It’s the dead of summer, and maybe no one is taking it worse than Hayato Sakurai.
The 30 year old Bushido ace and former Shooto world champion, who is scheduled to face Brazilian Luciano Azevedo at Bushido 12 on August 26th, has revealed he is suffering from fatigue as a result of the extreme summer heat. “I hate summer. It’s hot everywhere, I’m going out of my mind,” said Sakurai.
Sakurai, like fellow PRIDE Bushido stars and frequent training partners Mitsuhiro Ishida and Tatsuya Kawajiri, is a resident of the Ibaraki prefecture. Many parts of Ibaraki have faced an average daily high of 30° C for the past week, and forecasts for the prefecture’s capital, Mito, don’t anticipate a daily high lower than 26° C for over the next two weeks.
Sakurai has also revealed that just over two weeks away from his fight with Azevedo, scheduled for the usual Bushido weight contract of 73 kilograms, that he is tipping the scales at 80 kilograms.
“It’s a battle against the scale,” said an agitated Sakurai. “For people that can’t stand summer it’s like living death. I hope this is the last time I have to fight in the summer.”
The path from the sand ring to the PRIDE ring now has a roadblock, for Dream Stage Entertainment’s latest signing.
The 196 centimeter, 138 kilogram wrestling giant announced on July 20th that he would be retiring from professional ssireum competition in order to “return to his private life”, and would likely become a university lecturer. However, 30 year old ssireum ace Lee Tae-Hyun held a press conference in Seoul, South Korea on Tuesday to announce his signing with Dream Stage Entertainment, and his participation in PRIDE Fighting Championships.
On the heels of Tae-Hyun’s surprise announcement, Tae-Hyun’s former employer, Hyundai Elephants Ssireum, have announced that they may seek legal action against the three time ssireum champion. Backed by Korean-based world industry giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., the Hyundai Elephants Ssireum is the professional ssireum team on which Tae-Hyun formerly competed.
Representatives of Hyundai Elephants Ssireum announced to the press yesterday that they accepted Tae-Hyun’s retirement despite being contracted through 2012 under the notion that, as Tae-Hyun had said three weeks ago, he would be inactive from athletic competition and pursue his goals as an educator. Now that Tae-Hyun has signed with Dream Stage Entertainment and is scheduled to compete in PRIDE, the Hyundai ssireum team may seek restitution.
Tae-Hyun’s contract with Hyundai Elephants Ssireum secured his services until December of 2012. The contract paid Tae-Hyun an initial fee of 40 million won, approximately $41,800 dollars American, as well as an 80 million won yearly salary until its expiration. Under the regulations of the Korea Ssireum Assocation, an illegal breach of contract entitles the organization to damages of twice the initial fee, 80 million won in this case.
“We will try to convince him to stay on the team one more time,” said a representative from the Hyundai side.
“I still intend to lecture at the university,” said Tae-Hyun. “But, when I applied, they didn’t accept me due to my lack of teaching experience. My goal is to begin lecturing after my career in PRIDE. I intend to solve this matter with the Hyundai ssireum team.”
Lots of discussion the last few days about fantasy baseball statistics, who owns them and whether Major League Baseball is clueless, a bunch of jerks or both. Basically, baseball wanted to force any fantasy game companies to pay them a licensing fee just to use their stats, and a St. Louis judge said “No way.” Our favorite quote was from Daniel Okrent, former public editor for The New York Times and one of the founders of Rotisserie baseball (and never got a dime for his efforts): “The only thing that saddens me about it is that there won’t be a public trial, during which MLB’s incredible greed would have been on public display.”
So, baseball’s licking its wounds and moving on, right? Not a chance. They’re appealing the decision, claiming, absurdly, that they truly own the statistics from their games. It’s nice when a corporation is so open and blatant about pissing in the eye of its customers. Such forthrightness is almost appreciated.
(And yes, that is our current fantasy league standings. We are the Green Wave, and we are comfortably in first place. Thank you Adam Dunn, Alfonso Soriano, Jonathan Papelbon and Matt Holliday.)
