Next we went to the USC Footbal Game. We walked along campus and everyone was set up outsdoors with booths for food and selling USC items. many people who have graduated from USC apparently now come back to eat outside along this route, but we do not understand why.

Perfect.

That's always stumped me about places like China and India:

Together, they make up 40% of the world's population, but neither of them have produced a single baseball player. I know they don't exactly play the sport on every street corner in those places, but I'd expect at least one person from either of those countries to either have a 100MPH fastball or the ability to hit a ball a mile and make the trip to the US.

i get the feeling we're going to find out how many of those guys can bring it before too long, esp. if either of these two guys breaks through.

I'd expect at least one person from either of those countries to either have a 100MPH fastball or the ability to hit a ball a mile and make the trip to the US.

Throwing is an unnatural act. It takes practice to get good at it, and unless you practice it you just won't be able to throw 100 mph, no matter what your native talent level. There are whole cultures that simply can't throw. The best example of this I can think of would be a comparison of the first Palestinian Intifada in the late 1980s and the various South Korean student riots of around the same time. If you can find videos of it, you'll see a lot of rock, bottle, etc. throwing in both of them. But the Palestinians, especially early on, all had the sort of awkward push-throw shotput motion that we think of as "throwing like a girl", while the South Koreans were generally able to wing their projectiles in there easily and naturally, just like they learned in Little League. The South Koreans grew up playing baseball, which made them much more effective rioters. If you can find videos the difference is quite striking. A friend of mine pointed it out to me and the truth of it revealed itself over and over on the evening news.

Also, an Indian who can throw hard will play cricket.

There are whole cultures that simply can't throw.

Watch parking attendants in any cold weather city -- at least around here they're all Slavic. They can't hit each other with snowballs to save their life, but they're pretty damn handy when it comes to kicking spherical objects around the lot.


The South Koreans grew up playing baseball, which made them much more effective rioters.

Yet another example of why baseball is the greatest of all sports.

You know, I want to preface this by saying that I'm definitely a big fan of Gamingboy, and I've tried and tried and tried; but this "of DOOM" shtick is absolutely the most tired recurring Primer joke I've ever seen.

It also surprises me that adult men from non-baseball countries throw like girls. Men who are otherwise good athletes.

OK, you didn't play baseball or football when you were a kid. But come on! Weren't you throwing things like rocks or tennis balls? Didn't you have some sort of dodgeball equivalent? A friend of mine reports that everyone in Spain throws like a girl.

We also got to ride in an enormous automobile called a limosine. It could fit about 10 people inside, There was special lights that kept changing colors inside with a TV and even a place for cold drinks. Our driver Steve treated us very well. he was a nice man.

These guys remind me of Fernando Valenzuela. Which means they will be ripe targets for dugout and locker room practical jokes. Get ready for the hot foot, boys.

This blog is awesome. What makes it less awesome is that there are a total of zero comments on the over 160 posts.

Interestingly, both of these guys were javelin throwers in India instead of being big cricket players. How many javelin throwers are there in India?

You know, I want to preface this by saying that I'm definitely a big fan of Gamingboy, and I've tried and tried and tried; but this "of DOOM" shtick is absolutely the most tired recurring Primer joke I've ever seen.

True.

Interestingly, both of these guys were javelin throwers in India instead of being big cricket players. How many javelin throwers are there in India?

Not many. I suspect it just isn't in the prevailing cultural tradition to dedicate oneself to athletics to the point of becoming world class. This year, India won it's first Olympic gold medal ever (for some sort of marksmanship, I think). You would think with a billion+ folks, you would have lucked into a runner or something along the way, if there were many people trying at all. Cricket seems like the one exception there.

I suspect it just isn't in the prevailing cultural tradition to dedicate oneself to athletics to the point of becoming world class.

I think you have to also look at the motivation to become good at something. Why train and train and train if in the end no one really cares and no one endorses you? Hard to train hard if you have no money because you train instead of work. Other cultures have seen certain sports lead to a better life (Kenyan runners & African-American basketball players to name two vastly different cultures) so becoming great at sports is a way to make money and better yourself. If Indians see that playing baseball can lead to more wealth and fame than from playing cricket I'd bet that baseball will be viewed in a new light in India.

Tonight we were celebrating the Halloween Holiday here in America. we are not sure what the holiday comes from, but kids dress up in all kinds of crazy outfits and then go to houses asking for sweets. if people in the house no give the sweets then the kids put toilet paper in their trees.

