Felicitaciones a los Cubanos por su victoria sobre la Republica Dominicana en la semifinal del Clasico Mundial de Beisbol.
(I sure hope that's correct.)
Not only did Team USA fail to make the semifinals, but the little island that the US is so afraid of will play in the final game. Too sweet.
The other semifinal game is tonight, Japan vs Korea. The winner of that game plays Team Cuba for the championship on Monday. I will have to root for our Spanish-speaking Communist neighbours. I enjoy Latino cultures, and I love to love whatever the US hates.
Sometimes in New York, when we watched a Yankees-Red Sox game - which meant the local Yankees announcers - we'd listen to the Spanish-language broadcast instead. That way we got the crowd noise, but Allan didn't have to listen to the announcers he hated, and I didn't have to listen to Allan complain. I would try to follow the Spanish, and I could do well for a while, but it was too exhausting to do for more than an inning or two.
Which reminds me, guess how much progress I've made on my Spanish study for Peru? That's right: zero. When we went to Mexico, I enjoyed speaking my rudimentary Spanish so much. Without brushing up on it for a moment, vocabulary was coming back to me - from high school! I swore that the next time we went to a Spanish-speaking country, I would prepare, and enjoy it even more. I've been intending to; the book is right here at my side. With five weeks to go, I'd better open it.
Here's an excellent English-language Cuban baseball site. Not much to look at, but very thorough.
10 comments:
japan vs korea now there is a game that is really a war. the outcome will be plastered everywhere in japan today
You know, there are two Andreas who comment here. Both are Canadian, one living in Vancouver, the other in Japan and trying to return!
I always get you two confused. But I know who this is from...
Go Korea. The country was a former unwilling colony of Japan. Plus, apparently, some of the Korean players are trying to win so that they'll get an exemption of the mandatory military service.
the korean players already got the military service exemption for getting into the semi-finals.
i'm not rooting for either team - i just want to see a good game.
i'm rooting for yulieski gourriel to defect so he can play in the majors.
Well, that's a relief... especially since their pitching has just imploded.
All right, I'll admit a bias because my parents are from Korea. And because I'm still a little ticked by "Hating the Korean Wave."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_-_Hating_the_Korean_Wave
It's just a game. It solves no problem, improves no condition, though if the process adds to someone's hate of the United States, it speaks loudly of their ability to concentarate on trivial matters and so lose the bigger, more interesting and more important appreciation of the basics.
Games are fun. They're just games, but we love them.
I intensely dislike the arrogance of American fans who act like it's their birthright to win. I also intensely dislike US baseball announcers' constant Cuba-bashing. So Cuba advancing and the US not is lovely to me.
It should speak loudly of that.
the bigger, more interesting and more important appreciation of the basics.
I do appreciate the bigger, more important things. That's why the US makes me sick. That's why I left. Get it?
It's just a game. It solves no problem, improves no condition, though if the process adds to someone's hate of the United States, it speaks loudly of their ability to concentarate on trivial matters and so lose the bigger, more interesting and more important appreciation of the basics.
Games like these aren't completely trivial. Like everything else, sports is a part of society and culture, and we learn from it and it reflects our values. Some say, Jackie Robinson's presence on a baseball team helped start the breakdown of segregation. The idea that communism created weak and competition-shy people wasn't said much when communist countries dominated at the Olympics.
The "just a game" line is frequently used to trivialize sport. But sport is no more or less important than any other part of culture.
All societies, in all eras, have had some sort of games and competition. Like art, it's part of what makes us human.
And to tie it into another topic -- this is one reason it's important to get the Paraolympics broadcast along with the Olympics. Sports aren't trivial -- they can change mind.
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