Watchdog

America thanks you again, Joey Chestnut, for defending our honor and making us proud.

Earth never quite seemed in balance when a skinny Japanese guy was the reigning world hot dog champ.

(But as for the director who inexplicably called for a wide shot at the exact moment Chestnut was trying to clinch the dog-off . . . Dude, don't ever do that again. It would be like showing Burress' Super Bowl-winning TD catch from the blimp shot. Sigh.)

As usual, here is the vacation blogging plan:

I'm not giving it up cold turkey, but I will not be on the usual pace. Just enough posts to let you know I'm still here so you don't drift away for good to our many other fine sports blogs.

Thanks for reading and for the feedback over the past 14 months.

It's been fun. Mostly.

XM Radio's "60/20" with James Carville and Luke Russert will pay tribute to Luke's father, Tim, in a special, commercial-free, two-hour show debuting at noon Friday.

The focus will be Tim Russert's connection to sports, including clips of his interviews with sports figures and interviews of some of those figures by his son and Carville.

Click below for excerpts of taped interviews that XM sent, although they don't necessarily have anything to do with Tim. But there is stuff from Marv Levy about Trent Edwards if you're interested.

Yeah, I know there's baseball and golf and basketball this weekend. But the show I am most looking forward to is Saturday night's 60th anniversary special from our Tribune teammates (for now) at WPIX.

The station is most known to sports fans of a certain age for its decades of Yankees coverage.

But the first sports event it carried in 1948 was harness racing from Roosevelt Raceway!

Jim McKay has passed away. More later.

UPDATE: I am unable to pay proper tribute to Mr. McKay this afternoon because of other responsibilities, but here are some video links from Fang's Bites to keep you busy for now.

I also have many quotes in my inbox from McKay's friends and colleagues. I kind of like this one from Costas:

"Jim McKay was a singular broadcaster. He brought a reporter's eye, a literate touch, and above all a personal humanity to every assignment. He had a combination of qualities seldom seen in the history of the medium, not just sports."

I just heard an ad for this on WFAN. It's a race Sunday in New Canaan to support multiple myeloma research. (Chris Russo is one of the event chairs!)

A link is the least I can do, seeing as how my mother died from it in 1998, and her sister died from it a few years after that, and her brother died from it last month.

Yo, MMRF people, you might want to research my family! Anyway, thanks in advance for your support, readers. And Mr. Russo. And fellow event chair Rebecca Lobo. And fellow event chair Rep. Christopher Shays, whom Russo colorfully ripped on the air for his performance during the Roger Clemens hearing.

The page views total for May is so ridonkulous I'm frankly a little scared and intimidated by it.

I don't think I can sustain this without giving up one or more of the following things: the newspaper column, interacting with my family, showering.

Profound thanks as always to all of you who read this stuff on a regular basis. We're in this together.

We finished first among sports blogs - even baseball - for the second time ever, and shattered WatchDog's previous page views record set in January by more than 30 percent.

Again, thanks so much. I think.

Usually I feel a little guilty when I post betting odds from our off-shore gambling friends at Bodog.

But when it comes to the Belmont Stakes . . .

First of all, given my editors' obsession with the topic, I figure I can't go wrong.

Secondly, it's horse racing! So gambling is fair game, right?

Click below for the numbers.

Saw "Iron Man" with Mrs. WatchDog Monday while ignoring the Marlins-Mets and Pens-Wings games.

Liked it.

But it's time to trot out my rant from last July about people leaving theaters immediately after a film ends in this era in which many movies (especially comedies) include additional material during and after the credits.

In this case it's a cheesy, obvious setup for a sequel, and you have to wait through 10 minutes or so of credits, but still . . . Please, America, unless you really, really need to use the facilities or drive the babysitter home, stop leaving before the credits!

Thank you. Carry on.

Christopher Bell said the day that changed his life was Jan. 23, 1984, when Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik for the WWF title. He was hooked.

“I thought that Hulk Hogan actually freed the hostages as a kid,’’ he said.

From there, Bell grew up as a typical American, taught by observing the society around him to do whatever it takes to get ahead and improve himself, and part of a close-knit family that includes two brothers who eventually took a liking to steroids.

