Pierrot le Fou
08-16-2005, 04:56 AM
This is a post made originally by me to another forum. I figure that I can post them here and give you all parts of a different perspective from Az's on this job/Japan, as well as giving me a chance to re-read some of my prior experiences, and potentially make someone smile.
Originally Posted: October 22nd, 2004
October 21, 2004. Game Seven of the American League Championship Series. Biggest game in recent Red Sox history. What a game that was. Coming back from a 3-0 deficit to force a game 7 for the first time in postseason history. Exhausted pitchers, a pitcher throwing 94 miles an hour with a tendon stapled to the bone the night before. A slumping Damon hits a grand slam, which seems to put the Sox comfortably ahead until Pedro comes out. Fifty-five thousand fans screamin' "Whose your daddy!" at Pedro as he starts giving up runs. Sox fans are worried until Pokey Reese fields a ground ball, tosses it to first, and the Yankees fans die of shock. The Sox fans crowd around the Sox dugout as the riot police prevent something from happening...
Were you there too? Did you sit around the Sox dugout?
I was in Japan teaching English during the game.
You missed the greatest comeback in Sox history to teach some rugrats the names of animals?
That's right.
So wait a minute. The Red Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918, you've been waiting for this since seeing them fail in 1986, and you go to Japan knowing that this will be the year?
You should have seen the job offer. Japan looks so gorgeous.
I don't care if you're offered to become the Emperor of Japan! That's the greatest comeback in Red Sox history!
I took the job and just told my friends that the Sox would have wait 'til I came back.
What did they say?
They could see that I meant it.
You're kidding me...
No, I'm not kidding you. If I had stayed in the US to see that game I'd be in here talking about a chance to live in a foreign country that I never took. And how I always regretted not going over there and doing it. I don't regret the two years I taught there. I don't regret giving up real beer when I left the US. I don't regret having to sit in a noisy office with nothing to do when the kids are on vacation. And I sure as Hell don't regret missing that damned game.
Would have been nice to catch that game though.
Well hell, I didn't know the Sox would come back to win it.
Note: Shamelessly adapted from Good Will Hunting, if the title of the thread wasn't obvious enough.
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Follow-up: Well, some background as well. I taped the series games because they were broadcast when I was at school, so I couldn't watch them 'til I got home. I made sure not to check any websites that would spoil it for me, and I wouldn't accept calls or e-mails or anything because I wanted to see it for real. I got a cellphone e-mail on the day of game 4 (the game where the sox won the series) and checked to see who it was from. I figured a Japanese person wouldn't be telling me who won, so I'd just check who it was from.
It was a Japanese guy, who had the assholish tendency to tell me, in the subject which popped up when I checked who it was, "Red Sox World Champions!!!" and I wanted to kill him. I still do. I nearly dislocated his shoulder drunk at a BBQ earlier this year (10 months after he did this) by tackling him because of what he did. Closest I've ever come to doing serious bodily harm to someone due to being angry.
Errr, point is, still pissed, I wish I could have seen what my father, and my father's father never could in their lifetimes.
Originally Posted: October 22nd, 2004
October 21, 2004. Game Seven of the American League Championship Series. Biggest game in recent Red Sox history. What a game that was. Coming back from a 3-0 deficit to force a game 7 for the first time in postseason history. Exhausted pitchers, a pitcher throwing 94 miles an hour with a tendon stapled to the bone the night before. A slumping Damon hits a grand slam, which seems to put the Sox comfortably ahead until Pedro comes out. Fifty-five thousand fans screamin' "Whose your daddy!" at Pedro as he starts giving up runs. Sox fans are worried until Pokey Reese fields a ground ball, tosses it to first, and the Yankees fans die of shock. The Sox fans crowd around the Sox dugout as the riot police prevent something from happening...
Were you there too? Did you sit around the Sox dugout?
I was in Japan teaching English during the game.
You missed the greatest comeback in Sox history to teach some rugrats the names of animals?
That's right.
So wait a minute. The Red Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918, you've been waiting for this since seeing them fail in 1986, and you go to Japan knowing that this will be the year?
You should have seen the job offer. Japan looks so gorgeous.
I don't care if you're offered to become the Emperor of Japan! That's the greatest comeback in Red Sox history!
I took the job and just told my friends that the Sox would have wait 'til I came back.
What did they say?
They could see that I meant it.
You're kidding me...
No, I'm not kidding you. If I had stayed in the US to see that game I'd be in here talking about a chance to live in a foreign country that I never took. And how I always regretted not going over there and doing it. I don't regret the two years I taught there. I don't regret giving up real beer when I left the US. I don't regret having to sit in a noisy office with nothing to do when the kids are on vacation. And I sure as Hell don't regret missing that damned game.
Would have been nice to catch that game though.
Well hell, I didn't know the Sox would come back to win it.
Note: Shamelessly adapted from Good Will Hunting, if the title of the thread wasn't obvious enough.
-----
Follow-up: Well, some background as well. I taped the series games because they were broadcast when I was at school, so I couldn't watch them 'til I got home. I made sure not to check any websites that would spoil it for me, and I wouldn't accept calls or e-mails or anything because I wanted to see it for real. I got a cellphone e-mail on the day of game 4 (the game where the sox won the series) and checked to see who it was from. I figured a Japanese person wouldn't be telling me who won, so I'd just check who it was from.
It was a Japanese guy, who had the assholish tendency to tell me, in the subject which popped up when I checked who it was, "Red Sox World Champions!!!" and I wanted to kill him. I still do. I nearly dislocated his shoulder drunk at a BBQ earlier this year (10 months after he did this) by tackling him because of what he did. Closest I've ever come to doing serious bodily harm to someone due to being angry.
Errr, point is, still pissed, I wish I could have seen what my father, and my father's father never could in their lifetimes.