Ethan Zuckerman offers a recap of the latest developments in sumo:
The May basho at Ryogoku Kokugikan ended yesterday with a clash between two profoundly talented rikishi. One was Asashoryu, who has been the sole Yokozuna – grand champion – of the sport since Takanohana retired in 2003. The other was Hakuho, who held an Ozeki rank (one rank below Yokozuna) and defeated Asashoryu to win his second Emperor’s Cup in a row.
The criteria to be promoted to Yokozuna aren’t exact, but it is generally accepted that winning two tournaments in a row as an Ozeki is sufficient for promotion. So unless the Japan Sumo Association does something very expected – shrugging off the recommendation of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council – Hakuho will be named Yokozuna, and sumo will have two Mongolian Yokozuna.
One of the biggest problems I have with the ongoing Disneyfication of ESPN and its family of networks is that they no longer really do anything other than major American sports. These days, they fill their empty hours with reruns of SportsCenter, and endless tedious shows analyzing college football spring practice, next year’s NFL draft, and NASCAR, rather than showing any of the many sporting events going on around the world. Back in the day, though, if you flipped ESPN on late at night, or early in the morning, you’d see some weird stuff from other countries.
I don’t care enough about sumo to go to the trouble of following it on the Internet, or trying to figure out how to get it on cable or satellite, but it would be nice to flip to the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” and see some actual sports from around the world, rather than yet another talking-heads show with Mel frickin’ Kiper on it.