So I watched the debate this morning (that’s “last night” for all of you folks in the US). No knockout blows and Biden looked like he was really holding back against Palin. He never really attacked her- which makes sense because his job is just to attack McCain. Unfortunately, because he had so many opportunities to ridicule Palin’s non-answers and her folksy ramblings, his failure to put her away goes as a negative in my book.

Of course, the strategy of “let her hang herself while I look more presidential than she can ever hope to be” didn’t necessarily fail. At least according to this CNN poll.

I guess that the idea of somebody as unqualified as Gov. Palin even running for Vice President is so offensive to me that I want the floor wiped with her at every opportunity. I mean, look at what our last unqualified candidate got us into.

On to other things…

Last night also saw the Ig Nobel Award ceremonies at Harvard University. These are so much fun and I love to attend them. An organization called The Annals of Improbable Research puts on this parody of the Nobel Prizes every October to highlight scientific research that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think.”

Past winners have included:

1991 - Biology: Robert Klark Graham, selector of seeds and prophet of propagation, for his pioneering development of the Repository for Germinao Choise, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobel laureates and Olympians.

1996 - Art: Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, MA for his “ornamentally evolutionary” invention, the plastic pink flamingo.

2001 - Astrophysics: Dr. Jack Van Impe & Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all of the technical requirements for the location of Hell.

2006 - Acoustics: D. Lynn Halpern of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University, Randolph Blake of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University and James Hillenbrand of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard.

The ceremony is always fun and includes presentations by actual Nobel Prize winners. A lecture series usually follows during the weekend where winner have a chance to explain their research. What started as a way to critisize bad science has turned into a notable event within the scientific community and the number of people submitting their work for consideration has jumped from none to over 10,000 per year. Scientists, it seems, are almost as eager to get this prize -which has no financial reward- as they are the Nobel Prize itself.

Anyway, this is just another one of the events taking place in Boston during this, my favorite time of year in the city. Attending funky, genre-bending music festivals is all well and good, but sometimes I just want to watch the Sox beat the Angles at The Good Life, go apple picking and head on over to Harvard for some good clean scientific fun.

For my final event where else could I go? The end of the Games are closing in and reality threatens to come rushing back all at once as soon as the lights go down on the Closing Ceremony tomorrow. Like during my final nights in Boston, I wanted my last memories of these unbelievable Olympics to be of watching my favorite game. As a bonus, I’d be able to cheer on my home team as they fought for the Bronze Medal against Japan. (NOTE: Click on any of the images below to jump to my complete photo album from this day with lots of additional details.)

I went to this show on my own and while it was another hot day, it was nowhere near as bad as the Korea/Cuba game which, incidentally, would repeat later that evening- the two teams would face off in a rematch for the Gold Medal. If you count that earlier game, I can claim to have seen the 4 best teams all play each other during this tournament. It is also the last time that Baseball will be a medal sport during the Olympics, so I was watching what might be the 2^nd-to-last ever game to be played with anything at stake.

Unless the 2016 Games get awarded to Japan, that is.

The seats were -what else?- fantastic: 4^th row, right behind First Base. The catch? I was in amongst the Japanese fans that I had marveled at from afar during my first game almost 2 weeks ago. On that near-perfect night I had actually commented to my friend Kerry that I was happy that we had not been seated next to the crazies with the whistles and the non-stop chanting.

Well, this time around the Baseball gods weren’t quite so accommodating.

As I had been discovering at my first two games, the baseball-watching culture in Asia is completely different than it is in the US. Our game evolved during the end of the Industrial Revolution when things moved much more slowly. There was no TV, no radio. All forms of entertainment/distraction were live. It helped to entertain immigrants who lacked language skills while they assimilated into new urban centers. We cheer wildly, but we can also sit relatively quietly for long stretches as we contemplate the game and watch it unfold. Friends go to games together for chat-fests (which I usually abhor- just ask Keith, Bry or A-Bomb; they’ll tell you).

No so in Asia.

I’m not familiar with it’s evolution in Taiwan or Korea, but in Japan it came over with students in the 1870s and the locals simply ate it up. Games are like carnivals and the cheering just goes on and on. Somehow that staid, deliberate watching style didn’t follow from the US… Something good happens for your guys? Get up and cheer! Something bad happens? Get up and cheer! A new pitcher comes into the game? Get up and cheer! (Incidentally, watch Dice-K whenever he is taken out of a game mid-inning. He will not leave the mound -abandon his post- until he is relieved by his teammate. I really like that idea.)