Now Bell has made an insightful documentary called "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" that brings a fresh perspective to the tired story of performance enhancing drugs. It opens in Manhattan Friday and on Long Island June 6.

I wrote about it in my Sunday newspaper column. Click below for another thousand-plus words from Bell that I collected in an interview Wednesday at an Irish pub near Penn Station during the Chelsea-Man. U. match.

I took a break from the Willie Randolph saga on the radio Wednesday to talk to Christopher Bell (the guy on the left) about his interesting documentary, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," which will premiere on LI the first week of next month.

More about that then.

The weird thing was that we inadvertently agreed to meet at an Irish pub near Penn Station, forgetting the Chelsea-Man. U. game would be on at that time. There were many Brits in the house.

Let's just say there were a number of times we had to pause the conversation to wait for the shouting to die down. Pretty cool.

I wrote an article for the Thursday newspaper about UPS' sponsorship of Big Brown.

You could read it right here right now if you are interested.

One secret to popular blogging is a predictable schedule of posting. But that's not me. I blogged very little Tuesday, blogged a lot Wednesday and will blog very little Thursday.

Thanks for your patience. This inconsistency will continue as long as my editors insist on me writing a newspaper column thrice weekly.

I just watched Lynda Barnes beat a guy in the finals of a bowling tournament on CBS.

This apparently was a historic moment in the history of the sport, as never had a woman beaten a man in a nationally televised game.

(The big event actually happened Thursday in Kansas City and was shown on tape delay. But still, it was cool. I wrote about the unusual tournament in my Friday newspaper column.)

Ms. Barnes won $50,000.

One way in which people who write blogs and people in the "mainstream media" are alike is their endless fascination with examining themselves and their colleagues/counterparts.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, if you are interested in such things, which only media people are.

For those of you in that category, here is an essay examining whether or not the blogosphere is an overly chummy place.

Look, I understand trainer Larry Jones was distraught after his horse, Eight Belles, died after the Kentucky Derby and thus deserves to be cut a break for anything that came out of his mouth as he spoke to reporters.

Still, his last line here is just plain silly, and illustrates the divide between horse racing people and non-horse racing people:

“These things are our family. We put everything into them that we have, and they give us everything they have. They put their lives on the line, and she was glad to do it.”

Glad to do it? Can I see the liability waiver she signed?

I now am about two hours into my self-imposed, week-long ban on listening to any radio other than music.

I feel cleansed and refocused and like an all-around better human.

Please let me know if anything crazy happens in the sports talk world this week.

(I assume I'm not allowed to watch the YES simulcast of Francesa/Russo. That would be cheating, right?)

Bonus WatchDog kudos to the first person who fully explains what the guy on the right has to do with this subject.

This is the most romantic movie scene ever. But that's not why I posted it.

Here's why: Back in the late 1980s I had an argument with a female friend regarding Sam (Hee Haw) Wainwright, whose most controversial moment comes in the middle of this clip.

I said he was a deeply loyal friend, a perpetually cheerful fellow and a patriot. She couldn't get past the fact he had a floozy draped all over him while he was talking on the phone to his wholesome, small town girlfriend back home.

I said he was an upwardly mobile recent college grad in the big city just having a good time. No harm, no foul. He never wavered in his support of the Baileys, floozy or no floozy. She kept coming back to the floozy.

Discuss among yourselves.

Now that the gigabytes have settled from Thursday's silly, 52-post anniversary stunt . . .

I had a chance to read more carefully Wally Matthews' column in the Thursday newspaper about the Yankees' handling of Phil Hughes' injury news and owe him a clarification.

In my Friday column, I unfairly lumped in Wally with the various radio talkers who accused the Yankees of lying about Hughes being injured in order to give him a mental health break and/or send him to the minors.

Wally did express skepticism about the injury, mostly based on the Yankees' messy handling of the situation with the media.

But it's important to note that compared to the radio chatter, his column is both far more nuanced and far more based on information gathered the old-fashioned way:

By showing up at an event and asking people questions.

I am now ready to announce my next stunt: Other than music, no radio next week. I feel better already.

