As if massive excitement from the baseball community as it awaits EWC’s 3rd installment of CPBL power rankings weren’t enough, to add to this week’s fun my quixotic quest to ascertain an English name list of CPBL players continues into it’s 3rd straight week. I actually sat down and translated the names myself over the weekend, but the litany of half-baked excuses I’ve been getting from certain administrative officials at the CPBL has become such a hilarious comic farce that I’ve decided to keep the process of inquiry going strictly for entertainment purposes. I will be detailing the fun interactions in coming weeks over the site.

Such a list–which would be quite useful for foreign journalists and statisticians covering the CPBL–might (God forbid) lead a increased attention to the league from non-Chinese reading audiences. However, we at EWC congratulate certain CPBL officials for their diligent work in ensuring that their attendance base never extends past 50 per game (including the relatives and families of the players), and applaud the league’s vigorous and thorough efforts in insulating itself from any potential growth that might ensue from publicity from foreign press. Huzzah! So far the NBP and KBO have been quite gracious in providing English-language info, but no such luck from our friends at the CPBL.

1. Tong-Yi Lions: 26-9-0: 1B Kao Kuo-Ching (.378, 38 RBI, 32 runs scored) and Dominican masher 3B Tilson Brito (.322, 30 RBI, 37 runs scored, 7 HR) provide the bats for the 7-11 Uni-President Tong-Yi Lions. Foreign import Sweet Lou Pote improves to 7-0 with a 3.61 E.R.A., while staff ace Pan Hui-Lun is 3-0 with a 1.50 E.R.A and a sub 1.00 WHIP.

2. La New Bears: 18-14-2: The Bears continue to play second fiddle to the Lions, with starting pitcher Andrew Lorraine emerging as the staff ace. He is now 4-0 with a 3.23 E.R.A.. Lee Feng-Hua has pitched his way onto the EWC big board, with his E.R.A. shrinking to 3.03 and a 2-2 record.

3. Brother Elephants: 14-18-2: Starting pitchers Kobayashi Ryokan (3-2, 2.89) and Liao Yu-Cheung (5-1, 2.63) are doing their part to keep the Elephants hanging on to third in the six team horse race. Official Su Su Bao Gan Sponsor and LF Chen Ji-Yuan leads the offense with 27 RBI and 33 runs scored.

4. Media T-Rex: 14-19-1: Former MLB journeyman Cory Bailey has emerged into a force in the CPBL, going 3-0 with a 1.40 E.R.A. and a 1.00 WHIP. First baseman Wang Chuang-Jia leads an otherwise anemic offense with a .356 average, 24 RBI, and 16 runs scored.

5. Sinon Bulls: 14-20-1: Former NPB starter Yu Wen-Bing is 4-1 with a 3.49 E.R.A. Domincan hurler Jose Espinal is 2-1 with a 2.38 E.R.A over his last 3 starts. Catcher Zheng Da-Hong leads an othewise sputtering offense, hitting .305 with 20 RBI.

6. Chinatrust Whales: 14-20-0: National Team star Ni Fu-Te has unfortunately evolved into a human pinata this season, giving up 61 hits over 37 + frames with an E.R.A. of 5.73. Wai-guo ren starter Steve Watkins is performing decently, going 3-4 with a 3.88 E.R.A. Otherwise, it’s been slow going for the Whales. Carlos Villalobos leads the offense with .313, 20 RBI, 19 Run stat line.

By David Chalk

Last Sunday, I accidentally ended up at my first New York street festival of the year. From May to September, these street fairs are about as hard to find as a Starbucks.
Still, one thing made this street fair special, something I’d never seen at one before…. there was a stand selling Korean food!

The name “Korean Food Service” was splashed across a blue and white banner. Smaller signs read “KFS,” which kind of made me think of Colonel Sanders.

Since I was supposed to be meeting a friend in a couple minutes and had already grabbed a lemonade and a grilled corn from other vendors, I opted for the lightly fried mandoo dumplings which were 4 for $2.

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Burma currently faces a major humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Nargis, which has killed approximately 120,000 people and has affected an estimated 1.7 million people. The story has faded from the news quickly, but emergency supplies and support are still needed. Large parts of the population remain without drinking water, food, and shelter.

You can help out by donating to reliable Non-Governmental institutions and Relief Agencies currently providing assistance to those affected by the cyclone. While it is true that the military junta in Burma is slowing relief efforts, it is not the case that relief efforts are fruitless. Doctors Without Borders, and The Mae To Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand are all providing tireless assistance. Please help with whatever you can, as Non-Governmental Organizations are Burma’s only current means of support and much is still needed.

