The Emergence of Shelley Duncan

At a time when the Yankees needed that extra something to arrive, they found their answer in Shelley Duncan. Recently brought up from the minors to provide some added relief for the everyday players, Duncan displayed his massive power and intense eagerness to become a permanent component of Torre’s squad. After three homers in his first too games, albeit versus a sub-par Devil Ray pitching staff, he made the case for yankee management to keep him in the big leagues a little while longer. More importantly, he’s an older guy who has paid his dues, so the Yankees squad has been very receptive to his maturity, likeable personality, and immediate production.

Although Kevin Thompson has shown sparks of talent as a utility player, however since the teams is already flooded with outfielder talent (sans Abreu’s wall incidents and Damon’s mediocre arm), the Yankees will really benefit more with Duncan’s bat if he continues at this pace, or something close to it.

The disposal of Wil Nieves was a slight upgrade with Molina as the new backup. Hopefully, Mussina isn’t thrown off with a new catcher or having to return to work with Posada. Regardless of who is catching for him, he’s missing his command of the plate.

Nathan's 2007 Hot Dog Eating Contest

This year’s Nathan’s Famous Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest was nothing short of the hype surrounding the big event. After downing 59 ½ hot dogs in a previous qualifying contest, Joey Chestnut evolved from a sleeper to a favored contender. During the warm-ups, it appeared that Kobayashi came in focused as usual, knowing he would have to break his personal best to continue his reign as top dog.



As the race got underway, it was amazing to witness the pace of about 12 hot dogs downed on the first minute. To any normal person with a regular digestive tract - can you imagine eating 12 hot dogs in one minute??? Equally amazing by both contestants (and even the “poor” performers who “only” downed 30 or so dawgs), is that self control and tricking their mind not to gag or vomit. Kobayashi did vomit at the end, but can you really blame him after 60 hot dogs? It was an extremely repulsive scene to watch, and certainly worse than watching Chestnut painfully wriggle and try to shove hot dogs down his pipe while he appears to strain in sheer agony with veins about to pierce through his forehead.

Chestnut emerged as the new champion filling up to his esophagus with an astounding 66 hot dogs. Kobayashi puked and swallowed his own vomit to maintain at an honorable standing. Organizers made him wave the American flag, all of a sudden making this a patriotic contest as opposed to the previously freakish event filled with admiration for gluttony. All of a sudden, the contest had a hero and villain, while past contests those same spectators looked upon Kobayashi with amazement and delight.