From: kig9584@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kyoko Inoue )
Subject: Re: US/Japan volleyball protest
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 10:44:11 GMT
Keywords: protest

solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) writes:

>In article <1992Jul29.190427.18833@midway.uchicago.edu>, hau4@ellis.uchicago.edu (sven  hauptfeld) writes:


>The ref didn't want to end the game on a red card, and since he figured it
>wouldn't make any difference, he let Samuelson get away with his tantrum.
>It turned out that the US was able to salvage the game, however, and the
>Japanese protested. Under pressure from Acosta, the ref said he made a
>mistake and the win was reversed. In other words, his free judgement was
>overturned because he changed his mind 24 hours latter. This is like Fay
>Vincent overrulling an Umpire in the World Series. It is the first time I
>have EVER heard of a sports association overturning a free judgement.
>I think the players are correct when they say that the win was reversed
>because the Japanese donate the most money to volleyball.

>Jason W. Solinsky


What a cheap thing to say!  We are not some sort of a "Japan Merger &
Acquisition Inc."  (BTW I'm a Japanese.)

What's most intriguing about this whole thing, at least to me, is the way
Japanese protested against the ref's call.  Right after the 4th set, I was
expecting the game to stop while the Japanese coaches protest against the
referees.  As I recall, the 4th set ended with a weird drop of a ball by
the Japanese players, which looked as if all of a sudden they lost interest
in continuing the game.  NBC announser commented that a whistle from the
crowd confused the players to think that it was a signal to stop playing.
Maybe, but maybe not.  I had an impression that they were waiting for the
referee to realize the two yellow cards meant the match for the Japanese team.
And, at that moment, the Japanese players stopped because they thought 
the referee changed his mind to call off the game (this is just my speculation).

When it turned out that the game was still going on, I was almost certain
the Japanese coaches would go up to the referee or score takers, and
have the game stopped until they come to an agreement (or at least get a
translator for the uncommunicative referees).  If the American team was in
the Japanese position, they would probably have done that.  I do not know
the precise regulations in filing protests, but when the 5th set started,
I was so angry at the lack of communication skills on the Japanese side.  
It appeared to me that they gave up their right to stand up and speak openly
what they believed to be true.  

By forfeiting their chance to express themselves to the referee as well as
to the crowd all over the world, the Japanese coaches (I would not include
the players, since they are restrained from protesting against the ref...
the violation results in yellow cards) left an impression that they would
follow the referee's judgment and agreed on his decision to carry on the
remaining game.  When the players came back to the court, American players
must have felt that their opponents agreed to resume the game because they
agreed to the referee's decision.  That is why American players got so angry
when the win was reversed---they thought they were cheated, first by
the Japanese players who "agreed" to continue the play based on the   
referee's decision on no-2nd-yellow-card, and second by the referee himself.

Frankly, I did not expect the result to be reversed, the moment the 5th
set started, no matter what the result of the 5th set might be.  I even
threw in an angry comment to the news group <soc.culture.japan> on the lack
of voice from the Japanese bench.  But in reality, the result WAS reversed,
and everybody is left with bad feelings.  

I do not (and do not want to) believe that the economic power Japan has
had any impact on the reversal of the win, but cannot help thinking
about the parallel between the way Japanese protested in this case and
the way corporate negotiations are made among Japanese businessmen --- 
behind closed doors.  

Kyoko Inoue
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Illinois, U-C



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