USA 14 at Japan 20 - Rugby Friendly

For those of you who don't follow the more "obscure" sports, the Rugby World Cup begins in New Zealand on September 9th. I say obscure with not a small amount of sarcasm because rugby is far more popular worldwide than it's most obvious counterpart, American football. There are 20 national squads contesting the upcoming tournament, although only three or four have a reasonable chance at winning the whole thing, chief among these being the hosts,...

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Mediocrity in Japanese Baseball

I've been quiet for a while for a couple of reasons. One is that I wanted to leave the Japanese women winning the World Cup post on top for a few weeks, the other is that the good feelings from that event left me happy about sports for nearly a month. But as time passed, those happy memories have slowly faded and I've returned to my grumpy sports fan self. As usual, the target of my rancor is the NPB. Check out these standings below (lifted directly from the NPB's website):Central LeagueTeamGWLTPCTGBYakult88433312.566--Hanshin8843432.5005.0Yomiuri9142436.4945.5Chunichi8841443.4826.5Hiroshima8840435.4826.5Yokohama9130547.35717.0Pacific...

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