your random RPS for the day

[xparrot]

Did anyone see this article about Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr. from a few months ago? Let me state for the record that I don't follow baseball (or in fact any sport) - the only reason I even know who Ichiro is is because after three years in Japan it would be hard not to...in fact I think he's the only current baseball player I know. (Oh, and Matsuzaka on the Red Sox, for the same reason.)

But it seems I've been missing out, because apparently baseball makes Merlin and Smallville seem straight:

A happier Ichiro? Mariners can thank Junior

TICKLING!

Comments

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

;asfjkd;lasjf;lsdfjk omg that's so cute!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

isn't it? I suddenly understand RPS...!

[edna-blackadder.livejournal.com]

I suddenly understand RPS...!

I can relate -- I have never really been comfortable writing RPS unless it's very obviously a joke, but at least a few on my flist are waist-deep in it and stuff like this is why. I can easily understand squeeing over it, and if squee leads to producing fic, hmmmm, that's a very familiar story...

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

*DYING* omg ahahahahaha that's solid gold. Ichiro finds it hard to open his heart! He's wondered what a relationship would be like ever since he started following his career! SOMETIMES THEY'LL EACH BE AT THEIR LOCKER, JUST STARING AT EACH OTHER. I feel like I'm watching a jdrama. XDDD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm watching a jdrama.

I KNOW! All that and TICKLING too!

...suddenly I understand RPS so much better! XP

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

*beams* as a hopeless RPS convert - of the Japanese school - I am so glad!

(those jdramas really are bad influences in that way. XD)

Also, your icon is beautiful. ♥

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

J-dramas are dangerous! I am well aware, after your sordid history XPP XDDDD

Hee - that icon is one of my favorite behind-the-scene photos:
http://www.jasonmomoa.com/NewImages/Jason&David.jpg
that they're in costume just makes it better! ^^

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

*solemn face* I am glad that even though it is too late for me, my story may serve as a cautionary tale to others.

I just love David's squinchy put-upon face. Hee. :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Still, I don't know if J-pop really counts as RPS, since the "R" is highly questionable...how unscripted are any of those TV appearances and things? XP

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I get an enormous charge out of your sudden understanding of RPS. Not that I have any desire whatsoever to ever do it again... but you seemed somewhat horrified when you found out that I did my own little share of it once upon a long time ago. But now you might be able to understand how teenage me could have fallen into that pit. Seriously... just look at some Lennon/McCartney pictures/film footage from the late sixties.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Not horrified, highly amused! It's a fine line ^_^ Really, I understood it before...at least in theory; this was a practical lesson!

[edna-blackadder.livejournal.com]

"from the time I started following his career I thought about what a relationship with him would be like"

"We have a special relationship – something I’ve never had before."

Ahahahahaha wow. Yes, baseball can be hilariously gay at times, but that goes waaaaaaay beyond the standard gay (see gayingupsports). I don't follow it much either, though (I was raised a White Sox fan, but as they completely imploded this year I've looked away on purpose).

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Aren't the quotes faboo?! (being entirely honest, I think some of it is translation discrepancy, since it sounds like he's speaking through an interpreter, and you can talk about feelings somewhat differently in Japanese...but still...!)

*will not click on the comm, will not click on the comm*...well, maybe just a peek. (I must admit, the only reason I've ever been tempted to watch sports is for all the hugging and ass-slapping and whatnot that seems to go on after winning a game... ^^)

[lukita.livejournal.com]

I'll not slip to the dark side, I'll not slip to the dark side... But it's still cute.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I know! I don't think I'm tempted to get into the fandom - but isn't it adorable? ^^

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

Methinks you have way too much free time on your hands. Is it my imagination, or have you created an icon for virtually every nuance of your emotional expression?!

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

My dad is a big baseball fan, so we've talked a lot about Ichiro and Junior's relationship--which has been weird, I gotta say. Ichiro was a mess when Junior arrived. He was stressed out, had an ulcer from being 'the star' in Japan for their national baseball team, and completely withdrawn. Junior didn't let him live like that, alone and isolated. He's been working at drawing Ichiro out, getting him to have fun and bust out of his stressed-out depression. They may not have made it to the world series this year, but Junior really made the whole team better. It has been awesome to see.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Awww...wow, that's so sweet. Even ignoring the slashy elements, the teaminess just tugs at the old heartstrings!

(hey, if you know baseball, I was wondering, I take it Ken Griffey Jr.'s father was also a baseball player, since everyone seems to call him Junior? Or are more sports fans on a "first name" basis with the players, since everyone calls him Ichiro, too...)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Yeah, both Senior and Junior played baseball, and even had a couple of years together on the Mariners.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/1998/target61/timeline/griffey/index.html

One of the reasons that Junior came back to Seattle was that was where it started for him, and he loves it here. He doesn't play with the speed and force that he had when he was younger, but he really does have more heart for the game than the last three managers we've had combined.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

! That's so cute!!

Also, wow, I had no idea baseball players still played at 40! That's impressive...

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

"Even ignoring the slashy elements, the teaminess just tugs at the old heartstrings!"

So are we destined to see you attending Mariners games while you're living in Seattle? I can just see you aiming for seats from which the bull pit is visible so you can spy on Ichiro/Junior between-play antics. Who would have thought?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahaha no, let's not get crazy here - me at a baseball game? I don't think the potential smarm/subtext is worth that boredom...(even if it might be worth the ticket price!)

[attaccabottoni.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! I thought those "special relationships" only happen in anime, i.e., Ookiku Fuurikabutte / "Big Windup"! They have the tickling thing there too. *giggles* It's all very slashy the way shounen ai fluff is. I've no interest in baseball as a sport, but I'm all for the squeeful stuff about it! :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - the only sports manga I've read is Eyeshield 21 (which I love even if American football still is incomprehensible to me!), but I've got several friends into OoFuri, so I knew that was adorable, but it's even cuter to know it happens with grown men in real life! And yeah, sports themselves bore me, but I am all about teaminess, so...bring on the squee!

[utopiantrunks.livejournal.com]

OMG, real life people need to stop being so cute! That is the most adorable, slashiest article I have ever read. Special person! Holy crap, that was awesome.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it make you just squee with glee? It's hard to find fictional men so willing to express their love! ^^

[crashtestskater.livejournal.com]

Waaaa. I think part of my brain just exploded. I'm not used to getting slash in the news.

BTW did you see numb3rs season 6 ep 2. Talk about fangirl fodder. I was flying high at a couple of points. Really missed you & J-chan to squee with. Sigh

[badkarma-one.livejournal.com]

What, you don't know Hideki Matsui? For shame!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Eheheh - his name rings a vague bell? (I only know Matsuzaka because I'm from Massachusetts - in Japan, I'd tell students I lived near Boston, and they'd often go, "Oh, Matsuzaka!" ^^)

[badkarma-one.livejournal.com]

Hideki Matsui -- signed with the Yankees for the 2003 season, played mostly left field, though he was a center fielder in Japan. His Yankee Stadium debut was marked by a grand slam. Known as Godzilla in Japan and here, wore #55 in Japan and here (given to him by a former manager who thought he'd hit 55 home runs in a season). Right now, he's in the final year of his second contract with the Yankees, and due to injuries to both knees, is now pretty much the permanent DH.

He has a coterie of 20 members of the Japanese media following him around, and unlike Ichiro (the only major league ballplayer to have his first name on the back of his jersey instead of his last), he doesn't brush them off. Ichiro only allows the media who cover the Mariners to ask him questions about baseball, and only gives them a few minutes. In contrast, Matsui spends time before the game as well as at least half an hour afterward, talking to them. They even celebrate his birthday with him.