California, this week

Japan is up in arms over a decision in their game vs the US in which an American umpire anulled a Japan homerun, effectively opening the game to a US victory. An official protest has been launched, with complaints by manager Sadaharu Oh, Environment minister Yuriko Koike, Prime Minister Koizumi, and homeless man Katsuo Harayama, all of whom were annoyed that America, a country perceived as fair, was really unfair.

The complaint centers around a call overturned by plate umpire Bob Davidson under pressure from US manager Buck Martinez. Nishioka took off from third as the throw came in from left on a sacrifice fly and was initially called safe by plate umpire Brian Knight. The call was overturned by Davidson, although replays clearly show the Japanese player beat the throw.
"Umpires overturning calls is unacceptable in baseball," fumed Oh who made his career in a country famous for umpires overturning calls. "And having managers bolting out to influence umpires is unfair bully tactics," continued the man who played 21 years with the Yomiuri Giants, the masters of this technique in Japan.

Oh, who famously kept his season home run record intact after Tuffy Rhodes in 2001 and Alex Cabrera in 2002 tied it at 55, should be no stranger to unfair baseball. His pitchers balled out both batters repeatedly in subsequent games, preventing them from surpassing his record. Despite being Taiwanese and fighting hard for many years to be accepted by Japanese fans, Oh seemed untouched by the irony of denying a foreigner a chance to compete fairly.

"We Japanese have smaller bodies and we don't take drugs," said Oh as if he hadn't even read the previous paragraph. "So we are already unfairly disadvantaged. If the umpires are stacked against us then the whole thing is totally unfair."
The protest was lodged but expected to have as little impact in America as similar calls to make Japanese baseball fair have had here.

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