Watchdog

The Nets are giving away free hot dogs to the first 10,000 fans who show up for Saturday night's home opener against the Warriors.

Talking to the guy in charge of counting them would probably make for an amusing blog item next week.

Last season I attended that Knicks game where they gave away all sorts of free food. I ate a lot of it, for research purposes. Isiah's "Dale and Thomas" popcorn is pretty good, actually.

Here is an interview from Fang's Bites with Roslyn's own Darren Rovell of CNBC, a guy so charged up about being a sports business reporter it actually was his career ambition at an early age.

I like Darren's description of the annual Coney Island hot dog eating contest, my favorite "sports" event of the year. (That's Eric "Badlands" Booker of the Copiague at left in the picture, by the way. I'm trying to stay local, people!)

This has nothing to do with anything above, but here is an interesting interview our former Tribune teammates at the L.A. Times did with Keith Jackson last week.

It's impossible not to become a tad jaded after a quarter century as a sports writer, but I have to admit this about the first six months and one week of 2008: We are on an incredible run for major sports events.

One of the most memorable NFC Championship Games, followed by one of the most memorable Super Bowls.

A classic NCAA men's basketball final, complete with overtime.

Dream matchups for the NBA and NHL finals, even if neither quite lived up to its billing.

Perhaps the best U.S. Open golf tournament in history, including an 18-hole overtime, then a one-hole double overtime, all won by a guy on one leg.

The first-ever "dog-off" at the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

Perhaps the best Wimbledon men's final ever.

What's next?

Mets-Yankees in the World Series. Game 7. Bottom of the 21st inning. Mets win when it turns out that Derek Jeter's game-tying slide into home does not count because souvenir hunters literally stole home plate between innings.

Long Island's own Eric (Badlands) Booker recently won the New Jersey hot dog eating contest to warm up for the big one in Coney Island Friday.

The news regarding the latter is that the time limit has been trimmed from 12 minutes to the old-school 10 this year, which should make Joey Chestnut's quest to repeat as champ slightly less disgusting.