George W. Bush throws first pitch at Japanese baseball game
November 4th, 2009 by James
Ex-President Bush is in Japan hanging out with his old buddy Junichiro Koizumi. They attended a baseball game the yesterday, where Bush threw the first pitch:
George Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch in game three of the Japan Series between the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome last night.
Sporting a Yomiuri jacket, the right-hander tossed a pitch to Shinnosuke Abe of the Giants. The ball bounced in the dirt once before Abe caught it.
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Can’t tell if they are booing him or not at the start.
At any rate, a far more hospitable reception than if he had done so elsewhere. He would have been loudly booed in many places around the world.
Unlike the general atmosphere in (at least the Democrat half of) the United States, I believe the Japanese perception doesn’t seem to place much blame for the woes of the world squarely on the shoulders of Bush.
Japan got away with sending a few refueling ships in the Indian Ocean so it was not really involved in the war that Bush started. Because of the painful lessons of the last economic bubble, Japan emerged rather well from the last economic collapse. On the other hand, the general trend of the Republicans to be an active “world police” to stick their noses in regional affairs included a tough stance on North Korea, which all but the most extreme left-wingers in Japan appreciated.
But even regardless of those, I personally think it’s a very rare occurrence in Japan that a crowd would actually boo at someone. It’d just be a more subdued or an absence of clapping if he was unappreciated.
I feel really sorry for the ball.
lol. you are so right!
I’m surprised no one threw their shoe at him XD XD hahahaahahah
Japanese beating Americans at their own game ?
What’s more interesting to me is that the batter swung on the pitch. I’ve never seen a batter swing on a ceremonial first pitch before. Is it common in japan?
While we’re on the subject of baseball, go Phillies!
So Bush league.