Fourth of July weekend has a new tradition – the big hot dog eating contest.  I love watching these 180 pound people scarfing down 30 hot dogs in three minutes.  I never really understood why they dip the dogs (bun and all) in water, as water would just add weight to what they are consuming.

• NESW Sports digs up some footage of Shaq holding Gary Coleman in a total opposite scene to see.
• The Fifth Corner reports that Rasheed Wallace has met with most of the Celtics already, and may be close to signing with Boston.
• Josh Q. Public talks about The Little League team known as the Chosen Team in New Jersey.
• PacMan Jonesin’ has the latest from the police blotter as WNBA superstar Diana Taurasi blew a little too much into the breathalizer and got herself a DUI.
• Fansided polled some bloggers (including me) about The Dinosaur Age: Which Athletes Need To Retire?  Check it out, pretty interesting choices on the list.
• The World Of Isaac is having problems with the decisions that Joe Dumars is making for Detroit these days.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers continued to struggle offensively for most of the game and ultimately lost to Williamsport 4-3.  The Scrappers paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and had three former players on hand who were honored before the game.  Mahoning Valley also wore uniforms paying respects to the Negro Leagues.   The Scrappers showed some heart with a ninth-inning rally that fell a bit short.  The loss moves the Scrappers to 8-6 and Williamsport goes to 9-5 with sole possession of first place.

Williamsport wasted little time scoring in the first inning.  Jiwan James singled and moved up to second base on a wild pitch.  James scored on Sebastian Valle’s RBI triple to put the Crosscutters up 1-0.

In the top of the second, Alan Shoenberger hit a solo home run to right field to double Williamsport’s lead to 2-0.

Jeremy Barnes walked and would score on another Valle hit, this time an RBI double in the top of the third making the score 3-0 in favor of the visiting team.

The Scrappers finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning.  Greg Folgia walked and would later score on a Jason Smit RBI triple, cutting the Williamsport lead to 3-1.

Sebastian Valle again hurt Mahoning Valley in the top of the seventh with his third hit, an RBI single, which scored Jeremy Barnes from second who doubled earlier in the inning.  Valle finished the game with three hits and three RBI.

In the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-1, DH John Allman walked and stole second base.  Smit singled to right putting runners on first and second with nobody out.  The next Scrapper batter, Chun Chen, reached base on a throwing error by Barnes, allowing Allman to score and cut the lead to 4-2.  Tim Palincsar hit a sac fly to right scoring Smit to make it 4-3.  Jordan Henry struck out to end the game with Scrappers ultimately falling 4-3.

Jason Smit, a native Australian, had a good game for the Scrappers, but was freezing in the 60 degree range after playing in the Gulf Coast League for a couple of years, “I can’t stand the cold weather, it’s a hundred and something every day in Arizona.”  Smit  has been moved around and used different ways since injuring his shoulder.  ” I was in rehab about four or five months.  I made a move to the outfield and I’m playing some first base, I’m doing whatever to get at-bats right now.”  Smit smiled throughout being questioned and said he doesn’t mind taking verbal abuse about Outback Steakhouses and Crocodile Dundee jokes from his teammates.

Coach Travis Fryman knows his team has to be more consistent at the plate to win more games.  ” We have struggled over the past week to score runs.  Some of it is losing (Bo) Greenwell and a good left-handed bat in the lineup.  If you don’t hit the ball out of the ballpark you’ve got to string together three or four hits in an inning, and if you are striking out, it’s a bad combination.  We didn’t handle their lefthanders well tonight.”

A decent crowd of 2,967 saw a pretty good game on “Buck Night” at Cafaro Field.  The loss drops the Scrappers to 1-4 against Williamsport with one game remaining in the series on Friday.  It’s fireworks night and no rain is in the forecast, so get there early!

While Santa is away on a golf trip, the lists are starting to pour in.  Thanks to an elf who reads my blog, I was able to get my hands on a few lists.  Christmas can be a rough holiday when your brother or your sister is your competition in the world of sports.  The nephews and nieces always seem to run to the winner first and the less successful sibling is an afterthought.

Without further ado, here is what sibling athletes are asking Santa to bring their brother or sister for Christmas this year:

Wladimir Klitschko currently holds the IBF, IBO, WBO, and Ring Magazine world heavyweight championships.  His older brother Vitaly currently holds the WBC title.  These two siblings have said numerous times that they will not fight each other.  My elf found greedy Wladimir’s Christmas letter to Santa.  In Wlad’s letter, he asks Santa to bring Vitaly a trainer to teach him MMA hoping to convince Vitaly to be in next years Ultimate Fighter, Russia vs The UK on Spike.  If successful, Wladimir will hold all the belts and have sole commercial rights to do Absolute vodka commercials without having to cut in brother Vitaly.

Now that the 2009 Wimbledon Women’s Final will be Serena vs Venus, I asked the elf to dig for a letter from either Williams sister.  Low and behold, the elf came through with a letter from Venus.  In her letter Venus asks for free consultation with Michael Jackson’s skin doctors.  Venus figures if she can turn colors like that chameleon Jackson did, that she can change her name to Williamsky and represent Germany. 

