While there is no doubt that Shea loves what he does, I rolled my eyes everytime that he spoke. Comparing eaters to well known athletes is a bit much.

gmoney ...

I think that's the point. It's hot dog eating, the whole thing is a bit tongue-in-cheek ... umm, no pun intended. ha

Every IndyCar race that Paul Page does not call is a boring IndyCar race.

AA - do u have any idea what happened? He is the best race caller I've ever heard.

"The passion is raw but the hot dogs are cooked."

"You can't eat the tomatoes, and gas is $5 a gallon, but the mustard belt will stay on American soil."

Classic!

Paul Page calls NHRA events, also known as "the 'sport' that NASCAR fans think only appeals to rednecks". He was kicked off IndyCar for Todd Harris and when Harris was chased out of that job after the Internet excoriated him for focusing on Danica-mania they replaced him with Marty Reid (who I'm okay with, although remind me to make a Marty Reid Drinking Game someday) instead of reinstating Page. And when they signed up with NASCAR they brought in Dr. Jerry Punch (!) instead of Page for some reason.

I actually think any fan of this sort of thing might be offended by ESPN being light hearted OR faux-epic about it. Did you see Buster Olney on SportsCenter that evening? Awful. If you don't want calls for the hot dog eating contest to move to a network that will "respect" it like Spike, just treat it like any other sport. And don't shove it down the throats of people who don't want to be disgusted.

Paul Page and Bob Jenkins remain the best racing commentators around - and it's a shame neither is involved with Indy anymore.

I found Rich Shea hilarious and awesome - capturing both the absurdity and the fun of the competition.

Really, if there are die-hards out there who think Shea was making sport of the competition they should probably get over themselves. It's all in good fun.

Awful, I know you like good intros.. here's classic Paul Page, doing an Indy 500 intro, there are a bunch of them on Youtube, awesome, and another thing that ABCESPN has ruined.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uC7MbW7Juig

Not sure if anyone else caught this, but during the eater intros, Rich Shea said something in Spanish that I think equated to, "He makes people shit their pants" or "lose their shit." Definitely the word mierde was used. And Page chided him, saying, you know, you gotta watch those translations or we'll get someone from the Commission writing us a letter. Subtle stuff, but interesting.

Actually I think the Spanish was about that one competitor making other eaters scared when he eats "muerdo" meaning eat. maybe the wrong tense but clearly not mierde