Really, there are no words to express my gratitude for your support over the past year.

I'm pretty much out of words by now anyway.

So I'll just say thanks for reading during the anniversary gala, and every other day.

And keep reading the newspaper.

WatchDog debuted one year ago Friday, back when Newsday's blog empire was in its formative stages and I apparently had too much time on my hands.

The ensuing 366 days (including Feb. 29) have changed my professional life more than anything I've done since flying to Anchorage in 1982 to pay my dues covering University of Alaska-Anchorage hockey and exploring the watering holes of the 49th State.

To thank WatchDog Nation and celebrate our gala first anniversary, I will post 52 times today, once for each week of the blog's history.

It could have been much worse. My wife talked me down from my original idea of 24 consecutive hours of blogging. Maybe next year.

To increase the degree of difficulty, I'll also write my Friday newspaper column, demonstrating the print version of my career is not quite dead yet.

On hand for the big day is a living reminder of my Alaska days: frequent commenter Charlie Chilkoot himself. Seriously. He's here, all the way from San Diego. (Actually, it's because of his son's lacrosse tournament upstate. Whatever. He's here.)

Last night we went out for wings and fermented malt beverages, then played foosball.

(Disclaimer: Other commenters should not expect free accommodations at WatchDog headquarters. Especially Glauber.)

Click below to read the first WatchDog post ever.

The same friendly p.r. man who asked me the other day to tell you about the $150 Kathie Lee Gifford trading cards now has asked me to tell you about some special packages being offered for the Kentucky Derby.

The one I'm most strongly considering is the "Millionaires Row" package for $11,399 (single occupancy).

I've never been to the Derby. Hmm.

My plan is to go for it, then hope my kids don't get accepted into any colleges and thus don't notice I couldn't have paid for it anyway.

When I first read the news release Monday I thought it was a joke so I didn't do a post on it. But it really happened!

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain all appeared via video on WWE's "Monday Night RAW" on USA Network Monday night.

Apparently this started with an invitation from the WWE to have Clinton and Obama step into the ring to settle the Democratic nomination.

Obama is a decent basketball player, but he wisely passed on taking on Clinton, who presumably would have been ready, willing and able to hit him over the head with a metal folding chair.

Speaking of WWE, those pesky pro wrestling upstarts are ahead of WatchDog on the April page views list for sports blogs. (Top five: Rangers, Yanks, WWE, Mets, ME.) I still say WWE should not count as a sports blog.

Sigh. At least I'm crushing Glauber again.

(Bonus kudos to first reader to identify the guy in the picture.)

This article refers to former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer as a sports media consultant.

That probably has something to do with the fact he was walking out of the Baseball Hall of Fame offices as I was walking in with my daughters a couple of weeks back.

Had I been working and not on vacation, I might have acted like a reporter and asked someone this: Why the heck did I just pass Ari Fleischer outside your door?

But I was off. So I didn't.

(Fleischer is a big Yankees fan, I believe.)

(My back is killing me today so I will be crankier than usual. Just warning everyone.)

Let's put it this way:

Until "American Idol" invites Newsday's own Stephen Haynes into the competition, it cannot be considered valid or complete.

The movie "21" held off George Clooney's new, not-very-well-reviewed football movie for the top box office spot in its second week of release.

I haven't seen either film. But I did have lunch last winter with Jeffrey Ma, one of the MIT students upon whom was based the book "Bringing Down the House,'' upon which the movie "21" is in turn based.

It was for an article about a site called ProTrade which he helped found.

I don't see many movies anymore, as I have school-age children and am paid mostly to watch baseball and football games and listen to sports talk radio.

But I do plan to binge during the Tribeca Film Festival later this month, where ESPN for the second year in a row will showcase a number of sports flicks. You should go, too.

I took the entire WatchDog family to the Red Bulls opener Saturday, my first pro soccer game as a fan, joining two other Giants Stadium futbol events on my sports resume - performing with Northport High's marching band at a Cosmos vs. China game in 1977 and covering the 1994 World Cup.