Agencies: The Mae To Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, provides medical care to refugees and migrant workers. You can donate at: www.maetaoclinic.org/donate.html

Doctors Without Borders are proving drinking water, food, and first emergency items. You can make a one-time donation to their organization here.

According to Pink Tentacle:

The green, high-quality cotton bra features a waist-mounted solar panel that powers a small, chest-mounted electronic billboard or any other electronic device you choose to connect. A pair of reusable drink containers attach to the bra cups, allowing the wearer to reduce consumption of aluminum cans and plastic bottles while increasing bust size. When not in use, the containers can be collapsed and stored in small pockets in the cups.

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If you haven’t seen it yet check out MLB.com’s draft page. I don’t know why but I’m consistently (and pleasantly) surprised how much coverage the draft is getting nowadays.

On the page is a mock draft by Jonathan Mayo. It’s a Top 10 — which, even just 10 is admirable considering how volatile the draft seems to be. This one looks to be especially wild. Actually this is the first time I’ve read this kid Buster Posey from Florida State might go #1.

I’m also wondering if Brian Matusz has some Asian heritage. Just basing that on his name. (Note: Just found out the name is of Hungarian origin)

1. Tampa Bay Rays: Buster Posey, C, Florida State
It appears the Rays have narrowed it to five names for the top pick (there’s no David Price this year): Posey, the FSU backstop who’s had a tremendous year with the bat to move himself into consideration; Georgia high school shortstop Tim Beckham, who’s got tools galore and can stay at short; Pedro Alvarez, the Vanderbilt third baseman who’s among the most polished hitters in the Draft; Brian Matusz, the lefty ace for the University of San Diego; and Southern California high school catcher Kyle Skipworth.

I believe Skipworth is on the outside looking in and I keep coming back to thinking (based on no real inside information) that it’ll be between Posey and Beckham. This week, I’ll go with what’s been the hottest rumor as the Rays get a good hitter who can catch.

There’s an interview/article about me in today’s JoongAng Daily. Read it at your risk. I spent most of the interview talking sh*t about the readers of this site.

Naw. Mostly it’s about my (limited) experiences scouting in Korea and about this here East Windup Chronicle.

Actually, after making a joke about the readers I’d like to now thank you. Seriously. This site isn’t even a year old. It’s grown really fast and is still very fun for me to write. Thanks for tuning in.

In his Bulls debut the 6′2″ 215 pounder held the Toledo MudHens, one of the league’s top home run hitting teams, scoreless through six innings of two-hit ball. Cummings walked four and struck-out four. Not bad.

Unfortunately, another CPBL album, Nelson Figueroa has apparently been solved by MLB hitters. After a few solid outings Figueroa has recently been roughed up, and on Tuesday the Mets designated him for assignment.

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The world’s media has focused on the disaster area in Sichuan province. The Chinese public is desperate for news about the devastation and the story has even eclipsed the Myanmar disaster to become the lead item on most international newscasts, including CCTV International. Well, sort of. Credible news organizations instinctively lead with the latest video from the disaster areas. Basic details like rising casualty figures, the latest status on rescue efforts and the scope of damage are the first things presented in most newscasts; not so at CCTV International. While the subject is of course, the earthquake, the lead story on Tuesday night was, well, not really a lead story at all. Instead, the state-run broadcaster chose as its lead item a minute-long copy story (that means no video) about a phone conversation between President Hu Jintao (yes, he leads the news again) and US President George W. Bush. Bush was calling to send his condolences to the earthquake victims and their families on behalf of the American people as well as to “provide all possible assistance to the disaster areas.”

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If you’ve got a printer handy I recommend printing this one out. You’ll be glad you did. The piece comes from the The New Yorker, and mostly centers on a guy named Li Yang, who is a kind of English mogul in China. He’s something of a celebrity, and is known across China for his “Crazy English” schools and assorted sundries (texbooks, CDs etc.)

English has become an ideology, a force strong enough to remake your résumé, attract a spouse, or catapult you out of a village. Linguists estimate the number of Chinese now studying or speaking English at between two hundred million and three hundred and fifty million, a figure that’s on the order of the population of the United States. English private schools, study gadgets, and high-priced tutors vie for pieces of that market. The largest English school system, New Oriental, is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Truth be told it was in China that I first got the idea to move to Asia to teach English. Prior to that I was considering a Peace Corps placement in Senegal. One day my sister and I took a cab to the Great Wall. The taxi driver took us for free — because he wanted to learn English for the 2008 Olympic games. This was in 2003.

