http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqtgJ5TJi8M

This is just a fantastic story.  I’m really not a fan of Japanese (or Korean or Taiwanese) pop music, but I really enjoy enka quite a bit.  Enka is a postwar form of Japanese music in ballad style that has a very traditional and soulful feel to it, and is at times associated with Japanese nationalism.  If you’ve ever been in a ramen shop or late night izakaya, you’ve heard it.  Forms of it have also spread to Taiwan.

Enter Jero.  An information science student on an exchange program, Jero decided to become an enka singer, and has emerged as a star singer in Japan.  He dresses like a b-boy, with football jerseys, baseball caps with the brim tilted, chains, and the whole nine.  But when it comes to enka, he is the real deal and routinely appears on NHK and other major singing programs.  Well worth watching both for the odd cultural clash and a truly legit singing voice.

So I fully encourage people to seek out the unbroadcasted games via streaming video sites, slingboxes and Dixie Cups with electronic chargers. Whatever it takes. It would sure be something if some blog were to embed video streamsof the MLB Network on its site during the games. Especially those Pool A games. I suppose you could look around for such a site. Might even be an baseball blog based in Asia or something like that. You know, some Asian baseball blog with a name that sounds vaguely like a professional wrestling league even though the guys operating it haven’t watched wrestling since they were in junior high and were hoping to avoid referring to the site by it’s acronym, but have, over time, given in to the idea. But I digress.

As far as the announcers go. I guess I don’t really care. Charley Steiner broadcasting from Mexico City has a nice feel to it. Orestes Destrade is broadcasting the Pool A games. He used to play over here and occasionally says words in a faux-Japanese accent. I guess that’s why he’ll be over here.

In other WBC news the US team has added Brad Ziegler. I like that move a lot. Jeremy Guthrie is also on the team and I presume will take Kazmir’s spot. Eh. Ok. Didn’t know Guthrie was 1/4 Japanese. If he were Half Japanese I’d be even more excited. 

Ryan Searle, one of the Australians my boss Steve has signed, pitched a scoreless inning today versus the Chinese Taipei team.

Also, here’s an article about the very lefty heavy Canadian lineup. This always comes into play when the Canadian team faces international competition.

I randomly came across a single by Onra, a half-Vietnamese Paris-based producer/DJ type, called 7×7. While clicking around through some info on him I found he released an album earlier in the year called Chinoiseries, that was made mostly with records he’d picked up on a trip through Vietnam the year before.

I downloaded that and lo and behold it’s a great album. I’m a little partial to old Chinese pop and exotica. This is kind of a refresh of that. I’m hooked. Tunes after the jump

Onra — The Anthem

Apparently the above track was nicked by Coca cola during the Olympics for a Yao Ming/Lebron James commercial. Here’s the real commercial:

And here’s the commerical again with Onra’s “The Anthem” dubbed over. 

I’m not sure what the full story was, but Onra ended up getting a “co-credit” on the commercial. It’s the age old question — what is sampling? Kind of ironic a DJ would end up getting ripped off like that, but it sounds like he did get some money out of the deal. Apparently part of the problem is that Coca cola is an American company and Chinoiseries hasn’t been licenced in the states. 

Here’s another track:

Onra — The Vallee of Love

Here’s a review and Onra’s MySpace page.

Wakamatsu was most recently the A’s bench coach. He was with the Rangers as a bench coach and 3rd base coach the three years prior to that. He is the son of a third-generation Japanese-American father (who was born in the Tule Lake internment camp during World War II) and an Irish-American mother.

There’s an interesting story in the Seattle Times that talks a little about Wakamatsu’s relationship with his grandparents and their past.

Wakamatsu has recently reached out to his grandparents — living in Hood River, Ore. — to learn all he could about their ordeal.

“I asked them about the camps and living in the barracks,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle last year. “They said, ‘This house is made of barracks.’ I said, ‘What?’ When they were let out of the camp, former inmates were allowed to buy the buildings, so my grandparents bought two, put them together and added windows.

“How ironic — they had 48 hours to relocate, they were imprisoned for years and then they chose to live the rest of their lives in the same buildings. And they’d never talked about it before. I’ve only heard my grandparents speak a couple of sentences in Japanese in my life because they didn’t want to speak it when they got out of camp.”

There also seems to be some chatter about how the Mariners now have two guys with “crazy” names — Wakamatsu and new general manager Jack Zduriencik. Warning: Scrabble jokes ahead.

Wakamatsu is a popular surname in Japan. There’s also a city and several townships that use the name.

