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Asian-Nation

Secretasianman

Wednesday - 4/30/08

Fukudome Makes SI Cover - Okay so I have some egg on my face from complaining about the lack of media coverage for Asian athletes, only to find out a few days later that Kosuke Fukudome made the SI cover. Still this was no gimme, as Fukudome totally deserves the honor considering the month that he has just had which can only be described as magnificent. Course some might say that somebody wanted to put the SI cover curse on Fukudome but that is just silly. It is indeed an honor and I'm glad to see Fukudome get his props. Still I stick by what I said about Wang not getting his due from the media. I guess the media only care about big contract Japanese stars coming stateside and seeing if they will sink or swim. Wang has no big contract and is not Japanese but he is definitely swimming and the majority of MLB pitchers are tailing behind in his wake. But this is about Fukudome and a big Congrats to him for representing well and tasting good!

Big Hurt Coming for Yao and Yi - Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian may have had a painful season with all their combined injuries but that ain't nothing compared with their challenges ahead. This is because they have drawn Team USA in the opening round for the Beijing Olympic basketball tournament. Since Yao and Yi have been out of action for so long, they will definitely have problems dealing against the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James but it will surely be a treat for Chinese fans. Kobe and LeBron are two of their favorite players but I dunno how they will react if Team USA puts the smackdown on Yao and Yi. Hopefully Team China can keep it close which is all anyone could hope for. 

Team USA is coming, will Team China be healthy in time to compete?

Monday - 4/28/08

Wang Wins in Battle of Aces - Chien-Ming Wang got a little revenge yesterday against the team that hit him hard twice in the playoffs last fall. This time Wanger brought his A game and the Cleveland Indians and C.C. Sabathia just could not hang as the Yankess rode Wang's dominant pitching performance to a 1-0 victory. Sabathia actually pitched one of this best starts this season and was in great form considering his recent struggles. But Wang was better than last year's Cy Young winner on this day allowing just four hits, two walks and no runs while striking out a season-high nine. He is now 5-0 this season with a 3.23 ERA.

Still some in the biased media do not consider him an ace even though he has won more games in the past 2+ years than any other pitcher in MLB. And his success is due pretty much to just one dominant pitch, his sinker ball. Need proof of the bias? Just check out this article at Foxsports which lists the Top 10 filthiest pitches in the game. Wang is not even on the list despite the fact that his sinker has won him more games than any other pitcher in baseball during a three season span! I ain't gonna call it racism but change Wang's name to Walsh and there is no way he would not have made this list. Let's just say it's tough to be an Asian athlete and leave it at that.

Sunday - 4/27/08

Japanese Baseball's Big Weekend! - Three Japanese baseball players made the headlines over the weekend for their stellar play. Tadahito Iguchi hit a game winning 13th inning home run to help his San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-7. Akinori Iwamura crushed an eighth-inning homer to lead the Tampa Bays over the Red Sox. Masa Kobayashi recorded his first MLB save for the Cleveland Indians over the Yankees. It's really good to see these lower profile Japanese baseballers have some success and get some love from the media.

The MLB's turning Japanese, turning Japanese, I really think so! 

Tadahito Iguchi & Akinori Iwamura both hit game winning longballs on Saturday.         

Masa Kobayashi pitched two quality innings to record his first MLB win.

Thursday - 4/24/08

Chien-Ming Wang Turns 50! - Wang pitched an average game on Tuesday allowing 3 runs and 10 hits in six innings against the Chicago White Sox. Still with the help of some late hitting from Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon, the Yankees won the game 9-5 at U.S. Cellular Field. Of particular importance to Wang was the fact that it was his 50th victory in just 85 career starts. No player has done so in less games since Dwight Gooden won 50 games in 82 starts and that was over 20 years ago. Manager Joe Girardi was impressed saying, "He's a winner. The great pitchers find a way to win games when they don't have their good stuff." Wang has definitely been a winner for the Yankees. His record this year is 4-0 and 20-3 over his last 28 starts.

Sport's Illustrated recently did a great article about Wang and discussed his importance to his native Taiwan and how his performances on the mound actually affect Taiwan's stock market. He is huge there, every bit as large a figure as Dice-K is in Japan or Manny Pacquiao is in the Philippines. So what makes Wang such a great pitcher?  Well it's his trademark sinker of course. According to teammate Andy Pettitte, Wang's sinker is an ultimate weapon, like Johan Santana's changeup. "It's the best sinker I've ever seen," said Pettitte. And to think that the soon to be worth $1.3 billion Yankees had to screw Wang out of a measly $600K. No respect I tell ya.

