For those of you who aren't aware - the Stars and Stripes is the military's main form of a "local" newspaper...one in Germany, I think two out here in the Pacific theater, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq...ANYWAY...below is what they ran on the bottom half of the front page of today's paper...Looking closely you will see everyone's favorite skinny white dude (me) hard at work (leaned back in the chair) taking in the whoopin' by South Korea...it was a good time though watching the game with my korean homies...we ordered a bunch of pizzas, and pretty much shut the shop down for a couple hours to watch the game...they had a blast and are proud as hell of their guys...here's the trick though - in South Korea all males must serve at least two years in the military after high school...the majority of the baseball players on this team however, have yet to fulfill that obligation...I found out yesterday - while questioning how a team that any single player on the American team could buy and sell ten times over could possibly beat us - that if the South Korean team makes it to the final bracket of the World Baseball Classic they will not have to join the military...and there you have it...

here is the short story that they put together on the inside of today's Korea edition...the photo is of the gigantic TV that we have in the main part of our office for some reason - which is apparently to watch baseball...I can deal with that...