I hate to be a crank about the Olympics. I’m fine with the basic idea, and there were plenty of moments during the Opening Ceremonies that were memorable — K.D. Lang’s beautiful voice and all the stuff with the projected screens. I can forgive the overuse of French (of which 13% of the country speaks exclusively [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b91t7pEu4yk

Fascinating short clip about baseball in Japanese internment camps (or “relocation camps”) during World War II found on PRI’s “The World”, that also includes footage of Asian-Americans that fought in American units during World War II. From the site:

In the 1920s and 1930s, Japanese immigrant communities across America formed semi-pro baseball leagues. They [...]

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Why? Because a famous hot dog joint has been allowed to reopen its doors after being shut down in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.
From Beijing Boyce’s “The best little hot dog stand in Beijing…”:
In terms of beverages, this still tends to a land of extremes, with two of the most popular drinks being [...]

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Ending a prolonged courtship involving several teams, 22 year-old right-handed reliever Lo-Chia Jen has finally fit an MLB glass slipper, signing a deal reportedly worth $250,000 with the Houston Astros. The hard-to-get Lo rebuffed earlier offers from the Red Sox, Twins, and Angels. Lo is the first Taiwanese sign for the Houston Astros.
The [...]

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Neat little YouTube of a program called French 24 (although it’s in English) about the auctioning of Beijing 2008-related items to Chinese citizens. As you might expect, people are buying used VWs that say Beijing 2008 across the hood and paying more than the sticker price of the car would be if it were new.
According [...]

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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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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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Cuba crushed the Americans 10-2 (box) to set up a gold medal matchup of the tournament’s best and  two most deserving teams. I don’t have the time to do a full write up, but I’m going to put the finishing touches on a final preview in the morning.
Unfortunately the Korean networks were switching back and [...]

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In a game that looked oddly similar to last Saturday’s, Korea fell behind Japan early, but then crawled back and exploded in the late innings once the game was tied.
Lee Seung-yeop, in what might be called an act of poetic justice given the year he’s had in Japan, hit a two run HR off [...]

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From the story IOC president Jacques Rogge hits out at Usain Bolt over his celebrations:
After the 200m, Bolt made little effort to congratulate the other runners as he wrapped himself in a Jamaican flag and set off on a solo victory lap. He swayed to the reggae music that erupted around the stadium, peered [...]

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The Korean women’s handball team lost to Norway in the semi-finals tonight. I won’t pretend to know anything about handball and I paid passing attention to the game, but I’m guessing we’ll be hearing a lot about this over the next few days here in Korea.
With the score tied 28-28 Norway scored a game winning [...]

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Lefty Ni Fu-Te put on a clinic of left-handed relief work Wednesday night in Beijing, picking up the win by tossing 5 strong shutout innings with six K’s.   Outfielder Lin Che-Hsuan broke out of his slump, going   3-for-5 with 2 RBI and a HR as Taiwan took advantage of the glorious Olympic extra [...]

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The U.S. beat Chinese Taipei 4-2 today as Taiwan’s disastrous Olympic campaign continued. Taiwan fell to 1-5 in Beijing, with increasingly angry and fed-up Taiwanese fans clamoring for answers.
U.S. Starter Brandon Knight picked up the win on 6 1/3 strong innings, and power /speed combo lefty outfielder Dexter Fowler drove in the games go-ahead [...]

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With rainouts of the high school games yesterday I ended up seeing quite a bit of both the Japan vs. Canada game and the Korea vs. Chinese Taipei game. With just two games each left to play, and the records being the way they are, it’s pretty clear who will be in semifinals.
All in all [...]

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I’m in Seoul watching the Bong-hwang high school baseball tournament, but believe you me I was tuned into the Japan/Korea game last night (box). Actually it was my birthday and several of us gathered at a pretty goofy place called Beautiful Beer to watch not only the game — but also Jang Mi-ran’s amazing [...]

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Looking to vindicate themselves after yesterday’s disgraceful meltdown against China, Chinese Taipei lost to Cuba 1-0 and fell to 1-3 overall.   Chinese Taipei is now all but eliminated from medal contention in this year’s olympics.
Quick-armed righty Lee Chen-Chang, the least heralded of Taiwan’s three amateur pitchers (the other two Cheng Kai-Wen and Lo Chia-Jen), [...]

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Ryu Hyun-jin went the distance, scattering five hits and striking out six on the way to a 1-0 shutout of Canada (box here). The win puts Korea atop the standings with Cuba*, setting up a crucial Saturday night matchup with arch rivals Japan.
Korea’s lone run came on a 3rd inning home run off the bat [...]

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Both Cuba and China won in the magical, whimsical 11th inning, where games become games unto themselves. Cuba’s Michel Enriquez smacked a two-run double off two-time loser Jeff Stevens, scoring Hector Olivera and Luis Navas (box here) to give Cuba a 5-4 win over the Americans in the first of two matches decided by [...]

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Last night my wife made Buffalo wings, chow mien and margaritas for dinner. That  won’t sound very  impressive to any of you living outside of Korea or a few other parts of Asia, but those who do know how rare such foods can be.
As I was carrying the margaritas to the table (the food [...]

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