Oshi-dashi'd message

[Basten <cbasten@statgen.ncsu.edu>]

Please:  refrain from using profanity.  Thanks, Chris

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ulli_clive.kewell@t-online.de (Clive Kewell)
To: sumo@statgen.ncsu.edu
References: <BAD9782D.99D9%peter@my.email.ne.jp>
Subject: Re:  Basho and SARS?
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 14:46:45 +0200

peter@my.email.ne.jp schrieb:
>
> As to whether this will help Sumo attendance out of its rut, I doubt it very
> much.  To be completely cynical, nothing short of a new Japanese hero to
> counter the Mongolian nemesis is likely to get the public here interested in
> Sumo again.  The Takamisakari phenomenon is quaint, but I doubt he has the
> right stuff to make it even to Ozeki.  If Chiyotaikai does get the nod by
> the Yokozuna Promotion Council, this may help, but his presence/charisma
> factor seems to be less than his Oyakata or Takanohana, so who knows how
> much his ascendance would increase public interest.


I agree with your diagnosis, we need a japanese Superman. Chiyotaikai is a fine
sumotori and I believe his chances to become a yokozuna to be fairly good. In
the two bashos he won he was devastating and impressive, but he seems to me to
be too inconsistent and too much of a one-trick-pony to enthuse the masses.
Perhaps if he could beat the s*** out of Musashimaru a few times the fire
would
catch on.
Maybe the long-term solution lies somewhere else. To be a sumotori is a
supposedly a very, very hard life, particularly in the first years. I can
imagine that a lot of japanese boys prefer the gentler, presumably better paid
path of the baseball profi. We may not be able to compete financially when
trying to attract talented athletes, but if the heyas were to treat them less
harshly, maybe we see better japanese sumotoris coming through,

Clive