We're not just good at math...

Chinese Rowing

2008-05-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

While Yao Ming will largely be the face of the Olympics this year because of their international success and status as a favorite in their particular sports, basketball will most likely not be the sport that China is considering the most important to win.

The sports that China will be devoting most of their resources to are the so called 'medal rich' sports such as swimming, track and field, rowing and canoing/sailing. These sports have the most individual events within the discipline.

Rowing is an up and coming specialty for the Chinese, with rowers funneled into the program largely because they just barely missed the cut in other Olympic ultra-competitive endurance sports such as running and triathlon. As a result, the Chinese rowing program full athletes with very similar traits; tall and lean with outstanding endurance abilities; all ideal qualities for a rower.

This large influx of talent into a single sport is the main reason China is concentrating so many of their resources towards rowing; this represents China's grand ambition to capture more gold medals than any other nation at the Olympic Games. Rowing represents 14 potential gold medals for China, a goal much grander than a single gold in say basketball or soccer.

China has never even come close to winning the overall medal count at the Summer Games, a bragging right that the United States has held since 1996. In 2004, the United States had 102 medals , followed by Russia with 93 and China rounding out the third spot with 63.
Gold medal counts on the other hands is a much tighter battle. China had 32, only four behind the United States, a deficit the highly motivated Chinese are determined to close.

Chinese rowing is not without an impressive track record, lending to a favored contender status at the Olympics this summer.

China has won four medals in rowing, none gold, since its first Olympics in 1932. But suddenly, in a sport unfamiliar to most Chinese, the rowers have become a team to beat at the Beijing Games. China has qualified more boats than all but 4 of the 57 countries on the Olympic rowing roster so far.

Since 2006, Chinese rowers have won 18 gold medals at world championships and World Cup events, more than double the number of victories in the previous three years. At a World Cup regatta last year in Amsterdam, China stunned some leading teams by taking home 10 medals. It won five golds in the 14 events contested in the Olympics.

Quietly and swiftly, rowing has quickly grown to be a sport the Chinese are becoming dominant in, and likely by the end of the summer, it will be a newfound national sport with posters of the sport's heros adorning the walls along side Yao Ming and Xiu Liang.

More Fukudome!

2008-04-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

Kosuke Fukudome has earned yet another American sports accolade;

the May 5th 2008 cover of Sports Illustrated.

As if that wasn't big enough, he's also earned approval of the rapid Chicago fans, the cover of the official Fukudome fan a t-shirt.

So along with confirmation of his stardom by the upper echelons of sports journalism and Cubs fans, his .326 batting average is giving him a serious head-start for the NL Rookie of the Year award...

Who was the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year? Just a nobody named Ichiro Suzuki...

Yeah, Fukudomania IS ON.

Apologies....

2008-04-30T10:57:00.001-07:00

I'd like to apologize to my readers for the lack of content lately. My day job has been keeping me very busy this month but it's dying down very soon. I look forward to having regular posts in the very near future!

Thanks for sticking it out everyone!

Fukudome T-Shirt: Funny or Offensive?

2008-04-20T19:47:00.001-07:00

Kosuke Fukudome has been on fire ever since his arrival in the United States from the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese league. He's hit .317, stolen 3 bases, and had 9 runs-batted-in in only 17 games. Think Suzuki Ichiro but with more power... quick, flexible and hits for power.

So it's not a surprise that Chicago Cubs fans are crazy about their latest important from Japan. But with all the fanaticism of Cubs fans comes the ugly side of Wrigley Field as well; an attempt at player endearment ends up offending lots of people.

The shirt has the classic Cubs picture but they've altered it to have slanted eyes, glasses and replaced the popular "Holy Cow" of the Cubs announcer Harry Caray, with "Horry Kow!"
If you don't really get it... try saying "derivery" out loud or "herroh". Replacing 'l's with 'r's is an easy way to mimic an Asian accent.

Kosuke himself, the butt of this t-shirt joke, certainly doesn't find it funny... when shown the t-shirt, Kosuke says

''I don't know what the creator of the shirt meant this to be, but they should make it right . . . Maybe the creator created it because he thought it was funny, or maybe he made it to condescend the race. I don't know.'

