Late but not denied, Bruce (with rather poor audio this time) and Andy discuss the immanent Natsu basho. Can you take 40 minutes of two fans talking sumo?
Late but not denied, Bruce (with rather poor audio this time) and Andy discuss the immanent Natsu basho. Can you take 40 minutes of two fans talking sumo?
Oh yes, Tachiai podcasts are my favourite thing
Some brave predictions, I love it.
I think Tochi’s January wins are okay for the ozeki run. He was M3, so he was in the joi – though Hakuho and Kisenosato pulled out before he could face them.
Just seen the shop, god almighty these tshirts are phenomenal
Really enjoyed the podcast, More any time! Your comments on Abi and Ichinojo got me thinking, IMO, Abi might just be able to pull it off in that his arms are long enough to reach around the Mongolith and grab the mawashi, Although one he had it I can’t see him getting far. (Imagine a rikishi with Abi’s arms and Tochinosan’s legs. (I am now picturing an evil genius sumo-obsessed doctor creating the perfect rikishi. Hmmmm,,,what other parts might he have?) plus he is really agile and can jump around like a grasshopper. Ichinojo will probably win, but Abi might surprise us. Counting the hours til tomorrow.
The sumo association clearly said this is Tochinoshin’s Ozeki basho. If he doesn’t make it with 11 wins, I’ll eat my hat.
Zensho yusho by Goeido? Well, it’s happened once before. Of course, I’ve had my wisdom teeth pulled out once and I don’t think that’s likely to happen again either. I’d say it’s about as likely as Goeido moving forward all 15 days. And I’ll take a bet on Daieisho NOT getting anywhere near kk. Even with those caveats I enjoyed the podcast and appreciate you guys taking the time to make it.
Predictions that the Cavs or Warriors will win the NBA Championship and the Penguins will beat the Caps in the second round are boring. I like to mix things up because it’s fun. Glad you enjoyed it.
As a point of clarification, Tochinoshin was M3 when he won his yusho, and faced all the sanyaku rikishi who were not injured, winning 5 out of the 6 bouts. If he gets 11 wins here he will absolutely be promoted to ozeki; if he gets 10 wins he will probably be promoted; 9 will almost certainly NOT be enough for promotion, even though he’d have 33 wins over the last three basho, which is generally considered the magic number for promotion. (Although a number of rikishi, including Kisenosato, have been promoted with fewer.)
You’re absolutely right. I had been thinking of the tournament prior. I’m still stuck on why 9 wins at Sekiwake won’t be enough. I see why not for his tournament at M6 before the yusho, especially if he knocks off a Yokozuna?
33 is a rough guideline. They want you to average ~11 for 3 tournaments, and less than 10 in any one of the 3, and especially the last one, really lowers chances for promotion. I recall Josh has posted the relevant db query before, but here’s one: http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query.aspx?show_form=0&n_basho=4&sum_wins=33&show_sum=on&form2_rank=s&form3_rank=s&form4_rank=s&columns=4
Most recent and relevant, in 2006 Miyabiyama went 10-14-10-9 wins while ranked K-S-S-S and didn’t get promoted.
He’s a very interesting case. I wonder if they were more hesitant to promote him since 1) he already had been Ozeki and been demoted, 2) he didn’t face Asashoryu when he won 14 and 3) Asashoryu was the lone Yokozuna. In this case, Tochinoshin will face 2 Yokozuna.
Miyabiyama also had about the worst-possible 10-5 record in that third tournament, starting the basho only 5-5 (with a fusensho!) and essentially ending his ozeki run right then and there. It made the 14-1 look like a fluke, and that he somehow pulled out 5 straight wins afterwards to close the basho was pretty much immaterial. Sometimes it’s all about the narrative, and his just didn’t fit the image of an ozeki promotion. (Not promoting on a mediocre 9-win third basho arguably is the same idea – the narrative becomes “couldn’t handle the pressure”.)
Probably didn’t help that they already had 5 ozeki at that point, too.