veggie@vaxuum.DEC (04/16/84)
* ALL-VEGETABLE LINE FOR THE LINE EATER * [The following is copied without permission from _Parade_ magazine. YAVSS := Yet Another Vegetarian Success Story] A Japanese baseball team climbed from the cellar to first place by switching to a macrobiotic diet. Beginning in October 1981, when he took over as manager of the Seibu Lions, Tatsuro Hirooka prescribed a dietary change for his players, who had finished in last place the previous season. Hirooka limited their meat intake and banned polished rice and sugar altogether. Instead, he said, his players would eat unpolished rice, tofu, fish and soybean milk. The following spring, he ordered them onto a vegetable and soy diet. Hirooka told his men that meats and other "animal foods" increase an athlete's susceptibility to injuries. Natural foods, on the other hand, protect the body from sprains and dislocations and keep the mind clear. The Lions took a lot of ribbing during the 1982 season. The manager of the Nippon-Ham Fighters - a team sponsored by a major meat company - called the Lions "the goat team" and sneered, "They are only eating weeds." But the Lions edged out the Ham Fighters for the Pacific League championship in what sportswriters called the "Vegetable vs. Meat War," then went on to beat the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series. Seibu again won the Pacific League championship and the Japan Series in 1983. Food for thought, isn't it?