Since Jordan Staal was on the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins championship team and had to beat brother Eric and his Carolina Hurricanes to get there, the elf thought it weird that Eric has asked Santa to bring the cup to the Staal home.  He gets pretty graphic in the letter but says his plan is to destroy the cup and blame it on brother Jordan. 

The elf dug up a no brainer for these two brothers.  Seems Mark McGwire wants brother Dan to get bigger and stronger.  So he asked Santa to deliver a case of Shredded Wheat and milk.  He also told Santa to ignore Dan’s list and bring nothing stronger than One-A-Day vitamins.

Well, I hope Santa can accomodate these requests, I hate it when family becomes the enemy and these all seem like ways to eliminate the problems caused in sibling sports rivalries.

Boxing lost one of its biggest names yesterday when Alexis Arguello passed away.  I liked Arguello because he didn’t talk with his mouth, but rather used his gloves.  Arguello beat Ray Mancini in a classic battle, but he will unfortunately go down in history as the guy who lost to Aaron Pryor twice.

• Josh Q. Public presents Ken Griffey Jr., A Bronx Tale.  Good piece about Jr’s visit to New Yankee Stadium to face Arod and the Yanks.
• Sports Rubbish has pictures to prove you should never try to rob an old boxer.
• If you are in a fantasy football keeper league, Sharapova’s Thigh has rated the quarterbacks, see where your guy ranks!
• Sportspoop reports in the NFL’s fuzzy new math that the season may be extended to 18 games.
• Hoop Doctors caught up with Danny Granger of the Pacers for an exclusive interview.
• Detroit4lyfe writes about Marion Hossa(ma Bin Laden) and refers to him as a hockey terrorist.
• No Guts, No Glory tells us about 5 athletes who should give up on acting.
• Sir Charles In Charge had a sportswriter think that Barkley was actually doing the writing on the website.
• King James Gospel reports that Charlie Villanueva has signed with Detroit, eliminating Cleveland from the picture.  Focus has now shifted to Ron Artest.
• PSAMP reports that Charlie Batch, aka Nostre Damas, has predicted that there will be no football played in 2011.
• NESW Sports found supermodel Joanna Krupa doing an ESPN interview about T.O. and “The Superstars”.
• PacMan Jonesin’  says Tiger Woods kind of responded to Jim Brown’s harsh words.

In the first of three games against Williamsport, situational hitting was not kind to the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.  The Scrappers dropped a 2-1 decision to the Crosscutters.  Both teams got excellent pitching as each staff struck out 12 opposing batters.

Williamsport scored quickly as Leandro Castro walked and stole second.  Castro would come in to score on a  Jeremy Barnes RBI double off of Scrappers starter Brett Brach.  Brach was stingy only giving up two more hits and no more runs through five innings.

Mahoning Valley got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by John Allman (pictured above), his first in 2009, to tie the contest at 1-1.  “I just got a pitch out over the plate and was able to drive it that way,” said Allman after the game.

Adam Buschini untied the score in the top of the sixth with a blast to deep left field, giving the Crosscutters the lead for good at 2-1.

The Scrappers fell to 8-5 on the season with the loss.  Thursday, the first “Buck Night” of the year, is sure to draw a bigger crowd than the rain-influenced number of 1300 on Wednesday. 

Coach Travis Fryman was happy with the pitching the Scrappers have been getting, ” Really all three guys threw extremely well.  When you throw the ball hard like (Austin) Adams, you will give up a home run from time to time.  We missed scoring opportunities, which usually ends up being the difference in a one-run game.”

Living halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland can really suck sometimes.  The Pirates have been down and out for so many year that there are no expectaions anymore.  The Indians recently threw in the towel by trading Mark DeRosa.  The Pirates can’t be accused of throwing in the towel, but have sent their big offseason free agent signing, Eric Hinske (above) to the hated Yankees.  Sigh… C’mon football season, get here.

• Babes Love Baseball offered to make out with Tim Lincecum for his fine efforts in pitching the Giants to a blowout win over the Cardinals.
• PacMan Jonesin‘ found that Washington Redskin Chris Cooley likes to burn dead cows in his spare time.
• Sports Rubbish presents Welcome to Wimbledon, feel free to park on the dead.
• In Game Now found a story about the Raiders sponsoring planes, Air Asia planes, that do not even fly to America.
• Zoner Sports takes out all of the steroid users of baseball and presents a brand new all-time home run leaders list.
• Hugging Harold Reynolds finds Jay Mariotti bashing bloggers from a journalist point of view.
• PSAMP has India’s reality show winners Rinku and Dinesh, awarded minor league Pirate contracts, ready for live action.
• The Fifth Corner finds Tar Heel Garrett Reynolds signing with the Atlanta Falcons.
• Style Points breaks the news that 106 sportswriters have tested positive for sanctimony.
• Bear Goggles On thinks that with the passing of Billy Mays that the new infomercial king will be none other than Mike Ditka.

Manny Ramirez is getting his timing back quickly in Albuquerque and is supposed to rejoin the Dodgers Friday.  In his four rehab games between High-A Inland Empire and AAA Albuquerque, Ramirez is 3-8 with a home run. 

In Manny’s first rehab game, I got nervous because he went 0-2 against Manny Parra, a recent demotion in Milwaukee.  Seems like everyone is hitting Parra these days, even in the minors. 

My fear that Ramirez may need more time to get ready were squashed by a homer on Sunday and being 1-1 as of this writing on Monday.  I guess after being off for four weeks, his timing would take a couple of games to get back to speed. 

Who loses in LA?  I think Juan Pierre may be the odd man out despite his stellar fill-in work as a starter in Manny’s abscence.  Andre Ethier is having too good of a year (14 HR’s, 50 RBI)  to bench,  and Matt Kemp is batting .310, so AB’s may become scarce for Pierre after Thursday night.

Adding Manny’s big stick back into the equation is going to make the Dodgers an offensive juggernaut for the rest of 2009 and well into the playoffs.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers won the first game in Williamsport against the State College Spikes, 5-4, on Sunday.  The win puts the Scrappers at 7-3.  There are two more games to be played against the Spikes before the Scrappers come home to host the Williamsport Crosscutters on Wednesday.

Jordan Henry started the game with a double for the Scrappers. He would later score on a Greg Folgia RBI single.  Folgia would also score on an RBI groundout from Jason Smit.

The Spikes responded with three runs off of Scrapper starter Marty Popham in the bottom of the first to hold a 3-2 lead.  After both teams scored a run in the sixth to knot the contest at four runs apiece, Mahoning Valley scored in the top of the 7th inning to tae a 5-4 lead.  The go-ahead run was a result of a Smit double who later scored on a Chun Chen clutch RBI single.

Kaimi Mead worked a scoreless two innings to record his first save for the Scrappers.

Those crazy, crazy Browns.  Braylon Edwards steps forward and says he’s ok with almost being traded.  Nice humility Brayon, your 17 dropped passes prevented you from being traded, not the overwhelming demands of the Browns.  Here are some great stories from other sites:

• The Fifth Corner has the recap of Team USA vs Canada basketball game.  Even though the US won, they trailed by 16 in the first half and had to fight back for the win.
• Bootlegger Sports reports that former Dallas Maverick Marquis Daniels has more rap singles that NBA contract value right now.
• Josh Q. Public takes a good look at Braves Rookie Pitching Sensation, Tommy Hanson.
• PSAMP informs us that Lynn Swann is a member of the bowling Hall of Fame.
• Fanhouse tells us a tragic story of a 12-year old bull rider who died after being thrown and trampled.
• The World of Isaac found Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik chatting with the fans about what might possible improve Seattle baseball. New trend?
• No Guts, No Glory ranks the NBA decades by #1 Draft Picks.
• NESW Sports and Fansided teamed up to present the top 10 sports movies that made men cry. 
• Predominantly Orange finds a neat way to equate sports moments to Michael Jackson songs.
• Hugging Harold Reynolds recaps Jemele Hill’s vodka-induced, unfunny, stereotype-laden BET Awards recap.
• Steady Burn has photos of the new Michael Jackson tribute jersey.  Unique shirt powered by US Soccer as a tribute.
• PacMan Jonesin’ asks what would have happened if the US Soccer team had won the Confed Cup?
• Fansided suggests that Larry Bird may be “whitening” the Indiana Pacers.
• Detroit4lyfe shares an unexpected concern which may hamper the first place Tigers chances to win.
• The Legend of Cecilio Guante says that the Mets spent two weeks in rehab, learning lessons about how to play the game of baseball.
• Chicago’s MMA is bulking up for UFC 100 with a clip of Brock Lesnar calling Frank Mir lucky.

Ah.. The Mark Price Bar.  Worst piece of candy I ever sunk my teeth into.  I still remember spitting it everywhere after I tried it.  Here are some good things to sink your teeth into:

• Zoner Sports  posted a cool video of a soccer ball facial.
• PSAMP reports that Santonio Holmes wants you to dance like Michael Jackson.
• Detroit4lyfe matches Pistons #1 pick, Gonzaga’s Austin Daye to song.
• Style Points posted the screenshots of the Twitter battle between the Real Ron Artest and Ocho Cinco.
• FOX Sports brings up a good point in looking at quarterbacks as a package because only a few will play the entire season without getting hurt.
• Lombardi Ave. says that Brett Favre has more in common with Michael Jackson than people may realize.
• Major League Jerk takes a look at the Phoenix Suns management and criticizes some of their decisions.
• Niner Noise lets us in on Mike Singletary’s motivational techniques.
• PacMan Jonesin’ says Martin Scorsese and John Smoltz should both consider retirement.
• The Fifth Corner looks at how the NBA Draft flowed and where his beloved Tar Heel players ended up.
• Bootlegger Sports pokes some fun at Geovany Soto for his recent problems smoking pot.
• Josh Q. Public welcomes back Big Papi as a Boston Red Sox slugger after he was AWOL for the first two months of the season.