Regardless, it's not funny. The image feeds not only ugly, arrogant and ignorant Japanese stereotypes, but also the stereotype of the obnoxious, profane, drunken, booing, garbage-throwing Cubs fan."

Seeing this story reminded me of a very similar controversy (but to be fair, these kinds of cultural comics happen all the time in every media medium and with every culture) that clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch had a few years back.

Some topics will always be off-limits for t-shirt jokes, or even jokes in general; homo-sexuality, abortion etc... but are what about these?

As strongly as I feel about people retaining a strong sense of their cultural past in America, I feel just as strongly that people that come here from other countries should be regarded as evenly as other Americans and shouldn't be treated any differently. So should people like me be really offended at these t-shirts? After all, according to my own feelings, we're all Americans first and fore-most, so they should all be considered as just another joke...

What do you guys think?

Chien-Ming Wang Charity

2008-04-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of my favorite player Chien-Ming Wang and the charitable spirit of Respect Jeter's Gangster, I've decided to donate $1.00 for every ground-ball out that Wang makes in his starts until the end of baseball season in October.

Why a ground-ball out? One, Wang is not a strike-out pitcher and his money pitch is the hard sinker (which induces ground-ball outs); second, the more money that goes to charity the better right?

The charity I've decided to is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Reason? Simple, sports is a source of never-ending inspiration to kids of every sex, ethnicity, heritage and financial upbringing all over the world. Seeing a few of the ESPN "My Wish" series only solidified my belief in this and the importance of sports in every kid's life.

Thanks to Respect Jeter's Gangster for inspiring this action. RJG has also pledged $1.00 for every home run hit by a Yankee for the rest of the season. If A-Rod has the season he had last year, RJG is already going to be in the hole, but like he said, it's all about the kids.

I'll have a box on the side of this blog as a running tally of Wang's ground-balls this season.

Nike in China

2008-03-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

Just how big is Olympic gold medalist 110m hurdler Liu Xiang? Big just in China right? Let's try this.

Big enough for Nike to bestow upon him an honor given only to elite, status symbol defining athletes.

Every sport has a hero.

Tiger Woods is synonymous to Nike Golf.
Rohnaldinho is synonymous to Nike Futbol.
Michael Jordan is synonymous to Nike Basketball.

Think:

or

or

Now...

Zhang Han, a DJ based in Beijing wearing a Nike jacket that says China on the front

Now Nike is looking to make Liu Xiang synonymous to Nike Track and Field on sport's biggest stage at sport's biggest up and coming country. The 2008 Beijing Olympics. Even though Adidas paid over $80 million to become the official partner of the Olympics and is the official outfitter of all Chinese medal winners, this isn't stopping Nike from striking deals with big name athletes that are expected to be popular with all the Chinese watching this summer including Liu Xiang and Yi Jianlian and releasing exclusive Chinese themed sneakers and clothing.

Liu Xiang and Ronaldinho at the opening of Nike's flagship store in Beijing

Last month, Nike introduced a line of sneakers in China named 1984, commemorating the first time the country took part in the Olympics under Communist Party rule, winning 15 gold medals. The line features limited-edition retro sneakers with chunky red soles and decorated with yellow Chinese characters spelling the word for "breakthrough."

Liu Xiang and Ronaldinho at the opening of Nike's Beijing flagship store

Launched exclusively in China last June, the Nike Air Jordan 1 XQ China edition, with dragon-inspired patterns and red silk accents, was the first Air Jordan shoe designed with Chinese characteristics.

Last summer, Nike introduced shoes and sports clothes featuring Mr. Liu's date of birth, gold medals, and a picture of a star he drew as a child.

Such marketing tactics are actually a shift from recent years, when Nike promoted American-style individualism and U.S. sports starts, turning Michael Jordan and LeBron James into heros among young Chinese. In the past year, Tracey McGrady and Kobe Bryant have been the highest selling NBA jerseys in China over the past year... shockingly enough, Yao Ming's jersey has been sitting at number 6. Now after seeing Liu Xiang, Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian launched into phenomenal success in the international spotlight, the Chinese are getting antsy to see their athletic profile to explode like their newfound economic success.