Wang gets mad love from Taiwan, not so from Yankee ownership.

Monday - 4/21/08

Fukudome Targeted in Racist T-shirt - Man this is pretty sad but what's even worse is the fact that I can't say I'm surprised about this story. A souvenir stand in Chicago was selling a T-shirt of a Cubs bear with slanted eyes, thick glasses and the tag "Horry Kow" in Asian looking script with Fukudome's name and number on the back. Well the story got back to Cubs officials who did the right thing by confronting the vendor and getting the shirt pulled. Still according to the vendor, it was his best selling shirt by far which tells me that there are a whole lot of idiots there in the windy city with very little class.

Fukudome obviously did not think it was funny saying it was not right, though he expected something like this could happen. The really funny thing is the fact that the t-shirt says more about Americans than it does about the Japanese. It's spreading the stereotype of the "Ugly American" and how they welcome their invited guests from other countries. Good job guys.

Blatant racism is rarely ever lost in translation.

 Friday - 4/18/08

Slam Dunk As Only The Japanese Can Do It! - This dude is attempting the world's longest slam dunk. I'm just impressed he can palm a basketball with one hand while bouncing at that speed. Amazing!

Thursday - 4/17/08

Tough Week for Asian Pitchers

- Daisuke Matsuzaka struggled in his last start on Monday needing 116 pitches to get through five innings against NY. He had trouble with his command but was lucky to be bailed out by this teammates in the 8-5 win.

- Chien-Ming Wang had an equally bad start yesterday as he was touched for nine hits, three walks and eight earned runs in just four-plus innings. While he will not get the win, the Yankees bats had his back as NY went on to win 15-9 against the Sox.

- Hiroki Kuroda had an OK performance on Wednesday as he pitched six innings against the Pittsburgh pirates giving up three runs and seven hits. The Dodgers went to normally reliable closer Takashi Saito in the ninth with a 4-3 lead but Saito wasn't money that night. He gave up a 3 run homer and LA lost 6-3 to the Pirates.

-Not a pitcher but surely in possession of a wicked "fast ball", tennis player Kei Nishikori lost 6-4, 6-4 to James Blake at the US Men's clay court championship on Wednesday. This outcome was no surprise as veteran Blake showed the young 18 year old rookie why he is the legitimate #8 ranked player in the world. He also beat 15 year old Ryan Harrison 6-3, 6-2 tonight to move into the quarter-final.

Tuesday - 4/15/08

Nishikori wins in Davis Cup action; Paradorn's Comeback Scratched - Japanese tennis star Kei Nishikori has been playing Davis Cup matches and he trashed his Indian opponent Mahesh Bhupathi 7-5, 6-1 in the Asia/Oceania Zone second round on Sunday. These are rather inconsequential consolation matches but the upcoming US Men's Clay court championships will be very important to Kei. Tomorrow he will have a rematch in Houston against James Blake, the guy he beat to win the Delray Beach title. I look for James to be aggressive and to play well considering he will want payback. But if Kei can keep up with him or even win the match, he will get a lot of credit and all talk of his previous "fluke" win against Blake should cease.

Thai tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan's was going to make his long awaited comeback this week also in Davis Cup competition but it was not to be because of poor fitness concerns. Srichaphan has not played in over a year due to a chronic wrist injury and his absence in Davis Cup competition will surely not be missed by the Australian team. I'm hoping he will be back in time for Wimbledon, as grass is one of this better surfaces.

Highlights of a fantastic match between Srichaphan and Federer from 2006.

Sunday - 4/13/08

Tiger Woods' Rally Falls Short -  The Masters is over and Trevor Immelman was the winner today at Augusta National. Tiger Woods put up a fight on Sunday to pull within three shots and claim a second-place finish but for Tiger second is no consolation prize. What killed Tiger this week was his horrendous putting. He finished with an even-par 72 for 5-under par 283 whereas first time winner Immelman finished with a 75 for 280.

