an outside view

It was Saturday afternoon when my old fried Jake stopped by the house for a visit.

The wife was gone and I had a “honey do” list I was supposed to be working on but Jake was my perfect excuse. My wife would surely understand. I couldn’t be rude to an old college buddy.

Jake and I had a long conversation. Well, with Jake it’s mostly him talking and me listening. To be honest, I was a little embarrassed that Jake caught me playing John Madden football on my Nintendo set. I hadn’t actually gotten started on those chores yet. But you know what they say about all work and no play.

“Wanna get beat?” I asked knowing that Jake was a video game junkie. I motioned to the other controller and the game was on.

Now, Jake is one of these guys who wears his patriotism on his sleeve and I am cool with that. I would like to think I’m a read, white, and blue sort of guy myself. I’m not sure how the conversation got started but we were soon talking international politics and Jake was advancing his worn out isolation argument.

“I wonder why our politicians feel the need to go around helping every country in the world while there are so many unmet needs right here in the good old U.S.A,” he protested. “Why are big corporations sending so many of our jobs offshore.”

“Dunno, Jake,” I answered as my QB tossed the winning touchdown pass on the TV screen. “You know they talk these days about it being a global economy.”

“Good play,” Jake said acknowledging defeat again. I’ll be glad when my Falcons start playing for real. Did you hear they signed a Japanese wide receiver?”

“Are you serious?” I said in disbelief. “What’s more American than football? Next thing you’ll tell me is Toyota is running in NASCAR races.”

“Are you hungry?” I asked knowing there was nothing in the fridge to eat. “We can go get something.”

“How do you feel about sushi?” he responded. “I like that stuff better than a Big Mac.”

“Japanese sounds good to me,” I answered. So, we jumped in Jake’s Nissan truck and headed to Wysabi’s. I left the sushi to Jake but very much enjoyed the great show put on by the hibachi chef. He was so entertaining that Jake pulled out his little Nikon digital camera and took a few shots of the guy trying to hit my mouth with the rice.

Jake glanced at his Seiko watch and said, “Let’s go. I wanna catch the game.” The game he was talking about was the Little League World Series. “There’s nothing more American than good old baseball.” We stopped by Jake’s place since he had set his Toshiba DVD player to tape the big game. He flipped on his Sony television and sat back to enjoy all of the excitement. “I love watching these Japanese kids play baseball,” he said. “I like to scout for future Yankees.”

“Your Yanks are struggling this year, big guy,” I teased.

“Well, if we had signed Daisuka Matsuzaka instead of the Red Sox it would be a different story,” he argued.

“Now, that Sheffield is gone, who is your favorite player?”

“Hideki Matsui,” he said matter-of-factly. “He’s a five tool player; a throwback to the old days if you ask me.”

I stared at Jake and smiled. ‘Yeah, Jake, you really are all about America.”