Things have gotten better for Phillies shortstop James Calvin “Jimmy” Rollins. After inking a deal with Red Bull earlier this month, the former MVP and his team went on to a 10-game winning streak (which ended yesterday with a loss to the Cubs). Since signing with Red Bull, the previous all-star seems to have gotten out of his slump, hitting multiple doubles, two home runs, and ten RBIS—looking more like the J-Roll who played a crucial role in helping Phillies win its championship last season.
Although his past comments, solidifying Philadelphia Phillies as the “it” team in the National League East, won criticism from its rival team—the New York Mets—fans and players on both sides know who’s having the last laugh. In our Complex 7 with J-Roll, he talked to us about his Red Bull consumption, music taste, and rivalry with the Mets. Read on to see if he can beat Shaq in a rap battle, and a video of Rollins giving a tour of his house…
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Our hopes have been answered: The U.S. is out of the World Baseball Classic, leaving us with tonight’s all-East-Asia final pitting Korea and Japan. That may not sound exciting, until you appreciate the shared history of the neighboring rivals. Think of Korea vs. Japan as sort of like the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, if New York brutally raped and pillaged Boston over a hundred times throughout history, terrorized generations of Bostonians over multiple decades and forced them to change their names, lose their cultural identity and speak only with a New York accent. Yeah, something like that.
To paraphrase J.M. Coetzee paraphrasing Rene Girard: The fewer the differences between two parties, the more bitter their mutual hatred. Korea and Japan are right next to each other and share similar bloodlines, cultures and economies, yet an extremely bitter tension still exists between the two countries. Why? Check out our breakdown of the Korea-Japan beef through history below…
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Apparently there’s a series of collegiate basketball contests that starts this week, but the roundball tournament we’re currently checking for is the World Baseball Classic. OK, stop laughing: seriously, the 2nd edition of the WBC has been great. Our favorite part? Rooting against the U.S. team.
Last night the Americans beat Puerto Rico to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament, and while we’ve got a healthy appreciation for livin’ in America, we also enjoy hating on damn near everybody and everything, so we’ll be rooting for Venezuela, Korea and the winner of tonight’s Japan-Cuba tilt'anybody but our fellow countrymen. Is that messed up? Maybe, but we’ve got our reasons…
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