A Nike wushu uniform on display at the 9th World Wushu Championships in Beijing last November.

Only adding onto the Chinese's hunger is seeing athletes from rival Asian countries spring into American sports stardom in sports that the Chinese has so far been unable to penetrate. Suzuki Ichiro, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Matsui (which just got married btw, congratulations!!) are revered as deities of baseball in their homeland of Japan, most of them with museums dedicated to them in their hometowns. Golfers KJ Choi and Jeong Jang are Korean barrier breakers. Chien-Ming Wang of the New York Yankees is nothing less of a national hero in Taiwan.

So while China overshadows Japan, Korea and Taiwan in just about everything else, the athletic successes and accomplishments of these three countries seems to level the playing field with the behemoth country.

So while Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian and Liu Xiang are undeniable international sports superstars, China wants more...

China is capable of more...

China is destined for more.

Matsui Gets Married

2008-03-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

I always implicitly assumed that Hideki Matsui of the Yankees has been married, so when news broke that he finally got married this past Wednesday, I was a little bit surprised but the most curious thing of all was that he apparently told no one about it, not even his teammates knew why he took a sudden leave of absence to New York (for his wedding).

Talk about global reach, his wedding was blessed by the chief government spokesperson in Japan, wishing him "a very happy wedding".

"How do you say sneaky in Japanese?" said a stunned Derek Jeter.

But the identify more than a sketch of his new wife is completely unknown. All Matsui said in his press release was that she is a "25-year-old civilian and had been formerly working in a reputable position at a highly respected company."

Yao set to be China's first torchbearer

2008-03-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yao looks set to be the first to carry the Olympic torch when it comes into China for the first time in Sanya, Southwest China's Hainan Province. According to the route map, it looks like he would be carrying the torch for a 200 meter stretch with Yi Jianlian, fellow countryman and NBA Milwaukee Bucks forward set to be his backup (don't imagine Yao will have a problem jogging 200 meters though).

Is Ichiro's brain bigger than mine?

2008-03-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

That's what Dr. Kenichiro Mogi (nice naming coincidence there....), a celebrity brain scientist in Japan says, or at least that his brain is better than mine.

Ichiro says he's eaten the same thing for lunch (homemade Japanese curry cooked by his wife Yumiko) before home games for all 7 years of his career in Seattle, and when on the road prefers cheese pizza, easy on the sauce and fluffy on the edges. Doc attributes this routine for Ichiro's consistency at the plate. This isn't too hard to believe, baseball players more than athletes from any other sport are creatures of habit, abiding zealously by their pre-game rituals that every player has whether it's when they wake up, what they eat or their specific pre-game workout routine.

Where Dr. Mogi goes a little off the beaten path is when he says that Ichiro has remarkable "metacognition". Dr Mogi says "It's the ability to observe yourself as if you're observing your own internal state from the outside. Of course, it's all your own feeling, but you can access and analyze it as if you are observing it from an objective point of view."

Dr. Mogi says Ichiro has an ability to be able to separate himself from his body after an at-bat and be able to analyze all the feelings, sensations, emotions and other "intagibles" that he felt during the at-bat and figure out what he did wrong.

Really sounds like either the doc or Ichiro are full of it (probably even both of them....)... but baseball is a game of numbers and numbers of all things don't lie...

"Ichiro begins this season with 1,592 hits in the major leagues, just more than halfway to 3,000 in his seven years with the Mariners. If he plays beyond his new five-year deal that begins this season, he could conceivably achieve 3,000 hits in the major leagues. He'd be in his 40s, but 10 of the 27 players to reach the milestone achieved it in their 40s.

Adding his 1,278 hits from Japan, 3,000 more in America would give Ichiro more lifetime hits than Pete Rose's 4,256, currently the most of any pro to ever swing a bat."

Maybe his brain is better than mine.

Sports > Politics

2008-03-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

It's worth noting... for all the "we'll officially declare war on Taiwan if they declare independence" crap that China spews, sport seems to transcend that...

During the MLB Beijing series, many fans that were in attendance didn't know a single from a wild pitch, but when Taiwanese shortstop Chin-Lung Hu of the Dodgers came up to bat for the first time, the crowd erupted and was cheered wildly... maybe it was because it was the first Asian face seen during the game... but the fact he was from a politically hostile country seemed to not be obvious at all.

