Lima Time.

Jose Lima will pitch in South Korea next season. He's "the most famous foreign player in [Korean baseball] history," I guess, but otherwise it's not too newsworthy.

I did get a chuckle, though, at this comment from Deadspin:

South Korean reaction: WoW.

Penguins win Winter Classic.

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in a shootout to win the "Winter Classic," an outdoor hockey game yesterday. 71,217 people were at the game, held at Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium, making it the largest crowd to ever watch an NHL game.


Sidney Crosby before he scores the game-winning goal in the shootout. Look, goalie Ryan Miller is wearing a cap he made from a hockey sock. Interestingly, both goalies had played in outdoor hockey games before.

I mean, most to see a game in person, in a stadium, at one time. But I think about 70,000 saw the game on TV. It was competing against the Capital One Bowl (Michigan vs. Florida) and the Gator Bowl (Virginia vs. Texas Tech), plus whatever other activities take place on New Year's Day. The NHL is pretty much irrelevant in the US this point, and is less popular than golf, tennis, NASCAR, and pro wrestling. Game 3 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals was the lowest-rated prime-time program in the history of NBC. Hard to believe, because what American doesn't care about Anaheim vs. Ottawa?


Ty Conklin stops Henrik Tallinder.

I stole the last two photos here, from Yahoo Sports, but unfortunately they don't organize the photos into separate galleries. I'm sure some will turn up later. Anyway, as you can see it was snowing, and the players wore retro jerseys. Throwback jerseys in professional sports and on rich black people are terribly overdone, but the Penguins' blue jerseys (1968-1972) look really nice in this situation.

Buffalo and Pittsburgh were chosen to play in the 2008 Winter Classic last season, when both teams were really good. This season both teams are at the bottom of the Atlantic Conference, but are both still over .500. And Sidney Crosby, last season's MVP, is still considered among the best in the game. Shame I've never seen Crosby, Malkin, Stall, or any of the younger guys play. Last time I lived in Western Pennsylvania the Penguins' big stars were Brian Holzinger and Luke Richardson Rico Fata, and the team was really really close to leaving town. It's been a pretty nice turnaround for a team and for a fanbase that, not too long ago, didn't really care that the team would soon be playing in Las Vegas, Kansas City, or Hamilton.

Hockey fans aren't coming to this blog for the latest in NHL news, so there's no need for all kinds of links here. I just wanted to add that you can re-read a live blog of the game from AOL Sports here and from Barry Melrose Rocks here, if you're interested.

Interesting side note, I haven't seen a hockey game since June 5, 2006, when I ventured into the shithole that is Itaewon. That was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals between Carolina and Edmonton, and you may remember that Edmonton was up 3-0, that Carolina eventually tied it 4-4, and that, after Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson went out with an injury, Ty Conklin came in with a few minutes, misplayed the puck with 32 seconds left, and allowed Carolina to score the game-winning goal. Pittsburgh fans are not confident about the goaltending situation this season.


The Sabres' mascot makes merry with the home crowd. Browse photos on Yahoo Sports.

Edit: Eh, what the hell, here are a couple more links. The first is little write-up from one of my favorite bloggers, Mondesi's House:

But in a day filled with Brady Quinn commercials and images of Lance Armstrong managing a Dick's store, Sidney Crosby once again managed to steal the show. The Flawless One even overcame the only visible part of his game that might need work, the shootout, to bring back a shootout victory and two hard-earned points to Pittsburgh. For Penguin fans, it was the perfect way to ring in the New Year.

The second is a little photo gallery from ESPN.

Yeosu's greens.

I apologize for a lack of hard facts in this entry. When I saw a post on Dave's mention a new golf course for Yeosu I thought the accompanying picture was interesting, and I've tried to Naver around for some information as best I could.

Yeosu resident kiwiduncan brings up an easily-missed point in all this hype about Yeosu's 2012 Expo. The idea of a "green" Expo is a goal as much as it is a theme. There are some projections about greening up the area, and you can find plenty of awkward English vaguely describing some aims on the Expo website, but I've seen little evidence of a commitment to the environment.

For instance there's the City Park Resort, an 18-hole golf course set for construction. According to this Dailan.co.kr article, the 1,163,458-square-meter site will also include a clubhouse and a 52-room tourist hotel, and will cost 90 billion won. And if I'm reading that article correctly---given my poor Korean that's unlikely---Yeosu wants to build 5 or 6 golf courses in town?


