Sunday, November 4, 2007

Baseball manga

I don't speak Japanese.

I never pretended to be able to read Japanese. I've picked up the random Japanese baseball card over the years. I've had several early Sadaharu Oh cards and I've had Ichiro cards from Japan. Never learned to read the backs of the cards. I have a hard enough time with English. I really do not need to add anything else.

I know baseball is very popular in Japan. I know Manga, or Japanese comics are big here as well as Japan. I got the idea one day that, hey! I bet there are some Japanese comics about baseball! Sounds reasonable, right? Well not really.

First off, the total number of U.S. comics about baseball equal somewhere just above zero. The total number of Japanese comics about baseball that are translated into English and exported to the U.S. equal exactly zero.

Perfect.

Not all is lost. Apparently there are some great baseball comics in Japan. Problem for me is that A. they are in Japanese, B. they are in Japan and 3. they are hard to find even there. Well, now it's a challenge. I can't stop. I have to learn the Japanese word for comics about baseball. I gotta learn who drew this stuff and finally who the hell sells this stuff and can read my emails and take my money.

Well, I found a few. Again, I couldn't read Japanese if it meant saving the universe but I found the books to be an interesting "read". I was interested in seeing how baseball action is played out through the sequential art. I was a little surprised to find the stories weren't all about baseball. I was also somewhat surprised by the amount of apparent violence depicted in the comics. I'm sure it would all make much more sense if I could read Japanese.

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Hanson Brothers

I've been a little behind in posting to the blog. Get over it. I have stuff to do.
Friday night we went to the Texas Tornado hockey game to see the Hanson Brothers. No not those gay-looking kids that put out a record. The Hansons from the movie Slap Shot.
I've been a fan of Slap Shot since at least high school. I've been a collector of anything related to the Hansons for several years.
So I found out they were going to be appearing at the Tornadoes game on Friday. Perfect. That's only 13 miles from my house. So we loaded up and headed down to the game.
The Hanson's got on the ice just before the game and had some fun knocking over ref's and scoring a garbage goal. After the first period they set up a table and signed stuff for the fans.
Let me say that I've gotten a good deal of autographs over the years. I've jumped in the car at the drop of a hat upon hearing a player of celeb was somewhere on the radio and I've even flown cross country just to get some stinkin' autographs. I've met some great people. I've gotten autos from people who were glad to be there. I've also got autographs from people who were just pissed you knew who they were.
The Hansons? The all-time penalty minutes leaders of the Federal League? Three of the best signers I've ever met. They signed anything and everything. They shook your hand. They wanted to know about you and how you were doing. They wanted to make sure you got a picture with them. These guys were happy to be there. God bless them. They know the people in line are the reason they where asked to come and make an appearance. Maybe a few other sports figures and celebs should get a clue.

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Birthday

So I have a birthday coming up soon.
Some people really take birthdays seriously. Some people get depressed at the mere thought of tacking on another year. I think some people try to make a big deal about it not being a big deal because deep down they want it to be a big deal. Some people start planning their birthday a month out. They want everyone to know and everyone to participate. Blah...
Me? I just want a nice dinner. I can do without the phone calls or the gifts. I just want to consume a half-way decent meal in peace. That's all. Pretty simple really. Simple but it isn't what I always get. I even had one birthday on a riverboat. That was a pretty good birthday, at least the parts I remember.
Anyway, this year I'm getting a good dinner if I have to take myself, by God.

The Beckett blog

We have a new behind the scenes blog at the office. The idea is to give a little insight to the human side of Beckett. Good idea.
Anyway, a shameless plug for the blog: go check it out - http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com