Chin-Lung Hu

Even Korean right-hand pitcher Chan Ho Park of the Dodgers was popular with Chinese fans. The fact that South Korea (where Park is from) fought the terrible Korean war against China less than 50 years ago was of no importance during this baseball-centered weekend.

Chan Ho Park

Many analysts that are watching MLB make their push into China seem to be on the pessimistic side of things, not quite believing that baseball will catch on in China like basketball has.... but I'll go out on a limb and say that I bet I know what every Chinese fan in the stands was thinking when Hu and Park came up...."oh man, I wish he was Chinese... is it that impossible?"

Just say when.

Padres and Dodgers in Beijing

2008-03-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

Now playing at the Wukesong Stadium, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers??

Chin-Lung Hu chatting with the Chinese National Team

OK, spit out the first thing that comes into your mind when I say baseball in the Far East.... Daisuke Matsuzaka.... Ichiro Suzuki...... Hideki Matsui...... right? Just a few of the names that'll pop right up. Notice a trend? All from the land of the rising sun.

Now name a MLB player from China....... drawing a blank? So am I...

So that is why this weekend was a momentous past few days in Beijing, China for reasons completely unrelated to the Summer Olympics.

Baseball has always faced adversity in China. In the 1960s, Communist Leader Mao Zedong banned the game because it had Western roots and the sport has struggled to gain mainstream interest in the country since his death in 1976. This is in opposition to the cult like following baseball has in Japan ever since American Professor at the University of Tokyo, Horace Wilson introduced the game in 1872.

No hometown fans here... just generic MLB hats at the Beijing game

Arguably the greatest reason that baseball hasn't caught on yet in the land of 1.5 billion, is that they don't have a good reason to get excited about it.... or to be more accurate, no one to get excited about.
Ichiro Suzuki single-handedly brought baseball to the entire country of Japan in 2001.
Yao Ming made 3 pointers and the crossover household terms to 1.5 billion people in 2002.
Chien-Ming Wang brought the sinker-ball and strikeout to the dinner table as conversation topics for every family in Taiwan.

Dodgers squad on the Great Wall....the Great Wall!!

Who will bring baseball to China and when? The MLB is looking to answer that question starting with this past weekend. The LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres played a 2 game series this past weekend in Beijing's Wukesong Stadium. The Friday night game was played to a 3-3 tie and the Padres beat the Dodgers 6-3 on Saturday night. But more important than the score of the two games was the fact that this was the first American Major League game in China... ever. Exhibition games are common place in Japan with the Boston Red Sox season opener to be held in Japan over the venerable Fenway Park.

Who of China's young athletes will make the jump and bring back the passion of baseball?

Former NY Yankees skipper Joe Torre on the Great Wall

24 and counting...

2008-03-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Forbes.com for this graphic...

While it's certainly a great sign that major league sports in the United States are reaching out to other countries in an attempt to diversify team rosters, we can't ever forget that it'll always be about the money to the guys in suits...

Yung Chi Chen from Taiwan, minor league star second
baseman for the Seattle Mariners

Chien-Ming Wang from Taiwan,
right hander for the New York Yankees

Takashi Saito (right) from Japan, right-hand relief pitcher for the LA Dodgers
Hiroki Kuroda (left) from Japan, right-hand relief pitcher for the LA Dodgers

Kazuo Fukumori of Japan, right-hand pitcher for the Texas Rangers

Jae Kuk Ryu of South Korea, right-hand pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays

Shin-Soo Choo of Korea, outfielder for the Cleveland Indians

Yasuhiko Yabuta of Japan, right-hand pitcher for the Kansas City Royals (struck out Alex Rodriguez, Derrek Lee and Johnny Damon in the World Baseball Classic in 2006 for Japan)

Yi Jianlian's Impact on Milwaukee

2008-03-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

When you talk about Chinese communities in the United States, the first thing that comes to mind are established Chinatowns in major cities, enclaves that immigrants from mainland China tend to congregate in; San Francisco, New York City, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago and even Boston. All of these cities have established institutions that cater specifically to Chinese residents (churches, schools, newspapers), and were among the first cities that the Chinese chose to settle down in over 200 years ago.

So in due deference to the blog, we return to the point... All of these cities would be hospitable places for a mainland Chinese athlete (or any mainland Asian athlete for that matter...) to come over and make their stateside debut on a team.

Chien-Ming Wang came over from Tainan, Taiwan (don't even start with the China/Taiwan stuff.....) to the New York Yankees, a city with almost 400,000 Chinese residents (big .pdf file).

Ichiro Suzuki came over from Japan to Seattle, Washington, a city with 74,000 Asian residents.

Even Yao Ming, from Shanghai, China came over to Houston, Texas with a formidable 100,000 Asian residents and 24,000 Chinese residents.

So what happens when highly touted Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian (second only to Yao Ming in national heroism) makes the notoriously difficult east-to-west transition and gets drafted by a team in a city with a minimal, if not non-existent Chinese population? Well for a few, everyone from the Chinese Basketball Association reluctant to release one of their home-grown star athletes to a city without a substantial Chinese-American presence, to his agent Dan Fegan who was concerned that Yi wouldn't get a contract worth his skill in a low-cap sports market like Milwaukee.

Last one to the Great Wall is a crappy foul shot shooter....... GO!

So after this bleak painting of Milwaukee, it looks as if things aren't so bad for the Chinese community in Milwaukee after all....
On the campus of the nationally known Marquette University sits the Modern Chinese School in the university's language building, teaching 250+ diligent 7-10 year olds Chinese nursery rhymes and vocabulary every Sunday morning.
The launch party for The Milwaukee Chinese Times, the area's first Chinese-language newspaper which published its inaugural issue on Dec 29th, was held mid-afternoon before the highly anticipated 200 million+ viewership event of the Chinese Superbowl, Bucks vs Rockets, Yao vs Yi. The game also coinciding just one week before 1.7 billion Chinese people around in the world ushered in the Year of the Rat for Chinese New Year.

Milwaukee's getting there...

Yeah, that's what I said..

Chinese journalists outnumbering American reporters
are not that common of a sight in an NBA locker room...

Little Fukudome

2008-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

So you think Kosuke Fukudome's arrival to the Cubs is a big deal to the south side of Chicago and the franchise??

Looks like the impact is mutual. According to Japanese linguists, his newborn son (born a couple of weeks after he signed with the Cubs), named Hayato;the name is a blend of "Windy City" and "uniform number 1".

Look like he's having a helluva time for his first few weeks in Chicago though...

The next Michael Chang?

2008-03-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

A young Japanese named Kei Nishikori beat an 8 year professional tennis veteran James Blake recently at the Delray Beach International Final in Florida.

Here's the big news (for non James Blake fans) .... James was the number 1 seed in the tournament and Kei wasranked 244th in the world before he won.

Here's the kicker. Kei is 18 years old.

Can Michael Chang's place in Asian tennis history not just be a fluke...?

During the past baseball All-Star game, 25% of all the media press passes issued were specifically for the media contingent from Japan, traveled halfway across the world just to cover Ichiro Suzuki.
What happens if Kei Nishikori makes it to a grand-slam semifinal??? The ATP just may have to expand their media pit.

MLE: Major League Eating

2008-03-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees was featured on the cover of MLB 07, the game.

Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 07, the game.

Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets was featured on the cover of NBA 07, the game.

Now, we finally have a star gracing the video game of sport's newest league, MLE, Major League Eating, Takeru Kobayashi. That's right, he's finally made it big.

Unfortunately, it looks like the game is only going to be for Wii....... actually, this should be more than interesting than anything. There's always been a problem with Wii controllers getting thrown into TVs and windows... but are we going to start seeing controllers getting stuck in people's throats....?

National Sports Academies

2008-03-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

Country number one has 5000+ sports academies with the personal responsibility of nurturing the Olympic dreams of over 6 million school-age children from the start of their 4th birthday. Country number two holds national try-outs for their Olympic teams 6-8 months before the opening ceremonies. The first country destines every child that goes through it's system to a berth on an Olympic team or professional sports career and considers any that fail to reach this point, a disappointment to the system, themself and their country. The second country considers high school and college breakout athletes as the becoming of a future super star, and outstanding professionals in the same esteem as national heroes.

