So, I found this gem in the Riverfront Times published in October 2007. Our very own So Taguchi was voted as having the best smile.
Best Smile
So Taguchi
www.stlcardinals.com
It's not the widest smile on the team. That belongs to Yadier Molina, who's had a lot to smile about lately. But So Taguchi's smile reflects two qualities that are rare in professional baseball today: silence and innocence. Because he speaks so little, watching So play ball is like watching a silent movie. He's Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp to Tony La Russa's stone-faced Buster Keaton. We get to imagine what So is feeling, which isn't hard to do, because his eyes always tell us. Mostly they tell us that So is so very happy to be in St. Louis. As a bench player, every time he gets to snatch a fly ball out of the Wrigley ivy or rally the Cards' playoff hopes with an improbable clout, So's guileless smile suggests that every at bat, every catch, is his first. He's every kid who ever wanted to play America's game, anywhere in the world.
I would like to add that So is Japanese and can't speak English and when he does speak he says strange and goofy things like him and Ichiro are the best outfield combination in the world. He really has no choice but not to speak, what are his options, to continue speaking continually in Japanese to the point where his teammates think he is an A-hole? So, his non-speaking making him a silent and innocent ballplayer and making this author feel like he is watching a silent move is mostly a forced silence. Plus, this is just to far, to far. For shame Riverfront Times, For Shame. This article tips the scale. Combined with the Savage Love section and the ads for massages and strip clubs in the back your magazine is now considered trash in my eyes.
Also, the smile goes both ways, everytime a ball lands 10 feet in front of him or any time he lunges to his left and the ball bounces out of his glove his guileless smile suggests that its his first.
2 comments:
I really like this. I do. This article is a Grade-A piece...of crap. I'm all for hearing about the humanity aspect of baseball. I think that it is absolutely wonderful that Jon Lester came back from battling cancer and threw a no-hitter. It's almost superhuman. Cancer treatment wreaks havoc on the body. This guy is an athlete pure and simple. Do I care that So Taguchi smiles all the time? Hell no. His mother may care, but I don't. Does that make me a jerk? Maybe, but I still don't care.
I propose a fantasy cage match between So Taguchi's smile and David Ecksteins heart.
My money's on Eck: he's got spunk.
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