After I had written that thing about cricket being considered the world’s most civilized sport, I actually did some research to confirm that that was a widely-held assessment. But it seems that, actually, golf is considered the world’s most civilized sport.
…
Really, now?
Golf is considered a sport?
…why?
But, be that as it may, cricket is still probably considered one of the world’s most civilized sports. Especially when you compare it to bullying and petty criminality, which is the comparison that’s relevant here.*
Anyway, Youichi pulls off a pretty impressive entry. As Yogi correctly observes, that’s not terribly surprising: intimidating-entry-making is a key module in the Juvenile Delinquency 101 course that Youichi would have had to attend after joining the Shinkai Yuri Gakuen Junior Delinquents Club. Yes, it’s an official club – it’s important to set delinquents on the right path early on, or you’ll never have proper organized criminality. And who would want disorganized criminality? It sucks.
So Youichi pulls that off pretty effectively. And he’s obviously also put an appropriate amount of thought into finding the proper balance between delinquency and sportsmanship. And that’s not actually that easy, as many a betting scandal over the decades have proven. He’s playing it safe, though: 50/50 is pretty much the soul of compromise. Wearing his shirt half inside his pants and half outside is exactly the kind of carefully balanced approach that’s called for.
More on Thursday.
*Of course normally I would have said that bullying and petty criminality aren’t sports…but, hey, if even golf qualifies as a sport, bullying and petty criminaltiy most surely do.