Beibu Rusu is the Japanese form of “Babe Ruth”. The Japanese also have the sports-word pepitone. It’s a noun meaning “goof-off,” and this beau mot comes from The Chrysanthemum and the Bat by Robert Whiting.

We’ve had a lot of fun with our blogs at this early stage, already on everything from the World Cup to a Shakespearean homage to Doris from Rego Park.

There’s a Tom Selleck vehicle and spoof from 1992 called Mr. Baseball.

However, this is a serious blog.

Our hopes and prayers extend to the good people of Japan during their time of crisis (too often an overused word). Japan is a great baseball nation but, more importantly, a great civilization. (Basho is one of my favorite poets, a most intense one.) I suspect even the much-vilified Joe Pepitone agrees.