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9:57:00 AM EDT
Hearing Don't Eat the Yellow Snow -- Frank Zappa
A Baseball Strike, Japanese Style
Slate's got a story about a recent Japanese baseball strike which seems almost charmingly quaint compared to the sports strikes on this side of the Pacific:
Two weeks ago, after lobbying unsuccessfully to block the proposed merger of two of the country's 12 professional baseball teams, the Nippon Professional Baseball Players Association walked out for the first time in 70 years. The strike had a decidedly Japanese twist. The players sat out during the weekend of Sept. 18-19, but, so as not to totally inconvenience everyone, returned to action during the week.
"I sincerely want to apologize to everyone for doing this," said teary union chief Atsuya Furuta, "but it can't be helped."
And even more oddly, the fans were massively for the players (as opposed to here in the US, where fans aren't very sympathetic to the absurdly rich players, and the even more absurdly rich owners). It also turns out that Japanese sports teams are even more hideously mismanaged than US sports teams. I didn't know that was possible.
Speaking of which, didn't we used to have hockey? And -- again, be honest -- is anyone missing it?
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I'm not surprised. This is a country where CEOs of failed companies issue public mea culpas; some even commit suicide for "losing face". Now that's extreme.
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Yo! Canadian here. I've got the shakes. They get worst on Saturday evenings. Luckily, curling season starts this wekend.
-Paul
http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/
9/29/04 10:08 PM