[sumo] Re: [not quite sumo] 'Seven Sam'

[Jim Bitgood]

There has been a lot of similar discussion in running circles over 
the last years. Most of the big marathons and shorter races have been 
won by foreign (mostly Kenyan) runners. There has been a lot of 
discussion in running magazines about how to rebuild American running programs.
Many races that include a "US Championship" competition usually have 
foreign runners winning the race outright and the first American 
coming in somewhere further back.
Personally, I don't care where the winners come from. They are so far 
ahead of me that by the time I finish, they are on a plane home 
already. I also don't really pay much attention to where a sumo 
wrestler is from. I find out where they are from mostly by reading 
commentary on the list. Sometimes I can hear the announcer in the 
arena, but I usually have to know ahead of time what to listen for, 
especially for non-Japanese place names. So I mostly ignore where 
they are from.


At 14:54 1/17/2008, you wrote:

>On Jan 17, 2008, at 10:56 AM, cfinberg at gmail.com wrote:
>
>>  What if John Kruk similarly announced the most promising U.S.-born
>>rookies, to the exclusion of foreign players, as The Magnificent
>>Seven?
>
>Actually, if - for five years or so running - all the Cy Young
>winners, batting champs and home run kings were Cubans, Venezuelans
>and Japanese, etc., I don't find that so far-fetched.  In such a
>scenario, discussions over how the U.S. has lost dominance over its
>national pastime would already have become rampant anyway.  I don't
>see it as provocative to discuss what 99% of the population is
>already talking about openly.

         Jim
         "Chitose-Taikai"