Officially, for the last 6 1/2 years, Ryozo Kato’s title in Washington has been ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America.
Unofficially, he’s just “a baseball nut.”
This week, upon leaving the most prestigious post a Japanese diplomat can hold, the 67-year-old returned to Tokyo to begin a new job next month, one he never sought yet accidentally spent his whole life preparing for: commissioner of baseball in Japan.
“A lot of people in Japan have been green with envy. They want to know what I did to become commissioner,” said Kato, who, after a 60-year affair with the game, may have no rival anywhere in grasping the sport in both its Eastern and Western forms. Binding encyclopedic knowledge with decades of firsthand connections in the United States, Kato is unique. Not that he’d say it.
Hopefully he’ll bring the positive parts from MLB into NPB and fuse them together into a better product, that would the traditionally Japanese thing to do.
Looks like Japan might adopt daylight saving time (summer time) starting in 2010. It’s about time (sorry), the sky starts getting bright before 5am in the summer here, what percentage of the population can make good use of that sunlight? Actually, the early morning sun starts boiling your bedroom rather early too, so this will be a welcome relief. Japan tried daylight saving time back in 1948 but abandoned it after 4 years, and it hadn’t been reinstated since, apparently because of the lobbying power of farmers, but I’m not sure how turning the clock ahead by 1 hour would affect farmers. This latest movement to bring back daylight saving time was brought on by the currently trendy eco movement, as it will presumably cut down on electricity usage such as lights for 1 hour per day. Anyways, no matter the reason, I’m glad that this looks like it might come in effect soon with non-partisan backing. The only major cultural effect I can see is that fireworks festivals that light up Japanese skies every weekend throughout the country will have to be pushed back by 1 hour, but that shouldn’t cause any major issues. Critics think that people will have to work longer hours because “it’s still light outside”, my workplace wasn’t an environment like that so I’m not sure how much of this is true.
Noting that the issue should also be considered from an environmental viewpoint, Fukuda said, “I think it is fine to introduce daylight-saving time.”
His remarks came after a nonpartisan group of lawmakers supporting the system’s introduction resumed activities last week for the first time in about three years. The members agreed to try to have the system introduced in 2010 and to make efforts to pass a bill during the current Diet session, which will end June 15.
It is uncertain whether such a bill would pass the Diet, given that lawmakers in both the ruling and opposition parties are divided over the matter.
Daylight-saving time is aimed at curbing energy consumption during daytime in the summer months as well as allowing people to spend more time on family and leisure activities after work.
Now that the Spokane Chiefs have been crowned as the Memorial Cup champs, Gatineau Olympiques’ Takuma Kawai’s season has ended, along with the seasons of all Japanese players in North America. Here are their 2007-08 stats.
The five-foot-11, 190-pound Kawai is actually a forward who was moved to defence in February because of injuries on Gatineau’s blue-line. He made an impact in Monday’s Memorial Cup loss to Belleville with two assists.
He’s a role player with a feisty, hard-hitting style _ hence the missing teeth _ which are desirable qualities whether he plays forward and defence.
“It was kind of hard at first,” Kawai said of the switch. “I had to adjust. I’m enjoying it right now. I like to make a pass and make a hit too.”
“Now, I have to use my head a lot. (Before) I just skated, made a hit and came back.”
Kawai’s older brother Ryuichi Kawai is a defenceman for the Seibu Prince Rabbits of the Asian Hockey League. The younger Kawai started following his brother to hockey practice when he was three years old.
Nishiwaki is one of Japan’s top forwards and among the league leaders in scoring (more than a point per game) when he was in the Asia League. It took him some time to establish himself on the Bombers, but being 6th on the team in scoring, he was an important player. Hopefully he’ll challenge himself overseas again, as this was only his first season in the States, and he should be better adapted to the minor league hockey environment next season. After Dayton lost out in their best of 3 first round series, Nishiwaki came back to join Team Japan in time for the World Championships Division I in Sapporo where he scored 2 goals in 5 games.
