Walk into a baseball stadium today and you’ll likely see people chowing down on much more than peanuts and cracker jacks. A growing trend of all-you-can-eat style options in major league ballparks entitles many sports fans to a buffet styled choice of nachos, hot dogs, sodas, ice cream, and yes, even peanuts with the purchase of a ticket. In fact, you may even see fans watching the game on TV from inside the concourse simply to be closer to the food.

Many baseball franchises are attempting to boost attendance by promoting these all or nothing buffets of greasy ballpark food. Nineteen of the 30 major league teams offer these all-you-can-eat seats at many of their games, a major increase from the six that did so in 2007.

Because the typical American point of view is to get the most value out of a purchase, fans are eating double or even triple what they normally do, thereby embodying all the concerns of nutritionists and heath professionals in today’s increasingly obese world.

“Anytime you have an open buffet, people are more likely to eat more and drink more,” said Lona Sandon, a registered dietician and American Dietetic Association national spokesman. “It’s perceived as cost-effective. Well, not when it comes to your health.”

The rising rates of obesity in adults and children raise the question of whether teams are being socially neglectful by setting up these buffet sections.

Teams responded by claiming the intention is not for fans to gorge themselves, but Orioles fan, Michele Sparklin, sums up the fan’s perspective by saying, “When there’s a hot dog in your face, you have to take it.”

A few teams have started to implement healthier options in their ballparks and all-inclusive sections. The Orioles, for one, added salads to the menu this season. But as of right now, healthy food choices are mostly absent in these sections.

Despite steps towards implementing nutritional options in ballparks, Sandon worries that the long-standing traditions of fans devouring hot dogs and nachos at a baseball game are too ingrained.

“It’s the concept of culture,” Sandon said. “People expect to go to a ballgame and have a hot dog smothered in chili cheese. People choose on taste. What’s the tastiest? Even if you weren’t hungry when you walked in, it’s tough to walk into a ballpark and not get triggered by the aroma of the smell of the hot dogs.”

The Fourth of July marked the eightieth birthday of the true ‘Boss’ of baseball, George Steinbrenner, with little bluster but a great amount of significance.

Sports reporters covering an exhibition game at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida described Steinbrenner’s birthday as relatively uneventful with birthday wishes being flashed on the JumboTron received with only scattered applause.

Often described as demanding and even villainous, the simple and direct owner of seven World Series trophies and 11 pennants died Tuesday of a massive heart attack in his adopted hometown of Tampa.

George Steinbrenner’s claim to fame is his restoration of the Yankees to their former glory as the main staple in America’s favorite pastime. Pop culture adopted him as one of their own with his public self mockery in commercials and on “Seinfeld.”

Steinbrenner was also infamous for his reputation as a harsh boss willing to break down and humiliate his players, employees, and enemies alike.

“George is the most charming guy in the world, a real Mr. Nice,” said Campbell W. Elliott, former president of American Ship Building Company, owned by Steinbrenner. “But to work for him? George’s attitude is that they’re damn lucky to have a job…and if they don’t like the way he treats them, they can just get the hell out.”

But the ‘Boss’ also had a softer side; reaching out to financially help people he did not even know.

“Not a lot of people know this, but he would hear of a story, read about someone in the newspaper who was having a hard time, and he would find them and help them, without getting any credit,” said Rick Cerrone, the former public relations director of the Yankees. “He picked up random people’s medical bills. He was a very magnanimous, generous person.”

Henry and Rita Steinbrenner raised George in a Cleveland, OH suburb under the corporate shadow cast by Henry’s shipping company. His first connection with the sports industry happened when he started running track in high school.

On Tuesday, flags at New York City Hall were lowered in tribute to Steinbrenner.

“This is a sad day not only for Yankee fans, but for our entire city, as few people have had a bigger impact on New York over the past four decades than George Steinbrenner,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“His heart might have been gentler, but he was still The Boss. He’s always gonna be The Boss.”

The boxing-rich city of Philadelphia has produced yet another up-and-coming welterweight with a world of potential, Mike Jones. At 27, Jones is unbeaten with plenty going for him in his pursuit of the world title including speed, height, power, and his self-proclaimed “fire of the heart.” His career continues with a Friday night 12-round fight against Irving Garcia in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall, where he hopes to continue his winning spree.

