Applies to Few
This will probably only have relevance to me and Sean, but what’s up with Japanese players in MLB? I tried to argue at other sites that the Red Sox should find some pissah Japanese player and bring him in because: a.) they tend to be really good if they are worth the money you need to spend on a translator, and, b.) you get mad amounts of Japanese fans at the games, buying merchandise, and the like, which is good for revenue (re:Ichiro). Althought not related to the Japanese (separated by a millennium), Korean fans are very similar. Courtney and I saw my beloved NL-tem, the Nats, play the Mets at Shea stadium, with a Korean pitcher, Jae Seo, taking the mound for NY. There was a dedicated space containing about 300 fans straight from Seoul which served as the Korean Jae Seo Fan Club. They had drums, chants, waves, and all kinds of shit that was fun to watch.
Back to my Nihonjin brothers. I still think the Red Sox should find a Japanese player. They’ll add international fans and a certain je ne sais quoi. They don’t have to worry, though: I’ve found their man:
Nobuhiko Matsunaka. Yeah, he’s a first baseman, and that will cause problems with the Youkilis move to first and Hee-Seop Choi acquisition, but I watched this man play in the WBC, and his mad skeelz made Ichiro pale in comparison. Also, how hard can it be to pry a player from the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks? I flew into Fukuoka, and it looked like Saugus and Brockton had a baby that came out covered in neon with a nice airport.
That is all. Rather than a classical introduction-building action-climax-denouement that most posts (novels?) get, it is a vignette.
(Also, I am not drunk, but I have gone off the pain meds and indulged in 3 beers and 2 JinroPops (TM), so it seemed somewhat appropriate. Anyone who knows the family knows that it takes 1 at least 1 drink per stone to get us moderately drunk).