oNaKaQui

a Chicagoan for life. ..just living one day at a time!

[Front Office Sports @FOS]

Yale's marching band wasn't able to travel to Spokane for their NCAA Tournament game against Auburn today.

So, Idaho's band filled in for them—and wore Yale apparel.

[The Prince and Princess of Wales @KensingtonRoyal]

A message from Catherine, The Princess of Wales

[NBC Sports @NBCSports]

CLASSES CANCELED.

Duquesne professor Robert Healy III sent a message to his students after the Dukes beat BYU in the first round. #MarchMadness

[Front Office Sports @FOS]

LeBron surprised Duquesne’s entire team with shoes ahead of their first NCAA Tournament game since 1977.

James played for the Dukes’ head coach, Keith Dambrot, in high school.

(via @DuqMBB)

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

@MorganKolkmeyer @MorganK32793 Done! 😊

[Jeff Passan @JeffPassan]

In honor of the first MLB game this season in Korea that starts in five minutes on ESPN, here is a thread I wrote six years ago -- culled into one tweet thanks to no character limitations -- about an amazing night that reminded me why we love baseball. Enjoy.

***

So I’m in Seoul last night, on the way home from PyeongChang, and I meet a group of three Americans and a Korean who essentially adopt me for the night. They show me around the Hongdae neighborhood, and by the time we’re ready to go home, open cabs are few and far between.

All five of us jam into one -- me shotgun, the rest in back -- and the cab driver is pissed. He’s in his early 60s, probably, with a deep, authoritative voice. He starts barking. All of us go silent. He begrudgingly drives, drops the other four off and heads toward my hotel.

I figure it’s silence the rest of the way. Only he says, “USA?” I say, “Yes.” He nods, and then he looks at me and says, “Pro baseball?” And I have to compose myself for a second, because of all the things for a random cabbie in Seoul to say, I did not expect “Pro baseball.”

Naturally, I say “Pro baseball!” I try to tell him I write about pro baseball! He gives me a quizzical look. I figure our moment is going to end there. Then the cabbie says, “Randy Johnson!” Holy shit! Did he just say Randy Johnson?

He continued: “Randy Johnson! Fastball!” Then he put his hands together, spread them apart and made an exploding noise. And I’m pretty sure the cabbie driving me home in Seoul was letting me know that Randy Johnson once destroyed a bird with a fastball.

“Curt Schilling!” he continues, and I’m wondering why he’s naming 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks when it dawns on me: Byung-Hyun Kim was their closer, and when the Diamondbacks were in the World Series, Korean fans tuned in to watch Kim, a native son.

The cabbie wasn’t done. “Sammy Sosa!” he said. I showed him a recent picture of Sosa. His eyebrows jumped. “Sammy Sosa?” he said.

The last player he brought up was Ken Griffey Jr. I tried to run some names by him: Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge. The only one he knew was Clayton Kershaw. I’m not positive why Kershaw -- probably Hyun-Jin Ryu? -- but he nodded and motioned with his left arm.

For 15 minutes, we had a real conversation despite speaking two completely different languages. He barely knows English. I know even less Korean. Baseball -- excuse me: pro baseball -- was the only translator we needed.

When you see leagues pushing for a foothold in other countries, this is why. The universality of sports isn’t just the domain of the Olympics. It’s soccer, it’s basketball and, yes, it’s even pro baseball.

I’m tweeting from over the Pacific, on my way back to cover baseball, the perfect bridge to that built, of all people, by a cabbie in a city of 10 million. Gamsahamnida, PyeongChang, for being a truly great Olympic host -- and to Seoul, too, for an unforgettable night.

[OBVIOUS SHIRTS® @obvious_shirts]

Opening Day: 9 days away.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

My picks are in! I sat down to talk about them with @CraigMalRob and @UKCoachCalipari on their podcast Ways To Win from @HGMedia. Check out our conversation wherever you get your podcasts. And please don’t rub it in when my bracket gets busted. https://t.co/pVLfuHjYmo

[OBVIOUS SHIRTS® @obvious_shirts]

Giving away 24 Obvious Shirts to 24 lucky winners if Cody Bellinger resigns with The Chicago Cubs.

To enter:
1. Follow @obvious_shirts
2. Like this X
3. Repost this X
#SignCodyBellinger

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

@amritjacob that is #AWESOME

[MetLife @MetLife]

Today, MetLife is 155 years old! That’s 155 years of being there for our people, our customers, our communities and our shareholders, helping to build more confident futures. Cheers to living our purpose for the next 155 years!

[Rob Friedman @PitchingNinja]

Pedro complimenting Shohei is Fantastic. ❤️

[And Shohei looking embarrassed to get all that praise]

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

@NiallOfficial you are too cute @NiallOfficial 😘

[Niall Horan @NiallOfficial]

A letter to all of you ❤️

[Taylor McGregor @Taylor_McGregor]

Willson Contreras and Ian Happ were the final two players in the dugout. They shared this embrace.

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

enjoying a family fun day with the @windycitybulls #section103 #row5

[Marcus Stroman @STR0]

Wrigley Field is the only big league stadium I haven’t pitched at in my career. Crazy. Can’t wait to call it home! @Cubs

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

in omnia paratus #GTMcontest152 #GilMOREtheMerrier

[oNaKaQui @posey12]

B. Renaissance #GTMcontest119 #GilMOREtheMerrier