How a Disappointing Baseball Player Inspired a Japanese Art Movement - The Story of Gary Thomasson 

I KNOW I PRONOUNCED VIDA BLUE'S NAME WRONG. Don't make me set up an auto-delete filter. The point has been made and acknowledged multiple times. You aren't contributing to the conversation, you're just dogpiling. Chogeijutsu Thomasson - Morg Molmalmo ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sXI2jVyY7iw.htmlsi=lFhV9EW6ToPEm2pw MISTAKES: 1. I know I pronounced Vida Blue's name wrong, you can stop commenting it now. I know who he is, I had just never heard his name spoken before. It's a 2 second bit it doesn't "ruin the whole video". If it bothers you that much I suggest you rethink your priorities in life. Longtime watchers of the channel know I made the same mistake with Bill Veeck. 2. Reggie Smith's slugging was .573

Very nice storytelling. One of the players you mention in this is David McKinnon, who landed in Korea after playing in Japan. My apartment is about 3 miles from Samsung Lions ballpark. He's at 1b. Lions are contending in KBO, and that hasn't been the case for some time. Cheers from Daegu

Found this video through your twitter account which I follow. What drew me to watch this was that I have a co-worker who says Gary Thomasson is his cousin, although he has never met him. My co-worker friend, who doesn't follow much baseball, only knew that Thomasson played for the SF Giants. He was unaware that he had won a World Series with the Yankees until I told him. So he was quite surprised when I added that his cousin also played in Japan. He'll probably get a kick when I tell him about this video. Interesting stuff. Keep up the great work. I've been following NPB for about 4-5 years now. I know very little about its history and am eager to learn.

love learning about obscure players

1) I've never heard anyone pronounce Vida as vee-duh. 2) I used to pronounce Yomiuri like you did, but no Japanese ever did, i.e. with the mi sound when they drop it and it's just yo-mu-ree. 3) That telephone pole cut off wasn't, that pole is there to protect what's behind it, heh heh. But thanks for the history lesson! That's cold that Thomasson's name was used like that.

Here is my Gary Thomasson story: Back in either '79 or '80, me and three or four of my friends - all in our young 20s - would go to the Dodger games every evening and sit in the left field bleachers. The bleacher seats cost about $2.50 and at that time the left field bleachers didn't serve alcohol. So the ushers didn't have to deal with drunk jerks. We were there so much we got to know a few of the usherettes, one of whom was a beautiful blonde named Mary. She was a student at Orange Coast Community College and we all had a crush on her, and probably annoyed her too much, but she was gracious about it (also, back then, the outfits for the usherettes were short, blue miniskirts. Sigh . . . ). When Thomasson played, it was generally centerfield and if the outfield was shifting he was close enough to the edge of the bleachers that we could call out to him. Sometimes he talked back to us; other times he talked to the usherettes. But as a player, he struck out a lot. One night we were giving him some crap about whiffing so much and Mary walked up to us and said, "Hey, knock it off. He's my boyfriend." Oops. At that point we realized none of us would ever have a chance with her. I wonder if they ever got married.

This is a deep, deeeep cut. Wonderful storytelling.

Love the Eastern Ave spot, always was curious about that bridge, thanks man!

Japanese Baseball culture has a huge influence of Japanese culture/net culture like Mike Greenwells "神のお告げ" or the "Revelation from God", a slang like "ンゴ" which you use when someone/something makes a grave mistake coming from Domingo Guzman, or "クレメンス" and "マダックス" coming from Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux which i dont even think people who use it know that it originates from 2chan baseball threads, its fascinating.

Good on you for sticking your for Thomasson at the end. Cool video!

He may have been average... But name another baseball player that has an art movement named after him.

The fact you have less than 10k subs is mind boggling. You deserve many, many more. I wish I had found this channel sooner, but better late than never.

Vyda not veeda . You must be young.good job.

Fascinating video, keep up the outstanding work you do on this channel. I love the shorter videos highlighting some of the more unusual stories from Japanese baseball history.

Unexpectedly interesting given that I don't follow baseball. For others in the same boat, the video gets to the point at around 8:00

Thomasson-san

excellent video, well done

I'm very audio and I couldn't help notice the background music. As you were giving the chronological events during Thomasson baseball career I was distracted by the incongruent rock music (particularly the vocals) and I almost exited. However, as I was listening to the part about the photo artist Genpei, I didn't immediately notice that the background music had changed. I was caught up in this discussion of these photos that were oddly humourous and at the same time "sentimental". For a minute or so I hadn''t realized that the background music had turned into a spacey instrumental and I thought, "Oh, this is cool". Altogether, the entire art segment was very engaging. Well done, sir!

