Tag Archives: Sadaharu Oh

Baseball, Free, History, News

WBC Jeopardy

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Today I’m going to run you through a simulated game of “Jeopardy,” although you’ll have to forgive me if I get parts of it wrong. It used to be one of my favorite American TV shows, but I have only seen a handful of episodes since moving to Japan in 1984, including those in which a friend and former Daily Yomiuri coworker played and won a considerable sum of cash.

I suspect some of this will be new to some of you. I hope you enjoy it, although there’s no cash involved and no home version as a consolation prize.

Clues

WBC controversies

  • An umpire who cost Japan a chance to bring in MLB closer Akira Otsuka with a late lead in the first game of the 2006 Anaheim quarterfinal round by overturning the correct safe call on an appeal play in favor of the USA.
  • An umpire who cost Mexico a home run in the final game of the 2006 Anaheim quarterfinal round against the USA, when he ruled a ball hit off the foul pole to be a ground rule double.
  • A country that was eliminated from a playoff to advance to the quarterfinals in 2017 after MLB announced it would play in the tie-breaker playoff.
  • A country whose players union threatened to boycott the first three WBCs.
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Mr. Nemoto’s mystery tour

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There was an interesting story last month about Rikuo Nemoto, one of Japan’s most cunning executives, who for a while was one of the few people to create any kind of team dynasty since the introduction of the draft leveled the playing field somewhat.

The story, published in Nikkan Sports, talks about how in the autumn of 1994, Nemoto managed to secure his top draft target, slugging catcher Kenji Jojima, without the hassle of having to deal with Japan’s ubiquitous draft day lottery for marquee amateurs coveted by several teams.

The article is a nice summary of that event, with enough additional information thrown in to imply to the reader that there is much more to what happened than what is laid out by writer.

I dug into it because, I’ve heard a number of stories about Nemoto, and his various talents, and expected to find some nugget I hadn’t heard, but instead, we get a story which looks like the writer wanted to be able to deny he suggested any under-handed dealing by Nemoto, while pretty much doing just that.

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