One of my greatest accomplishments as a professor: Turning a French student into a Hanshin fan!

Continuing the theme of having great pride in my students... In my Globalization class we spend some time talking about global sports and I use baseball as an example with the Hanshin Tigers as a case study. This is often times difficult for my European students and others from countries where baseball is not so popular or even non-existent. After informing me of his confusion and lack of knowledge about baseball, Gwendal left his comfort zone for some fieldwork. His own words:

"As you -insisted- suggested in class, I went to Koshien to watch the Tigers this evening and THEY WON! I indeed liked the atmosphere here and shared this moment with the people around my seat that were surprisingly friendly toward me. Some young Japanese boys even lend me a pair of the things to make some noise and asked me after the match to take a picture together."

Excellent!

Hanshin progress report as of 5/29/23: First place in the Central League (6 games ahead of second place DeNA) and riding an 8-game winning streak!