１０日木曜旭川１０レースの華月賞にボク出走。それと例の５２歳の女挑戦者のアメリカングラディエーター的なお話。最近の俺の話題の中心としてはその２つ。
それにジャパンダートダービーが加わってきての合計３つ。と言う事で。今日のカープなら勝ちましたよ中日相手に。それと横浜は今日は完封負けでした。
なんか「阪チョンタイガースキチガイ」の芸能人が願い事で横浜１００敗しろみたいな事をコラムで書いて総叩き。みたいな事があったそうで。ふーん。
どうでもいい。横浜に関しては「負けないと言うのが１番いい。この後まるでチームが変わった様に勝ち続けてくれればそれはそれで面白い」と言う事で。

なので「１００敗するかどうかはチーム次第。それを外野が１００敗しろ１００敗するなと言う事自体がおこがましい。黙って見てろやチンカス野郎」になる。

とりあえず今日もやる大矢スレが盛況な様で。ある意味勝ち組。２ちゃんの中では。あそこまで盛り上がっているスレも滅多に無いからな。やる大矢ってすげぇな。
これで今日の試合終了時点における横浜のチーム総失点は３６０失点。と言う事であと５失点で「よこはまスケッチ３６５（失点）」に文字通りなりますね。
放送してるのは親会社なんで。変な所でリンクしてますね。今日も広島は梅津が登板致しましたので今やすっかり俺の中では「梅津先生」と言う呼ばれ方ですが。
「やまぶき祭とーじつ〜」「アズィ！」みたいなあの体たらく。と言う事で。あのトランセルみたいなキャラデザは一体どの様にして決まったのやら。不思議だな。

１０日木曜旭川１０レースの華月賞。ローカル重賞でダート１６００メートル。別定なのでボクは５７キロを背負います。３歳限定。５４キロが基準。そこから
プラスされていく。と言う事で。ジャパンダートダービーに参戦する事もやろうと思えば出来たけどな。距離が長いか。と言う事でこちらに回ってきた。
そりゃあ確かに見たいけどな。大井のナイター開催の中で実況にボクボク言われている様な所とか。距離が長くて惨敗でもしてしまったら無意味だからな。
「行かない」と言う選択肢も頷ける所はある。そりゃあ勿論挑戦してくれた方が外野からしてみれば面白い。と言うのもあるんだけど。それはあくまでも外野の意見。

Yoko Ohigashi, originally from Brea, California, is a 52-year-old team manager in investment at a brokerage firm in Irvine, CA. She claims to have a fire
inside that is going to take the whole world by surprise. Ohigashi is looking to live life to the fullest, and burning the Gladiators is at the top of the list.

Former Stoneham homegal-turned-TV gladiator Annie Castellano isn’t as tall as hometown hero Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia,
but the girl packs just as much heat in her combat club! The ripped, 4-foot, 11-inch college student, 20, shows her mighty swing tomorrow
night on NBC’s “American Gladiators,” as she battles 52-year-old Yoko Ohigashi for a spot in the semifinal round. “At first, I thought,
‘How can they do this to a 52-year-old woman?’ and I kind of felt bad for her,” Annie told the Track. “I felt that it wasn’t fair.
But after competing against her, let me tell you, Yoko is one strong 52-year-old woman! She’s in incredible shape.”

[ A Few Rounds with the Gladiators ]　Yoko Ohigashi, 52, tells about her experience appearing on NBC’s “American Gladiators.”
The tunnel looms before you. It is somehow both imminently short and eternally long. Each step towards the light increases the pounding in your chest.
The ground trembles causing the hair on the back of your neck to suddenly bristle with life. You step out of the tunnel and into the bright lights
of the arena and into the roar of the crowd. Before you is a mish-mashed obstacle course of moving parts. On the other side, across
the way, stands an amazon. Six-feet, two hundred pounds of pure muscle. She is huge. She is your opponent. She wants to send you home.
“It was probably the most exhilarating experience I’ve ever had,” said Yoko Ohigashi, a 52-year-old investment manager who earned the right to
appear on NBC’s reality show “American Gladiators.” For those unfamiliar with “American Gladiators,” it is a remake of the original series
that aired in the early 90s and pits amateur athletes against each other and the show’s own athletes or gladiators, in a variety of contests
in front of a live audience. “I had probably the largest crowd of all the contestants they’ve had the past two seasons, made up of coworkers
and family and friends. I had the most fan support. Besides that I had the whole audience rooting for me because I was the underdog.”

Hold on. All of this information, all of this suspense being written here is the cusp of the finale. The outcome of the show is still a secret
to the public. So, if you want to find out how this story ends, you can check Yoko out on Monday, July 7 when her episode airs.
In the meantime, in order to truly appreciate this moment, we’re going to have to start at the beginning. How in the world did this mother,
whose daughter is in her third year of college, how did this woman nearing an age when many people consider retiring, find herself on American Gladiators?

It can probably be traced back to the beat up tennis racket her own mother gave her in high school. Her athleticism. Her desire to compete.
Organized sports usually have that effect. Growing up in Crenshaw, Yoko, the second of five kids, wanted to play softball, wanted to shoot hoops.
However, because her father was forced to work as a gardener and had seven mouths to feed, Yoko’s choice of sports was indeed a limited one.

