Hideki Irabu...

[The Maestro]

...dead. Suicide, apparently.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2011-07-28/hideki-irabu-dead-suicide-new-york-yankees-pitcher

So I won't make jokes about him throwing BP to Winehouse.

[KantoSooner]

Sad story. I am not a baseball fan, and Irabu was not an attractive person. But, you had to sympahthize with the guy. Japan is a very xenophobic country (just take the comment at face value, I've lived there over 20 years, I'm entitled to an opinion). Irabu was a 'halfu', in other words not pureblood Japanese. He never fit in there. And then he came to this country and never really fit in here. Poor bastidge never fit anywhere. Oh well.

[OUmillenium]

...dead. Suicide, apparently.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2011-07-28/hideki-irabu-dead-suicide-new-york-yankees-pitcher

So I won't make jokes about him throwing BP to Winehouse.

Winehouse couldn't hit the floor if she rolled out of bed...uhh

[OUstud]

RIP. Although, we can't forget that he was the victim of one of the best nicknames ever: Steinbrenner once called him a "fat p*ssy toad".

[SoonerDood]

Anyone have the audio of Harry Caray calling him "Aruba"?

[Jacie]

Sad story. I am not a baseball fan, and Irabu was not an attractive person. But, you had to sympahthize with the guy. Japan is a very xenophobic country (just take the comment at face value, I've lived there over 20 years, I'm entitled to an opinion). Irabu was a 'halfu', in other words not pureblood Japanese. He never fit in there. And then he came to this country and never really fit in here. Poor bastidge never fit anywhere. Oh well.

Apparently, he took the Japanese tradition of saving face to heart . . .

[sappstuf]

Japan and the United States have about the same number of suicides every year.

We have about 2.3 times more people

[GKeeper316]

japanese people are the most racist people on the planet.

[rekamrettuB]

In the final episode of the popular sitcom "Seinfeld" in 1998, Irabu's struggles with the Yankees were satirized when the character Frank Costanza, played by Jerry Stiller, angrily shouted at the Steinbrenner character, "How could you spend $12 million on Hideki Irabu?"


:D I love Frank Costanza.

[The Maestro]

Anyone have the audio of Harry Caray calling him "Aruba"?

Great minds...I looked on youtube yesterday. No dice.

[SoonerDood]

Great minds...I looked on youtube yesterday. No dice.

This was the only place I found it http://www.angelfire.com/il2/cubssuck/stupid.htm
"Aruba, ah-ray, Aruba, aroob."

[Sooner_Tuf]

Kinda looks like Traber, only slimmer.

2DY2HargZ7g

[GKeeper316]

Kinda looks like Traber, only slimmer.

2DY2HargZ7g

i used to play that **** every time he came to our newsroom. he was not amused. i got called into the news director's office a couple times for it.

i told him i'd quit playing it the day he could name all the production staff that worked on his show for him. he never bothered. except the girls. all 2 of em. he knew them.

[KantoSooner]

japanese people are the most racist people on the planet.

Right up there. I remember getting a bank loan to renovate my apartment there. The banker invited me to dinner when we closed the loan. It was a big deal for him as he'd never loaned money before to anyone whose family was not from the Tokyo metro area.
Then I got trusted to have my own security badge to come and go on my own hours at work. Whooohoooo!

[BudSooner]

Only thing I can remember about him was he was yanked I believe in the middle of the 2nd inning against Baltimore('98 I believe)and was pissed so he picked up a garbage can and knocked all the sprinkler heads off heading back to the the showers.