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P/SUNNY
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, ...
Tonkatsu is comfort food, gourmand grub — not a gourmet delicacy. So what are those hearty, unpretentious deep-fried breaded pork cutlets doing in an elegant little bar-style restaurant above one of Ginza’s temples to high-end consumption? Katsuzen has come a long way from its ...
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
It is a tricky deal being an authorized biographer. Charles Moore’s big advantage over those who have previously tackled Margaret Thatcher is that he has been provided with material denied to them. Of the arrangement that he was offered by his subject, he writes: ...
Unbelievable energy. Splendid self confidence. Never-wavering faith in his abilities or his teammates. Those are ingredients to success for Draelon Burns, the Yokohama B-Corsairs’ super substitute. Burns buried a remarkable three buzzer-beating shots to close out the three final quarters, and his team needed ...
When then-Yomiuri Giants shortstop Tomohiro Nioka tore his calf muscle during the 2008 season opener, a star was born. In the year since taking over for the fallen Giants star, shortstop Hayato Sakamoto, is starting to live up to the hype. At 22-10-2 the ...
CHIBA — Terrmel Sledge is getting used to playing baseball in Japan. Which could spell trouble for Pacific League pitchers this summer. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham slugger is off to a fast start this season and is one of the driving forces behind one ...
Chiba Lotte Marines pitcher Hiroyuki Kobayashi didn’t come out of Tuesday’s game against the Orix Buffaloes with a win, but he should’ve gained a lot of confidence. Kobayashi (0-2) gave up three runs in Lotte’s 4-3 loss but struck out seven and walked only ...
Finding and identifying talented young players is a big part of the game of baseball. But as the 2009 season is showing early on, there’s no substitute for experience. Hanshin’s Tomoaki Kanemoto and Orix’s Tuffy Rhodes have taken Japanese baseball by storm this year ...
The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters’ pitching staff has looked surprisingly pedestrian early this season. Even more surprising, however, is the way the Fighters’ offense has rocketed out of the gates. Following Wednesday’s 11-5 win over the Orix Buffaloes, Nippon Ham leads Japanese baseball with ...
Kenta Kurihara was with Samurai Japan for just two games at the World Baseball Classic. Despite it’s brevity, that stint with the world champions may make all the difference for the Hiroshima Carp star this season. Rarely seen without a smile on his face ...
With spring training under way, fans in Osaka and Fukuoka are watching closely as their teams undergo a change. In addition to the usual offseason shuffling, the Hanshin Tigers and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks are busy breaking in new managers before the start of the ...
In the midst of the greatest individual season of his career, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma was left off Japan’s Olympic roster. With any luck, the Pacific League MVP can show the Japanese baseball brain trust the error of its ways at ...
Before the self-proclaimed (and arguably rightly so) “greatest of all time” and new MLB Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson was redefining the way leadoff hitters would be viewed, the Hankyu Braves’ Yutaka Fukumoto was helping to set the standard. Japanese baseball’s career leader with ...
For a team that couldn’t do anything right during the season, things sure seem to be going well for the Yokohama BayStars this offseason. Yokohama had a horrible 2008 season, finishing 19 games behind fifth-place finisher Tokyo Yakult with a dismal 48-94 mark. The ...
There’s talk of revenge ahead of the 2009 World Baseball Classic and it’s music to the organizers’ ears. With the campaign to get baseball back into the Olympic program serving as a backdrop, organizers have been pleased with the level of excitement in the ...
The Yokohama BayStars reached the Nippon Professional Baseball summit in 1998 behind 12-game winner Daisuke Miura. Ten years later, the BayStars have unceremoniously tumbled all the way down the mountain, hitting every bump along the way. Now a grizzled 17-year veteran, it’s Miura who’s ...