Now that I’m working for the Twins, it’s hard for me to offer opinions about the recent Santana for prospects deal, and most have already been said more articulately and forcefully than I can say them already.  However, when words like ’steal’ and ‘panic’ are bandied about, you get the general sense of how the deal is […]

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I wanted to mention the Johan Santana trade. It’s not often that a high profile trade goes down where the reaction is so unanimous.
Of course this makes want to find reasons why the Twins didn’t get fleeced, particularly when the New York media is involved, particularly when I’m seeing headlines like Santana to Mets: Their Best Trade […]

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A somewhat unknown and mysterious company called Centennial Investment has stepped up to the plate and purchased the Hyundai Unicorns, enabling the Korean Baseball Organization to maintain its current eight-team league.
Centennial is based in Seattle (though I presume is Korean owned) and trades in energy, the medical industry and consulting services. The strange part is […]

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I mentioned in the comments section of this story I’d been wanting to do a Korean pizza post for a while now. Low and behold, today I found this creation brought to us by Mr. Pizza, which is this fairly mediocre pizza chain mostly aimed at teenage girls. The kind of place with overhead lighting […]

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Unfortunately, stories about athletes getting into trouble are so commonplace they no longer have the effect they ought to. In a sense we expect these things to happen, but in the process of becoming numb to them we also become complicit – indirectly allowing them to happen again.
But this is an extraordinary story brought to you […]

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There are a few ways to interpret the following story:
a. Korean teenage girls are insane
b. Korean parents foster a strong culture of political protest
c. This band is hot and well-worth the trouble
At the risk of sounding uncouth I’m leaning toward choice A. The above photo is a demonstration undertaken by an estimated 700-1500 E.L.F. (EverLasting […]

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Set up by a non-governmental group of experts — though with the “blessing” of the agriculture ministry — an organization dedicated to certifying the authenticity of Japanese restaurants around the world kicked its operations off yesterday.
“We are not aiming at something like a sushi police aiming to crack down on inauthentic restaurants,” said a member […]

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You might remember the fun post Bonus Babies from a month or so ago, detailing some of the more exceptional clauses found in major league baseball contracts. The Biz of Baseball has a similar, equally amusing piece. Here are some of the highlights:
RHP Roy Oswalt was awarded, in his previous contract, a clause where he allowed […]

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Very provocative post thrown down by a blog called Cool Ball, which titled its inaugural offering “Why The Hardball Times Sucks. Pt. 1″ and set off a flurry of negative response when it was posted at Baseball Think Factory. I have to admit, first time through, I breezed through the beginning, started skimming when it inserted […]

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These are from a book of engravings called “The Punishments of China,” published in English and French in 1804. This looks like a children’s book, but if you’re a kid, you shouldn’t go around doing this unless you’re a trained professional.
This is “Burning a man’s eyes with lime.”

I’m really going to have to remember that […]

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Fun piece written for the Arroyo Monthly by an old journalism pal of mine Paul Sterman, about a guy named Terry Cannon, who hosts/curates The Baseball Reliquary, a Pasadena-based collection of mostly curiosities and interesting cultural artifacts dealing with baseball.
Ever heard about Eddie Gaedel, the 3′7 guy who was once brought into St. Louis Browns game […]

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As opposed to the Rock of Angels, this is a TV drama concerning the sordid lives of Thai airline employees called War of Angels. As you’ll see in this lengthy trailer, the object of affection is a handsome pilot and several flight attendants vying for his affections. Unfortunately, this frequently leads to catfights, which can […]

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I can’t think of a team with a higher ratio of well-written team blogs than the Seattle Mariners. USS Mariner is well-known as one of the best baseball blogs of any kind, and was recently mentioned by Peter Gammons as one of his regular reads. My personal favorite is Lookout Landing, written by Jeff Sullivan, who […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5YRUspGnag

Can anyone confirm if this ever took hold?

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CCTV, a news organization many believe serves as little more than a mouthpiece of the Chinese government, recently issued a story titled Olympic press freedom hailed by foreign media. As part of the piece the reporter gathered several quotes. From foreign journalists covering the Olympics, right? Well, not exactly.
First, check out this lede:
It’s been a […]

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Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein squaring off on a stage at William Paterson University. Sounds interesting, right? Tickets were $37 a head. Ok, a little less interesting. Depends on what they talk about.
The New York Times has a write up of the event. According to the story Cashman, who is an alum of WPU, reiterated his […]

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Hong Sang-soo is probably my favorite Korean director and I highly recommend his Saenghwalui balgyeon (2002) aka Turning Gate. His most recent film Haebyonui yoin (2006) aka Woman on the Beach is also great and the dialogue for the film became my Korean study tool for some time. Why? Because Hong’s films typically show real people doing real […]

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Wearing a sponsor’s logo on a uniform is common practice in Asian baseball leagues, however in Major League Baseball it is not allowed unless it’s that of the manufacturer of the clothing.
However, when the Red Sox take the field against the Athletics in their season opening series in Japan this March, for the first time […]

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With things feeling a little tight how about some breathing room with a demonstration of the amazing holding power of plastic straps. As Chinese model Ying Ling will show you (so long as you aren’t at work) this technology has come a long way in recent years.
GSAW NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpLVKdLkG1o

(via TV in Japan)

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Good piece in the Asia Times by Andrei Lankov, one of the world’s foremost experts on North Korea and the geopolitics that surround it. Here he’s focusing on the domestic changes, or lack thereof, specifically in the marketplace, which he argues are moving toward 1990 rather than 2008.
These changes are considerable and should not encourage those […]

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