Its a shame that these baseball fields in Beijing are temporary structures. I really believe that given the Asian sports-viewing culture, and my -admittedly limited- success in showcasing the game to local Chinese, Baseball could take root here if given half a chance. Maybe there’s something that I can do about that in the future…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in reality, I was surrounded. I had a squad of Americans to my left -2 were from Boston and all were Sox fans- and occasional Old Glory-waivers were scattered here and there, but this was definitely a Japanese crowd. And those whistle blowers/drum-bangers were out in force. What I didn’t learn last time, but discovered to my shock this time around, is that these guys were professional cheerleaders… And not the scantily-clad wastes of time that run around on the field during basketball and volleyball games. These were the good kind.

They were almost all men who gutted it out in the oppressive heat in dark shirts and had Organizing Committee-sanctioned badges. They would scream the chant that they wanted the fans to yell, point to the crowd and expect to be followed immediately. Someone would blow a whistle to keep time (which we Americans learned later was very useful as one of our counter-cheers fell apart when we couldn’t keep it together).

They would rotate to different positions so that nobody was screaming in the lead for more than 2 innings. They even had a “Stop Cheering” signal so that their chants would not mess up the concentration of one of their players. Almost everybody obeyed them.

Damn.

Even when the US took a commanding lead late in the game we Americans didn’t get much opportunity to get into it. When we were able to start up a chant, the Japanese would start one up almost immediately to drown us out. It was like a fracking point of honor for them. Our only hope was when we tried to enlist the Chinese that were in the stands. Start up a “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chant and its you against the world. Belt it out in Chinese and the locals go crazy: “Mei Gua! Jai Yo!” (Loosely translated, this means “Let’s Go, America!”) The Chinese aren’t too fond of the Japanese, so if you invite them to cheer for their opponent, you get plenty of takers.

Since I don’t know much Japanese I wasn’t even able to taunt very effectively. When there was a 1-2-3 inning, I jumped up and screamed; “Yi! Er! San!” (”1-2-3″ in Chinese). The locals loved that. When there was a spectacular double-play that killed a potential rally in the 5^th inning, I shouted “Sayonara!”

Hey, its no “Yankees Suck!” but I can only do so much.

One more note about the Japanese fans. This maniac in the getup with the bullhorn who was sitting directly behind me was actually the team’s doctor. He would yell at the players loudly in a deep, Samurai Warrior-sounding way. We had no idea what he was saying. It could have been, “Hey, watch that head-first slide, Yoshi! You don’t want to aggravate your oblique injury!” Whatever it was, it sounded incredibly cool.

He was quite the jovial guy, always laughing and getting the Japanese around him to laugh at his cheers. Fans kept shaking his hand and bowing to him. We took some pictures together after the game and ended up exchanging gifts. (A very cool tradition, if I do say so myself.) I gave him my American flag and he gave me his Team Japan baseball hat. It was a touching gesture and he made me promise to wear it the next time that I am at Fenway in honor of Daisuke Matsusaka.

I’m happy that the USA won and took the Bronze, though its hard to get too excited over 3^rd place. As I’ve said before, nothing can match the passion of Red Sox fandom for me, but if these Japanese fans were at very game, I’d be able to sit through a baseball contest between almost any 2 teams and have a great time.

What a great way to end my Games.

Scott LaPierre of the Boston Globe did a fun video blog about how random Chinese people tend to not know too much about Boston. Mention Harvard, The Celtics or MIT and eyes tend to brighten, but when you push for geographic specificity there are usualy blank stares.

I wish that I could say that I disagreed with him. Only 1 Chinese person has recognized that I am from Boston by my Red Sox jersey & t-shirts, though a couple of people knew that my Patriots jersey had to do with American Football. (One guy, presumably a New Yorker, actually started chanting “18-1! 18-1!” at me on the Olympic Green on Saturday. I shouted back ”Shove it up your ass, Johnny!” much to the confusion and delight of the Chinese around us.) Most Japanese & Taiwanese know where I am from due to their baseball fanaticism and I’ll find out tomorrow if the same holds true for Koreans and Cubans.

As much as we arrogant, self-important Bostonians hate to hear this, our city is only marginally-known in this part of the globe. I am to change that.

No, I don’t really believe that anything can ever replace the spectacle and emotion of The Rivalry for me. But I will say this: After catching Japan vs. Taiwan on Thursday night I understand that the rest of the world gets along just fine without jumping onto the whole Boston-New York bandwagon. (NOTE: Click on any of the pictures beow to jump to my complete photo album from this night with lots of additional details.)

This was a day blessed by the baseball gods. It was pouring rain all morning and into the early afternoon. Then, just as game time was approaching, the rain tapered off and the sky started to brighten. What’s more, the humidity dropped like a zillion percent and it actually started to feel comfortable for the first time since I arrived last week!