The costs for extracurricular team activities were too much. So she took up tennis. Not that she minded much. There was a cute guy who played for
the tennis team that she had a crush on. In fact, Yoko would spend a great deal of time watching him. And not just to please her eyes.
She did so in an effort to learn and hone her skills. She would practice in front of the mirror at night and against the garage during the day.

All the hard work and determination paid off. She made the team. Fast-forward several years. Today, Yoko lives in Brea. She’s a member of a softball team.
She also works out two to three times a week. “I have a personal trainer who is also a good friend,” she said. “He’s the one who pushes me
and motivates me, keeps me going.” He’s also the one who informed her about the open call for “American Gladiators.” He told her he was going to go
and asked if she wanted to join. She agreed. No particular reasoning. No midlife crisis. She just wanted to see if she could do it.

A long, multi-stepped process ensued and after wading through nearly 10,000 other entrants, Yoko emerged as one of the 20 women chosen.
“They’re looking for uniqueness. Because there weren’t too many Asian women who tried out and of those who did, not too many of them had personality,”
said Yoko, who has personality in bunches. She’s buoyant, her face lighting up, all smiles, possessing a youthful energy.
She comes across as a rare mixture of humble confidence. “There’s no one in their 50s either,” she said. “I have a good story because nobody
has parents or family who were in the internment camps. They’re all too young.”To most in the Japanese American community, her story is a familiar one.
Her parents were forced to give up their land, forced into interment. After the war, they came back to nothing and had to forge a new life.

The new life started as many others did as well. With no suitable jobs, no house and no land, her father took up work as a gardener.
His time in camp, however, helped pave the way for a truly family-oriented future. In camp, he had learned to play several different instruments.

Yoko’s story takes a quirky turn towards the unusual because it includes a 35-year-run as a member of the Yokotake Family Band. Many in
the JA community have probably heard of or been to one of their concerts over the years. The band, made up of Yoko, her parents and
her brother and sisters, blended the mandolin, accordion, drums and synthesizer. Now, **that’s** unique.

Today, Yoko has her own family. Her daughter, Christie, is a psychology major at UC Riverside and came to cheer her mother on during the last event,
the Eliminator - the show’s final contest, an extremely difficult obstacle course that includes a hand bike, a steep escalator, a tightrope walk,
a pyramid and a pool amongst other things. “My daughter actually announced that I was going to be on the show on Myspace and Facebook,”
Yoko said with a laugh. “When she went to go watch the Eliminator, she said she was just in a zone. She didn’t care what anybody thought,
she was just cheering me on.”The cheering was necessary because the gladiators are huge. Yoko stands a petite, 4-11 and weighs a high school teen
weight of a 110 pounds. The gladiators? Helgga, perhaps the most feared, is 6-1 and weighs in at a linebacker’s 210. Another, Crush,
who is the crowd favorite, is a mixed martial arts champion as well as a kickboxing champion. These women mean business. Even the other contestants,
mostly police, ex-military and/or firemen, were all younger and employed in professions that required athleticism and strength.
Yoko works in an office. Being a mother, as well as having just lived life longer than others, both have given Yoko a certain amount of insight
that is perhaps lost on her younger competition. “I guess because I’m older I feel like, I’m just going to do the best I can. It’s tough to
compete against 20-year-olds that are in really good shape. That’s okay, I figured just to make it on the show, for me, was an accomplishment
and however I did, that’s great, and if I don’t, at least I gave it my best.” Her best included a lot of training. For nearly two months,
three times a week, her routine included, being at work by 7:30 in the morning, getting off around 5:30-6ish, taking the train home,
working out for 2-2 hours, going home, eating something, and then hitting the sack. Yoko prides herself on never giving up, never quitting, giving her all.

Those words, that pride, that resolve, were put to the test too. Without revealing too much, during the competition, she suffered a neck injury,
a torn tricep, and a dislocated shoulder. Try going to your job like that and seeing how effective you can be. “Yeah, it is crazy.
It is brutal, I’ll admit. It’s very, very difficult. It’s tougher than you think. When you see it on T.V. you think, ‘Ah I could do that,
piece of cake.’ But, when you get up there with the crowd yelling and screaming and you’ve got your adrenaline flowing with the spotlight on you.
It’s kind of intimidating.”She still went through with it. “If anything, I think I did this because I wanted to be inspiring to people,”
she said, rolling her sore, still-rehabbing shoulder. “The older people that think that they are too old and can’t do things like this or be
in shape because of their age, I’m trying to be inspiring to them and young people too. If you keep yourself in shape you can do whatever you want to do
even when you’re fifty. By doing this, I think I accomplished that goal. I did inspire a lot of people in my office and a lot of people
who don’t even know me.”So, with the crowd cheering her name, with her daughter and mother and father and coworkers all in the stands egging
her to victory, with Hulk Hogan thoroughly impressed, Yoko went for something that few people her age wouldn’t even dare dream about,
let alone actually try. “Bottom line is, don’t ever give up,” she said, the pleasant smile fading to a more introspective resolve.
“You can do things if you set your mind to it. I don’t give up, no matter how tough it is I will try and try and try.”（rafu.com July 3, 2008）