Dogging it pays off here
The 89th Nathan’s Famous hot-dog eating contest will be televised live by ESPN from Coney Island, N.Y., at 9 a.m. today. The telecast will last one hour, including 40 minutes leading up to the all-you-can eat contest.
So what’s the strategy?
Eric Booker, who downed 30 dogs last year, told the New York Daily News, “As far as strategy is concerned, I sit with the hot dogs, I interrogate them. I’m like, ‘What’s the quickest way to eat you?’ “
Takeru Kobayashi, 25, of Japan is the three-time defending champion despite weighing only 155 pounds. He set the event record by downing 50 dogs in 2002. He is known as the “prince of gluttony” in Japan, where he is a national celebrity.
“It’s like any other sport,” Kobayashi told the Associated Press. “You really have to be dedicated to win.”
Charles Hardy, on why he first entered a hot-dog eating contest in 1998: “I thought of it as a free lunch.”
Sweet home Alabama
Several thousand fans welcomed Pistons star Ben Wallace back to rural White Hall, Ala., with a parade in his honor.
Wallace was a key part of Detroit’s five-game NBA Finals victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in June.
Some fans, like Cedric Porterfield, made the trip from Michigan for the celebration and a chance to meet Wallace.
“I want to talk to him because I have gone to a couple of Pistons games, but security is so tight you can’t get close to the players,” said Porterfield, 50, also a White Hall native. “Ben has put the city of White Hall on the map.”
Don’t bend it like Beckham
Former Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz scoffed at David Beckham’s claims that Madrid’s training regimen wasn’t tough enough.
Queiroz, the new assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, told Radio Marca in an interview published Saturday, “Beckham always has excuses.
“When he failed (at the World Cup) in Korea, and when he failed in Portugal, he always has an excuse.”
Queiroz compared Beckham with Madrid’s other midfield star Luis Figo.
“Figo wasn’t skiing while his team was still in the Champions League, and there’s the difference – one of them has got to the (Euro 2004) final and the other hasn’t.”
Just Melo out
Irritated that he was initially left off the U.S. Olympic roster, Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony was thrilled when he finally got the call.
“I know a lot of players backed out of it, but once I got the invitation I wasn’t worried,” Anthony said. “I was just waiting my turn. Once I got the invite, then I told them I was coming and I wanted to be a part of that. Let’s go over there and win the gold medal.”
Anthony was added to the U.S. team, when Detroit’s Richard Hamilton and Ben Wallace declined invitations.
They said it
On why Barry Bonds’ surprise birthday party was held at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood, a bowling alley: “We thought Barry would enjoy seeing lots of strikes.”
Publicist Rachael Vizcarra Banvard