Alpha Asian

(photo courtesy of Jonathan Newton/Washington Post)  I've been busy with work so I haven't had a chance to post some stuff that I wanted to. But here's some good stuff on my man Kurt Suzuki, catcher for my home team the Washington Nationals. The Washington Post had an interesting piece on Kurt in their spring training coverage . An excerpt:   VIERA, Fla. — George Horton ran a college baseball powerhouse at Cal State-Fullerton, the kind of program that had no place for someone like Kurt Suzuki. Horton had never seen or heard of Suzuki before a scout pal mentioned the high schooler in Hawaii. “We didn’t know a whole heck of a lot about him,” Horton said. “We heard from our network of friends that this little catcher from Maui wanted to come and walk on at Fullerton.”   On an island with 160,000 permanent residents, Suzuki played against five or six high schools. Few scouts noticed. But Fullerton needed a catcher, and there was no risk, so Horton let Suzuki jo...

The 2013 Australian Open tennis tournament has gotten underway. I guess the last great Asian male tennis player to hit the scene was Thailand's Paradorn Srichaiphan, whose world tennis ranking peaked at 9th. He's done well and played competitively against better known and higher ranked players like Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and others. Although, in some circles, Paradorn is best known for having married Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe 2005 (at right). While I'd still like to see an Asian American follow in Michael Chang's footsteps, we now have Kei Nishikori from Japan (pictured below) to represent. There have been great inroads by the Chinese women into the tennis world. Players like Li Na, who won the French Open; and Zheng Jie just knocked Aussie home girl Samantha Stosur out in yesterday's match. Where are the Asian men? What are they doing? I know it's tough to break into the pro ranks but there needs to be more visibility and gu...

Your browser does not support iframes. Kurt, the Washington Nationals catcher came through in the clutch the other evening against the defending champions St. Louis Cardinals. With the game tied, the Cardinals walked Danny Espinosa to get to Kurt. And Kurt made them pay. Nice going Kurt! The Washington Post's story about the game described it as thus:   "And in the 10th inning, when St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny elected to walk the struggling Danny Espinosa to face Suzuki, he won the Nationals a game. Suzuki’s low liner of a double to left-center scored the winning runs in the Nationals’ 6-4 victory, and was just the latest bit of his handiwork. Since taking over from the worn-down, beleaguered Jesus Flores as the Nationals’ every-day catcher, Suzuki has added to and served to emphasize the depth in Washington’s lineup. He might hit eighth, but in his 40 games with Washington, he now has 25 RBI....   What he has done is complete what is now a surpris...

My hometown major league baseball team, the Washington Nationals, made a trade and acquired Kurt Suzuki, catcher, from the Oakland A's before the trade deadline this season. I knew the name, but I didn't know much about him. the Nationals GM, it was reported, had always had his eyes on Kurt, having scouted him since Kurt's playing time in college. Kurt was also acquired because of his solid defensive capabilities and to provide depth to the Nationals at that position. Starting catcher Willy Ramos is out for the season with a torn ACL. The minor league call up is capable but may not be as strong defensively and experienced yet. So far, Kurt is making the transition from the American League to the National League. I believe he's had about 10 games under his belt, catching a pretty good stable of Nats pitchers and having to quickly get caught up to speed on his new pitching crew. As of this writing ,the Nats have the best record in baseball. Kurt's batting hasn...

                                             Yukio Otsu, after scoring the winning goal In happier Olympic news for other Asian male athletes, and perhaps somewhat of cosmic justice (in re: the Spanish basketball team and the Beijing Olympics), Team Japan beat Team Spain in the preliminary rounds of pool play. Spain, a favored team, just lost their second game to Honduras. In both games, Team Spain was shut out. They have been eliminated from medal contention.

Been caught up so much with the Jeremy Lin story, that I forgot to give some praise to my man Richard Park who hit a milestone. Being a role player in the NHL, he's not expected to score much, but he did score his 100th goal last month. There are other Asian Americans who are in the NHL ranks. I don't follow the entire league, just mostly the eastern conference for which my Washington Capitals play. But the names that pop up make me take notice and I think, "Wow, that's pretty cool ...". Here's a short list of Asians that I'm aware of that are currently playing in the NHL.I have no idea how many more may be lurking in the juniors or AHL teams. Devin Setoguchi - half Japanese; plays for the Minnesota Wild Manny Malhotra - Indian-French Canadian' plays for Vancouver Canucks (he's been in the NHL for quite awhile and I never knew he was part Asian until I read something on him) Jon Matsumoto- half Japanese; plays for the Carolina Hurricanes ...

Maryland high school basketball player Robb Lim with his girlfriend Karen Mendoza and his father Jesse-Thomas (courtesy of the Washington Post) There was a Washington Post article yesterday about how Jeremy Lin is inspiring other Asian Americans and highlighted on one young basketball player from my area. An excerpt: When Jesse-Thomas Lim was a teenager in the Philippines, it never occurred to his parents to watch an athletic event, much less allow their son to participate in one. But on Friday night at Seneca Valley High School’s varsity basketball game against Damascus, Lim, who is of Chinese ethnicity, yelled himself hoarse as his 18-year-old son, Robb, a lanky 6-foot-3 senior, sprinted up the court and shot the ball through the net. While Robb Lim’s swift, catlike moves have for months attracted the attention of recruiters from colleges such as Hood and St. Mary’s, in recent weeks his name and his race have brought him minor celebrity status at school. Friends call him a “...

The baseball playoffs are here. And last night's National League Division Series playoff game between the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves was an amazing event for Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum, who is half Filipino. The 5'11" pitching ace threw a two hit shut out and struck out fourteen batters! I didn't watch the entire game but saw enough to know that Lincecum had his fastball humming! He threw consistently in the low 90's and had batters off balance with change ups and the occasional curve balls. Additionally, Lincecum broke the Giants franchise record of 10 strikeouts in the post season. At one stretch, he retired 19 of 20 batters. The Freak (as he is sometimes called) just dominated the Braves. The man's a stud on the mound.

Alex Ovechkin checking Evgeni Malkin into the boards I like ice hockey, which is weird given that I grew up in DC area. I always think of hockey as a northeastern and midwestern sport. But ever since DC acquired an expansion team back in 1974, the Washington Capitals, I've been an observer and fan of my local NHL franchise. Sure, hockey is probably a third or fourth tier sport in most major metro areas. Let's face it, football still dominates most people's interest as far as pro sports goes. But I like it, having gone to a few Caps games as a kid with my uncle. The team has been a real heartbreaker to follow, having always been a group of overachievers, and they've managed to lose in a lot of tough game 7's of the playoffs. But in the last few years, the team is much different and they have arguably the best player in the NHL today in Alex Ovechkin. It's just fun to watch this team play (of course, it helps if the team is considered one of the elite team...

Source: SF Gate Jeremy Lin has seen it and heard it. Too short. Too skinny. Picked last. Asian. Those tags stick to Lin wherever he goes, even as the starting point guard for Harvard's basketball team. "It's a sport for white and black people," Lin said. "You don't get respect for being an Asian American basketball player in the U.S." Although the game is brimming in popularity among Asian American youth - there are Asian leagues, club teams like the San Jose Ninjas and San Jose Zebras, and packed courts outside schools, churches and temples - Lin practically is alone. Of 4,814 Division I men's basketball players in 2006-07, there were 19 Asian Americans (including Pacific Islanders and ethnically mixed), according to the most recent NCAA Student-Athlete Race and Ethnicity Report. That's 0.4 percent. Players, coaches and sociologists cite stereotypes and cultural factors as reasons that percentage might not rise very much in the foreseeable futur...