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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
WILL BASEBALL SAVE THE AM IMAGE?
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:10:06 PM)
ypher Hideo Nomo led the Asian invasion in spectacular fashion when he donned Dodger blue in 1994. His outlandish corkscrew delivery may have helped draw even more media glare than was warranted by his meteoric rise and fall (and recent re-emergence) as a pitching talent. His Dodger teammate Chanho Park, who came from Corea in 1995, showed that an Asian hurler could have staying power too -- not to mention ultimately command seven-figure annual salaries.
Now the Mariners are stealing the Asian baseball spotlight with the dazzling $13 million Ichiro Suzuki. Halfway into his rookie season here, he was leading the league in hits and steals, not to mention drawing $2 million magazine offers to pose nude. His reward -- an All-Star slot along with Chanho Park. Even better, their respective teams stand an excellent chance of meeting in the World Series.
Currently six other Asian ballers -- mostly Japanese and Corean imports -- are playing in the American majors and are, for the most part, doing well. That's why scouts are now laying the groundwork for importing as many as 15 more young stars from Japan, Corea and even Taiwan in time for the 2002 season. Admittedly, even a contingent of 24 Asian ballplayers would be only 5% of a combined major league roster of about 500. But if Nomo, Park and Suzuki are any indication, they could have a significant impact on the Asian male media image.
But will the media spotlight continue to shine on Asian stars or will it burn out as the novelty fades? Is baseball really a sport that can do much for the Asian male image or will we have to wait for a few quarterbacks and tight ends or maybe centers and power forwards? Or is sports just not up on a par with TV and the movies as a studmaker?
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Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
i think it's lame that Asians are making the mlb over asian-american guys. i don't want to cheer for Ichiro, the guy cant even speak any english. cheering for these guys is like cheering for a bunch of FOB's except that these guys are cooler than the real FOB's you see out in public, ya know , those short asian men that speak broken english. It's lame cheering for these baseball guys AND lamer that the only asian americans in sports are always half black, half white, half hispanic, and half hawaiian. i think we got to wait another 10 or 20 years to get real asian americans to play sports.
ichiro is lame
Tuesday, April 09, 2002 at 18:49:11 (PDT)
I couldn't be more proud of my asian brothers and sisters who are fightin' past all the white controlled barriers in society and gettin' to do stuff. Now if only somma us brown south asian folks could play ball.
goyanks
Friday, April 05, 2002 at 16:24:36 (PST)
What we really need is an Asian slugger who would swing for the fences. Not no pitcher. C'mon now, who are the ones that makes big news and big money? It's those big time home run hitters!!! If we can have a couple of them, then I am sure more girls of other races will finally give us the respect we deserve.
Asian Bonds, McGwires, Sosas
Wednesday, March 06, 2002 at 00:16:33 (PST)
RF Sukuki Ichiro
OF Shinjo, Tsuyoshi
RP Sasaki, Kazuhiro
SP Nomo, Hideo
SP Ishii, Kazuhisa
SP Suzuki, Mac
RP Hasegawa, Shigetoshi
RP Kumagai, Ryo
LF Taguchi. So
SP Irabu Hideki
SP Yoshii, Masato
SP Ohka, Tomokazu
RP Komiyama, Satoru
Matsui, Hideki
RP Kim Byung-hyun
SP Park Chan-ho
RP Kim, Sun Woo
SP Chen, Bruce
LF Chen, Chin-Feng
1B Choi, Hee Seop
Dig it
Saturday, March 02, 2002 at 22:46:12 (PST)
Hey all
My name is Christian and I'm a college sophomore. I'm doing a project on marketing baseball to the Asian population of New York for my Sport Marketing class. If you can provide me with any information on what you like about baseball(if you like baseball) what team you like and what you would want to see at a Mets or Yankees game that will increase your interest in the sport and/or the team....
I'm posting my e-mail address below..
thanks again for any info I greatly appreciate it..
Christian
Christian
metsman77@yahoo.com
Tuesday, February 12, 2002 at 14:57:22 (PST)
I never had asian colleagues playing semi-pro baseball, serving in an army paratroop unit or even selling electronic equipment. My point is, the stereotype of the skinny, wimpy, asian male wearing glasses, probably an engineer, and playing tennis and badminton is true!! It seems that this is especially true of non-Hawaiian AB's and Chinese FOB's.
Having grown up in Japan, I can tell you that there are Japanese soccer stars, hockey stars and of course baseball stars.
Another casual observation is that Japanese and Koreans FOB's tend to be more "studly" than Chinese FOB's.
Just observations.
tongzhi
Thursday, January 31, 2002 at 17:43:36 (PST)
Ichiro is highly talented and deserved ROY, maybe Bret Boone should have got it though, look at the stats, very similar and Boone drove in way more people, but Ichiro deserves it and I'm happy for him. Now, about this talk, "NW is Asian friendly" and "Ichiro doesn't kiss white ass trying to fit in" is uncalled for and shows your racist attitude. Drop it you fool.
fun-gi
Tuesday, November 20, 2001 at 23:49:29 (PST)
I like it when you write "Corea" with a
C instead of a K, if you know what I mean. Keep up the good work!
Chosundynasty
Monday, November 19, 2001 at 09:02:14 (PST)
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