26 Comments
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Stephie Haynes's avatar

Holy crap what a shakeup!

Happy Birthday Tim!

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thanks Steph! I know you want Kotozakura to win, but who is your second choice for this basho?

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Stephie Haynes's avatar

I'm gonna say Hoss

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Fantasy Basho's avatar

Happy Birthday! Technically speaking, Tamawashi will always be older than you. Another reason to hope he keeps it up.

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thank you :) Tamawashi will also always be cooler than me. It is inspiring seeing guys in their late 30s and 40s still throw down with the best of them.

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Loren's avatar

Happy Birthday Tim :)

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thanks Loren!

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Dan Gidlund's avatar

Happy birthday! And huzzah for spring and sumo indeed, finally!

My top 3 of day 1:

3. Gonoyama besting Daiesho in Daiesho stuff

2. Onosato somehow looking like a 185kg wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man (as he sometimes does)

1. Midorifuji in a beautiful blood-red sash tossing Shonnanoumi back where he came from

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Hey Dan, thank you and thanks for dropping by.

I'm out here desperate for a Gonoyama breakthrough tournament.

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Elizabeth Oldham (she/her)'s avatar

Happy Birthday! Nice to be back with the March basho!

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thanks Elizabeth! March is just a wonderful time of year. We've got sumo, the snow is melting (in Ontario) and I get gifts and cake.

Any plans for this month?

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Elizabeth Oldham (she/her)'s avatar

Publishing my 2nd novel on March 25! (one of the narrators is an amateur female MMA fighter)

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Amazing! Congratulations.

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Whoopdy Do's avatar

Happy birthday, Tim!

Do we know for certain that Kotonowaka is injured? Do we know the nature of the injury? For sure something is wrong, but he's not showing any obvious physical cause.

Waka Bros off to another slow start. The final moves by Wakatakakage to avoid going out were nearly acrobatic, and he's scored some of his greatest victories with last-second pivoting on the ropes, but I think Onosato is getting him figured out.

Have to admit I'm not a big fan of Daieisho, but I'm rooting for him to make ozeki.

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thank you!

Nothing official regarding Kotozakura's injury. His left knee is a decent amount of strapping on it, though. Based on his performances, I'm speculating that his knee is bothering him. He doesn't seem to have any power in the clinch, which suggests to me he's not able to bend and fully engage those muscles.

Wakatakakage had a nice streak going against Onosato until recently. He's very hard to beat anyway, but Onosato is very good against those he has a big size advantage over.

What is it about Daieisho that rubs you the wrong way?

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Uta R.'s avatar

Nachträgliche Geburtstagsgrüße aus Deutschland und ich freue mich auf viele Sumo-Kommentare in Deinem neuen Lebensjahr!

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Danke Uta! Genieße den Sumo!

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Whoopdy Do's avatar

She said, "Belated birthday greetings from Germany and I look forward to many sumo comments in your new year!"

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Thank you for the translation :)

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Daniel Nickel's avatar

Kinbozan got his new picture in Grand Sumo highlights! He deserved it. Happy birthday Tim and welcome to the club. I joined it myself in July.

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Tim Bissell's avatar

Someone told me this is the club where the warranty starts to expire on everything. I think the warranty on my lower back went a few years ago.

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Daniel Nickel's avatar

I do believe the warranty expires on the back soon than the rest.

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Whoopdy Do's avatar

Ha ha! I agree, my wife and I hated that mugshot. That sneer made him look like somebody you wanted to see get beat.

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Daniel Nickel's avatar

It was so bad.

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Jack of all's avatar

Did Hoshuro crack a smile of surprise before he turned to walk back?

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Tim Bissell's avatar

I'm sure he did. He's usually quite expressive on a surprise loss.

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