Terrell Owens, as you might have heard, no longer plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. (He’s with the Dallas Cowboys now. They’re actually the Eagles’ division rival.) Because he left the Philadelphia metro area, he has decided to sell his Moorestown, N.J., house, as we’ve told you before. Problem is, he can’t find anyone to buy it.
Turns out, T.O. has somewhat misjudged the market. “The consensus is that Owens overpaid for the property by possibly $1 million when he purchased it for $3.9 million from Dawn Cline and her husband Dennis in May 2004. According to real estate records, the Clines had purchased the property in September 1998 for $1.150 million.” It’s important to remember, T.O., that the front lawn is excellent for calisthenics; definitely worth noting in the listing.
It’s tough to find a good job sometimes. Lord knows we rattled around for almost a decade waiting for this one. If you haven’t found your dream job yet, the Devil Rays might have a gig for you.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are seeking outgoing, energetic, and enthusiastic individuals to work in a PART-TIME capacity during regular season games. Our Role Players are responsible for driving awareness and encouraging fan participation in various alcove activity areas. These interactive areas have been created to enhance the overall fan experience at the stadium.
Note: When you apply for this job online, you will be required to answer the following questions:
1. YES/NO: Do you enjoy talking to people you have never met?
2. YES/NO: Do you have a general knowledge of baseball?
3. YES/NO: Do you consider yourself very outgoing?
4. YES/NO: Do you understand that this is a part-time position?
Interestingly enough, this is exactly the interview process manager Joe Maddon puts all his new players through.
Apparently, during their last homestand, the San Diego Padres introduced a new mascot called, inexplicably, “Franken Friar.” He’s an oversized Friar who dances and flops around and was, uh, brought back from the dead? We’re a little confused about that part, actually.
Anyway, here’s video of his “debut” at Petco Park. Nothing says “friar” and “baseball” than C&C Music Factory. Gas Lamp Ball has another video, by the way, in which Franken Friar attacks an innocent bat boy with his tongue. Yeah, you heard us.
As we deal with the psychological ramifications of last night’s backbreaking Cardinals walkoff loss to the Reds, and try to inspire ourselves to watch another game this afternoon, we turn our attention to Reds outfielder/infielder/drunken driver/scrappy hustler Ryan Freel. He’s the Pete Rose-type of player that Reds fans adore, diving around and generally launching himself into solid objects that are unlikely to give way. His catch on Albert Pujols’ drive to right field the other evening might have turned the whole series around. He’s got a chance to be a hero there.
Ryan Freel said not even Farney believed that Freel made the stupendous diving catch on Albert Pujols Tuesday.
Farney? Who’s Farney?
“He’s a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him,” said Freel, acting as if he finally crashed into too many walls, ran into too many catchers and dived into too many dugouts. “That little midget in my head said, ‘That was a great catch, Ryan,’ I said, ‘Hey, Farney, I don’t know if that was you who really caught that ball, but that was pretty good if it was.’ Everybody thinks I talk to myself, so I tell ‘em I’m talking to Farney.’ “
Yeah, see, yesterday was just a terrible day to be a former basketball player named Eddie Johnson who happened to not be accused of child molestation.
The Eddie Johnson you know is the former Suns and Illini star who is a broadcaster for the Phoenix Suns. He is not — repeat NOT — the child molestor. The Eddie Johnson you don’t know went to Auburn, played for the Hawks a long time and was arrested for child molestation.
It is easy to confuse the two: Just ask The Chicago Tribune, which confused the two for its final editions yesterday, and was forced to apologize today. (Ooops!) Skip Bayless also made the same mistake on “Cold Pizza” yesterday. Good rule of thumb: If the Eddie Johnson you’re reading about is doing something bad, it’s not the Eddie Johnson you’re thinking of. Cool?
Lots of discussion the last few days about fantasy baseball statistics, who owns them and whether Major League Baseball is clueless, a bunch of jerks or both. Basically, baseball wanted to force any fantasy game companies to pay them a licensing fee just to use their stats, and 
Feel good story alert:
It’s tough to find a good job sometimes. Lord knows we rattled around for almost a decade waiting for this one. If you haven’t found your dream job yet, 
As we deal with the psychological ramifications of last night’s 
Yeah, see, yesterday was just a terrible day to be a former basketball player named Eddie Johnson who happened to not be accused of child molestation. 