Arrived today in the idyllic tropical paradise Boracay Island, where I will be spending the next week unwinding with the Mrs. and hanging out on arguably the worlds most gorgeous tropical beach, snorkeling, and drinking San Miguel.  However, this shall of course not deter us from our obsession with the great game of baseball, and […]

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Andy Young, who runs the well-known Siberian Light blog, wrote and tipped me off to an article he recently wrote about the battle of Khalkhin-Gol, which in Japan is known as the Nomonhan Incident.
I’d heard of Nomonhan, but only in reference to Haruki Murakami’s novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which, you might notice bears a (purposefully) striking resemblance to […]

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Who’s the best GM in baseball? Tough question. Many would say Theo Epstien of the Red Sox. Bian Cashman? No, nobody would say that, I just wanted to get your attention. Some might still say Billy Beane.
At any rate, any such conversation would have to include Padres GM Kevin Towers, who San Diego just resigned […]

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For me the culture of drinking in Korea is a mixed bag. On the surface I can appreciate the importance of drinking alcohol in an regimented way to bring a group closer together.
Of course this has many downsides as well. People are forced to drink when they don’t want to. People get sick all over […]

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If you think you’re going to make money off music in China — think again my friend. Talk about beating your head against a wall.
This piece comes from a UK source, The Register, and is written by Ed Peto. It’a fascinating look at the music industry in China, a country with 1.3 billion people, but […]

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I think one of the more interesting foreign signings by a Japanese team was that of Travis Hughes, a giant power relief pitcher from the Boston Red Sox. I contacted Dave of Sox on Deck, the writer of the Lin Che-hsusan post I linked to yesterday, and asked if he could share any thoughts on […]

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Part of the Chicago Cubs new print ad campaign. They’re obviously expecting big things from Kosuke – as Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano are the only other Cubs to get this treatment.

I like the design. The words are kind of funny and the rising sun logo is cool.

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