The Giants had a huge win yesterday, the biggest of the year unless you count Matt Cain's perfect game, and one of the greatest of the San Francisco era. The hero was likely-MVP Buster Posey, who continues to demonstrate that he, to use an irritatingly overused cliche even by irritatingly overused cliche standards, plays the game the right way.
In the locker room celebration Posey seemed reticent, and even after sending a grand-slam to the second deck, the Giants' catcher did not flip his bat or stand motionless to watch it. He did turn his head and look at it for maybe two seconds, which is long by his standards. That fact above all demonstrates his respect for the sport.
He reminds me of a great and under appreciated sumo competitor (sumo wrestler is not a term that rikishi smile upon). Akinoshima, a skilled rikishi from Hiroshima-ken, never made the highest sanyaku ranks, but he was a fixture of the top makunouchi division from 1988-2003, an impressively long stretch. He began training in his early teens and made sekitori status (being in one of the top two divisions, juryo or makunouchi) at age 20, making the top division the same year after only four juryo basho (tournaments).
He fought until he was 36, and in that time he won a record 16 kinboshi, meaning that, as a maegashira rikishi he beat a yokozuna 16 times. In practical terms, it means that being ranked, within the sumo world, APPROXIMATELY between about #9 and #42, he beat a living legend 16 times. There have been 70 yokozuna in the history of sumo, compared with 297 baseball players inducted into Cooperstown, and sumo's highest honor has been around a lot longer than the Baseball Hall of Fame. You do the math; Yokozuna is a very elite rank, and as a journeyman he beat one 16 times. Thats impressive.
Akinoshima fits the plays-the-game-the-right-way description too, although sumo is possibly better described as an art form or shinto right than a sport. He fought diligently, and garnered a mind-boggling 19 sansho, special prizes that are awarded for technique, fighting spirit, and outstanding performance. He also never drank, a stark contrast with virtually every other rikishi in history. And fighting in an era tarnished by yaocho (match fixing), yakuza links to sumo, drug use by rikishi, violent hazing, and a whole lot else, he was never implicated in any unsavory activity. This doesn't sound like much, but it is. In the top division rikishi who get big wins are often asked into the interview room, and it is easy to see that he was probably invited there more than most. But he always refused, saying it was disrespectful to the defeated rikishi. Both rikishi bow to each other before and after every match, win or lose. Most do little more than nod, but Akinoshima aways performed a deep and respectful bow, victorious or not. With the notable exception of fan favorite Homasho, few sekitori do this nowadays.
So in a vicious era for sports, we can at least count on Akinoshima and Buster.