One country won a total of 102 medals at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, the second, only 63.

Which one is which?

The United States is the second country with 102 medals the past Olympics and China is the first country. Surprised?

So the initial impression is that the Chinese, government sponsored and facilitated sports training philosophy is a largely unsuccessful gamble. This is on top of the gamble a parent has to make by sending their only child (China has a one-child policy for population control), off to a sports academy at the age of 4, facing the prospect of potential abuse until they reach legal age, all in the name of their son or daughter possibly becoming the next Yao Ming or Liu Xiang. But before you make a few premature conclusions, let's hop in the De Lorean...

Chinese Medal totals beginning with 1984:
Year	Host city	Gold	Silver	Bronze Total

1984	Los Angeles	15	8	9 32

1988	Seoul	5	11	12 28

1992	Barcelona	16	22	16 54

1996	Atlanta	16	22	12 50

2000	Sydney	28	16	15 59

2004	Athens	32	17	14 63

Source: International Olympic Committee

They must be doing something right....

And now in 2008, native turf, 1.5 billion home fans, could this be China's breakout year?

This is all in stark contrast to American Olympic prospects. Taken to hockey or soccer practice by mom's minivan from early childhood to late adolescence, become accepted to a renowned university program (all the while, academics still being the main emphasis), become a team and conference standout, nurture the hopes of getting drafted by a professional team and try to catch the eye of the Olympic team recruiter. All of this, receiving only meager compensation while training for the Olympic team. Potential Chinese Olympic athletes are identified not long after they turn 4 while American athletes are left to care, train and fend for themselves until they're considered worthy of an Olympic coach's attention.

So the while the Olympic games this summer are seen by many as a non-political statement of China's newfound economic and industrial strength among the world's superpowers... many others that are more interested in the potential emergence of China in the sports world than its politics, see this August as a grand audition for the nation's athletes on the world's biggest stage.

Even rugby isn't off limits

2008-02-23T13:44:00.000-08:00

Table tennis, diving, badminton maybe even swimming.... these are the sports that come to mind when you think of mainland Chinese athletes.... but rugby??

One is a small, athletic martial arts whiz studying at the elite Beijing Sports University, the other, a stocky, strongly built amateur soccer goalkeeper from the Tianjin province, southeast of Beijing. The national sport of a continent more than 2000+ miles south of their home country is what brought them together. Zhao Yonggen, 22, and Zhao Wei, 21 are now both co-captains of the Chinese National Team to compete in the international tournament in Melbourne.

While these guys aren't exactly stars (Zhao Yonggen pictured below), it's encouraging to know that the Melbourne Demons, one of the top teams in the Australian Football League (a variation on traditional rugby) has started to consider China as a serious untapped source of players.

While this game is unique to Australia, it has strong parallels and similarities to rugby and soccer (many players of this game are former soccer players) and an international tournament to be played in August and September in Melbourne, with teams including China, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the United States and South Africa.

At first glance, two semi-talented Chinese players in Australian football isn't too much to rave about, even for a blog dedicated to Asians in professional sports... but there's a greater picture and message to this... the growing awareness and redirection of resources of individual sports towards the potential of mainland Chinese athletes. The New York Islanders and the Charles B. Wang outreach program, the NBA reaching out to China thanks to the success of Yao and Yi, the New York Yankees working with the Chinese Baseball Association
to trade coaching and conditioning services with each other and eventually sign some players to the American league and the Australian Football League....

Watch out Commissioner Goddell, we're comin.

FUKUDOME MANIA Takes America by Storm!

2008-02-23T00:02:00.000-08:00

FUKUDOME = pronunciation (Foo-koo-doe-may) or (Fuk-u-do-me)???
You make the call?

