Random Musings -- Day 8

Chokedaikai
Before Day 8, I had been so confident of the smoke-and-mirror yusho run of Chiyotaikai that I was going to offer, if Chiyotaikai was even TIED for the lead on Day 15, to kneel in front of the Nagoya Sumo Hall in July and publicly lick the soles of any Chiyotaikai fan who cared for a shoe shine. Now that the Wolf's Flub has started showing his true colors vs Asa (sekiryu, that is), I'm upping the offer: Bring your dog and I'll kiss it full on the mouth. And you can shoot video! 

It's just too funny, you fans of Chiyotaikai who actually hold out hope for a yusho. Bad enough even to BE a fan of such a one-dimensional bore, a trickster and tachi-ai mind game player at the even at the rank of Ozeki, but to be so hopeful as to ignore the evidence that at this point in his career he will always lose, with the precision and predictably of a Cesium-133 atom, at least two or three of his last five bouts is just, well, sad. 

And the biggest reason it's sad is because one of the planet's foremost experts on sumo in English, Mike Wesemann, TOLD you there was no hope, and yet you still think you know more than he does. Trust me, Mike sits head and shoulders above most of us in analyzing sumo. Next time, just shush your egos and listen to him. 

Tochiazuma
A meniscus problem, huh? Yea, I know all about that. Back in 1996, I had been invited to run the 100th Boston Marathon. It had been a bitch to qualify for, and so when I kneeled down one day and thought a child in my classroom had shoved a scissors into my knee, and was told by the doctor I needed surgery on my meniscus, I said, Now? You must be joking. So I sat around for the last three weeks of my training and then flew to Beantown and ran the race. With something that big on the line I couldn't say no. Finished in good time and never had any pain. Surgery was fiberscopic, minimum swelling, recovered in six weeks.

Make no mistake, surgery was needed. It was by far the most unforgettable pain I have ever felt. If Tochi has a torn meniscus, no way he can make Nagoya. http://www.arthroscopy.com/sp05005.htm

However, like most people, I think Tochi is bagging it, too embarrassed to go on. He shouldn't be. He never had the tools needed to be Yokozuna, no shame there. And who cares about the supposed hopes of a nation? Most Japanese I know don't give a shite about sumo, and for the ones that only get hot when there is a Japanese Yokozuna, fock them for being so jingoistic anyway. 

Ama
Our boy got screwed BIG TIME vs Miyabiyama on Day 7. When a rikishi, the lightest in the division, uses all the gumption he has against the heaviest, it should be REWARDED in sumo, not ignored. Ama deserved a mono-ii, because he cleverly grabbed and yanked Miyabiyama's arm down as he fell. Both men touched the clay simultaneously at their hands, or close enough so to warrant a do over. Go see for yourself. It's safe to say that most of the retired wrestlers who sit at ringside "backing up" the gyoji bite hard cheese.

Roho
Is there a wrestler more disappointing than the burly Russian? He henka's Dejima and STILL LOSES! Of course by hatakikomi. And what was he doing as he fell out? Looking over at Dejima's feet, like some retired judge, hoping for a lucky break.