Takahashi was more of a role player back in Japan where he scored less than a point per game but had at least 1 PIM per game (119 PIM in just 41 GP in 2004-05). He managed to hang on for a full year on the Utah roster, even though he was scratched for many games and was asked to be a role player with limited ice time when he got into games. Hopefully he’ll get another crack at the ECHL next season, as he definitely took a step up from the previous season when he played in the SPHL.
Fukufuji was lucky enough to get called up to the NHL the previous season when the LA Kings didn’t want to risk putting Jason LaBarbera through waivers where he probably would’ve been picked up by another team, as he was absolutely dominating the AHL then. Anyways NHL proved to be way beyond Fukufuji’s level as he was shellshocked into 4.37 GAA and .837 Save % in 4 games before being sent back down. Yutaka had a reasonable season and excellent playoffs despite being on a weak team (hence the unimpressive numbers). Hopefully the team in front of him will be better next season, and if he continues his solid play, maybe he can get some time in the AHL between the pipes. I’m interested in seeing what he can do at that level, as he’s proven himself in the ECHL over 5 seasons (including parts) already.
We’re a week into interleague play now, and that changes the day off to Tuesday, so that gives us an opportunity to look at some overlooked numbers in baseball, especially NPB.
In CL we see that defensive competency is actually keeping the Giants and Swallows closer in the standings than they really should be, as the Giants have better pitching but worse ERA due to having the worst defenders in the league (no big surprise here for a team that is always assembled full of sluggers).
In the PL, Fighters have great pitchers, but it’s their defense that makes them a winning team (with league leading ERA) despite their pathetic offense (team OBP of .300 is by far the worst in the league). Eagles are for real, with their solid pitching, defense, and league leading .350 OBP and run scoring prowess, they should actually be winning more games than they currently are. Look for them to solidify their playoff position in the coming weeks.
Beane: I don’t think people come out on a regular basis to see individuals. I think people come out to see a team. We have no other way to operate. We could operate where we have a whole generation of players well beyond its prime but there would be even less people here. For every one we lose because we don’t keep their favorite player, we’re going to keep two if we win. And the reverse is true. The thing that’s always been interesting about being here is that there is always excuses about why people don’t come out. The fact is that we don’t draw. The blame has always been on this thing or that thing. There is always something new. I mean we went to the ALCS in 2006 and in an era when baseball attendance was shooting up 26 percent or something, we wound up drawing less people the next year. Explain that. Over the last decade, we’ve put a pretty good product on the field. We have a group (of fans) here that’s been here since the first year we came here. The fact remains is that we’re still well behind the curve when it comes to attendance and some of it is probably the organization’s fault. Not everyone is completely blameless. You can understand that when you’re having that kind of turnover you’re going to lose some of that loyalty. Again the flip side for us, given everything that we have to balance, is that we’re going to maintain that loyalty with the hardcore people by putting the best product we can on the field and having to err on the side of making good business decisions instead of making emotional decisions. Believe me, my life would be a lot easier if we could just stamp a team down for the next six or seven seasons.
He’s still way ahead of most GMs in how he directs the franchise, always looking into the future. He probably didn’t expect the A’s current success, so that must be a nice bonus.
Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu defeated Mongolian sekiwake Ama to claim the title at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on Saturday to enter the history books as the first European wrestler to win an Emperor’s Cup. Kotooshu won his first career title with a record of 13-1 at the 15-day meet at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.
Kotooshu came flying out of the crouch, getting both arms wrapped around Ama’s mawashi before tackling his opponent from behind. ‘‘I have no words to express. I am so happy. I finally did it,’’ said Kotooshu, who took 34 tournaments from his sumo debut to win the Emperor’s Cup.
Along the way he won convincingly over both Mongolian yokozunas Hakuho and Asasoryu, but was tripped up by Aminishiki on day 13 when ‘Oshu seemed to have become too nervous. Here’s the video of Kotooshu’s day 11 win over Asashoryu.
during daytime in the summer months as well as allowing people to spend more time on family and leisure activities after work.
Japan, Hockey, Baseball, etc. 