I just love the matter-of-factness of it all.

we are informed that thursday we are to be celebrating the thanksgiving holiday, the americans tell us it is a holiday devoted to sharing thanks for the food the original american settlers from england ate with the natives they did not kill. JB sir say this will be at the home of barry sir. we will be eating a very big roasted bird called a turkey along with many traditional american foods and whatnot. barry sir has assured JB sir no harmful chemicals went into the fattening of the animal.

Watch parking attendants in any cold weather city -- at least around here they're all Slavic. They can't hit each other with snowballs to save their life, but they're pretty damn handy when it comes to kicking spherical objects around the lot.

Black people are very gifted in what we call worship and celebration. A lot of them like to dance, and if you go to black churches, you see people jumping up and down, because they really get into it.

White people were blessed with the gift of structure and organization. They do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature and they know how to tap into money pretty much better than a lot of people do around the world.

Hispanics are gifted in family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and they can put 20 or 30 people in one home. They were gifted in the family structure.

When you look at the Asians, the Asian is very gifted in creation, creativity and inventions. If you go to Japan or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch. They're very creative. And you look at the Indians, they have been very gifted in the spirituality.

(link, just on the off chance someone doesn't realize I'm referencing Reggie White. I am posting this under my real name, after all...)

Re: cricket. Interestingly a lot of the best fielding cricketers, especially throwing cricketers come from Australia and South Africa, and a common denominator is their baseball background.

You know, I want to preface this by saying that I'm definitely a big fan of Gamingboy, and I've tried and tried and tried; but this "of DOOM" shtick is absolutely the most tired recurring Primer joke I've ever seen.

I agree it is starting to get a bit tiring as well, so how about this: I'll only use "OF DOOM" in submissions to describe the cause of injuries if said cause is a outside source (I.E. Glenallen Hill and the Dreamland Spiders OF DOOM or Wade Boggs' Cowboy Boots OF DOOM). I still may use OF DOOM in responses, but not gratuitously.

Black people are very gifted in what we call worship and celebration. A lot of them like to dance, and if you go to black churches, you see people jumping up and down, because they really get into it.

White people were blessed with the gift of structure and organization. They do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature and they know how to tap into money pretty much better than a lot of people do around the world.

Black people have names like Carl.

White people have names like Lenny.

Mr. Bonds sir has the finest house anyone could ever imagine. He has many animals that he has hunted and preserved to display. He has his own real movie theater. he also has many cars and a gym just like the one at USC. He even has a mirror that turns into a TV! GAZAB!

Mr. Bonds sir studied our pitching with us and gave us many strategies of how to improve.

For those of you in India who don’t know who Barry Bonds is… It would be like going to Sachin’s house to get lessons from him on cricket.

Mr. Bonds Sir asked us many questions about our village in India. We told him about our families and what daily life is like for us at home. We were deeply surprised to hear him say that he grew up in modest surroundings as well. We only dream to have success like he has.

Who could have guessed Bobby Bonds raised his kids in surroundings comparable to a poor Indian farmer...

I agree it is starting to get a bit tiring as well, so how about this: I'll only use "OF DOOM" in submissions to describe the cause of injuries if said cause is a outside source (I.E. Glenallen Hill and the Dreamland Spiders OF DOOM or Wade Boggs' Cowboy Boots OF DOOM). I still may use OF DOOM in responses, but not gratuitously.

How about you just stop altogether?

...of doom.

Black people drive cars like this.
White people drive cars like this.

Throwing is an unnatural act. It takes practice to get good at it, and unless you practice it you just won't be able to throw 100 mph, no matter what your native talent level. There are whole cultures that simply can't throw.

agree. if you don't start it at an early age, you throw crummy. it's not an ethnic thing. i've lived overseas, in countries with no sporting tradition in baseball or cricket, and noted the phenomenon.

It also surprises me that adult men from non-baseball countries throw like girls. Men who are otherwise good athletes.

OK, you didn't play baseball or football when you were a kid. But come on! Weren't you throwing things like rocks or tennis balls? Didn't you have some sort of dodgeball equivalent? A friend of mine reports that everyone in Spain throws like a girl.

Confirmed. My company (Swiss multinational) fielded what was quite possibly the world's worst softball team this past summer. The Europeans on the team were young and athletic. They could run, were pretty good at tracking fly balls in the outfield, and could even make decent contact at the plate. But catching with the glove and throwing were just completely beyond them. After this summer, I'm pretty comfortable saying that baseball style throwing is NOT a natural motion.