Li’s method is similar to TPR, or, Total Physical Response, which if you’ve ever had the pleasure of doing any post-grad language teaching methodology study you’ll recognize the term. However, Li adds another ingredient to the recipe — a heaping spoon of nationalism.

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I’ve been waiting for this. Here’s an editorial from a Korean reporter for OSNews, upset at the recent rash (well, two) of foreigners running onto the field at Korean pro baseball games. Korea Beat has the translation.

Let me say up front I don’t approve of spectators running onto the field at baseball games. You catch them, with force if needed, you throw them out of the stadium and arrest them if you can. In other words, you make their life difficult. You make people think twice about doing it again.

Of course, in Korea, this sort of situation takes on a slightly different tone. Here we go:

I want to ask them. I want to know if they can do that in America, too. America’s a democracy, so they have pretty strong rights in public. They have the unwritten rule, “don’t antagonize the police”. With the high possibility of a heavy punishment, ordinary US citizens avoid committing any breaches of public order in baseball stadiums and other public places. They know that a severe punishment from the police would follow.

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Tough to see why Rath (3-2, 2.84 ERA) would get cut.

With the booting of Jamie Brown from the LG Twins, and the subsequent signing of Roberto Petagine, I’m going to bring this list back up to the top. I suspect Petagine will be used as a DH…LG could certainly use a little pop in the lineup…although it doesn’t sound like he’ll help the Twins trim it’s incredible team strikeout total.

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You might remember this piece I wrote a few months back detailing a barnstorming-style contest called The Million Dollar Arm, which was basically a talent hunt for baseball players in India. Well, the Reuters has an article about the two guys that won (hat tip to BBTF), who are now in LA for a year of major league level training.

Rinku Singh, 18, and fellow javelin thrower Dinesh Patel began a year-long training stint in Los Angeles last week after winning an India-wide pitching contest, “The Million-Dollar Arm.”

The boys, from poor families, used their natural shoulder strength to take the top two spots from among 8,000 participants.

Another teenager, Manoj Shukla, will receive a month’s training after he came third of the 27 finalists.

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According to China Sports Today two-time diving gold medalist Guo Jingjing is reportedly pregnant and leaving the national team. Guo is the highest paid female athlete in China and according to CST, “the most recognizable female face of Team China in any sport.” Guo is featured in McDonald’s and Coca-Cola advertising, amongst others.

Guo’s personal life is a subject of great scrutiny in China. She is reputed to be the girlfriend of Chinese diver Tian Liang, but also made headlines when she was spotted dining with Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the playboy grandson of the Hong Kong business tycoon Henry Fok.

CCTV, which more or less acts as a government mouthpiece, is refuting the story. Here’s the clip:

A few months ago I posted a story about how crows were plaguing certain areas of Beijing. Apparently Tokyo and other areas of Japan are also being terrorized by the flying rats.

From the New York Times:

It is a scourge straight out of Hitchcock, and the crows here look and act the part. With wing spans up to a yard and intimidating black beaks and sharp claws, Japan’s crows are bigger, more aggressive and downright scarier than those usually seen in North America.

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]]> http://eastwindupchronicle.com/crows-taking-over-japan-too/feed/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/korean-rankings-the-return-of-kia/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/korean-rankings-the-return-of-kia/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 13:54:38 +0000 Shinsano http://eastwindupchronicle.com/korean-rankings-the-return-of-kia/ I know I know, I keep changing the title of this thing every week…dates, week numbers, now titles. At any rate, for my money, this was the most exciting week of the season thus far. Kia, a team I thought would really compete this year, might finally be turning things around. Would I be exaggerating if I said the return of Limatime has something to do with it? Let’s give him a few more starts and see what happens. But if Kia is ready set go the KBO is going to get very interesting.

Standings for the KBO can be found here, and don’t miss 화이팅!: True Stories of Korean Baseball’s thorough wrap on the weekend games.

1. SK Wyverns (1) –Took care of business again, sweeping the worst team in Korea, then taking two of three from Samsung. Most agree Chung Dae-hyung (10 saves) is solid as the Wyvrens closer, but how about the work of 18-year-veteran Joh Woong-chun who’s given up just three runs in 21 innings of work, good for a 0.42 ERA. The secret of his sucsess? How about a 16/1 K/BB ratio?

