What the fuck is this guy doing with a column at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a reputable newspaper?
Here’s his take on Major League Baseball’s opening day game in Japan.
Is he fucking kidding?
A Pearl Harbor reference, in 2008, in a column about baseball?
About the only thing more pathetic and contemptible than the column itself are some of the comments of support from readers underneath.
What a dickbag. Whereas the Japanese subsequently learned what a single bomb can do to an entire city, right? Oh, forgot about that, did we?
My dad still displays, every once in a while, this mostly-latent distaste for all things Japanese. For years, for example, he refused to buy a Honda or a Toyota. He’s mostly grown out of it now, there’s a Honda Civic Hybrid sitting peacefully in the driveway, but, in his more self-aware moments, he can wax poetically about how his generation may never fully let go of the grudge.
That being said, this guy is still an asshole. If he doesn’t want to buy Hondas or Toyotas, fine for him, but he needs to keep his prejudice out of print.
For what it’s worth, Japan seems to have forgotten that Pearl Harbor ever happened, or, for that matter, WWII in general.
“Furman Bisher”? What the hell kind of name is that? Do Americans just make names up out of whole cloth, or something?
Okay, a quick look at Wikipedia shows that Furman Bisher’s birthday was back in 1918. Which makes him 21 at the time of Pearl Harbor. And it becomes possible that he lost friends, or family, during the Pacific War. Or, in some ways worse, that he had friends or family survive as guests of the Japanese military.
Any of those events could build a life-long hatred for a people. And while I think that’s regrettable, I’m not one to try to dictate a person’s private hatreds.
But bringing up Pearl Harbor in an article about Baseball, even if the opening day IS taking place in Japan, goes from holding a grudge to fucking surreal.
I think it not unreasonable that a person who was 23 years old on Sept. 11, 2001 might still harbor bad feelings towards Al Quaeda (or it’s successor organization) when they were quite old. That, combined with the irrationally powerful hold which the idea of baseball of some kind of vital Amercan symbol has on some people, could easily lead to the column in question.
Oh nonsense. I’m sure that by the year 2069 (if man is doing fine), when the wealthy Mideastern nation of Osamavania offers to host the New York Mets’ opening game, no American will have the poor taste to mention past unpleasantness. Most normal humans don’t even have the ability to remember historical events after six decades.
Me, I’m looking forward to the season opener next year at the Dachau Superdome.
Not all Americans. Mostly just us Southerners.
Elvis, Newt, Strom, Woodrow, Trent, Tennessee we got 'em all.
No, it’s going to be the Fukudome.
I look forward to eventual Opening Day in Baghdad.
“Well, he would have made a spectacular catch, if it wasn’t for the suicide bomber.”
“Your Majesty, we have examined the situation, and it is hopeless. We have pored over their terms of surrender, and they are unconditional.”
“I only want to know only one thing. Is there any mention in these so-called ‘unconditonal’ terms of besabaru’s opening day?” asked the emperor.
“None that we can find, your majesty.”
“Revenge shall be ours! Bonsai!”
There’s nothing peculiar about the surname “Bisher.” Bishing is a perfectly respectable trade in many parts of the South. For example, visitors to historic Stone Mountain, GA are often greeted by the sight of several generations of locals, all bishing together.
And as Southern rural populations have become more genetically diverse, the name “Furman” has become less common. Modern dermatological procedures can also address this problem at an early age.
Jesus, that guy looked near death back when I had a Sporting News subscription in 1980. He probably remembers firsthand when the Reds were called the Red Stockings. What a sad pathetic bitter old coot.
I don’t care about baseball or America but do agree I guess with his basic point, that it’s odd to have the first game of the year in another country. The other stuff I don’t see how the editor allowed it to print.
Does he still have a problem with England- remember what those guys tried to do to America too.
Al Qaeda is a terrorist group and Japan is a country. There’s a little bit of a difference. For whatever it’s worth, Japan seems to have gotten over the whole atom bomb thing well enough to have adopted baseball.
People have their prejudices and particularly with older people, there’s not much point in trying to argue them out of them. I’m reminded of this about once every three days, when my grandfather sends me the latest Five .jpgs’ Hate on Barack Obama. But I have to say that the AJC is really stupid for printing a piece of trash like this.
Well, they adopted it well before the atom bomb, so that part was easy. I’ve seen pictures of Babe Ruth playing exhibition ball in Japan in the 1930s.
The secret Japanese defense of their home islands involved throwing miniature trees at the advancing Americans?
Okay, they didn’t go sour on it. 
A lot of our local residents still write letters to the newspaper decrying any involvement with Japan. Particular exception was taken when a local mayor arranged for a ‘sister city’ arrangement with a Japanese town.
Town citizen Mr. Otto Schneider was particularly peeved about this conciliatory attitude towards our former enemy and wrote a lengthy missive saying so.
Oddly, he did not object to the longstanding ‘sister city’ arrangement his town has with a town in Germany.
Wow, I wonder if Mr. Bisher’s senility has made him forget that the Red Stockings are considered baseball’s “first team” because the MLB wanted something to celebrate in the post-Strike years.
Wow, Furman Bisher is still around? He was already a “veteran sportswriter” when I used to read him in the Sporting News in the early 1970’s.
I don’t understand what you mean by this. The original Cincinnati Red Stockings have always been considered the first professional baseball team.