shohei ohtani alert

What

Tldr: you shouldn't lie to banks or your employer or have an illegal gambling addiction

But also

Rich people shouldn't be stupidly cheap when paying people who work for them. Many rich people problems can be avoided by paying people what their work is worth. Not saying that's what happened here, just that I haven't seen that's not what happened.

The end.

Not saying that's what happened here, just that I haven't seen that's not what happened.

That....seeeems like license to believe anything, any old thing. Why speculate?

I think because of what I know about employment law and entertainment law, and I keep seeing these takes that want to paint Ippei as the total villain. I think people don't understand the work it takes behind the scenes to make overnight success happen over a period of years.

Baseball players are entertainers in the end. I personally prefer to see a happy story of everyone succeeding as a team. I think social media simplifies things to a point where people are wrongly overconfident about making snap judgments and ruining people's reputations and I had a lot more questions here about what really happened then some of the takes I've seen online.

And it's not license to believe in "anything." I wrote an extremely long detailed post laying out the particular pieces that were missing. If you want to take my tldr out of context that could seem like anything, but then why post at all if any piece could be taken out of context at any time.

I made a tasteless Parasite joke upthread but after reading f.'s posts I can see how it may indeed apply here...

...also "arbitration" ;-)

Exactly! Tbh I hadn't thought of the employment law angle until you mentioned Ippei's salary and "arbitration" a few weeks back. It has been bothering me ever since.

Parasite is a good reference. And the culture of keeping up and desperation portrayed in Squid Game. There's something so unnecessary here, like this whole Caught Stealing situation should never have happened.

f., I would like to declare that I/we are extremely fortunate to have someone of your background, experience and wisdom posting on this silly board.

I may have missed the opportunity to tell you but I always appreciate you!

You're too kind but it's appreciated nonetheless.

May all your tacos come in 10s :)

ah... such simpler times...

!!!!! Just realized I met Shohei's translator a long time ago when he was a fresh faced Red Sox employee... let me go dig up a picture lol.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, December 8, 2023 3:44 PM (four months ago)

You met Ippei? Wow!

― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Friday, December 8, 2023 3:47 PM (four months ago)

I can't find it (my flickr account is now paywalled?). I sat next to him and Hideki Okajima at a sushi bar in SF when the Red Sox were in town to face the A's.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, December 8, 2023 3:55 PM (four months ago)

We've since learned that Ippei was only Okajima's translator for his short (and unfruitful) Spring Training stint with the Yankees which means the interpreter I met when Okajima was with the Red Sox was Ryo Shinkawa...

At any rate, here is a picture of Okajima's signature on MY translator lol, my trusty Sharp PW-SH4 which was a constant companion in my oversees biz journeys when an interpreter was unavailable.

https://i.imgur.com/jPik9IE.png

You met Ippei? Wow!

― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Friday, December 8, 2023 3:47 PM (four months ago)

lmaooooo

We are all Ippei

Wrong Ippei address.

btw I don't think flickr is paywalled. But I seem to remember they did do something funky a while back that required going in and adjusting settings if you want any of your photos to be public.

Yeah, I couldn't find that pic when I first searched flickr but I was able to find it when I searched by year and location: 2008 @ Sakana Sushi

I saw Okajima pitch (LOOGy) the following year @ Fenway...

YOUR baseball photos thread

450ft
Hardest hit ball by ohtani so far
Hardest hit ball in 2024
Hardest hit ball by a Dodger in the statcast era
Just a bonkers bomb

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/OPXxm8nszD

I know his HR is the big story, but (from Posnanski):

In case you haven’t been staying up for West Coast games, Shohei Ohtani is hitting .364/.430/.677 with 11 doubles in 25 games. As great as Ohtani has been, he’s never been much of a doubles hitter; his career high in doubles was 30 in 2022.

As longtime readers know, I spent a lot of time rooting for someone to hit 60 doubles in a season. It has not happened since 1936. Freddie Freeman ALMOST did it last year (he finished with 59), and Nick Castellanos ALMOST did it in 2019 (he finished with 58), so the dream goes on.

If Shohei Ohtani is the guy who challenges for 60 doubles this year, I might just explode in happiness.

Yeah, he's hitting 99% of his balls to right field (Source: eye test) and if they're a little further to the right than to the middle of right field, they end up doubles. Happens a lot.

make it 13 doubles in 26

On pace for 81. Easy.

Wtf 14 in 26. He gets a double in the 8th, and the 9th!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLci2DdaIAAZk8z?format=jpg&name=small

https://cdn8.openculture.com/2017/08/20195102/soviet-censorship-naval-commissar-vanishes.jpg

Stalin comparison is lol but also, that’s the worst Ohtani drawing! Strange when the visual is such a huge part of his appeal.

Ohtani’s on pace for 230 hits #sss

Shohei Ohtani was booed before and after his 1st AB at Rogers Centre. The fans acted like jilted lovers, seeing Ohtani in #Dodgers blue. After he responded w/ a HR, his teammates greeted him in the dugout with more boos. "He got a big kick out of that.”https://t.co/9WOdwssL3X

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) April 27, 2024

They're still mad about the #ohtaniplane

I just love the idea of the dugout booing ohtani after all of his hits. "Booooooo stop making us look bad!"

dodgers are in pittsburgh the first week of june; hope the fans boo him for not signing with the pirates

Lol

changed my DN

brilliant, kudos