FIFA meal at McDonald's: What a trip

By Ed Piper

I just bought my eighth FIFA World Cup meal (July 18) at McDonald's, and I want to share my experience writing my first blog entry on my new electric table (assembled yesterday).

Aaahhh (sigh of disappointment). I received another Bebote Gimenez (presumably from Mexico) souvenir cup (cheap plastic, with the figure's image in a painting on the outside. In the six weeks of the soccer tournament, I also got three--not two--Ronaldinho (Brazilian, I suppose) cups. Neither played in the tourney, to my knowledge. That was a bummer.

I wanted more variation among the nine available designs. (I got five.) I was telling people at my local McDonald's (always got them at the same outlet) that in the old days, cups or whatever else the promotion was were out in the open, and you requested the one you wanted.

In this age of collector's items in sealed packages (example: baseball cards in protective sleeves--I bought cards when I was a kid with the gum staining the back of the back card), each of the World Cup containers came in a white sealed bag. After receiving each one, I would open the bag inside the store, at the counter, to see what I got.

What a groan I let out when I got yet another Ronaldinho. Ugggh. Plus when I received a cartoon character, I had to have an employee explain to me who it was: Grimace. I still don't know who he is. What does he have to do with the World Cup?

Imagine how my nutrition went down the barrel. I never drink sugared sodas. On these eight purchases, I selected Sprite, since you either choose a drink or you get nothing.

Then five Big Mac's. The last three, I've ordered the 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal (the first one tasty and tender; the last two not so). I'm making a comeback body-wise! (I won't even comment on the nutrition value of seven medium French fries orders.)

By the way, the electric table is working great so far. I have it elevated to its top height, 46.5 centimeters. My hands and wrists feel a little strained during this entry, as I arch down to the keyboard from a standing position. (My keyboarding level is higher.) (Plus, I love the cool breeze blowing in the window on a hot day.)

However, my right hand is severely cramped after holding my drill to insert 20 or more screws during the assembly of the table. Ouch. I never do that kind of work!

My strained leg and back feel much appreciated--as I'm not aggravating those conditions further while I work. I hope it will be a long and fruitful relationship.

Samurai Japan: Movie review

By Ed Piper

I just watched the two-hour "Samurai Japan WBC" movie on NetFlix, consuming a very un-Japanese dish of three scrambled eggs in tortillas two-thirds of the way through, and I'm reminded of my most recent interaction with someone concerning Asian culture.

In a trip to see Shohei Ohtani (stay with me, here), I talked for three innings, standing, shielded in the shade on the Upper Deck of Dodger Stadium with a white (though culturally Jewish) American who was seeing his first Dodger game in years, having just spent six months in Taipei on an internship, I think.

He was glad to be back on American soil, having grown up in West L.A., I believe, very much in reactive mode to the "shame-based" culture of Taiwan. He called Taiwan the "Disneyland" of that part of Asia, with beaches, showy culture, very "surface" in his short experience there.

Though only 24, I believe (I'm 72), this young man has traveled to many parts of the world, including Israel (though not on a "birthright" trip, as he called it) and many countries in Europe. So he's not a newbie on travel or exposure to cultures other than his own secular Jewish upbringing.

I've forgotten his name (this visit occurred June 17, and here I am writing a month later), but he was so filled up with being around an environment in which "you don't do anything to make yourself look bad", you don't stand out, that he was done with travel for a while.

Which brings us back to the Samurai program. As you recall, the Japan team did not win this year's World Baseball Classic--Venezuela did--but the movie immerses you in a subtitle-reading mode (for two hours--my brain is tired--I don't speak Japanese except "MLB", "Acuna Jr., "meeting" (they use a lot of words from outside the culture).

What did I learn that was new? Power-hitter Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs and Ohtani are long-time friends and associates. Suzuki sported frosted tips in his hair during the WBC. He clubbed a few homers right behind Shohei's leadoff home run-hitting antics.

Ohtani has a thick, lush movie-star-type mane of hair, which flows prominently. Reinforced was the fact Japanese fans revere Ohtani and adore the other Japanese baseball players in the same manner.

