The following is an interview with Robert Fitts, author of Wally Yonamine: The Man who Changed Japanese Baseball. The book is published by University of Nebraska Press and is now available at Amazon.com or at WallyYonamine.com.
EWC:What attracted you to the story of Wally Yonamine to the degree that you wanted to write a book on [...]

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A topic I’m personally fascinated by. Replacement level populations, to put it in Sabermetric terms. But this is serious business in Asia and Europe, and I’ll try to link to it more often. I highly recommend Canadian conservative columnist Mark Steyn’s many writings on the subject.
Here’s an article in today’s Washington Post on how Japanese [...]

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Here is a very long, but fascinating article in Fast Company about Dr. James Andrews, a name you’ve probably heard many times with “was sent to…” proceeding it. Josh Beckett went there this past week and according to the article, the Red Sox even hired one of Andrews ex-staffers as part of a  closely guarded [...]

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If you haven’t already seen it make sure to check out Patrick from NPB Tracker’s post  on some of the weirder pitches and pitching occurrences in recent Japanese Baseball. He highlights Satoru Komiyama’s “Shake” pitch, which the artist himself describes as a forkball with no thumb pressure. Here’s a video of the pitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40t_caBnV3c

Ah the lengths [...]

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Spectators of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will take home precious memories of Usain Bolt winning the 100m and 200m dash in record time, Korea emerging as the team to beat in baseball, the glorious extra innings rule, and Michael Phelps winning 11 gazillion gold medals.   Oh, and that guy running around the ball [...]

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About a year into my stay in Korea I got pretty wrapped up in audio book University-style lecture series. The most common brand of these is The Teaching Company,  but there’s another called The Modern Scholar. TTC advertises in  Harper’s, The Atlantic and  I  believe the  NYT. My guess is these are often used as [...]

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Japanese girls dancing in high school uniforms? Ok, sounds fun. Dancing in said uniforms to music taken from an Xbox 360 game? Ok, not exactly my thing, but I still like the dancing. Doing said dance in said uniforms in front of the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima?
Ummm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EBhqhz0a5k

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According to the Daily Mainichi  Kirin Breweries has unveiled a new beer with a lucky seven percent alcohol content. Called “Strong Seven,” the beer will sell for around 141 yen ($1.28) for a 350ml can, and 197 yen ($1.80)  for a 500ml can.
Are those prices correct?!

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Even though it concerns Koreans I haven’t paid much attention to the stories about the LPGA’s new mandate that it’s golfers must speak passable English. Much of the coverage has seemed to suggest that the decision is xenophobic in nature, which I think is absurd. However, Ray Ratto, a columnist I’ve read off and on [...]

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Classic Marmot’s Hole post, if I may say so, concerning rising anti-Korean sentiment in China. A prominent Korean paper has recently run several pieces on the subject, pointing to the fact that during the Olympics  Chinese fans  took to rooting for 1. China, and 2. Anyone playing Korea.
They even rooted for Japan over Korea.
This is [...]

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The fact that Karim Garcia broke a bat over his leg during tonight’s Lotte/Hanwha game isnt’ really the item here. A bat over the leg is always mildly amusing, and probably worth an appearance Sportcenter’s Top 10, but what I really liked was the reaction by the Korean announcers, who really ate it up. [...]

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While big ticket items like Darvish Yu  and Uehara Koji   gobble up headlines as the next big thing to come out of Japan, crafty left-hander/magician Naruse Yoshihisa continues to make quiet noise as one of Japan’s top starting pitchers.
While  Naruse still has a ways to go before he is eligible for free agency, [...]

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Simon has an interesting snippet  of a conversation between NPB legends Sadaharu Oh and Katsuya Nomura, conerning the Japanese team’s failure in the Olympics. Oh somewhat unfairly rips Toshiya Sugiuchi (who pitched very well vs. The Netherlands  and  was decent in the second Korea game)  and they also digress into the ol’ “kids aren’t built [...]

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He is according to Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura who’s written a book called “The True Character of Kim Jong Il.” One of the assertions in the book is that the Dear Leader is dead.
From Japan Today:
If true, the implications are potentially vast. Among them: former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s summit partner during one or [...]

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Between my trip home and the Olympics it’s been a while since I did one of these, but we’re going to hit the ground running so things definitely warrant a closer look.
Play resumes today and will run business as usual through October 4th. Some of the makeup games have already been rescheduled, but others have [...]

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Some might have already seen this on the WBC site, but the “presale registration” started last week. It might still be a tad confusing for some, so here’s an explanation of what’s happening.
The WBC is going to offer “strips” of tickets. If you want a strip ticket, you can register now for a drawing to [...]

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There’s one last Jacques Rogge joke in here somewhere, but I think it’s time we put the Olympics to bed until we’ve got flying cars or homeopathic plastic surgery  or whatever awaits us in 2016. I want to kick off the  second year of East Windup Chronicle in style, with a hard hitting report on [...]

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We’re a year old and I feel I ought to say something profound. Not because anyone particularly cares and needs to know that we’ve been doing this for a year, but mostly because it occupies a decent portion  of my life on certain days through certain hours.
East Windup Chronicle was hatched on July 27, 2007 [...]

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In the end, even the Olympics couldn’t screw up a great international baseball championship. It was a classic pitcher’s duel, generally well-played by both sides, and mercifully decided prior to penalty kicks. All in all a riviting game.
(Box)
Thanks for the pancakes Olympics. Don’t forget your purse  and  shut the door on your way out. [...]

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I’m sure no English media outlet in Beijing will bother to do this, so here’s a position by position breakdown on tonight’s game. I watched both Korea vs. Cuba exhibitions in Seoul early this month and have seen most of the other Korean team games on TV. It’s still a small sample, but believe me, [...]

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