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Sad news has been released from UFA today. It appears that Kaori Ida's (former Morning Musume member) young son died on July 27th ...

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New unit from UFA with a punk flair!

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Thanks to masterelr on the forums for the heads up!

Great news for Do as Infinity fans; as the group ...

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Metro-Ongen has graciously allowed bokunojpop.com an exclusive backstage pass to understanding life as an Indie Artist in Japan! Please dicuss the article in our ...

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The dark side of baseball's brightest star PDF Print E-mail
Written by magurochan   
Friday, 04 November 2005
Bobby Valentine, "the gentleman of baseball," has his explosive moments off-camera, says Asahi Geino (11/3). "During a game, when one of his players is ruled out in a close call, he has been known to bellow what sounds like 'F**k!'" the no-nonsense weekly (which spells out the word in bold uppercase type) hears from a sports journalist. "He can be pretty aggressive."

He can be -- but quiet, friendly tact is more his style. It probably wouldn't work without the added ingredient of what Shukan Taishu (11/7) calls "Bobby magic," but with it it works fine. The Chiba Lotte Marines' championship -- the team's first in 31 years -- is proof. The Marines swept the Hanshin Tigers in four straight, making Valentine the first foreign manager to win the Japan Series in Japanese baseball's 70-year history.

"Bobby magic"?

It's a compound brew, made up in equal parts of profound baseball knowledge and a maybe no less profound knowledge of human nature.

"This season," a team insider tells Shukan Taishu, "he came up with no fewer than 128 batting orders." That's rare in Japanese baseball, the magazine comments. A juggling act on that scale had to be handled with delicacy if confusion and resentment were to be avoided.


 
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