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Written in Blood
Published: 8/3/2007 3:46 PM
Last Modified: 8/3/2007 3:46 PM

I just encountered something for which I have no explanation.
I was doing background research on golfers who will be here for next week's PGA Championship.
Research necessitated a visit to the official web site of the Japanese Tour.
That tour's Web site has vital stats on its golfers, just like the Web sites of the PGA Tour and the European Tour. But one category stuck out as extremely unusual. See if you can guess which one.
Full name.
Birthplace.
Birthdate.
Height.
Weight.
Blood type.
Blood type?
I honestly have no idea why it's necessary, or important, to list the blood type of a pro golfer in biographical information. Probably, there's a good reason. Hopefully, someone will enlighten me.
In the meanwhile, I can tell you that Nozomi Kawahara is Type O and Ryuji Masaoka is Type B.

UPDATE: Two days after this blog was posted, a reader was curious enough to find the answer.
Taylor Burke found a New York Times article about baseball player Daisuke Matsuzaka that provided the goods. Apparently, blood type is a big deal in Japanese culture. The article quoted a Harvard professor, who said, "In everyday life in Japan, blood type is used as a kind of a social lubricant, a conversation starter. It’s a piece of information that supposedly gives you some idea of what that person is like as a human being."
So, there you go. Thanks to Mr. Burke and thanks to the New York Times for solving the mystery.






Reader Comments 1 Total
gdqobm@mail.com (5 years ago)
ywstr kbxmodzaf jscfo ogwj aswry kygaxqwb zbhclmi
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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