ScreechingOwl

Best wishes for a happy day for a happy dai.

Bench is now open (9/2), so all interested parties can register for both SG and Bench. I'll be happy to help out while our international man of mystery is away.

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I'm looking forward to playing and choosing Abi in Aki!

In Bench you'd get the two leaders matched up on senshuraku (if they hadn't met previously), but in SG that rarely happens. At least Trender is a beast at that game, so anything can happen today. Good luck, Ganzo.

Facing the higher-ranked opponents was certainly a major factor in Enho's not getting his kk last basho too. In his day 12 match, Enho was dictating the pace (and position) of his match with Shohozan and was a bit unlucky not to win. But it certainly looked like he got injured when his foot got caught awkwardly under him, and it's hard to foresee him getting a kk now, even if he doesn't go kyujo.

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When Hakuho married a Japanese woman was when the major drift happened. When your career (and best future career) are in, and your wife is from, the same country, it logically follows that's where you are going to stay. It would have been surprising if he didn't apply for Japanese citizenship.

Kintamayama's discussion is illuminating. It must have been very tempting for Tochinoshin to have employed a henka in his senshuraku bout last basho against Takakeisho, when he was injured and his ozeki status was on the line, yet he refrained from doing so. Prior to injuring his knee in Nagoya in 2013, Tochinoshin often used a henka. Since his return he has seldom done so. He truly is a changed wrestler and well deserving of the repromotion he clinched yesterday.

There have been many comments on the judging, but most of them have missed the obvious points. 1. The judges are biased. I'm not saying they are trying to make bad calls or there is any conspiracy going on. I'm merely pointing out that they are in the position of judging rikishi from their own heya. This is an active bias. There is no other sport I know of where, at the professional level, the judges are also managers/coaches/owners of the players they are judging. 2. The judges aren't professional judges. They are professional heya owners and former wrestlers. They have not dedicated years of their life to the art and/or science of judging. This is just another duty for them. Does anyone honestly think that being a coach and former player is the best qualification to be a judge? 3. Most of the mistakes the judges made aren't on video replays, but are because they don't call for a mono-ii after a very close match. It's hard to know why this occurs. I'm guessing poor positioning, poor eyesight, and poor judgment each play a role. 4. It is NOT a problem to not have the judges review the video tape. This is what happens in baseball: if a close play is challenged the umpire's call is reviewed by people looking at video replays in an office in New York. They look at the replays. They can only overrule the umpire's call if the video review is conclusive that the call was wrong. In many cases it is not conclusive: the play is too close or the angles available are not conclusive. In this case the original call stands. The same rule should be in effect in sumo. In any case, the sumo judging system is antiquated, and this won't be the last time five ill-trained, unprofessional, and biased judges make a mistake. Let's just hope it's the last one that determines a yusho.

As to the mono-ii and reversal of the gyoji's decision of the Tochinoshin-Asanoyama match, I think sumo would benefit by looking at the larger issue involved in the judging. For what it's worth, I see no evidence that Tochinoshin touched out - no heel print, no sand displaced or kicked up - so how a gyoji's decision is reversed by inconclusive evidence seems justifiably criticized. But that decision, good, bad, or ugly, is now history. The more useful question is how can we prevent getting in this situation again. The "judges" of course, aren't judges in any accepted western or sports sense. Do you know any other sport where the judges are people with no training at judging, no qualifications as to eyesight (and it's pretty clear some of them don't see that well) or judgment, and no objectivity, but are instead judges based only on the fact that they formerly were players. Does anyone want Maradona refereeing a World Cup game? Or any other former great player at any sport being a judge or referee based on his being a great (or merely good) player? And yes, those are rhetorical questions, because the clear answer is "no". Moreover, not only aren't the sumo judges qualified in any objective sense, they aren't even objective - they all have members of their heya wrestling. By definition you couldn't be in a more biased position. So the whole system is out of whack - the judges are middle aged men who have no business judging the bouts and, as we've seen time and time again, aren't especially good at it. You don't see former rikishi as gyoji. Let's have sumo move into the 21st century and actually use trained, qualified judges. I'm not holding my breath on this one, of course. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will be another 50 years before they screw up another key match. But I'd bet under the current system they'll make another mistake in makuuchi next basho. And the ones after that, until the system itself is improved.

I usually find Gurowake's comments well=reasoned and incisive, but couldn't disagree with him more on his take on yesterday's debacle more. While it's true that Tochinoshin hasn't looked like an Ozeki in his last three bouts - although he certainly did in his first eight wins - that's completely irrelevent to whether he will or should become an Ozeki based on this basho. If he wins 10 matches he gets automatically repromoted - how he looks has nothing to do with it. As for his "gut feeling" that Tochinoshin won't be able to sustain Ozekihood again for 9 basho (anyone want to bet that Goeido will make another 10? Takakeishi? Takayasu?) that's fine. But if it doesn't happen it actually does mean he's wrong. In fact, it's the very definition that he's wrong. It's fine to note that it's just one of a range of possibilities, but that's true of any prediction. And if someone makes a prediction that doesn't pan out, they were wrong.

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Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Rando!

Five yusho for Haidouzo is simply astounding. Pandaazuma tops Randomitsuki's venerable most points in a basho record only to hold it for a mere one basho and have Haidouzo set an astonishing new record. As for Norizo, he wins three basho - three! - and finishes seventh for the basho in total points. I can't image that's ever happened before. Congratulations for all the top finishers who saw through the fog of the dohyo and made such great predictions.