Hey, there's good cause for Vito's advanced state of Independence Day nationalism -- he had to endure (as did the rest of us) the crowning of a another foreign born champion hot dog eater.

Yes, Takeru Kobayashi of Japan won the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday.

We watched it on television right after the ballgame (did we mention that the Mets won that game, completing a sweep over their cross-town rival Yankees?).

I've heard Curtis Sliwa on the radio lamenting this American sports scandal ever since Hirofumi Nakajima defeated 380-pound Ed "The Maspeth Monster" Krachie several years back.

Sliwa, who is half Barese, used to compete in these contests himself. And according to his talk-radio colleagues, he'd spend the next few days feeling sick as a dog, hanging off his office chair with a towel over his head, groaning and feeling awful.

Hold the hot dogs; bring on the Italian sausage.