Warren Cromartie- was a player and learned the language Randy Bass (Bass-O). Threatened Oh’s season record and helped Hanshin win in 1985. Robert Rose- second baseman for last great Yokohama team. Felix Milan - good player for 70s whales. And there are many modern good players.

I knew about the counterfeit money, but I had no idea Akasegawa's connection with baseball. Fascinating.

Vida Blue rhymes with side a glue.

Fascinating how sports and culture intercede.

Amazing!!! Thank you!

The channel name alone gets a sub; 100% in my wheelhouse. ❤

Veeda Blue

so glad i got recommended this video. ive been wanting to learn more about japanese baseball after becoming a fan of shunsuke watanabe, but found it difficult to learn much about how the npb culture is and how it compares to mlb. im very surprised that your channel hasnt blown up yet, as your videos are very engaging in how they are structured, and your commentary is very well spoken and easy to follow. thank you for these high quality in depth videos, i cannot wait to binge the rest of your vids 🙏 go marines 😛

I met David MacKinnon playing minor league ball in the Angels system 2 or three years ago or so. The guy mashes and is an awesome dude. Too bad that he keeps getting fucked around by ballclubs on both sides of the pond. Anyway, I fucking love David MacKinnon.

Hey man I love your work, keep it up

Wow you are very clever! Kudos

Heyy I didn’t know you’re Canadian! Love for your channel from Ottawa! 🇨🇦

Brutal

Thanks, now if a Japanese person ever shows me a photo of a broken telephone pole, I can be all, "That's a Shinzo Abe Tomlinson!" and be wrong, but close enough hopefully.

That is fucking brutal lmao

Amazingly sublime video!

Great story. Great channel. ⚾️

Yakuza music, good choice.

You and @WrestlingColin would get along

Really great video

vestigial... ah! but you can't market that!

The average person simply does not grasp how enormously difficult it is to not only become an MLB player but become one who rises above obscurity. Thousands of promising players have come and gone, their names likely lost to history. You could make an entire video series about forgotten prospects going as far back as the 1960s. There are young guys playing right now who will never step foot on an MLB field. There are others who get called up but linger on the 40-man roster seeing little if any action before they get sent back down to the minors. Speaking of the 40-man roster, most people think a minor league player getting called up to a big-league parent team means that player has made it. Nothing could be further from the truth. The call up lands the player on the 40-man roster. If there are no available spots a current player on the 40-man roster must be designated for assignment to make room for the new player. Designated for assignment players are basically on their way back to the minors. Once a player makes the 40-man roster her will have 3 years to prove he is good enough for a starting job. A fourth year may be granted under certain circumstances.

This. Is. Fantastic. ❤❤❤

Kinda wish Thomasson would embrace it and hook up with the photographer.

So what does Thomasson think of Thomasson?

Lol! It's not pronounced "VEE-da" Blue. It's "VYE-da" (like "eye") Blue.

Neat video. Why do Brazilian players often end up with the Yakult Swallows?

Hey I'm from Toronto too! Keep up the good work!

Hitting a curve ball is a lot harder than taking photos of crappy architecture.

You need to read Virtual Light by William Gibson. You'll get a kick out of the Thomasson ...

*Disappointing / Disappointment 👍

Is this channel related to Foolish Baseball?

This is awesome!

New York City and small town America has TONS of Thomasson style art just ripe for the plucking....especially in the 1980's with tech movement going faster and faster.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hKzz88yRFAs.html Is that a song dedicated to Gary Thomasson

Jack Elliot was my all time favorite gaijin ball player

7:05 Reggie Smith's stats don't look quite right to me. How does he have an OBP of .379 and a SLG of .409, but his OPS is .952?

8:46 nah wait hold up that sounds interesting

Is that music from Yakuza 0 I hear?

Good video, but is there an explanation for why the DAMN PICTURE KEEPS FLOATING AROUND?

The amount of people who don't know how to read the fucking pinned comment is ASTOUNDING

hey man you accidentally spelled "disappointing" with only one 'p' in your title

You mispronounced Vida. Clean it up bro!

That's not how you say Vida Blue. The " I" is pronounced like the word eye.😊

Whut

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MUq3rbP0pM4.htmlsi=xw8iBJqpqNyEHN20&t=529 The large block of text at the timestamp really broke the flow of the video (imo). Nice video otherwise!

Wow 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I want to learn about Japanese minor league system but can't find a good video

All these people complaining about Vida name. His name is the Spanish word for life. Because he said his name was pronounced in some hi key way doesn’t mean it’s right. VeeDa is the right way. Just like Matt Diaz. My man said pronounce Diaz as Die Az. GTFO here bro. diaz is Spanish for days. SMH

Trevor Bauer did well last year

Jung Who Lee is a major disappointment. KBA superstar but a 4th OFer with no impact and can't steal bases in MLB. Talk about disappointment