But before Jones can be able to completely blow off his day job, he must develop a frightful jab and successfully take down a highly ranked opponent.

Jones claims to be “working on throwing combinations off the jabs and being defensive with the jabs,” continuing, “It hasn’t all come together yet, but I believe it’s going to real soon.” As for securing a big name opponent, Jones and his promoter, Russell Peltz, believe that a uncontested win against Garcia Friday will lead to more opportunities.

“There’s been talk of a (Andre) Berto fight,” Peltz says. “I don’t know how realistic that is. …Lou DiBella (Berto’s promoter) could’ve just been testing the waters. If everything falls in place and Berto has nobody else to fight, would (Mike) fight him? In a heartbeat.”

Philly legend, Joe Frazier and his son, Marvis, were there from the beginning of Jones’ career when his father first brought him to Frazier’s gym at 15 to work out some teenage aggression, despite the fact that he was never really a fan of the sport.

“I wasn’t getting in fights, but I was a teenager, and teenagers are all screwed up in the head one way or another,” Jones says. “I was a frustrated youth, growing up in a single-parent home, and I just wanted to fight. I turned all my aggression into boxing.”

But soon after turning pro, Jones left the Fraziers to pursue a boxing style that would make use of all of his attributes, not merely his strength and heart. The fight with Garcia on Friday will be the toughest yet on the young and promising boxer, but when asked where he sees himself in five years, Jones said, “A world champion and very rich,” with just the slightest hesitation, and a little chuckle.

LeBron James’ representatives met with the New York Knicks for the second time Sunday morning in Cleveland moments before LeBron himself met with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls. Amongst those in attendance at the meeting was Leon Rose, LeBron’s agent, Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald and several others. James, Knicks president Donnie Walsh and coach Mike D’Antoni did not attend the meeting.

The meeting lasted about an hour with James representatives wanting to know if it was true that the Knicks had offered a 5-year $100 million contract to Amare Stoudemire. However, Knicks president Donnie Walsh denied the meeting was about Stoudemire and was related to the Knicks’ salary cap position for this year and next. Walsh said that there are no other planned meetings with LeBron and said that on Monday the Knicks were going to sit down and talk about a contract with Stoudemire.

In their initial meeting with James on Thursday, the Knicks told him that if he signs with him, he can choose which other big free agent he would like as his teammate. Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, and David Lee are all available this year, while Carlos Anthony and Tony Parker become free agents next year.

Fueling the fire further, Stoudemire has been acting like he already has an offer from the Knicks. He told reporters Saturday night that he has been recruiting Carlos Anthony and Tony Parker to join him in New York.

The salary cap for the 2010-2011 season will be set 12:01am Thursday and after that LeBron will be able to sign with any team he desires.

For the first time since 2001, an American mixed martial artist is poised to rule the heavyweight class. Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin won’t compete for the division’s linear title Saturday night in Las Vegas (that belongs to Fabricio Werdum after his upset of “He Who Must Not Be Named”), but with a victory at UFC 116, one of the two mammoth heavyweights will, by all rights, earn the No. 1 title last held by Mark Coleman.

That certainty adds, one week after Fedor Emelianenko went down to stunning defeat, yet another dimension to a fight drenched in everything that makes combat sports compelling to watch. There is, for instance, the personal triumph story of a brick wall of a man who is a half-year removed from 13 straight days of intravenous feedings while he struggled with an intestinal disorder that very nearly left him guarding a colostomy bag for the rest of his life. There is his subsequent comeback with the ending yet to be written.

There is also the tale of an unbeaten giant, Carwin. He’s someone who has never needed more than four minutes to dispose of any opponent in front of him, yet he’ll understand for the first time what it’s like to be undersized in a cage. Then there is the recognition that Lesnar, 32, has become MMA’s top draw in just his sixth fight. And the prospect that two bulls will meet for as primal a contest as MMA can deliver.

Finally, there is the UFC belt, the notion of being the best, and the acceptance that he who has his hand raised inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be the living embodiment of the so-called baddest man on the planet. If you’re not yet convinced that Lesnar-Carwin (UFC pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET) is the most interesting combat sports event outside of Mayweather-Pacquiao, just remember that these are heavyweights. Big men. Bigger than big. It’s the kind of match that should cause MMA fans to rejoice. At a time when boxing is searching in the rubble for it’s next great heavyweight, MMA is teeming with them.