Rafu Shimpo's 2009 In Review

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Because you can never have enough In Reviews from across the nation I give you the Rafu Shimpo's 2009 In Review:

More than any other year in American sports history, 2009 was the year of the Asian athlete. From the highs of the WBC championship between Japan and South Ko­rea—the best baseball game of the decade—to the tragic lows of Yao Ming being lost for the entire NBA season, the final year of the decade has been one filled with faces from the Far East doing big things in the West.

Extreme juxtaposition.

No doubt, due to the inescapable aura of American celebrity fetishism, 2009 will be remembered for Tiger Woods’ spiral from the greatest-golfer-of-all-time to the punchline of a litany of dirty jokes.

But we would be better served remembering how an unheralded South Korean named Y.E. Yang drove a 3-iron 210 yards to within eight feet of the 72nd hole of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine to ice out the coldest golfer alive, thus claiming the first major victory by an Asian in PGA history.
Read it in full down at the Shimpo.