the end of an era

so we all love july 4th. what's not to love? the day off work. the cookouts. the fireworks. the national anthem. the friends and family. for me, i was fortunate enough today to have great tickets to see the game starting at noon between the nationals and cubs at r.f.k. stadium. the nats won, all-star dmitri young hit a grand slam, there were over 40,000 fans in attendance, and the weather was great.

but most of all, on this patriotic of patriotic holidays, the most important event of the day was the nathan's hot dog eating contest at coney island.

i'd like to take a moment to appreciate the historic run that ended yesterday when the great kobayashi lost for the first time in 6 years at this event. i was unable to see the event on t.v., and i'm kinda glad i did not witness the vomiting that took place.

if you've never seen the episode of m.t.v.'s 'true life' profiling kobayashi, (i promise it's the only true life i've ever watched), you really haven't lived. it's great, great stuff and probably merits its own post on this blog. the man is a true professional who i try to think about at least once a day:

as an american on july 4th, i guess i also have to be happy for joey chesnut.

(i must also add a quick i-told-you-so to all those people i told before the event that kobayashi would go down this year. when you know as much about competitive eating as i do, it's pretty easy to make such bold predictions.... here's another prediction: kobayashi will come back next year and not only beat chestnut but once again break the record that was set today.)