I’m going to be voting in Bugs and Cranks’ weekly Top 30 ranking of MLB teams during the season. I’m a sucker for these power ranking kind of thangs, so it’s an honor to be able to add my two cents on such an illustrious site. Don’t sigh at the use of “honor” and “illustrious” there. […]

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The KBO opened over the weekend, and with my computer on the fritz I was able to take in a few games over the weekend. Lotte, in a rather small sample of two games, has looked fantastic, shellacking Hanhwa on opening day by an 11-1 score, then winning a closer Sunday game 9-8. Lee Dae-ho […]

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Here’s one of these YouTube deals where someone with an Internet connection starts gabbing into the camera about nothing in particular, yet finds an audience. I’m almost embarrassed to say I’ve now spent roughly 30 minutes of my life watching this young lady from Japan. Yet, as I sit here and type this I have […]

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I’ve been having a few computer problems so I can’t do this article justice with one of my snappy introductions/commentaries, but this is a subject I enjoy and that I’ve written about a couple times on here — Vietnamese women marrying Korean men.
This is an update on a story written last year by Norimitsu Onishi of […]

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Conine Brings Career to a Close

Past comes out in exhibition win
April 16, 1994

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From Korea Beat:
The March 25th broadcast of actress Hwan In-yeong’s “luxury lifestyle” ETN TV program, 백만장자의 쇼핑백 (The Millionaire’s Shopping Bag), had her try out “naked sushi”, which the Sports Hankook noted was invented in the United States and is supposed to make its eaters healthier.

I’ve only ever seen this in movies. I can’t believe […]

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Amusing little tidbit on Simon Currie’s site, about two Chunichi Dragons cheering squads, known as Hakuryukai (White Dragons Club) and Ryushinkai (Dragon Spirit Club), that have been banned from all NPB stadiums. Apparently the offending groups have a history of hording outfield seats, being rude, excessive public intoxication, and best of all…ties to organized crime […]

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I’m going to let a cat partially out of bag here. I was recently hired to do a part time scouting job similar to the one Jackson does for the Twins. I won’t post about my job directly, but I’m guessing my overall ability to analyse baseball is about to take a big jump. One thing I’m […]

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I’d seen this briefly about a month ago and been a little wary, but there’s been a fair amount of chatter about Edward Salcedo, a 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic. He’s represented by none other than Scott Boras.
I mention Boras up top because as you’ll see, we should probably take everything said about this kid with […]

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Terrific article by Norimitsu Onishi for the New York Times titled Spaghetti Stir-Fry and Hambagoo: Japan Looks West, about a number of the Western-influenced dishes that have become staples of Japanese cuisine (Yoshoku)
Yoshoku was born during Japan’s Meiji Restoration, the period that followed this isolationist country’s forced opening by America’s so-called Black Ships in 1854. […]

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 Simroid is a robot designed to help dental students improve on their patient communication skills. The video below is an interview with Dr. Naotake Shibui of the Nippon Dental University in Tokyo, who helped develop the Simroid.
According to the interview, Simroid is modeled after a 28-year-old woman, and her fear of dentists and sensitivity to pain have […]

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Good looking new blog called Saber-scouting has been getting a lot of attention around town. That’s right, town. As in Blogtown. The co-founders both have experience working for major league teams and one is currently a scout for a team.
Yesterday they profiled Johnny Cueto, which, as a Reds fan interested me greatly. (Side note: anyone out […]

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Here’s a case that could be interesting to follow:
A South Korean university said on Wednesday it is suing the prestigious US university Yale for 50 million dollars (S$69 million) over a fake degree scandal which it said caused ‘irreparable damage’ to its reputation.
Dongguk University said in a statement it will take the US university to […]

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I saw this piece Baseball’s sold its soul in a few places today and finally got around to giving it a read. Written by Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the article reads just as its title suggests.
There have been others, Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Tribune asks Why is the American Game opening in…Japan? […]

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I wouldn’t normally post your run-of-the-mill ESPN play-of-the-night kind of highlight, but this is unreal.
I had heard Joey Gathright’s leaping ability is such that he can jump over a car, but I never expected him to do it in a game. The hurdle in this case is none other than Hiroki Kuroda, who, I think […]

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Another thing I came across on Salon today was an item about Taedonggang, the North Korean beer (spelled Taidonggang on Salon for some reason), which I had an item about a week or two ago.
The piece referenced a post on a good blog based here in Korea called Gusts of Popular Feeling, which asserted that the […]

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I let loose yesterday with a little of my disgust with the International Olympic Committee. Sure, some of this has to do with the removal of baseball from the program for the 2012 London Games, but a lot of it has to do with the Olympics having become fairly lame and over-commercialized in general over […]

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May as well start a WBC 2009 category with this announcement:
Mexico City, San Juan, Tokyo and Toronto were selected Monday to host first-round games during the second World Baseball Classic in 2009.
The 16-nation tournament will switch from a round-robin to a double-elimination format during the first two rounds. Japan won the initial WBC in 2006, […]

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This is the first I’ve ever heard of this, but here’s an interesting tidbit from a Q&A with Keith Law that concerns the Toronto Blue Jays drafting of Ricky Romero instead of Troy Tulowitzki in the 2005 amateur baseball draft. Law was working in the Blue Jays’ front office at the time, and had, according […]

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In Japan the magic of Koshien has begun. Can I say that any Boston-based reporter worth their salt made the detour while in town? The Boston Herald did and in addition to a short essay on the scene the paper put up a nice accompanying photo essay that you’ll find to the right of the […]

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