I think Tiger jumped the gun with his comment that winning the Grand Slam in golf was "easily within reason". I mean if he had won the first three and going for the fourth I could understand, but to say that at the beginning of the year is a bit much even for him. People were talking about his Nike buddy Roger Federer going for the Grand Slam in tennis and he hasn't even won a single tournament this year. Both guys are awesome but hoping to win the Grand Slam and doing it are two different things. We are talking about a "all the stars in the sky are aligned" kinda of thing here. Tiger and Roger are two of the best and luckiest sportsmen who ever lived, but it will take a whole lota more luck to pull of the fabled Grand Slam.

Tuesday - 4/8/08

Bling Envious Dice-K Delivers 2nd Straight Win -  The Boston Redsox got their World Series rings today but not Daisuke Matsuzaka. Well he got it later than his teammates because the rings were passed out while he was warming up to face the Tigers. Dice watched with envy but had to settle for getting it later from his locker after the game. This was not good news for Detroit as Matsuzaka took out his frustration on them pitching 6 2/3 shutout innings, walking four and striking out seven in an memorable Opening day at Fenway. Through 3 games, he is 2-0 with a 1.47 ERA and his consistency is much welcomed considering the lackluster return of Josh Beckett's first start over the weekend. So what did Matsuzaka think of his new bling? "After the game, I tried it on for the first time, and I must say it looked pretty good." Today, the same could be said about Dice-K's performance.

Dice-K did his Thing (Win) then got his Ring.

Sunday - 4/6/08

Asian Baseball Representing!

- Hiroki Kuroda had a fantastic debut on Friday pitching the LA Dodgers to a 7-1 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Despite giving up a homer in the sixth inning, he was rather dominant overall hold the hot-hitting Padres to three hits in seven impressive innings. So what makes Kuroda so good? "Kuroda is really tough to deal with when he is ahead of you because he has so many weapons," said manager Joe Torre.

-Kosuke Fukudome hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the 7th inning on Saturday to help his Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 9-7. The young rookie has been on fire, after five games he is ranked second in the National League in pitches per at-bat and batting .500. Despite having a rough going in spring training, he now currently leads the Cubs in walks, total bases, hits and extra-base hits. Cubs manager Lou Piniella says Fukudome's strength comes from his patience at bat. "He hits deeper in the count, he doesn't chase in the zone, and that's a welcome addition on this club." The Chicago faithful appreciated him, chanting "Fu-ko-dome" as Kosuke ran up the pitch count. The Cubs can only hope that the wins will continue to follow. 

"Go kick their arse!" was not Lost in Translation.

-Chien-Ming Wang won his second start today giving up just four hits, 2 walks and no runs while striking out six to lead the Yankees to a 2-0 victory over the Rays. Wang was effective as he worked on improving the new pitches to his repertoire. He was not at his sharpest but was still too much for the over-anxious swinging Rays. Hideki Matsui was the other hero of the game as he hit a 2-1 changeup into the seats for the game's only runs. The newly married Matsui must of gotten some good luck from his wife. Six games into the season, he has a .350 average with two homers and four RBI, tied with Alex Rodriguez for the club lead. 

Tuesday - 4/2/08

Belated Birthday Gift for Wanger - Chien-Ming Wang turned 28 years old on Monday but due to rain his opening day start was pushed to Tuesday. He got a cake from the Taiwanese press and said that he could not receive a better gift than to be given the opening day start. On Tuesday pitching the last opener at the old Yankee stadium Wang did not let the NY fans down. He shut down the Toronto Blue Jays for seven innings leading the Yankees to a 3-2 record-setting victory. It was the MLB league-best 11th consecutive home opener win for NY and the first win for Joe Girardi. Joe was rewarded for his faith in Wang but it was an easy choice. Wanger earned it with his back-to-back 19 game wins in the past two seasons, the most of any pitcher in the Majors. I would love to see him go for it again this year.

Dice-K Dominates Oakland A's - Daisuke Matsuzaka had publicly apologized to the Japanese fans for not pitching well enough to go deep into his game in Japan last week. What a difference a week and 5,000 miles can make. Dice was feeling it yesterday on the mound as he held the A's to two hits in 6 2/3 innings to pace the Red Sox to a 2-1 victory. He had great control of his pitches, striking out nine and not issuing out a single walk. A great sign for the Red Sox who will also celebrate the return of ace Josh Beckett into the lineup on Sunday.

No longer a rookie, expect Dice-K to be more solid this year.

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