Celebrating the 4th

American flag at Yankee Stadiumphoto © 2008 Eric Beato | more info (via: Wylio)

In years past I have taken the 4th of July as a chance to move a bit away from the norm here at BaseballGuys.com. Last year I wrote about Competitive Eating and asked the question about whether or not it was a “sport”?  Two years ago I wrote a piece entitled Freedom where I gave some information regarding the Declaration of Independence. Today I’ll follow my usual path and touch on a few topics that aren’t exactly germane to fantasy baseball while mixing in some relevant information.

There have been 46 ball players who were born on July 4th. Currently there is only one who is active – Sergio Santos who was born in Bellflower California in 1983. In that same year of 1983 Dave Righetti tossed a no-hitter against the Red Sox on the 4th. That outing was the Yankees first no-no since Don Larson’s perfect game in the World Series in 1956.

A history lesson. Though we celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, the resolution was actually adopted on July 2nd. Furthermore, the Declaration wasn’t officially approved until July 9th when it was voted on at the New York Convention. The document was ordered to be “engrossed on parchment” for the means of it becoming an official document on July 19th. The actual signing ceremony was held on August 2nd, 1776 though, despite common perception, it took longer for all 56 delegates to affix their signature on the historic parchment. Moreover, some members of Congress never actually signed the document.

Lou Gehrig’s retirement speech, you know the one in which he said he was the “luckiest man on the face of the earth,” was given on July 4th, 1939. Gehrig died less than two years later of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, on June 2, 1941. He was 37 years old.

There are five places in the United States that have the name “America.” The largest is American Folk in Utah. It has a population of more than 26,000 people.

Jose Canseco hit his 30th homer on this date in 1999. He would hit only four more homers the rest of the way including just three over his final 115 at-bats before his season ended. All told he had 34 homers and had 95 RBI in just 113 games for the Rays. The effort marked Canseco as the first player in history to hit 30 homers with four different clubs (the others were the Athletics, Rangers and Blue Jays).

There’s a better than one in four chance that the hot dogs you eat, or ate, came from Iowa since there were over 19 million pigs located in the state in March, 2011. The odds are one in three that your baked beans came from North Dakota and if you’re eating corn on the cob there is a nearly 70 percent chance it came from California, Florida, Georgia, New York or Washington. For more fascinating info, click on this link.

July 4th, 1974 was Mike Marshall’s 14th straight appearance for the Dodgers. And you think guys are overworked nowadays? For the year Marshall pitched 208.1 innings… and didn’t make a single start. He won 15 games, lost 12, and racked up 21 saves to lead the NL. He also posted a 2.42 ERA and 1.19 WHIP on his way to appearing in 106 games, the highest single season total for any pitcher in the history of baseball.

 

By Ray Flowers

Is Competitive Eating a Sport?

Nathans-hotdogs

I never knew that an ability to gorge oneself into a near coma could make you famous. Perhaps if I had I wouldn’t have ceased my binge eating halcyon days in high school where I would routinely put away four or five hamburgers at a BBQ without breaking a sweat. Don’t get me wrong I can still put away the burgers and dogs, much to the amazement of my friends considering that fact that I weigh only 180 pounds at 6’3″, but I guess I just have the gift of being able to put away massive amounts of whatever type of food someone will prepare for me.

Of course, I would be akin to a newborn in dunking contest with LeBron James if I were to enter a competitive easting contest such as the world’s most famous event, the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest that was held for the 94th time on July 4th, 2010. In case you are unfamiliar with the contest, here are the general rules. (1) You must be hungry. (2) You must be able to scarf down hot dogs. (3) You also have to eat the buns. (4) There is a time limit (it has been 12-minutes in the past but was shorted to 10-minutes in 2008).

So what’s the world record for dogs eaten in one of these contests? If you had to guess you would probably say, what, 15 or so? Remember, you have to eat the dogs and the buns, and get less time than a quarter in an NBA game. In 1985 the record appears to have been 19.5 dogs, a total that I would probably cause me to go into gastrointestinal death if I tried to duplicate it. It wasn’t until 1991 that someone topped the 20 mark in the Nathan’s contest, and in 2000 Kzutoyo Arai set a contest record with 25.5 dogs. But the world of competitive eating was about to witness the birth of its Michael Jordan in the form of Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi.

Standing 5’8″ and weighing about 140 pounds, Kobayashi is a tightly wound package of muscle who keeps his body in excellent physical shape. In 2001 he took the competitive food world by storm by eating 50, yes 50, dogs in Nathan’s contest to double the record (think of someone hitting 146 home runs in a season, double Barry Bonds record of 73). Eventually he pushed his record up to 63 dogs in 12 minutes. He is so famous now that he goes by just one name, Kobayashi, much like Magic, Jordan or LeBron.

But out of the cornfield of California… OK he is from San Jose which is the heart of Silicon Valley, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut has emerged as the new world record holder of competitive hot dog eating, the Kobe Bryant to Kobayashi’s Jordan if you will. Chestnut, who sort of looks like your goofy cousin who never fit in so you ignored him at family events, ate 66 dogs in 2007 to set the world record to return to the crown to the United States.

These two titans of titillation went up against each other on July 4th, 2008, and they finished the new 10-minute format tied 59 dogs apiece. In overtime, a thriller that had everyone on the edge of their seats, or more appropriately their toilets, Chestnut emerged victorious as the first to consume five dogs, and buns, taking only 50 seconds (Kobayashi needed 57 seconds).

In 2009, Chestnut set the world of competitive eating on its head, not only defeating Kobayashi, but by setting yet another record pushing the mark out to 68 hot dogs. Think of it this way. The average person is supposed to consume about 2,500 calories a day. Olympic champion Michael Phelps, who needs tons of energy to keep his body running in the pool, eats about 12,000 calories a day. In the contest last year, Chestnut at over 20,000 calories in 10 minutes.

In the 2010 contest held earlier today, 6-time champion Kobayashi, who is at a “labor impass”with Major League Eating, did not compete, though he was arrested after the contest when he tried to storm the stage (you can read about that in the Associated Press report). Batting 95 degree heat, Chestnut won for the 4th straight year, though he ate “only” 54 dogs in the process.

So after all of that is competitive eating a sport? I would have to say no way in hell. No longer the realm of 350 lbs guys who could just stuff their bellies, the sport is being led by a buffed Japanese competitor (Kobayashi) and a 6’2″, 220 lbs American who has left all of the other “fat boys” in the dust (Tim Janus finished second this year with a total of 45 dogs, and he checks in at 5’10″, 170 lbs, so it should be asked, is the sport moving away from those that tip the scales with sheer girth to those that have technique despite their size?). It may not be a sport, but if you’ve got 10 minutes to kill next July 4th, tune into ESPN for the event because seeing a human being eat more than 50 hot dogs in 10 minutes is something that must be seen to be believed.

By Ray Flowers