Wakamatsu was the last pick in the 1984 draft, but decided to return to Arizona State University, where he played with Barry Bonds. In 1985, he was drafted in the 11th round by the Reds. He was a minor league manager for AA Erie (2000), AA El Paso (1999) and Rookie-Level Peoria (1997). His minor league managerial record is 215-248.

Yeah, I had no idea either.

Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon is best known to New Yorkers as the player who parted ways with the team’s dreaded rival the Boston Red Sox to sign with the Bronx Bombers in 2005. While his Japanese and Taiwanese teammates Hideki Matsui and Chien Ming Wang garner all the attention from the Asian media, Damon feels his ability to play the sport has rendered his Thai background nearly meaningless.

So, what, the relative low ability of Wang and Matsui has enabled them to maintain their Asian backgrounds? Whatever, nice to see this kind of story.

“I don’t know why I wasn’t really characterized,” says Damon. “Sometimes I would be called Bruce Lee and all that stuff going through school, but I think just because I played sports, people didn’t look at me as anything else but as the guy who can hit the baseball and run really fast.”

Um, if you were called Bruce Lee you were “characterized” Johnny. I think you mean “identified” or “recognized.”

Damon’s mother is of Thai descent. He doesn’t speak the language, but he says he’s slowly learning and has started with simple words and phrases.

Even though he’s not generally thought of as an Asian athlete, he takes pride in being an Asian American role model.

“Most of my makeup is Asian and I’m very proud of it,” says Damon. “I believe in a lot of it. My mother always believed in Buddha. Growing up I really didn’t understand it until I got a bit older and now I’m like wow, this is really powerful stuff.”

I had no idea Terrmel Sledge  was half-Korean. Here I am, debating whether Sledge’s recent signing with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters was worth a write up for not. Suddenly, it absolutely is.

I’ve always like Sledge, mostly because of his potential. Well, really, there’s never been much else and as you’ll read here, it’s led him to be included in several big name trades during his career. This is a guy who at various times has been projected as an all-star player. He can hit for power, has a fair-to-good eye and decent speed.

But for whatever reason he’s never put it together in the big leagues. Originally signed by the Mariners, then dealt to the Expos, Sledge played in 132 games during Montreal’s final season when they were shuffling between Canada and Puerto Rico. During that year he slugged .462 and actually finished sixth in the rookie-of-the-year balloting.

Trivia: He also hit the first home run for the Washington Nationals the following year. But it would be his only big fly that year and he would spend most of the year on the bench. He was later part of the Alfonso Soirano deal, going to Texas with Armando Galarraga and Brad Wilkerson. Then, just a month later he was part of an arguably even worse deal, being shipped to San Diego with Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young  for Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka, and Billy Killian.

In 2006 Sledge went .311/.402/.583 with an OPS of .985. in Triple-A Portland. He had a torrid spring in 2007, and was set to hit leadoff as part of a platoon, but Sledge again had trouble with big league pitching and he was eventually sent back to Portland.

One would think Sledge’s numbers in Japan might at least be what they were in Triple-A Portland during 2006. This looks like a great addition for the Ham Fighters who let Fernando Seguignol go just after season’s end.

Sledge will join former Padres teamamte Brian Sweeney who pitches for the Nippon Ham.

A video came up on the stadium screen concerning outfielder Dave Roberts, talking about his Japanese mother.?Neither of us?had any idea Roberts was half-Japanese. But when you look at?his profile closely, you can see it.

To the average baseball fan this sort of thing?may be?of little interest. But for two guys?working and living in Asia,?where mixed race babies are…kinda sometimes…maybe…a cause for celebration, it’s interesting.

A recent press release touting a new program to develop?baseball in Vietnam started me wondering if there was already some field ball going on in South East Asia’s fastest growing economy.

There is a bit, but how surprised I was to find that one of my favorite players of the late 90s/early 2000s, Danny Graves, was born in Saigon to an American father and a Vietnamese mother. He is the only Vietnamese born player in major league history.

Graves is a former All-star and during the years and saved 182 games during his 11 year career. I always think of him when a team tries to convert a solid?reliever into a starter a la?Kim Byung-hyun, or?a starter into a reliever as the Phillies did this year with Brett Myers.

The reason being that Graves was a terrible starter, going 4-15 with a 5.33 ERA?during the 2003 season. Graves had a solid year back?as?a reliever in 2004 with the Reds, but then?completely bottomed out after that, bouncing around with the Mets and Indians before retiring prior to?this season.

Ouch. Ok, no longer one of my favorite players from the late 90s.

Here’s the 2003 article this photo is taken from where?Graves brags about his then new Rolls.

Brutal.