Drawing of the proposed 18-hole course, stolen from here.

Golf courses can be attractive, and some folks will turn on a golf tournament just to see the landscaping. But Yeosu and that area of the country prides itself on its natural scenery, so I don't think a new golf course---or five of them---will serve any great cosmetic purpose. And in a country like South Korea where open space is scarce, access to golf courses is a luxury, and an addition that won't serve the greater good.

Based on the following photograph, some homes and forest will be sacrificed for the new course.


Future location, perhaps, stolen from here.

I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly where this will go, but a couple of articles have said 봉계동, a small administrative division northwest of Chonnam University in old Yeocheon County. There have been protests against the displacement of homes and forests, but they were evidentally ineffective.

I don't live in Yeosu, and can't attest to these numbers, but based on Naver it looks like there are two golf courses in Yeosu already. Off the top of my head I know that nearby Suncheon has three country clubs and they're working on at least one more. And one of the article mentions a protester as saying, basically, that they're already putting in the 해양관광레저단지 (Haeyang Tourist Leisure Complex, roughly) in Hwayang-myeon, Yeosu, so why make more?

I have to guess that these additions are coinciding with Yeosu getting the 2012 Expo. But other parts of Jeollanam-do are developing as well. There's the Namak New City initiative going on in Muan, the Tourism and Leisure City in Haenam, the Gwangyang FEZ, and the Formula One tracks going into Haenam and Yeongam counties. The "Tourism and Leisure City" in Haenam, though, seems like it will be self-contained: people won't be visiting Haenam, they'll be visiting the resort. Same for other lesser-known resorts and waterparks in Naju and Jangheung. In Yeosu's case, these golf courses will have to complement the over developments coming over the next half-decade if the town will really become a popular tourist attraction. I mean, as the Yeosu Expo site says,

It is also an international marine resort tourism city in the new marine era of 21st century, developing into a beautiful port of Yeosu which is venturing into the world.

So there you go. But, as everybody knows, Yeosu doesn't have any attractions save for its quote-unquote natural beauty, and so while passing out construction contracts left and right will make some folks happy, I have to wonder if these plans aren't a bit . . . fucked up.

As kiwiduncan points out on that Dave's thread, it's unusual that, despite all the muddled Engrish about blue sea this and green environment that, all the upcoming developments thus far have been about expressways, airports, light rails, and distinctive landmarks. Given South Korea's track record on environmental issues---their reforestation efforts aside---I think that trend ought not to continue.


Future look of Yeosu? Stolen from here.

The Expo's theme deals with preserving the marine environment, so that's an easy excuse to build build build on land. So long as the golf balls aren't killing dolphins, I guess we're all right. I guess the only thing that could really screw up "The Massive Economic and Culture Event for Human" that is the Yeosu Expo would be if, like, a ship full of nitric acid crashed off the coast, or some shit like that. Oh, wait . . .

Michelle Wie and Jangheung.

I rediscovered an article from February, 2006, on Michelle Wie that I posted to Dave's before I even heard of Jangheung county. The article talks about an upcoming tournament, and contains this interesting paragraph:

Wie's parents are from South Korea. Her grandfather Wie Sang-kyu lives in Jangheung, a remote South Korean city where a few locals used to pass the hat to support his granddaughter in her earlier days playing as an amateur in Hawaii.

I saw another article that said there were plans to build a Michelle Wie golf course in Jangheung, incorrectly listed as her hometown, but apparently those ideas were the work of an imposter. From the Donga Ilbo, November 15, 2005:

Police have arrested a Mr. Wie (46) on November 14 for posing as 16-year-old American professional golfer Michelle Wie’s close relative and swindling hundreds of millions of won.

According to police, Wie courted investors beginning in late 2004, saying, “a ‘Michelle Wie golf course’ will be constructed in her hometown of Jangheung, Jeonnam, and we will build a shoe sterilizing factory there, which will give a 940 percent rate of return in just four months.”

He is suspected of gleaning 14.7 billion won from some 970 investors by promising principal and interest, and embezzling 300 million won outright.

Police reported, “Wie introduced himself as Michelle Wie’s relative and printed pictures of him and Michelle Wie taken together on advertising fliers.” Police noted that Mr. Wie was an unacquainted remote relative of Michelle Wie’s.