I predict FUKUDOME Mania will sweep the nation when baseball season starts and he has not even played a single major league game. His name will be chanted in every packed stadium with vigor and passion. I am boldly making this statement not because I have been tracking this player since the beginning of his career. In fact I have not even seen highlights of this guy; that is as much faith as anyone can ever show in an unproven rookie. Why do you ask do I have this undying faith in him? Drum roll please… It’s all because of his name. I am sure people are now scratching their heads and wondering “What is this guy saying?” “Has he pulled a Seth Rogen and and toked up on a huge joint inside a fish bowl?” The answer is no. Fukudome is every obnoxious fan’s (like myself) wet dream. You just can’t lose with a name like that. Without any customization you have your very own legit offensive jersey. What else do you want? So without further adieu: Ladies and Gentlemen your chant for the MLB 2008 season:

FUK-U-DO-ME!
FUKUDOME!
FUKUDOME!
FUKUDOME!
FUKUDOME!

“Wait till they see what’s behind the jersey!”

World Games 2009

2008-02-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

So if you still don't think Chien-Ming Wang's reputation is the Michael Jordan of Taiwan...

World Games of 2009, an international multi-sport competition organized and governed by the International World Games Association under the patronage International Olympic Committee...... what's that mean? The World Games are the biggest international sporting event, second only to the Olympics.

So for the 2009 games held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Wang will be the official spokesperson of the event. Being the official spokesperson of an event as big as the Olympics speaks magnitudes about his stardom.

The last world games in 2007 was held in Duisburg, Germany FYI.

Below is a promotional video for the event. If you don't care for it... Wang doing the tango should compel to watch it.

Yao and Jackie

2008-02-21T20:04:00.001-08:00

Hey, don't blame me, this is a blog about Asian sports stars right.....?

Who was the first NBA player from China?

2008-02-21T19:12:00.000-08:00

Not Yao Ming... Yes, I'm for real, No, I'm not full of it.

Bueller......... bueller.......?

Zhizhi Wang......? Zhizhi Wang........?

Yeah that's right, here's a tidbit. First NBA player from China, Zhizhi Wang, drafted in 2001 by the Dallas Mavericks, played two seasons there, two more seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers (no that's not a typo, Los Angeles actually has another team... the city's neglected younger brother? Nah.... a city wouldn't do that to its own franchise.... just ask the NY Jets.........), two more season with the Miami Heat... then to 05 to present with the Bayi Rockets.... huh?

No they're not in the Eastern Northwest conference.. that's right, Wang went back to China.

Didn't do too good in the states, decided China was a better league fit for him (seems to be working, named MVP of the China Basketball Association (CBA) championship against the Guangdong Tigers in 2007).... during the World Championships, averaged 8.2 points, 3.5 rebounds a game over 8 games....... home sweet home I guess (only 4.4 points and 1.7 rebounds per game over a 6 year career in the NBA).... was a replacement player for who else... Yao Ming during the leadup for the world championships.

Anyway, he's one of the torch bearers leading up to the Beijing Olympics in August.

Someone call Wang, Yao wants his bragging rights back...

Asian hockey players?

2008-02-10T13:54:00.000-08:00

So where are all the Asian hockey players? There was Paul Kariya

who's played since 1993 for the Louisville Blues, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, partial Japanese descent.

And........ that's right, nobody else. No, sorry to disappoint, I don't know when the train full of asian nhl prospects are going to be arriving. Nobody who's even of partial Asian background, Paul has been the only asian player to make an appearance of more than a few days in the NHL.

So while I can't offer any insight into why there aren't more Asian players... I can however offer something in this blog that's in my mind is more positive and encouraging..... the possible future of Asian players in the NHL.

SO, a fact that many of you may not know. Charles Wang , co-founder of Computer Associates, basically a billionaire, became part owner of the New York Islanders in 2000 and majority owner 2004. When I started writing this particular post, I really thought that it would center how asians are putting their foot in the door in the area of franchise ownership.... how Charles Wang was a pioneer in terms of having a say in franchise decisions and I would do my evil 'asian domination' laugh..... BUT, then I ran a pet project of that he's started recently called the Charles B. Wang Ice Hockey Project Hope.

Officially, the goal of Wang's Project Hope is:
"To provide young Chinese athletes with access to educational opportunities.

Project Hope will endeavor to create opportunities for cultural exchange through international youth hockey events and by promoting Project Hope scholarship placements in the United States."

