There's a new champion at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and he is known in competitive eating circles as "Megatoad."
Matt Stonie ended Joey Chestnut's eight-year title reign at the annual Fourth of July event by eating 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Chestnut finished with 60.
"This is crazy," Stonie said to ESPN. "Joey is an amazing competitor. He's a legend of the sport. To beat him by a couple of hot dogs this year is ... I trained hard for this. I can't say I came in confident, but I came prepared.
"I've just had an amazing year so far. We worked hard for this, and my body was working for me this year."
In February, Stonie set a world record in bacon by eating 182 slices in five minutes.
With a minute left in this year's Nathan's event, Stonie led 57-54 and held on to win. Chestnut had a feeling this could be the year for Stonie, a 23-year-old native of San Jose, Calif., who also finished second in 2013 and closed the gap from 69-51 to 61-56 in 2014.
"I just didn't find my rhythm," Chestnut said to ESPN. "I can't take anything away from him. He ate 62 hot dogs. I did bad. He deserved to win. It gives me reason to definitely come back next year. I've been looking for competition for a long time. Now I have it. Now he's made me hungry."
Strike a deal
It took just more than two weeks, but New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez finally received his 3,000th-hit ball. The Yankees reached a deal with Zack Hample, the notorious fan who caught the ball. Hample initially told the team he was keeping the milestone souvenir.
So, what did it cost the club to get the ball back? Quite a bit, it appears.
The Yankees will donate $150,000 to Pitch In for Baseball, a charity which Hample has supported since 2009. Rodriquez also gave Hample tickets, memorabilia and other perks.
On top of that, Hample gave the ball to A-Rod at a news conference Friday.
For Rodriguez, this probably comes as a relief. Things looked bleak for a while, but he has the ball. It's a significant achievement, and it's no surprise why he wanted to have it. He had to go through the theatrics of a news conference, but that's a small price to pay in this case.
USA! USA!
ESPN reported Friday morning that the New York Mets had scored 23 runs in the last 17 days.
Wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: "Maybe they're taking support of the US Women's World Cup team a little too literally?"
Bowling for medals
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, on the push to add bowling to the 2020 Tokyo Games. "It just doesn't seem like an Olympics when a gold-medal contender has to stop and rent shoes."
Sports quiz
Cesar Geronimo was the 3000th career strikeout victim to both of these two Hall of Fame pitchers.
Sports answer
Geronimo was the 3000th victim of Bob Gibson in 1974 and to Nolan Ryan in 1980.
Sports on 07/05/2015