A year ago and change, resident soothsayer Aaron Shinsano wrote in EWC that L.A. Dodgers Assistant GM Kim Ng’s name was coming up automatically when GM vacancies arose, and that Ng would end up a GM of an MLB franchise sooner than later.
Fast forward one year, and accounts all over the blogosphere are reporting [...]

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The Hawaiian league kicked off this week. The league boasts four MLB first rounders, several young Japanese players drafted within the past two years, and finally, after a several year hiatus, a KBO team has resumed sending prospects to the league. You can check out Baseball America’s preview of the league with full team rosters.
There [...]

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The Chinese film The Assembly, by Feng Xiaogang won the top prize at this year’s Pyongyang International Film Festival, which wrapped up during the weekend. Xiaogang also won best director. The film is about a group of communist soldiers at the end of the Chinese civil war in the late 1940s.
 Here’s the U.K. trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VG1DrvN4rE

The [...]

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I’ve got no beef with the Mets. As far as teams I’m not a “fan” of go, I like them. But there’s something special about the Mets losing, especially losing in the way they have the past two seasons.

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Nice piece on Baseball Analysts about Guys Who Should Come Play in Asia, entitled Yokohama or Omaha in 2009?. Ironically, while watching some of tonight’s SK/Woori game, the camera showed a scout from Hanshin, who was apparently watching SK starter Jung Byung-doo.
There’s an article by Yonghap news this evening talking about the Hanshin scout, as [...]

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EWC: Last time we chatted you were getting ready to start the Olympics coverage. One month after, what Korea-related image or news event still stands out in your mind?
Jee-ho: It’s baseball. Hands down. There are two sporting moments that ever made me cry. One is Canada’s winning hockey gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake [...]

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Sports Chosun has a nifty photo reel from last night’s games, which includes this lovely lady holding a sign telling SK star pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun that she is the “perfect bride.” Some other great photos in the mix as well.

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Good piece by ESPN’s Outside the Lines taking a look at the MLB Dominican scouting scandals. The writers are T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada, who was one of the writers of the Barry Bonds steroid book Game of Shadows. Some video accompanies the story.
The story focuses on the signing of Kelvin De Leon, a 17-year-old [...]

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I’ve had a couple Japanese/Korean girl pop ideas floating around this week and now a third demands I put them all in a post. First off, The Wondergirls released a new single this week and in my humble opinion  it’s pretty great. Catchy song, a good, kinda funny video (MV) and even the dance is [...]

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Geoff Baker has a couple of articles called Rebuilding the Mariners about Seattle’s finest (found via MLBTR), who have now become the first team with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games. As you can imagine there’s a lot of blame to go around, but featuring prominently are Ichiro and Kenji Johjima, the latter [...]

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Korea Beat posted a photo from this and I’ve always liked Hanji, so I went ahead and dug up a few more photos of the event.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Wonju. They have a high school baseball team I run into time at tournaments. They’re terrible.  But  I’m always hoping I’ll end up with a [...]

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Hat tip to Marmot’s Hole on this. Amazing photo series  by Eric Lafforgue for the Boston Globe’s Boston.com. A number of these are from the recent Mass Games that took place in mid September, and still others are not. You’ll note this post is in the Ladies of North Korea section and indeed there is [...]

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Japanese scientists have developed a new method for identifying Mad Cow disease by measuring the brain waves produced in response to audio stimuli. The cows developed the typical symptoms of Mad Cow (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) 24 months after being infected, however the researchers found that the cows had a delayed reaction to sound just 22 [...]

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As regular readers of this site are probably aware, I’m a supporter of Korean baseball. I think the talent here is underrated, and I enjoy toutin’ it, scoutin’ it, and basically trying to show the world I know something they don’t. Isn’t that why people spend hours of their lives writing blogs?
But then I read [...]

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Here are a series of spoofs of Sanlu commercials. Sanlu is the  major Chinese baby milk company currently under fire for distributing tainted milk. According to Danwei this clip has already been taken off Chinese video sharing sites, but you can still find it on YouTube.
Even if you don’t speak Chinese (like me) you’ll still [...]

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I wasn’t aware of this until I saw the Korea Times story linked on Baseball Think Factory, but there was some controversy at the Doosan/Lotte game in Busan Friday night. I was in Incheon at the SK/Woori game and didn’t see anything but a single highlight of the game ending home run on the news.
Apparently [...]

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My intention was to do a simple, wholesome post linking to this Betel Nut Girls gallery (PG-13 FW) on Asian-sirens, but while browsing through the comments I came across this relic — a funny article from 1992 about a hot dog stand called Bikini Weenie in Yonkers, New York.
Are the bikini-clad hot dog vendors who [...]

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And if they did come out of the water it might be at Jangsaengpo Port, Ulsan, near where I live, where there is a long row of  whale restaurants lining the coast. More on that in a minute.
From the Telegraph:
Scientists in Japan have given a beluga whale a vocabulary of three words, the first time [...]

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Looks like EWC knows how to light a fire under a guy.   After a recent post detailing pitcher Luther Hackman’s struggles in the CPBL, the big right-hander has responded with two straight dominant victories and seventeen straight scoreless innings for the Tong-Yi Lions.
Hackman has regained his command, striking out 12 and walking just one [...]

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Word coming out of Taiwan is that (now former) Chinese Taipei manager Hong Yi-Chen has been removed from his duties as the Chinese Taipei manager in preparation for the upcoming 2009 World Baseball Classic.
While poor management and questionable roster selection for the 2008 Olympics certainly played a role, Taiwan’s now infamous 8-7 loss to China [...]

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