Jack Keefe needs to give these kids some pointers.

One or both of these guys can touch 90 or 91 with next to no real training? I mean the Pirates aren't exactly the best place for them but just lifting weights and/or any form of professional mechanics is going to turn that into some big-time velocity without a doubt right?

Obligatory quote taken out of context:

"The most crazy are the men that dressed up like women… That and the women drinking in public were the most shocking things to us."

I better get on my horse
My Plan B in life was always to go to some corner of the earth where baseball is non-existent and parlay my rudimentary baseball skills into being the local baseball coach type guy.

At this rate I'll only have Papua New Guinea and Madagascar open as options

You would think with a billion+ folks, you would have lucked into a runner or something along the way, if there were many people trying at all. Cricket seems like the one exception there.

India has some world class field hockey as well (it's the national sport but it's kind of like lacrosse is Canada's national sport), and in some regions footie enjoys a lot of popularity. There have been some world-class badminton players as well.

And that gold medal wasn't India's first. Maybe it was the first individual gold, but the field hockey team has won several gold medals, although not recently.

One thing that struck me about cricket was that there was a pickup game going on in almost every single vacant lot in all of the cities that we visited, and cricket and politics were about the only things that the men talked about at social gatherings.

There's an Indian guy that goes to my school in Regina, Saskatchewan who got RIDICULOUSLY excited when some of us started talking about wanting to try playing cricket.

Apparently when he was a kid in India he was pretty good at it, and they had a scout from the national team check him out. Anyway, I guess he got good reviews because he recommended him for some further national tryout...but the scout told his parents he'd need buy a professional cricket kit to make the team.

His parents decided they couldn't afford it, so they figured it was a waste of time to pursue cricket if he couldn't be on the national team, so one night they just burned all of his current cricket equipment in the backyard and forbade him to play anymore.

So our little discussion about getting a cricket game together in Canada was the first time he had a sniff of the game since then.

There's an Indian guy that goes to my school in Regina, Saskatchewan who got RIDICULOUSLY excited when some of us started talking about wanting to try playing cricket.

You go to the university there? An ex of mine graduated from there. She's been working in various capacities for the BC government lately. She's nutso bonkers, too.

India has some world class field hockey as well (it's the national sport but it's kind of like lacrosse is Canada's national sport), and in some regions footie enjoys a lot of popularity. There have been some world-class badminton players as well.

And that gold medal wasn't India's first. Maybe it was the first individual gold, but the field hockey team has won several gold medals, although not recently.

Yeah, India used to be a superpower in field hockey. That time has long since passed though. Nowadays they are nowhere close to the level of the Dutch etc. Even contending for a bronze at the Olympics is way beyond them. As for badminton, they have had a couple good players here and there in the past, but they have never been anywhere close to the level of the Chinese, Indonesians, Danes, Koreans, Malaysians.

One thing that struck me about cricket was that there was a pickup game going on in almost every single vacant lot in all of the cities that we visited,

Cricket is the sport where they are dominant nowadays, both on the field, and off the field financially. The Indian cricket team, whether in full 5 day test cricket, or limited overs, both 50 and 20 overs, has a strong argument for being the best in the world at the moment. And the Indian Premier League has been a huge success, to the extent that many foreign cricketers are clamouring to play in India. Even the "renegade" Indian Cricket League has been a success but to a lesser extent than the IPL.

Yeah, India used to be a superpower in field hockey. That time has long since passed though. Nowadays they are nowhere close to the level of the Dutch etc. Even contending for a bronze at the Olympics is way beyond them.

True, but my point was that Indians love other sports and have excelled in them - though not to the extent that they love cricket - and that the sports tradition exists, contrary to some assertions posted here.

Indeed
The University of Regina is the meeting place of the greatest minds in Canada!
OK...in the Western Part of Canada
Alright fine, in Saskatchewan

...Very well, in SOUTHERN Saskatchewan

Double confirm on the Spanish throwing. When I was in high school, there was a Spanish exchange student who was in my PE class. When we played soccer, he was the only one who could keep pace with the Mexican students. When we played softball, the teacher had to pull him aside to teach him how to throw. He looked awful, using a really bad shot-putting motion with no idea when to release the ball.

Wouldn't "Rinku and Dinesh go to Denny's" have been a better title?

From an AP story on the situation in Mumbai:

"It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that," an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask.