SPORTS / U.S.A.
June 5, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Asian players now in nearly every division in the majors
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
fter more than 20 years of imports from Nippon
Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Korean
Baseball Organization (KBO) to Major League
Baseball (MLB), the 2017 season features Asia-born
players in nearly every division.
We start in the National League East, where the Miami
Marlins have three Asian players. At 43 years old,
outfielder Ichiro Suzuki hopes to play in MLB until he’s
50, adding to his more than 3,000 career hits. With his
renowned workout regimen, he just might.
On the mound for Miami, Taiwan’s Wei-Yin Chen began
his MLB career in 2012. After pitching respectably with
the Baltimore Orioles for four years, Chen signed with
Miami in 2016. Though he won’t ever be a top-flight
pitcher, Chen should pave the way for future Taiwanese
MLB talent.
Lately, Marlins bullpen addition Junichi Tazawa hasn’t
looked like the pitcher who made waves by skipping the
2008 NPB draft. From 2012 to 2014, Tazawa was Boston’s
supremely successful setup man until he started walking
batters and giving up homers. If he regains his control and
keeps the ball down, Tazawa could become a high-
leverage Miami reliever.
In the National League Central, Chinese American
Kolten Wong is the only player featured in this MLB
roundup who was born in the United States. Wong has
played intermittently for the St. Louis Cardinals over the
past five seasons, but he’s now their starting second
baseman. He strikes out rarely, draws walks well, and
picks up a homer now and again. That won’t make Wong,
who was born in Hawai‘i, a star, but it will bolster the St.
Louis offense for a playoff push.
Of more importance to the Cardinals will be closer
Seung-hwan Oh, who came to St. Louis last season. In the
KBO and NPB, Oh was called “Stone Buddha” and “Final
Boss” for his unshakeable demeanor and amazing ability
to close games.
Oh lived up to both nicknames last season, stepping into
the closer’s role and reeling off 19 saves with a 1.92
Earned Run Average (ERA). Despite his heroics, the
Cardinals missed the playoffs for the first time in six
seasons. If St. Louis returns to the postseason, they’ll need
Oh to repeat his dominant 2016 season.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
A
PRODUCTIVE PLAYERS. Asian baseball players are making a difference across Major League Baseball (MLB). Hawai‘i-born Kolten Wong (left
photo) has played intermittently for the St. Louis Cardinals over the past five seasons, but he’s now their starting second baseman. Wong strikes out
rarely, draws walks well, and picks up a homer now and again. Prized Nippon Professional Baseball import Kenta Maeda (right photo) arrived to MLB
with high expectations last season, and he did not disappoint. Maeda started hot before cooling off, but he still finished with a 16-11 record, striking
out more than a batter per inning.
The Cardinals finished last season behind the Chicago Maeda. The first KBO starting pitcher to come to MLB,
Cubs, who went on to win their first World Series since Ryu won 28 games in his first two seasons with a
1908. This year, Chicago bolstered its bullpen with Koji combined 3.19 ERA and 293 strikeouts. Elbow and
Uehara, who has pitched for four different MLB clubs shoulder surgeries shelved Ryu for parts of 2015 and
2016. Hopefully 2017 will be his first full season in three
since coming from NPB in 2009.
Uehara enjoyed his greatest success with Boston, years; the Dodgers need him to resume his winning ways.
Prized NPB import Maeda arrived with high
amassing 79 saves in four seasons, including 2013, one of
the best seasons ever by a reliever. That year, Uehara expectations last season, and he did not disappoint.
finished with a 1.09 ERA and a nearly untouchable 0.565 Maeda started hot before cooling off, but he still finished
Walks & Hits per Innings Pitched (WHIP), retiring 37 with a 16-11 record, striking out more than a batter per
straight batters at one point. Uehara helped Boston win inning. These two Asian arms are part of a deep Dodgers
its eighth World Series championship, and Chicago hopes rotation that’s among the best in baseball.
he will help them win their second straight.
Over in the American League West, outfielder Shin-Soo
In the National League West, the Los Angeles Dodgers Choo and pitcher Yu Darvish return to the Texas Rangers.
boast two great Asian talents in Hyun-jin Ryu and Kenta
Continued on page 11
1 in 6 spouses of newlyweds
is of different race or ethnicity
By Jesse J. Holland
The Associated Press
W
ASHINGTON — More and more Americans are
marrying people of different races and
ethnicities, reaching at least 1 in 6 newlyweds
in 2015, the highest proportion in American history, a new
study shows.
Currently, there are 11 million people — or 1 out of 10
married people — in the United States with a spouse of a
different race or ethnicity, according to Pew Research
Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
This is a big jump from 50 years ago, when the Supreme
Court ruled interracial marriage was legal throughout the
United States. That year, only three percent of newlyweds
were intermarried — which means they had a spouse of a
different race or ethnicity. In 2015, 17 percent of
newlyweds were intermarried, a number which had held
steady from the year before.
“There’s much greater racial tolerance in the United
States, with attitudes having changed in a way where it’s
much more positive toward interracial marriage,” said
Daniel T. Lichter, director of the Institute for the Social
Sciences at Cornell University, who studies interracial
and interethnic marriages. “But I think that a greater
reason is the growing diversity of the population. There
are just more demographic opportunities for people to
marry someone of another race or ethnicity.”
Asians were most likely to intermarry in 2015, with 29
percent of newlywed Asians married to someone of a
different race or ethnicity, followed by Hispanics at 27
percent, blacks at 18 percent, and whites at 11 percent.
There also were differences between men and women.
Asian and Hispanic women were the most likely to
marry someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015,
while Hispanic and black men were the most likely among
men, the data showed. Thirty-six percent of Asian women
and 28 percent of Hispanic women intermarried in 2015,
while 26 percent of Hispanic men and 24 percent of black
men married someone of a different race or ethnicity.
White and black women were the least likely to consider
someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015. Only 10
percent of white women married outside their race or
ethnicity, while only 12 percent of black women were
involved in intermarriage — half the rate of black men.
White men were the least likely among males to
consider intermarriage, with only 12 percent involved in
interracial or interethnic marriages.
Despite those numbers, intermarriage is rapidly
becoming more popular among blacks and whites. Since
1980, the number of blacks who chose to marry someone of
a different race or ethnicity rose from five percent to 18
percent. Whites also have become more accepting of
intermarriage, with the rates increasing from four
percent to 11 percent during that same time period.
Interracial marriage became legal throughout the
United States in 1967, when Richard and Mildred Loving
took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Lovings
were thrown into a Virginia jail in 1958 for violating the
state’s ban on interracial marriage. The Supreme Court
struck down the Virginia law and those in roughly
one-third of the states in 1967.
The study also found:
w The most common intermarriages were between a
Hispanic and a white spouse at 42 percent. The next most
common was between a white and an Asian spouse at 15
percent followed by a multiracial and a white spouse at 12
percent.
w Interracial and interethnic marriages are more likely
to happen in cities. Eighteen percent of newlyweds in
metropolitan areas were intermarried compared with 11
percent living elsewhere.
w Roughly half — or 49 percent — of Democrats and
Democratic-leaning independents see intermarriage as a
good thing for society. For Republicans and GOP-leaning
independents, less than 1 in 3 — or 28 percent — saw
marriages between races and ethnicities as a good thing
for society.
Jesse J. Holland covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press.
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Difficulty
MEDIUM
level: Medium
#31573
# 25
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #64879 (Easy)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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