Asians and Asian American key to Dodgers drive to World Series

DODGERS

Dodgers general manager Frahan Zaidi

WITH THE addition of another ace, the L.A. Dodgers could be baseball's equivalent to the NBA's Warriors when Golden State added superstar Kevin Durant to a starting lineup that already had three all-stars.

The Dodgers were already among the best teams in Major League Baseball this season when they added Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish to their pitching rotation. The trade sent shockwaves throughout baseball. Aside from it being pushed through just prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, the team with the best record in baseball added an ace to a starting rotation that boasted the best ERA.

Adding Davish will give the Dodgers three Asian pitchers as starters, He'll be joing a staff with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda.

At the center of the dramatic, last-minute deal is Dodgers general manager Frahan Zaidi, a Canadian of Pakistani descent, who grew up in the Philippines and was educated in the United States.

Before Darvish began his first start as a Dodger, he met with Zaidi, the man who engineered the blockbuster deal with the Rangers that brought the electric right-hander to Los Angeles minutes before the non-waiver Trade Deadline.

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Former Rangers' ace Yu Darvish in Dodger blue.

Darvish and Zaidi went over how the right-handed hurler would attack the Mets' hitters in his first start with his new team. They discussed pitch location and selection, how Darvish could best use his vast arsenal. 

At night's end, against the Mets, Darvish went seven scoreless innings allowing only three hits. His win in his debut puts the boys in blue at 77-32, 45 games over .500 and on their way to breaking their 29-year world series drought.

"He adds another ace, in my opinion," said Mets' star Jay Bruce. "He's going to be right there when the bell rings. He's one of the best pitchers in the game and they just added him. It doesn't make for an easy lineup of pitchers to go through."

"One of the things that's made him so effective is his assortment of pitches," Zaidi said. "The fastball, the ability to reach 95, 96, 97 mph, the ability to kind of take something off. He's got a couple really good off-speed pitches and a couple really good breaking balls.

"Coming to a new league, I think there's going to be an adjustment period on the part of the National League and that will really be an advantage for him," said Zaidi.

Darvish becomes the seventh Japan-born pitcher for the Dodgers, who already have right-handed starter Maeda. The best known of Japanese Dodger was Hideo Nomo, who started the All-Star game in his rookie year.

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Zayn Malik voted Top New Artist; fashion oops & downs at the American Music Awards

Zayn Malik receives his award as New Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards.

BRUNO MARS, the Filipino/American R&B singer from Hawaii, got the American Music Awards off to a rousing start with his performance of his hit "24K Magic," highlighted by his electrifying choreography, a combination of James Brown, Michael Jackson and a healthy dose of Jaberwockeez. the Asian/American dance team

RELATED: Bruno Mars has quite a night on '60 Minutes' & 'American Music Awards'

Other Asian/Americans had their moments in the spotlight last Sunday, (Oct. 20) as presenters and award recipients.

Teen-heartthrob Zayn Malik was named New Artist of the Year for his first solo album after leaving the popular  boy group One Direction. He gave special thanks to his Pakistani father when he received the award.

"Standing here is crazy. My mom, my dad, everybody in my family that's been supporting me the past year, especially my dad. Thank you, Dad. Also, big thank you to you guys. I didn't expect anybody to still vote for me. So thank you, and I"ll put it on my fireplace." In his album he included a song in which he sang some of the lyrics in Urdu, his father's native language.

Olivia Munn with Silicon Valley's T.J. Miller presented the award to Tim McGraw for Favorite Country Singer. As they introduced the singer, they did a hilarious bit mocking award show presenters. 

The Chinese/American actress also got some attention she didn't necessarily want when most fashionistas put her on their lists of "worst dressed" celebrities wearing a Reem Acra floral ensemble. Apparently, Munn broke a fashion rule, wearing a mini, showing off a lot of leg, and also showed a lot of cleavage. In the fashion world, the rule is one or the other, but not both. (I don't make the rules.)

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Chrissy Teigen's risqué dress.

On the other end of the fashion spectrum was Chrissy Teigen, who wore a floor-length black dress with two side-slits that were dangerously high, confirming that the Thai/American model was not wearing underwear. At least one photographer caught the wardrobe malfunction as Teigen walked the Red Carpet.