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]]> http://eastwindupchronicle.com/korean-rankings-the-return-of-kia/feed/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/hard-to-watch/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/hard-to-watch/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 02:45:38 +0000 Shinsano http://eastwindupchronicle.com/hard-to-watch/  

Unless they hate their job and want to be fired, no one working for MLB would put the Reds on the ESPN Sunday night game. Consequently, I never see the Reds on Monday mornings because the game is over by the time I wake up over here. Usually I get up, drink a few glasses of water and check the box score of the game. If it’s close, or if anything interesting happened, I’ll bring it up on MLB.com and browse an inning or two.

That was the case today. The Reds lost 8-3 to the Mets. No surprise there, but then I saw that the Reds had made an out in the top of the ninth by batting out of order. I was curious how it went down and what the reaction of the announcers was. My own reaction was: I wonder if the Reds could get away with firing Dusty Baker just a couple months after hiring him.

Unfortunately, the feed being carried on MLB.com wasn’t the Reds. Instead it was Keith Hernandez and (I believe) Gary Cohen of the Mets. I went ahead and watched the Reds bat in the ninth inning. Indeed Dave Ross batted out of turn. As Ross walked to the plate Corey Patterson’s stats flashed onto the screen for a half-a-second.

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]]> http://eastwindupchronicle.com/hard-to-watch/feed/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/bonsoir/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/bonsoir/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 01:19:00 +0000 Shinsano http://eastwindupchronicle.com/bonsoir/  

I’m not a sports talk radio host. I’m not going to scream “I told you so!” into my blog dashboard, but I do want to gloat a little about the fact that I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Eric Gagne didn’t last seven weeks as the Brewers closer prior to the start of the season. In fact, tomorrow would be seven weeks to the day, so I’m a little off.

I’ve never been a Gagne fan, but his signing of a $10 million contract just days before the release of the Mitchell report, was lousy. His behavior following the report was appalling.

I’m sure the Brewers had some idea of what they were getting into when they signed him, just as Theo Epstein did before the Red Sox traded for him last season :

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]]> http://eastwindupchronicle.com/bonsoir/feed/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/happy-birthday-buddha/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/happy-birthday-buddha/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 00:06:29 +0000 Shinsano http://eastwindupchronicle.com/happy-birthday-buddha/

Here’s a good read about Buddhism in South Korea from the Wall Street Journal, written by a foreigner living and working in Seoul. The article says Buddha has had a recent resurgence achieved partly through imitating many of the Christians’ social-propagation techniques. Incidentally, I live next to a Buddhist Kindergarten.

I think this idea would surprise a lot of Westerners. The Buddhism I encountered in the Bay Area was always the Zen-influenced, touchy-feely variety, perhaps influenced by the 1960s, by people like Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, as much as Buddhism itself. I was shocked when I arrived in Korea, made my way to a temple on my second day in the country, and was mildly hounded on the street to buy a drawing of Buddha.  

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]]> http://eastwindupchronicle.com/happy-birthday-buddha/feed/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/why-rios-is-struggling/ http://eastwindupchronicle.com/why-rios-is-struggling/#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 15:11:05 +0000 Shinsano http://eastwindupchronicle.com/why-rios-is-struggling/  

Very interesting analysis of former KBO hero Daniel Rios and his early struggles in Japan. The piece, which is originally from the Sports Chosun, is translated here by Korea Beat.

When in Korea Rios’ main weapon was a heavy, 150-kilometer an hour fastball, and a slider rated as having the best speed and movement. His ample self-confidence and effective pitching were enough. That’s how he was able to rack up 90 wins in his Korean career. But at the end of last year, when Rios announced his departure to Japan, most experts took a dim view of his prospects. The sophisticated Japanese batters have quick eyes and his breaking pitches would not fool them. They said that without a big breaking pitch like a forkball or curve he wouldn’t fit in the first year. His WHIP — batters allowed per inning — would be 1.72, his batting average against .317.

Hmm. Wish I was more familiar with the breaking balls of other Japanese pitchers. While I think the gap between Korean and Japanese baseball has grown closer over the years there are some differences in the two leagues. The better Korean pitchers are generally power pitchers. Lots of fastballs and sliders. The off-speed stuff arrives late in games. That’s why you’ll find a lot of submarine and low 3/4 guys throwing in relief in Korea. Not sure what the reasoning is there.

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