Nerd Baseball Post
You may want to skip this post if you don’t care about baseball.
First off: yes, I’m excited the Red Sox are headed to the World Series. I understand that investing energy in watching professional sports is probably less than optimally productive as far as community concerns go, but it’s a diversion, and one that allows for connections in new ways with folks you might never know otherwise. And although I cannot control the outcome of a sporting event, I also cannot control the outcome of a presidential election, the War in Iraq, the implementation of No Child Left Behind, the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, etc. But that doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.
Now and then, I get shit from some folks for pulling extra hard for Asian athletes. This I cannot understand.
So. I’m a Boston Red Sox fan because I live in the Boston area and the Red Sox play half of their season here. Is that enough reason for me to root for the Red Sox? Because we share an area code? For most sports fans it is. Now apply that logic to the fact that both Japanese rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka and myself are Asian. Is that enough reason to root for my boy to do well? To me it’s obvious, but some API folks - in an effort to impress mainstream white America - are actually harder on Asian players than non-Asian players. Whatever. You guys are corny.
OK, that level of nerd talk is over. I would like to address something that has bothered me for a while now.
Racist-ass Red Sox fans have been calling Matsuzaka a bust for months now. They’re saying the Red Sox spent too much money and that they would have done better to spend it on another player. Now what really irks me is when I hear other API folks say this, because they say they don’t want to support Matsuzaka simply because he’s Asian.
What? That’s the best reason!
Anyway, I’d like to ask what player you would arther have had for the Red Sox? Of the big name free agent starting pitchers available before the start of the 2007 season, he’s been on or beyond the level of all of them.
2007 numbers back me up:
Matsuzaka: 15 wins, 4.40 ERA, 204.2 IP, and 201 Ks
Greg Maddux: 14 wins, 4.14 ERA, 198.0 IP, and 104 Ks
Barry Zito: 11 wins, 4.53 ERA, 196.2 IP, and 131 Ks
Jeff Suppan: 12 wins, 4.62 ERA, 206.2 IP, and 114 Ks
He’s certainly at the top of the class for 2007 free agent pitchers based off the fact that struck out at least 70 more batters than any of those dudes! In fact, he led the Red Sox in strikeouts, amassing 7 more than ace Josh Beckett in only 4 more innings.
OK, just wanted to put that out there.
i can’t play fantasy baseball because I only want to draft Asian players and there aren’t enough of them to make up one entire fantasy team.
I can’t wait until the day APIs takeover the NFL is complete. Forward.
I don’t give a shit about baseball but I always root for Asian players.
Fuck the assimilationists and the haters.
Comment by Bao — 10.23.07 @ 5:32PMi totally get behind asian players AND think the sox paid too much for daisuke.
Comment by daren — 10.24.07 @ 12:41PMthat was a ton of cash for an unproven player in the mlb. i think he was
worth a lot of money based on his success in japan, but what made me choke
was the amount the spent just to negotiate with him. for me, i think, that
has more to do with my general distaste for how out of control baseball
salaries are than with daisuke as a player. as a pitcher, i think he’s dope.
It’s me, your wifey’s bff, just thought i’d put in my 2 cents too =)…
Comment by Kay — 10.24.07 @ 5:18PMI think we would see a lot more asian athletes if asian parents guide their kids in that direction.
I know athletics was never a big thing in my family, my dad wanted me to play violin as a kid (I sucked at it too).
I think parents in the asain community focus mainly on education, music, and the arts rather than sports
don’t you think so?
hey kay, i think a lot of asians are more about immediate return rather than delayed. that’s why so many asians gamble so much and those who dont’ know much about the stock market jump in with both feet, thinking they can get by just by getting by.
but if their kids are gonna invest taht much time practicing something, i think they often would rather it be school or classical music (i guess a lot of immigrants and refugees got tricked into believing having a career as a violinist is SO much more likely than having a career as a professional baseball player…neither seems that likely…) than sports.
but lucky for me, my parents didn’t have specific wants for me. they just wanted me to not suck at the things i did do. so whatever it was, they always wanted me to work hard at it, but i hate hard work, so i never really excelled at nothing. blah.
Comment by giles — 10.24.07 @ 6:01PMi
Comment by oiyan — 10.26.07 @ 2:20PM