A few weeks ago I read short snippet on some blog that Nolan Ryan had reared back and fired a 90+ heater on a ceremonial first pitch at a Japanese Major League game.
Now I find out, courtesy of the ingeniously walled-off Wall Street Journal, that Ryan wasn’t in Japan to show off the benefits of pumping Advil, but to hawk American beef to Japanese consumers.
Japan banned the importation of American beef in 2003 after a Mad Cow Disease scare. While it has since relented, for the most part, American beef sales are stuck at around 10% of what they once were.
So the U.S. Meat Export Federation sent Nolan Ryan over there to offer the Japanese his private stock of Grade A beef.
From the article:
“The promotion also included focus groups at which Mr. Ryan told customers how the beef ban had affected his family ranch, which produces about 1,900 calves a year and has seen prices fall due to a decrease in demand. Mr. Ryan, known for his record-breaking fastball, retired from Major League Baseball in 1993 and is now president of the American Breeds Coalition, an organization that promotes U.S. cattle.”
Sounds like it would take an awful lot of brisket-stuffed Hello Kitty backpacks to win back our far Eastern friends. One consumer told the WSJ that she was “not 100% sure” that U.S. beef was safe.
“Besides, Japanese beef is delicious,” she said.
Here’s a free version of the story in a non-WSJ publication.
Robin Ventura getting tenderized by the man himself
