The Cheap Seats: Jason and company sports blog (used to be Tom and Sean's)

Many thought it was proper that the All-star game at Yankee Stadium went into extra innings, as if the ballpark wanted to keep playing baseball for as long as it could.  But of course this one had to end, with the American league continuing its recent dominance of 11 wins the past 12 years (who can forget the tie in 2002).  This also means, of course, that the 7th game of the World Series will go to the American League team.  Can it be the Tampa Bay Rays?  Maybe, especially the way their pitching and defense carried them the first half of the season.  And by the way the all-star Rays played last night, highlighted by Longoria's game-tying double, I think its possible.  Who will be the NL representative?  I'd like so much for it to be the Cubs.

Great game, guys.  It was fun to see the pitching hold up against the all-star batters and also to see the bullpens on both sides slowly dwindle down.  I'm sure a couple position players were getting nervous thinking they might get called up to pitch.  And how about JD Drew winning the MVP award?  I'm just as surprised as anyone that he's turned it up and kept it going into this season. 

The way the game ended with the throw to home reminded me of my favorite All-Star game moment.  It was the 1994 game in Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh.  It also went into extra innings, and in the bottom of the 10th, with Tony Gwynn on base, Moises Alou smacked the game-winning RBI.  I can still remember Tony chugging around the bases and he slid into home, just barely beating the throw.  And when the umpire spread his arms safe, Tony was jumping up and down and the NL team came rushing out to jump with him.  And I was jumping in front of my TV too.

Is competitive eating a sport?  That's why I hesitated to make a post in this forum, but when you see what those competitors put themseves through, and if ESPN annually covers the king of all events (Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest), then I think its worthy of a post here. 

Competitive eating immediately begs the question - why?  Why choose to put your body through such grueling conditions, and the prize money isn't lucrative?  I suppose they do it because they're good at it, and there's only a handful of these professionals out there.  And if common folk like us are fascinated enough to watch these events and if the networks will televise them, then I suppose there's a market out there for competitive eating.

Back to the title of this post - Joey Chestnut defends his title and wins the 2008 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.  It wasn't easy because 6-time champ Takeru Kobayashi kept it so close(and was actually in the lead up to the final minute), that they ended in a tie at 59 hot dogs eaten each.  That's disgusting, yet I spent 10 minutes with countless viewers, watching the competitors devouring hot dogs without shame.  But the competition can't end in a tie, so almost immediately the officials brought out 5 more hot dogs each to Chestnut and Kobayashi for a "dogoff"/"eatoff"/"playoff".  I don't know how these guys could go again after what they just went through, but they did it.  The first to finish 5 hot dogs would be declared the winner and Joey Chestnut won by a few seconds, about half a dog quicker than Kobayashi.  Congratulations Joey for the win and for upholding the stereotype that Americans are fat slobs.

I probably should have talked about Wimbledon or the Olympic Trials instead, but how interesting are they in comparison?

But for the record, I hope Nadal defeats Federer, and I can't wait to see Michael Phelps go for the gold in his 8 events.