Kobayashi, Joey Chestnut, and My Favorite Holiday of the Year

By Pete DeLuca

My favorite holiday of the year is rapidly approaching… the Fourth of July! Before you call me crazy, think about it. Barbecues, 3-day weekends, and fireworks – what’s not to love? No gifts to give, no holiday shopping, and no fruit cake.

But it’s not just the pool parties and miniature American flags that have me confessing my love for America’s Birthday. I love the Fourth of July because each year marks another chapter in the rich history that is the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.

I attended the event in 2009 – not something I am particularly proud of, but as a graduate student spending my first summer living in New York City, I saw the event as opportunity to cross another line off my sports “bucket list”.

If you ever wanted to follow competitive eating, it’s easy. There are really only two names worth knowing; Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Kobayashi became a household name after downing 50 hot dogs in 2001, doubling the previous record set the year before. Because of him, ESPN began airing the contest annually – turning competitive eating into a multimillion dollar business overnight. Kobayashi went on to win the event six times before losing to Chestnut in 2007. Chestnut won each of the last four contests, including 2009 when he ate 68 hot dogs – a feat that I, embarrassingly, was front row-center for.

But 2010 was different. For the first time in nearly a decade, Kobayashi opted out of the contest citing a labor dispute with Major League Eating (MLE) – he wants to have negotiating rights with sponsors for event he attends. Chestnut, who openly admits to not liking Kobayashi, cruised to victory that year and later hinted to reporters that Kobayashi was scared to compete against him. “… He was asking for weird [demands],” said Chestnut. “It seems like he didn’t really want to come.” It was enough to make Kobayashi, who was standing in the crowd, rush the stage and get arrested by security.

Now to 2011 – Kobayashi’s dispute with MLE is still ongoing, and Chestnut looks like a lock for his fifth straight title. But there could be an asterisk next to Chestnut’s name this year. Just a few miles away, at a rooftop restaurant in Manhattan, Kobayashi will be having his own one-man contest – running simultaneously with Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. He will be held to the same rules and standards as the participants in Coney Island and plans to broadcast his performance to increase awareness about the unfair treatment he’s received on behalf of MLE.

Publicity stunt or not - it makes for great television. Sure, it’s not Brady versus Manning or Magic versus Bird - but it’s controversy and it’s entertaining. The contest will air on ESPN this Monday at noon. Over 2 million viewers are expected to watch the event live, and nearly 50,000 plus fans will be in attendance. I won’t be in Coney Island this year, but I certainly will be glued to my television!

Pete DeLuca is Manager of Creative Services at Maroon PR. Contact him at Pete@MaroonPR.com.

Bill Simmons Accidently Breaks Moss News via Twitter

By Stefen Lovelace

The latest NFL news is that mercurial wide receiver Randy Moss will be traded from the New England Patriots to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round draft pick.

Every major outlet is reporting this is a done deal. News of the deal was announced late last night, when outlets were reporting that Foxsports.com had broken the story.

The story may have actually been broken by ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons by accident. Last night Simmons tweeted “Moss vikings”. The tweet didn’t make a lot of sense, and Simmons clarified a couple of minutes later that he meant to send the tweet as a direct message, as he had heard a rumor that a Moss trade to the Vikings might be in the works. He had no intention of sending the tweet to his one million-plus followers. He deleted the tweet a few minutes later, but was too late.

Moments later, ProFootballTalk tweeted “Unintended tweet sparks rumors of Moss to Minnesota” in reference to Simmons‘ mistake. Then Foxsports.com’s Jay Glazer tweeted “Yes, vikes and pats have been working on trade that sends randy moss to vikes and r very clode (sic) but can't be done ...” Once that was tweeted, every major outlet started reporting it and credited Foxsports.com on the story. To Glazer’s credit, he later acknowledged via tweet that Simmons beat him to the story, but he had been following it all day.

Simmons has always maintained that he’s not a reporter, but rather a columnist. He hails from Boston, and part of his persona is that he writes from the perspective of a fan and just comments on what he sees. But through Simmons writing, expertise, and platform, he’s managed to make some pretty major contacts in sports. If Simmons says something about the NBA or a Boston sports team, there’s a good chance there’s some truth to it.

This is probably the first actual story Simmons has broken since working for ESPN. I’m pretty sure he never thought it would be like this though.

Stefen Lovelace is an Associate Account Executive. Contact him at stefen@maroonpr.com.

Who do we Believe? Media Veteran or Tweeting Athlete?

By Chris Daley

If you follow sports, you’ve heard the Tiger Woods story today regarding Corey Pavin’s tweet. In the story, Pavin denies he made comments to the Golf Channel that Woods is a lock to be on the 2010 Ryder Cup team.

Listening to “Mike and Mike in the Morning” on ESPN Radio this morning, I was intrigued with the story because it’s so common these days to hear about errors in reporting, and the classic misquote and correction statement to follow.

The latest “error” comes from media veteran Jim Gray who was reporting for the Golf Channel, stating that Corey Pavin - this year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team Captain – said of the possibility of selecting Woods to the team… "Of course I'm going to (pick him). He's the best player in the world."

Pavin later made an official statement via his Twitter account, "For the record, @golfchannel and Jim Gray has misquoted me re: picking Tiger. I never said such a thing and will not say a thing until 09/07.”




Although Pavin only has a little over 6,200 followers on Twitter, his tweet immediately was reported on the most popular sports radio show in America to millions of listeners on ESPN Radio and viewers on ESPN2. Show host Mike Greenberg repeatedly said he couldn't believe the power of Twitter.

Although ashamed to admit it, I listen to sports radio quite a bit, since many of our clients are related to professional sports. It has become common to hear show hosts repeating statements that athletes and celebrities posted on their Twitter accounts, and taking those comments very seriously.

With this story, I’m not quite sure who to believe. Jim Gray, to me, seems very credible, but Pavin's statement made via Twitter might be right.

It’s these types of news stories that confuse me. Where is this all heading? And are we to think that just because an athlete or celebrity has a Twitter account we should believe everything that they post? One thing is for certain, be ready for many more stories like this in the future.

Chris Daley is a Senior Account Executive. Contact him at chris@maroonpr.com.

***

And this story continues… The Washington Post blog “The Early Lead” is reporting of a possible dust-up between Gray and Pavin.

AP and ESPN Both Facing Competition

By John Maroon

It appears that cable news giant CNN may be preparing to take on AP and become a subscription based wire news service. They recently ended their subscription with AP and there is speculation abound.

There are many wire services out there, AFP being the largest, but most of them are industry specific (Bloomberg Business Wire). Other wire services have yet to grab a huge market share nationally or are tied to specific news-gathering agencies (Knight Ridder/Tribune and LA Times-Washington Post).

Having an additional international wire service in the market can only be a good thing. Competition is healthy and it would give businesses that use these services more options, while preventing a news gathering agency from dictating the news.

Along the same lines, there has been talk that the sports network Versus is getting poised to challenge ESPN in the all-sports network arena. While this seems like a monumental task, remember that the merger between Comcast (who owns Versus) and NBC would give Versus the power to be promoted through a network much the way ABC promotes ESPN broadcasts. Again, this would be healthy for the industry. Currently, like it or not, ESPN dictates what is news in the world of sports and having another loud voice to provide balance is all good.

John Maroon is the President of Maroon PR. He can be contacted at john@maroonpr.com.