A wave of tweets criticized her and she responded as only Teigen can:  “I was walking. It floated. It’s over. I can’t take it back. Here is a formal apology. What else would you like?”

Teigen, who's been known to speak her mind, introduced her husband, John Legend, but couldn't help but turn the introduction into a political statement.

“What can I say? I’m very inspiring,” she said, according to Billboard, continuing, “but his songs are bigger than either of us and on the heels of what’s been a really interesting interesting f**ked up election for all of us, I think we could all use a little love tonight.” The awards show censors blocked her statement at "interesting" leaving the home audience wondering what she said.

She didn't apologize for the introduction.

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DNC: Muslim/American offers powerful, emotional moment

Khizr Khan offers Donald Trump a copy of the Constitution.

ONE OF the most emotional moments on the final night of the Democratic National Convention was the speech of Khizr Khan, father of war hero Captain Humayun S.M. Khan, who lost his life in Iraq.

Captain Khan, a University of Virginia graduate, was one of 14 American Muslims who gave their lives serving the United States during the years that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “This is our country too,” Khan, 65, said in an interview. “This is not only Donald Trump’s country."

RELATED: AAPI lawmakers take the stage at the DNC

Khan was born in Pakistan and moved his family to the United Arab Emerits before immigrating to the U.S.

In his speech, standing next to his wife, Khan said that Donald Trump wanted to ban Muslim immigration. He looked into the camera and with his finger jabbing into the air, asked Trump, "Have you even read the U.S. Constitution?" He then reached into his pocket and held up a copy of the Constitution and waved it in front of the camera. "I will gladly give you my copy." That was a powerful moment, but what he said next was even better.

"Donald Trump, you have sacrificed nothing ... no one!" Watch Khan's speech below:

Review: A star is born in 'The Night Of'

Riz Ahmed as Nasir Khan in 'The Night Of.'

EVERYBODY is talking about the breakout performance of Riz Ahmed in HBO's new crime drama The Night Of.

Ahmed's portrayal of college sttudent Nasir Khan, a Pakistani/American from Queens. is subtle and riveting. Gawky, socially awkward, secretly seeking to break out of the nerd image he's saddle with, Khan sounds like some Asian/Americans I've known. It was easy to relate to the character.

Seeing an Asian/American in a lead role is still a rarity on television despite the success of several groundbreaking shows last Fall. What makes Khan different though, is that The Night Of is not a comedy, nor is Khan a bad-ass martial artist. 
The character played by Ahmed is a Pakistani/American student accused of murdering a young white woman.  When the woman, played by Sofia Black-D’Elia, gets into the cab driven by Khan, you instantly know she is trouble. Sensing his attraction to her, she manipulates the young student back to her apartment. After having sex, he wakes up to find her dead in bed. He panics and tries to flee the scene but a neighbor spots him.

What really drives the show, though, is Ahmed's spot-on interpretation of Khan. He turns him into a sympathetic character despite the poor choices he makes. 

When he meets his lawyer, an oddball, disheveled Jack Stone played by John Turturro, the two actors play off each other like a duet of excellent jazz musicians.

"I found a real connection to Riz as a person," Turturro told EW in a recent interview. "He's really talented and a real hard worker and so smart. Look at his performance -- it's not overdone, not at all. That's where the whole thing lives. It's all in the minutia and the moment-to-moment life and the cost to this young man's life. And that's all Riz."
“What’s interesting about this show is it’s not preoccupied with race or religion,” Ahmed tells Vulture. “It’s just a reflection of a society dealing with cultural dissonance.”

Despite Ahmed''s description, one cannot help but sense the overlaying layer of race throughout the premiere last Sunday, especially in the context of the events of the previous week when two black men were shot dead by police officers and the ongoing debate about Black Lives Matter.

Ahmed has a big year in store. In addition to starring in this HBO series, he’ll also pop up in the new Jason Bourne flick and he’s playing a hotshot pilot in a little film called Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The Night Of is an eight-part limited series created by Steven Zaillian and Richard Price. The series is based on the BBC’s Criminal Justice, created by Peter Moffat. The story examines the police investigation, the legal proceedings, the criminal justice system and the infamous Rikers Island, where the accused in New York await trial for felony crimes.


The Night Of airs on Sunday nights 9 p.m., ET/PT, on HBO.

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