Long story sort: It was a very positive experience for all concerned. Easy in and out of parking lot. A mostly good-spirited crowd of 17,000 or so low on cursing young drunks. A sport my tweens found far more entertaining than baseball.

And best of all: no TV timeouts and nobody stepping out of the batter's box to adjust his gloves after every pitch. The game began at 7:30, and I was home in time to see the best part of North Carolina's failed comeback.

I deployed TiVo to hear Billy Packer declare the game "over" when Kansas took a 38-12 lead, so I really didn't miss anything important. Billy had to be sweating it when UNC got within four, staring as he was at one of the great gaffes in announcing history.

Anyway . . . You should try a Red Bulls game sometime, even if you're not a big soccer person, which I surely am not.

End of lecture.

It says here that excessive blogging can be hazardous to one's health.

I hope my insurance company doesn't see this.

Tuesday I blogged all afternoon from a jury assembly room. Friday I got a notice from the office that I would need to provide proof of having been on jury duty.

I told them to just count it as a work day.

Our friends at Newsday's Final Score blog totaled 18 posts by about 10:30 a.m.

That's a nice effort, boys, but I'm not sure 15 Q&A posts count.

Whatever. I'm glad if my excessive blogging has inspired others at Newsday.

But I'm starting to worry that we are going to use up the Internet pretty soon.

Sorry for the late start. I was at Locust Valley High this morning as a presenter for a young authors conference, as was my old Newsday pal Jon Heyman, now famously working for SI, SNY, WFAN and perhaps other outlets we haven't heard about yet.

Jon was assigned to Room 220. I was next door in Room 222.

The teachers understood why I thought that was cool. The students had no idea what I was talking about.

Anyway, I was pleased and proud to participate in encouraging a new generation of Long Islanders to become writers. Unless they all changed their minds after meeting me.

Derrick Coleman unfortunately was injured while appearing on the Spike TV show "Pros vs. Joes."

This fate might have befallen John Rocker had I agreed to step into the batter's box against him during a promotional appearance for the show in Bryant Park a couple of years back.

But I declined.

Michael Buffer temporarily not ready to rumble.

Get well soon.

Introduced the kids to "Breaking Away" Monday night.

Hadn't seen it in 25 years.

Still one of the best sports-related flicks ever, and family friendly, if you don't mind some naughty words.

For those of you who missed my programming note from Friday, I am off this week and will be doing only limited blogging.

In honor of the Scooter, my official notation for the week is WW - "Wasn't Watching."

Read our other blogs instead.

Here is a story I stumbled upon on Newsday.com about Patti LuPone, complete with video of her visit to downtown Northport that made me feel all warm and cozy inside about my hometown. (Well, East Northport, actually. But same general idea.)

Edie Falco also went to Northport High, as did one of her co-stars on "The Sopranos," Bobby (Dr. Cusamano) LuPone, who is Patti's brother. Small world.

My alma mater long has been known for its excellent work in the arts, including music and theater.

The newspaper column is going on hiatus next week for the first time since early November.

As WatchDog readers know, that means I will try and fail to refrain from posting, but I will at least try to post only sparingly and only for newsy stuff you need to know right away.

Regardless, I assume I will slip back a bit in the March page views standings, so I asked where I stand as of Friday.

Answer: Modestly behind the Mets and Rangers, modestly ahead of the Jets, Yankees and Glauber.

But the smart money for March is on our new pro wrestling blog, which is skyrocketing up from the rear.

Wait . . . is pro wrestling is a sport?

Discuss among yourselves.

John Madden and Charles Barkley evidently are unamused by an ad campaign featuring Frank Caliendo doing impressions of, well, you know.

Readers who now live or used to live in Alaska were disappointed I did not acknowledge the finish of the year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Wednesday.

Sorry. I have been reading up on it since.

I did not realize two-time champ Lance Mackey is the half-brother of Rick Mackey, who won the race in 1983, the last time I watched the start in downtown Anchorage, and the son of Dick Mackey, who won in 1978.

When I lived in Anchorage mushers were such big celebrities they endorsed not only products such as dog food in TV commercials but also beer and other stuff.

Nothing like a cold Olympia when it's 40 below and you're under the stars with your dogs.