Unofficially from the events this foundation has sponsored and put on, it's intention is to provoke the kind of fanaticism that Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian have injected into the 1.5 billion Chinese citizens (think viewership of the super bowl was huge? Try 200 million for a regular season game of Yi vs. Yao) or the inspiration that Chien-Ming Wang has brought to his politically volatile country of Taiwan.

That's Wang in the black suit with these young kids.

Currently there are only three professional hockey teams in China, in the cities of Harbin, Qigihar and Jiamusi. Ever heard of them? No, that's because these teams are second-tier amateur groups of rink loving skaters at best, forced to play low-level competitions because of lack of sponsorship, interest, passion for the sport from the general public, you name it. Maybe you could argue that Asia just isn't very interested in the sport, but fortunately (or unfortunately.... depends on how ya see it), this isn't true either. South Korea and Japan have teams that are consistent medal contenders in the Winter Olympics, so the interest is in the region. Trick is how to tap into the fan potential of China like countries rally behind their soccer teams.

So through Wang's program, the foundation will over 5 years, set up a China Ice Hockey Training Center, 3 women's ice hockey training bases and select 30 primary schools and 10 high schools to groom future players of the sport. Eventually, the foundation will select especially gifted products of their system to attend American universities and hopefully be drafted into the NHL to become the next Yao, Yi, or Wang of their sport.

Good stuff Charles.

Emergence of young position players

2008-02-02T12:33:00.002-08:00

We all know about Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, and probably even Chien-Ming Wang... outstanding new comers to the MLB from Japan and Taiwan... but where are the infielders? It just seems every new highly touted "rookie" coming over from Japan are all pitchers...??

Not anymore, glad to report, there are more and more position players coming over albeit their emergence isn't as rapid-fire as prospects from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, even Cuba! But the main point here is, the far east is slowly becoming a serious contender for the MLB's pipeline of foreign prospects.

So here we go, ringing in at a respectable #50 on Keith Law of ESPN's top 100 upcoming prospects we have shortstop Chin-Lung Hu from Taiwan of the LA Dodgers. Made his major league debut, brought up from the minor leagues played 12 games with a .241 batting average.

Akinori Iwamura, slick fielding, contact hitting minded 2nd baseman, one year veteran of the Tampa Bay Rays (debut against the NYY, April 2nd 2007, didn't play a full season mind you... but has most definitely assured his spot in the 2008 Rays starting line-up).

Kosuke Fukudome, right fielder who played nine seasons with the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League with a .305 average who was just signed by the Chicago Cubs.

No, I haven't forgotten about Ichiro. Unbelievable outfielder, a senior ambassador to Japanese baseball in the MLB but while he's still not nearly past his prime, he is about to enter his veteran-ly 8th season with the Seattle Mariners. The three players that I've mentioned just above don't even have a full single season in their stat books just yet.

Ichiro will undoubtedly continue to shine and make the headlines but as the years progress, you're going to find yourself looking at the days recap of games and find more asian names that are making headlines for both their defensive and offensive plays. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Ichiro and would cry like a 4 year old girl the day he retired from MLB, but If I had the choice of seeing Ichiro being the only asian position player that makes the headlines or seeing a a new legion of other Iwamuras', Fukudome's and Hu's start to make a name for themselves... I think I'd want to see more and more asian players start to pervade the major leagues instead of just the "token Asian".

There was at a certain point in history when MLB was an ethnically homogeneous sport. In 1902, Luis Castro of the Philadelphia Athletics became the first Latino player to play in the MLB. To put it poorly, Castro was the token "Latino" in the majors.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers (heard of him? ;) became the first African American player to play in the MLB... and like Castro, Robinson became the token "black guy" in the majors.

Since 1902, there have been over 700 Latino managers, players and coaches that have graced the MLB with their presence.

Since 1947, there have been over 200 African American managers, players and coaches that have gone through the major league ranks.

The first asian player to make their break was Masanori Murakami, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in 1964. Since then, it has only been in the past two decades that teams and scouts have realized the untapped potential of Asian countries.

These players are just a glimpse of the future of MLB, and with scouts turning their heads more and more toward Asian countries, it'd be hard to not see more and more position players making their debut in the states.

Coming soon!

2008-01-31T09:33:00.000-08:00

First post coming sooon!!