There was an insanely huge line to get onto the grounds because the baseball fields sit right next to the basketball arena, and every single basketball game is jam-packed with Chinese. They loves them their hoops, yo! And with baseball games taking place with 3 baseball-crazy countries participating (Cuba was playing on field #2), you know that both of these stadiums were at capacity too.

Kerry & I finally got in… and just in the nick of time! The game had been delayed for 1 hour due to the weather, and this made it possible for us to get to our seats in time for the 1st inning. Talk about good luck!

I am so lucky in the friends that I have. Kerry was an absolute joy to hang out with and she is Exhibit #1 as to how seriously the Chinese are about not only putting on a good show and being great hosts, but also enjoying themselves while they do it. She was so excited to go to her first baseball game that she actually studied the night before. She read a primer on the rules that the Chinese put onto their Olympic website and she came with a list of baseball terms written in Chinese and English. I didn’t have to explain the basics to her (what a strike is, what a base hit vs. a walk is, etc.), which can be monotonous, so I got to talk about situations instead, which is much more fun. I pointed out to her how the infielders move in with a man on 1^st to facilitate the execution of a double-play. I explained why a man was laying down a bunt with men on 1^st and 2^nd and nobody out.

At one point, she turned to me after surveying the field and said, smiling, “this is very hard to follow because there is so much to think about!”

Now we’re talking baseball!

And what a fun game it was. It was close -with some great play all around- until the 8^th inning, but the fans were just as much a part of the show as the game itself. And man, oh, man do they get into it!

The Taiwanese and Japanese never stop cheering. This is not hyperbole. They. Never. Stop. One section will start a chant. When they are done another section will start one up. When that section tires out another one jumps in. It just goes on and on like that. There was even a group of Japanese guys who were blowing whistles and banging drums to lead the crowd in chants. I swear to Christ that they never let up. It was insane.

It keeps coming back to these happy crowds. On the street, in the security line and in the seats, everybody was in a great mood. Also, I don’t think that many of them had ever seen a real-life native Red Sox fan before because it seemed that every other spectator wanted to make a picture with me, including these two characters.

Apparently, they are wicked famous in Taiwan. Some kind of pop stars or something, Kerry thinks. If anybody recognizes them, fill me in. I forget their names, but the woman’s sounded like “Fun Fun.” (Not joking. I repeated it to her and she nodded her head.) After they asked to take a photo with me, Taiwanese kept coming over between innings to take pictures with them and to get their autographs.

I was cheering for Japan (the Sox have Dice-K and Okajima and Ichiro is on my fantasy team; that’s as good a reason as any, I think), but the crowd around me was Taiwan-heavy, including the self-professed “Whitest Taiwanese that you’ll ever meet.” This guy is from New York -a Mets fan, so I didn’t feel dirty liking him- whose mother was from Taiwan. He was one of the loudest chanters for their side.

What a night! The weather was near perfect for baseball, the crowd was incredible, the play on the field was, if not major league-level, at least AAA, and I got to help convert my friend Kerry to the game that I love. I actually had to pinch myself in the second inning. I looked over at Kerry, smiling, and said “I can’t believe that I’m watching BASEBALL in CHINA!”

Man, will the good times ever stop in this town?

The Sox haven’t caught the Rays yet (man, I never thought that I’d ever write those words in my lifetime), but it was a joy to see this posting on Boston.com reacting to the Yankees’ recent tail-spin. The New York media, apparently, has stuck a fork in ‘em.

Not only have the Sons of The Son of Steinbrenner fallen to 9 games back from first and 6 back from the Sox for the Wild Card, but the Blue Jays have been quietly stringing wins together here and there and are threatening to actually knock them down into 4th place!

I didn’t think that it was possible to lift my spirits any higher than they have been these past days, but this did the trick!

I have just returned from the soccer matches in Tianjin (more on them later) but I wanted to give you all some advance notice on my next event: I will be at this evening’s (tomorrow morning for you US-based readers) baseball game between Taiwan and Japan. First pitch is scheduled at 7:00pm local time today, 8/14 (7:00am, ET). I have insanely good seats, too. I’ll be in the second row behind the on-deck circle on the 3rd base side. These tickets would cost $280 at Fenway. The price at the Olympics? $11. Awesome.

Look for the dumpy white guy in a Red Sox jersey and a “Yankees Suck!” (in Japanese) t-shirt sitting next to an insanely cute Chinese woman. I’d bring a “Hello Rem-Dawg” sign, but then the Chinese would arrest me. Oh, well.

