An Appointment with EP Center + MLB & NPB

My name was erased because my EP had expired. This is like a half of

me is in this country without visa and the other half, whose visa

renewal application has been approved, is waiting for the EP card to

be requested by the visa-less me. MOM said in its email of 16th I

would have to make an appointment with the EP center for the

issuance of EP. I made an appointment for 19th, today.

And today, the Havelock exit was terribly clogged. I checked in at the

EP center one minute late (12:16). After about 15 minutes, I noticed

a staff was checking the check-in slips of people around me and she

was looking for me. Then things went without an issue. The only thing

I didn’t expect was an ID photo session, after a bad night sleep and in

a pajama T-shirt. They now have an EP card delivery service. There

will still be a few days before I get my new card.

It occurred to me almost suddenly I should watch MLB all-star and

World Series games. I started downloading what I could find online

about two months ago, and I’ve already watched many all-star games

starting with the one in 1968 and World Series games of 1985 and 86.

Game 7 in 85, Games 6 and 7 are really amazing. It is really nice to

find players in those old games (Frank Howard, Don Buford, and much

more recently Ben Oglivie, Don Money, Goose Gossage, etc.) and

those stir-ups in those game who would go to Japan for a few more

years of playing. Perhaps in the same way that people in Japan are not

very much interested in baseball in Korea or Taiwan, the commentators

of those broadcasts in the US don’t care about Japanese baseball,

which is mentioned only a few times in the games I’ve watched. The

oldest was made about a post-season homerun competition in Tokyo

between Henry Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh when Aaron was at bat

in the 1972 all-star game. Joe Garagiola was nonchalant, only asking

who would be the pitchers. And another time was during a game of

1985 World Series when Randy Baas, a former Houston Astro, was

mentioned by Jim Palmer because Baas broke the homerun record by

then held by Oh. In fact, Baas didn’t break it. Did Palmer say he did, or

he was going to break it?

I feel only negatively for those Japanese players who went to the US.

The only exceptions are Hideo Nomo because without him others

probably would not follow and a few guys who went there straight

without experiencing any NBP career. Japan’s media even report no

game appearances of them. About non-American players, I think also

about those from Cuba, Dominican Republic or Venezuela, whose

experience in MLB must be fundamentally different from that of the

Japanese players who have already made enough money in Japan before

going to the US.

Alcohol intake record:

September 13 (Tue.) – 19 (Mon.): red wine

Drinking habit is coming back…