Independence Day Grab Bag: McNair Dead

As a celebration of my rights as an American -- and because I refuse to let the Daily Times interns out-blog me -- I bring you a special July 4th edition of the grab bag.

By the way, apparently we have two interns, Charly Edsitty and Annie Taylor -- neither of which I've met or seen. Either they have an office on top of the roof of they're out doing work, which is a good thing. Or maybe it's me that's out doing the work.

I'm sure you've all heard by now that Steve McNair was found shot to death today at a Nashville condo, along with a 20-year-old girl, a "friend" of McNair's. It's unclear what happened but there was a pistol near the body of the woman, Sahel Kazemi. McNair had several wounds and Kazemi had one.

I'm shocked. I know these things happen every day, but I interviewed McNair less than a year ago at the Tennessee Titans' training camp. He was showered with praise from the organization and the media loved seeing him, especially after having to deal with the standoffish and defensive Vince Young.

McNair, of course, nearly led the Titans to a Super Bowl in 2000. The Allen Iverson of the NFL, he played hurt a lot and told us during a group interview that he would never consider coming out of retirement because it hurt him just to get out of bed in the morning.

McNair was also involved in the largest home crowd ever at a Samford football game, where I graduated in December. "Air McNair" helped Alcorn State to a come-from-behind 45-45 tie on Oct. 29, 1994 in front of 11,189.

We'll have to see what circumstances surrounded his death -- witnesses say he arrived at the condo at 1:30 or 2 a.m. Saturday morning and he was in the car when the woman, not his wife, was pulled over and charged with a DUI two days ago. The Examiner is reporting the two were dating. Regardless, McNair was a franchise hero on the football field, respected by his peers, and a great guy to talk to on the sidelines.

*****

Chestnut three-peat: I probably shouldn't use the term "three-peat," which is trademarked by former NBA coach Pat Riley, but that's exactly what American Joey Chestnut did Saturday at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest.

For those of you that don't care, consider this: Chestnut just put on the greatest documented hot dog eating exhibition in the history of the world. Maybe the single greatest 10 minutes of eating in history.

That's right, 10 minutes. They lowered the time allowance from 12 after Chestnut and six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi flattened records in recent years. It didn't matter.

The record was 25 as recently as 2000. Kobayashi doubled the record in 2001 and held a dominant dictatorship over the event until Chestnut burst onto the scene fresh off of setting the American record in 2006, munching down 66 hot dogs and buns in 2007.

Chestnut won an eat-off last year after both finished with 59 in the reduced time frame and Chestnut won 68-64.5 this year in the most incredible moment of gluttony I've ever witnessed.

How many times these days do we witness a "can you believe that just happened" moment? We're numb with all the accomplishments of the past decade -- numb and suspicious.

But there's not much you can do to make buns and hot dogs disappear into your stomach faster than anyone ever born. Nathan's actually incorporated judges this year that were allowed to disallow a dog if a contestant ate too sloppily and too much of it flew onto the table in wet chunks. They had yellow cards that served as a warning and the next infraction would disqualify them.

Also, the cheap move over the last few seconds where as many dogs as they can shove into their mouths count as long as they get them in before the buzzer and then finish chewing just got harder: They're no longer allowed to hold the food in their mouths with their hands.

I really thought the Japanese eating icon would take back the prize this year, and obviously he tried. But kudos to Chestnut once again.

*****

Rare failure for McCasland: It's hard to say much negative about upcoming Piedra Vista senior Jake McCasland.

He's already got a fastball that reaches into the low 90s and he can mash. But as much praise as I've heaped on him I feel obligated not to cover it up when he doesn't deliver big, fair or unfair.

He was 0-for-2 with a walk in Saturday's win over the Albuquerque Dukes, but stranded six runners in the first two innings. He came up both times with the bases loaded. He swatted a lazy foul ball to the third baseman after falling behind in the count in his first at-bat and flew out to center to end the second inning.

I would say the Dukes could thank their lucky stars, but Panthers teammate Danny Simonson picked him up, soaring a drive over the center fielder's head in the first to clear the bases.

*****

National honor for Beach: Gatorade last week named Albuquerque Academy's Curtis Beach their National Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Beach is the first New Mexican to ever win the honor and is now a candidate for Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year, and a strong one at that.

Here are some of his accomplishments:

• Broke the national prep decathlon record at the Arcadia Invitational, scoring 7,909 points.
• Won five individual state 4A titles -- 110-meter hurdles (14.53 seconds), 200-meter dash (21.84), 400-meter dash (47.99), high jump (6-9.5) and pole vault (15-3). Beach is a 17-time individual state champion.
• Finished third at the Nike Outdoor Nationals 800-meter run in 1:50.75.
• Maintains a 3.75 GPA.

Beach has signed a national letter of intent with Duke.

Former Gatorade National Players of the Year include Peyton Manning, Emmitt Smith, Lisa Leslie and Alan Webb.

That's all for now. Hope you've enjoyed the fireworks I've been hearing outside the Daily Times office. I'm headed home to Aztec here soon so I can be back at Ricketts Park for tomorrow's noon championship game of the Hammerin' Hank Classic.

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher