alternative to the bubble gum

Monday is Taiku no hi (Sports Day), it is a national holiday. So in commemoration of this day, I want to talk a little bit about...baseball.

In America, do the baseball cards still come with that really hard piece of gum? or do they just sell the cards without the gum?

In Japan, we get our baseball cards with....chips! Calbee, a large snack maker sells these 22 gram bags of chips with a packet of two cards attached to the bag.

Throughout the year, Calbee puts out 3 phases of the cards and you can get all sorts of players and stats, cards with hologram coatings, pretty exciting stuff...and so far, we've never gotten the same card! They also have a soccer version for you J-League fans.

Well, the play-offs (which the call "the climax series") start this Friday. But I need to rant....there are only 12 teams in the whole Japanese pro baseball league, I think the MLB has double that or maybe more? No reason to have play-offs here! they should just make more teams so there is more competition and more chances for the unknowns to get out there and play the game. They have only recently started having inter-league play where the teams of the 6 Pacific league teams get to play against the 6 Central League teams which is quite interesting and exciting. Up until then it was Pacific vs. Pacific and Central vs. Central and only during the "world series" do the two separate leagues' teams match up against each other,

So I shake my head as the play-offs start and hope that the Tigers (in 3rd place) can come from behind and whip everyone's butts to get a chance to play in the Japan's version of the world series.

Go Tigers!

p.s. Satoshi has been saying he wants to become a housewife and that I should go to work. I know why he says this....it is because our tv can view two baseball games (the play-offs) at the same time (one side with sound) and is being televised while he is at work! (as if watching the game was the only thing I did around here!)