Connecting to my earlier comments on my conversation with the 20-something West L.A. fan, I sensed some of the conformity Asians comply with, the military discipline their country has a history of. You don't see Asian males with long, outlandish hair, none with tattoos. I know that the film is aimed at Japanese fans, so though they show Suzuki's knee injury at the start and later in the movie--"the triumphs and tough spots" of the Samurai Japan team's WBC campaign--it is very much the fan piece, lots of puff that fans will enjoy, kind-hearted kidding and joking among team members.

There is a lot of camaraderie on the team depicted in the film. Of course, different from my experience but something I'm aware of, team members bow as they shake hands, kind of a mix of Asian and Western adaptation.

Earlier this year, a South Korean-born male who grew up in California shared his analysis that Japanese are staid, resistant to accept new ideas, in his view, compared to South Koreans, whom Japanese (he said) regard as kind of entrepreneurs, go-for-broke business people who will try new ideas. This man, whom I have known for 20-plus years, said it is very hard to get Japanese to try new things. The Confucian way says stay with the tried-and-true, tradition, don't veer another direction, off the beaten path.

Both Japanese and Korean traditional cultures are so different from my own. In those cultures, both these observers said, you don't do something that will shame your family and your ancestry. So, standing out by doing something differently from anybody else is a big risk, and carries the possible consequences that you will not only look foolish yourself, but shame your whole family line as well.

My mother was born and grew up in China until 15 years of age, but as a white American--though learning a perfect native Chinese accent from her nanny, or ama (she was called), which she retained until the day she passed away at age 64--she very much embodied the mores of Western culture. Those mores of individualistic culture were passed on to us three kids, reinforced by the modeling and teaching of her life partner, our dad, who grew up in good old Toledo, Ohio. "Go west, young man," and all that.

*  *  *

 The athletes depicted in "Samurai" are not your average human beings. When they hit home runs--Ohtani and Suzuki, especially--they make it look like a video game, like you just walk up to the plate and bash one out of the park. That is not easy, or normal.

Even Shohei's Samurai teammates watch the public, ticketed (probably cheaper than the World Cup this month!) batting practice that was held in the Tokyo Dome with wonder, as he hits shot-after-shot well up into the outfield stands.

Amateur track: USATF All-Comers meet at CCA 7/8

Photos by Ed Piper

Steve Magers, 62 years old, clears

10'6" on his third and last try early

in the men's pole vault. A blow for

the older generation!

1600-meter girls race - the first

track event at 6 p.m. Two younger

girls on the same track club, who

are friends, chose to run together.

Leala Burbach, a junior at Pinnacle

High in Phoenix, easily clears 9'6".

She and a track club teammate

spent the week in California -

the teammate cleared 17'9" Sunday

at the former Olympic Training Center

in Chula Vista. Leala has only been

vaulting for six months. She spent

eight years in gymnastics, a key

for vaulters.

Leala, on her approach.

A USATF official goes over the procedure

before the start of the boys' high jump.

LJ baseball: Malaika comments on new pro baseball league

By Ed Piper

Four teams will begin play August 1 in the Women's Pro Baseball League, with a 30-game season over seven weeks and rosters of 15 players each.

The WPBL will field teams hitting with aluminum bats and representing "storied sports cities" in the U.S., including San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to Justine Siegal, a co-founder of the circuit. Siegal was the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Oakland A's in 2015.

Malaika Underwood, a La Jolla High Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and 1999 CIF Female Athlete of the Year, was asked for her comments on the upcoming league.

"I am not involved with the league, but, as you can imagine, I know many of the people who are," said Underwood, who serves on the staff of the U.S. Women's National Team in baseball. "And believe it or not, as old as I am (about 43 years old, at this point), I played with some of the players. Ha."

Malaika, who started at second base for the Vikings during her high school career and who once batted leadoff against her boy friend, which totally unraveled him and helped win the game for La Jolla, went on: "I really hope it takes off, but my biggest concern is sustainability without a stronger pipeline.

"Without high school and collegiate (at least club) opportunities for girls to play baseball, I worry that it will be difficult for the league to sustain and grow over time."

Another note on the former Viking star: She was named the CIF Girls Volleyball Player of the Year in 1998-99, her senior year, and went on to star in volleyball at the University of North Carolina on an athletic scholarship. As if that wasn't enough, Underwood filled in her winter sports season playing for the Viking girls basketball team, where her former coach said a couple of years ago, "My whole game plan was give the ball to Malaika. She'll know what to do with it."

