIG BRIAN 5-1
2. El Wingador 3-1
1. Joey Chestnut 2-1

update Philly.com has the odds for all eaters. Pat Bertoletti and Brian Subich are the #3 favorites at 10-1 odds.

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Galleries from the “Eat the Meat” wing eating contest sponsored by WPLR in Connecticut are available. Two separate contests were held: one for in studio qualifiers, the other for top finishers in restaurant qualifiers and both had first prizes of $1000. “Wild Rice” won the first contest and “The Big Cat” was the victor in the other contest.

Miss Elizabeth “First Lady of Wings” gained entrance into the finals by winning an in studio contest. She has galleries of her contests. She finished sixth out of ten in her finals contest.

Steve DePino has some pictures and a slideshow from the finals.

(From Ted Wilson) Full results from the Pittsburgh Wing Championship Series are now available. According to these results, Wing Tut came in 8th place.

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philadelphia.about.com has a list of all the competitors in Friday’s Wing Bowl. “Randall” Patrick Bertoletti and Erik “Ted Bundy Serial Wing Killer” Denmark devised new nicknames for the contest.

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Angelo Cataldi has a preview of Wing Bowl 16 in his blog and reports that the news of his creation’s demise are greatly exaggerated:

And now it’s time for a confession. I wish this were the last Wing Bowl. I wish we could end in it one final frenzy of barbeque sauce and frilly thongs on Feb. 1 at the Wachovia Center. I wish we could announce that Wing Bowl 16 was not just the best installment in the continuing series, but the final one.

Don’t fret. That’s not going to happen. I’m pretty sure if the management at WIP had to make a choice between all of the talent on our show or this happy monster we have created, we’d be all out on the street tomorrow. In fact, Wing Bowl will be here long after all of us are gone.

The following advice to spectators is offered at the end of the blog entry:

* The parking lots around the Wachovia Center will open at 4 a.m. If you’re looking to tailgate before that, you will have to find a spot in one of the many private lots on the outskirts of the sports complex.
* The doors will open at 5 a.m.
* You must have a ticket to enter the parking lots at the Wachovia Center.
* All patrons are subject to a search.
* Bottles, cans and outside food are not permitted inside the Wachovia Center.
* Regular cameras will be allowed, but not video cameras.

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Derek “Wing Tut” Payne competed in the finals of last night’s Wing Championship Series and wrote a blog entry about it. Five of the top 6 finishers are listed below.

1. Pete “Broken Wing” Maurizio – 110 wings.
2. Bob “Lord of the Wings” Kuhns – 108 wings.
3. Ted “Captain Butthead” Wilson – 89 wings.
4. ?
5. “Meat”
6. Derek “Wing Tut” Payne

Mark Lyle was the only competitor from outside the Pittsburgh area. He was unable to make it out of the first round.

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Wing Bowl Links
Philly area doctor to compete in Wing Bowl 16
“Wing Ding” wing sauce contest results
Steakbellie: new Wing Bowl logo and sonnet
CBS3 video of wing contest for police officers
Don “Moses” Lerman predicts Dave “U. S. Male” Goldstein to win Wing Bowl 16

Non-Wing Bowl links
Review of “Zen and Art of CE” DVD (Grade: A-)
MIT tomato sauce eating contest Saturday, part of Bad Ideas weekend
Krispy Kreme Challenge registration closed with 3000 eaters / runners

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Philly.com reports that Tom “Wolfman” Wolf became the last qualifier for Wing Bowl 16 when he won today’s in-studio Wing Off by eating 16 large wings in 5 minutes.

Erik “the Red” Denmark won the hot dog eating contest held at halftime of Saturday’s 76er game to gain entry. The list of ranked out of town eaters omits Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama.

This will be the first all-male field since 2003. The article reports that “Sonja” Thomas did not inquire about entering.

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In today’s Wing Bowl column by Dan Gross, Joey Chestnut says he came to Philadelphia on Friday to practice on wings from the new supplier and visit strip clubs with competitive eating friends. There is also a section about “Gentleman” Jerry Coughlan.

The vomiting by “Sloth” mentioned in the column can be seen in a video recorded by MegaMunch.

DelawareOnline.com has an interview with Jeff “The Natural” Olson

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ESPN Radio 1250 has put up a page with pictures and some brief biographical information about the qualifiers for Friday’s Wing Championship Series finals.

A gallery (with minimal captions) of the Dallas Wing Championship Series is also available.

Brian Subich’s qualfication video is now available on philly.com’s Wing Bowl page

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In a profile on NJ.com, Bill “El” Wingador” Simmons describes how he is preparing to make a comeback in Wing Bowl 16:

Wingador insists he competes against himself, not the field, but he knows if he’s going to make it six Wing Bowls he probably will have to out-eat Californian Joe Chestnut, who won in 2006 and 2007 and is considered the Tiger Woods of eating as the world’s No. 1 competitive chow-hound.

“I’m not worried about Chestnut,” Wingador says. “We’re friends, but he talks trash.”

Wingador goes to the gym (Bally’s) almost every morning, then begins eating, insisting he doesn’t have this routine programmed backwards.

A regular at several Gloucester County restaurants, he usually has four eggs over with scrapple and pancakes followed by a cheesesteak for breakfast. Lunch may feature a whole pizza and roast beef hoagie. Dinner could be a combination of chicken, or pork, or ham, or rice and beans, or four slices of pizza, and/or his personal favorite, spaghetti with chicken parm. Or, sometimes, all of the above.

Simmons believes he is capable of 200 to 240 wings at Wing Bowl 16.

PhillyBurbs.com has an article about WIP host / comedian “Big Daddy” Graham.

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