This is all very new for me. Since I have lived in Boston all of my life, I have never had to go through the ordeal of packing up my life and moving it somewhere else. (Going from Savin Hill to Neponset doesn’t count because that’s just down Morrissey Boulevard.) Furthermore, while I’ve known people who have come and gone into my life, I have never faced the prospect of saying goodbye to everyone and everything that I hold dear. That’s why the last 2 days were so fun/exhilarating/sad/scary for me.

On Friday I spent one last evening in the embrace of an old friend, Fenway Park, watching my beloved Red Sox. I worked in the stands of the ballpark for 9 seasons as a vendor (’91-’99) and while I was a Baseball/Sox fan before then, those seasons spent huffing it up and down through the rows, cheering for the team and interacting with fans, changed my ordinary fandom into what I like to call a “Field of Dreams” devotion to the game, the team and the ballpark itself. So every visit is special for me and Friday was no exception; it was an amazing night that saw the end of the Manny Ramirez era and the coming of Jason Bay. The welcome that the crowd gave Bay on his first day was astounding. When the lineup was announced (before the TV cameras were on), he was one of only 2 players warming up on the field and he looked absolutely stunned when the entire stadium erupted with a thunderous, sustained 90-second standing ovation. He got the same treatment when he came up to bat in the second inning. It was very affirming to see once again just what Boston baseball fandom is all about.

For all of the affection that I have for Fenway, the Red Sox and the game of Baseball, the thing that I will treasure the most from Friday is that I got to spend it with my new dear friend Alisa. Meeting her is one of the best things that has happened to me in years and parting from her so soon after making our connection is one of the saddest things about my move. I don’t know what I’ll do without her…

Thank the gods for Skype!

As for day #2, I held my last hurrah at my favorite bar, The Good Life. As the song goes, it’s nice to go somewhere where everybody knows your name. The owners and staff are all great people and I consider them friends. It was a night of 80s dancing (my favorite kind) and the crowd is always great there. Among them were my best bud Bry, along with several new friends that I have made this summer via CouchSurfing. They are all awesome and they have convinced me that CouchSurfing is one of the best online communities since it has it’s roots in -and facilitates- real-world connections and cultural exchange. The biggest benefit of making friends with Surfers? They are very apt to visit you no matter where you are. All of them are welcome at my place in Beijing!

My next days will be spent going through the detritus of my life, sorting out what can come with me, what must be left behind, what can be saved and what will be given away. Its all downhill from here.

One game does not a career make, but Jason Bay sure as heck made an impression during his first game with the Red Sox last night and I was there to see it all up close. I’ll have more on that later, but as I settle in for the night I just wanted to say that if I have to eat crow over yesterday’s diatribe I’ll be happy to!

Sweet dreams, Red Sox Nation!

I can’t run a Bostonian-centric website without speaking up about my beloved Red Sox (and Patriots and Celtics) from time to time. So don’t be surprised when I occasionally use this space to rant or rave about something that has happened back home… And yesterday’s “something” is just impossible to ignore.

In what I think will go down as the most disastrous move in his career, team General Manager Theo Epstein pulled the trigger on his second My-Balls-Are-in-A-Vise move in 4 years by sending future 1st ballot Hall-of-Famer Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers AND top prospects Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to the Pittsburgh Pirates for… wait for it… Jason Bay?!?

O.K. He was rookie of the year in the NL 4 years ago; and, yes, he has been consistent with his bat since then (.281 AVG., .373 OBP, .515 SLG) and he can hit for power (22 HRs this year, 142 HRs total). He will also be a defensive upgrade in Left Field (though not as much as is popularly assumed-I have always maintained that Manny was vastly underrated in the outfield). Basically, his numbers this year are a wash with Manny’s and the Sox see him as somebody who can be quietly consistent in the “Lower Manny” range, while Manny himself is seen as getting older with power numbers that have been starting to decline in the past 2 years. Add in all of his grousing and clubhouse disruptions and you can see why they wanted to ship him out of town ASAP, especially since there was no way in hell that they team was going to pick up his option contract extension next year and shell out another $20 million for more of the same.

No, my problem does not lie with losing Manny. My problem is with the tactics.

In addition to sending Manny to the Dodgers (with the agreement that they also will NOT pick up his contract option next year), the Sox are paying his salary in full for the rest of the season. The Dodgers get him for free this season. They could have achieved the same effect if they just sent him to the minor leagues.

Say goodbye to any payoff hopes for the Sox this season… And you can pretty much guarantee that the Yankees will be more than happy to pay Manny the $25 million/year over 4 years that he will be asking for next year.

I am actually looking forward to not being able to pay too much attention to baseball over the next few weeks while I am engrossed in the Olympics.

Manny packing his bags