Underwood on the WPBL: "Regardless, I hope it is a meaningful and progressive step in changing the social barriers that continue to exist for women playing baseball. And maybe if you build it, the investment in the pipeline will come."

In comments on the day she was inducted into the La Jolla High Baseball Hall of Fame two years ago, Malaika told a reporter that the key was having girls play baseball, not softball, if their participation in the sport was going to grow.

It was reported in various media outlets that the new league will include Mo'ne Davis, who starred in the Little League World Series in 2014. The four teams will play two seven-inning games per week Thursdays through Sundays, at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. The other cities represented by the teams include New York and Boston.

Tryouts were held in August 2025 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. Players representing 10 different countries took part: besides the U.S. and Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the Dominican Republic, as well as others. Over 600 players were whittled down to 120, who moved on to the league draft in November 2025.

Other picks represented Mexico, Curacao, Australia, France, and England. Players range in age from 18 to 37 years old.

The WPBL is the first such pro league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ended play in 1954. The latter circuit was depicted in the movie "A League of Their Own".

LJ FB: Workout 6/23 and newbies

Photos by Ed Piper

Freshman Christian Hobson (front) successfully

defends against a pass intended for fellow

9th-grader Zakai Jackson (see loose ball

peaking out from behind Jackson, rear left).

The drill came during a workout June 23.

Soph Jack Riesenberg

(pronounced "reason-berg")

Junior Carsen Boman

slot receiver/free safety

Junior Sean Bannon

MLB/WR

Soph Preston Armstead

WR

Junior Kali Deberry

MLB/RB

Freshman Matias Frye

G/DT

Blake Alexander

Sophomore MLB

Jager Kideys ("kiddies")

Senior WR/CB

Moved from Florida

Freshman Zakai Jackson

WR/SS

Cornerback/wide receiver

Christian Hobson

LJ FB: USD 7-v-7 tourney - pool play - 6/19

Photos by Ed Piper

Viking Zakai Jackson (L) tries to slow down

South Hills (West Covina) receiver at the line.

Junior Carsen Boman makes a leaping catch

against Notre Dame Prep (NDP, Scottsdale) that leads

to a touchdown. QB Brody Bukich delivered

the pass.

Senior Joseph Crudo (R) of La Jolla goes out,

defended by Rancho Christian opponent (3).

Rancho Christian won the pool contest, 6-0.

Junior Kali Deberry (far right)

LJ QB Brody Bukich goes through

his reads as he waits for a receiver

to get open. The junior is coming back

from a fractured nose (note bandage).

Long double-braid

on St. Xavier (Palm

Desert) player.

Preston Armstead (big hair) of LJ moves toward

South Hills receiver as he runs after the catch.

Captains meeting: LJ's Ty Tortorice (white uniform)

and Rancho Christian's (Temecula) QB (12).

NDP (black uni) scores two

extra points to win 14-8.

Interception by NDP's Landon Stych (3) ends a

La Jolla possession on the first throw.

Soph returner Ty Tortorice at QB

Carsen Boman reception - 3rd game

LJ freshman cornerback Christian Hobson (L)

makes the two-hand touch stop.

Viking players and coaches move toward the

main field at Westview for game 3.

Sophomore AJ Lennan

Joseph Crudo goes into motion

as QB Ty Tortorice (rear left)

calls out the cadence.

Preston Armstead (left) and

Emerson Rota (right) defend

on pass in Rancho Christian game.

LJ FB: 7-v-7 vs. Steele Canyon, Mission Bay, Granite Hills - 6/16

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ reception vs. Steele Canyon

in the first rotation.

Rising soph Ty Tortorice, after a three-step

drop, launches a pass to  the right against

Mission Bay in an 18-12 loss,

unofficially.

Offense vs. Mission Bay (MB = black)

Rising soph Ty Tortorice

handled all of the Vikings'

QB duties, with junior Brody

Bukich out with a broken nose.

Chris Macy (L), 4th-year Vikings QB coach,

huddles with transfer Brody Bukich. The junior,

coming over from Mt. Carmel, was out with

a fractured nose. He started at QB for the

Sun Devil JV and freshman teams.

Viking completion vs. Steele Canyon.

Pre-workout pep talk by Coach Tyler Roach.

Junior Chase Weise is wearing red gloves,

third from left.