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@jasonwilkens.website
170 followers 660 following 540 posts
Seattle resident
this is my micro-blog
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Bleeding to death in the trenches because my air support is vaporware made by a guy who spent his entire VC budget on "growth hacking" the beltway instead of building drones
November 3, 2025 at 10:29 PM
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How Dodgers became a hotbed for Japanese talent: respect
www.mlb.com/news/dodgers...
"It was only a matter of time before the All-Star level players in Japan would want to come to the United States, and I was able to parlay that self-study to a job with the Dodgers in the Dodgers' Asian operations department." . Scott Akasaki, center, with Kaz Ishii (left) and Hideo Nomo (right) in 2002. Photo by Jon SooHoo. While some may point to Hideo Nomo's landmark move to the Dodgers as the beginning of the current connection between the Dodgers and Japanese baseball, that relationship actually began many decades earlier thanks to the vision of Akihiro "Ike" Ikuhara My vision -- supported by [Dodgers executives] Bob Daly and Bob Graziano -- was, 'Why should we be dependent only on the free-agent market and the draft? Let's get into every area in the world that's producing baseball, and let's be aggressive about it again. This is the team of Jackie Robinson. It's the team of Hideo Nomo.'" Thanks to a staff led by Acey Kohrogi, now the director of Pacific Rim Operations for the Padres, the Dodgers put together a team that featured Akasaki covering Japan along with Curtis Jung, who handled Korea, and Vincent Lau, who was responsible for Taiwan and China. When Korean or Japanese scouts came to Los Angeles, the Dodgers hosted them just as they would any representative from a big league organization. "We treated them as one of our brethren. We thought there were 50 pro teams, not just 30," Evans said. "And subsequently, we treated them well. We had documents that were bilingual. I knew their customs. I was always introduced in their native language." When the Dodgers signed Ishii before the 2002 season, the team didn't make the announcement in Los Angeles. Instead, the brain trust flew over to host it in Japan. "Our reasoning was he was one of the best pitchers over there," Evans said. "He was an elite guy. Let's honor him, and let's continue to grow and, very honestly, re-establish our brand. So, we went over there for the announcement. We did a lot of the press conferences with the idea of catering toward the Japanese media. I'm thrilled we did because it was about respect." While the Dodgers may have an edge thanks to their location and financial might, Evans argues that there is a much more human role that goes into it. "This game is all about relationships," Evans said. "You spend 10 to 14 hours a day at the ballpark for eight and a half, nine months together. The game is a worldwide game. It is certainly not a North American game anymore. It's played in more than 25 nations. The World Baseball Classic is evident. It's not money. It's cultivating and maintaining and nurturing relationships. You can't buy relationships." "You hear [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto and Shohei [Ohtani] and Roki [Sasaki] talk about one of the reasons they chose the Dodgers is because of its history," Akasaki said. "Obviously the proximity to Japan and the community that we have here helps, but we have a really unique infrastructure. We have Japanese-speaking trainers. We have Japanese-speaking staff in the front office. I'm bilingual. Will Ireton was Kenta Maeda's interpreter -- Kenta Maeda was [with the Dodgers] a long time ago, but he's still on the support staff. You drop a Japanese player in our Dodgers clubhouse and that will be seamless."
October 26, 2025 at 8:46 PM
jasonwilkens.website
yeah, had a DM who would constantly have the party face one big monster, it had to be so powerful to not be overwhelmed that it could often be close to invulnerable
October 31, 2025 at 5:23 PM
jasonwilkens.website
I'm hiring for front end at Headway
October 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
jasonwilkens.website
it's been fun working on my slap shot and getting more power and accuracy just by slowing down and focusing on my form
October 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM