THAT'S NOT A MIDDLE FINGER, HE JUST THINKS KOSUKE IS #1

I work with a gentleman named Richard Roundtree. I'm almost certain he doesn't know who I am...but I think of him all the time.

Richard Roundtree has the same name of the actor who played the title role in the original 1971 movie, "SHAFT." So, every time I pass him in the hallway, the Shaft movie theme song, sung by Isaac Hayes, comes to mind. My favorite lyric is, "That cat Shaft is a bad mother..." That phrase you may recall, is interrupted by the female chorus chiming in, "Shut you mouth!"

Well, if you are as old as I am, maybe you remember that in the original recording, there is an added "f" syllable after the word, mother. Apparently that hint of profanity forced the record producer to tweak the song to make it more presentable to the record buying public as well as the radio listeners of the time.

A similar problem has cropped up this year in baseball. But I do NOT see any way to "tweak-away" this profanity.

His first name is Kosuke but I have a feeling that he'll be someone known strickly by his last name. Having been imported from the Japanese major league, he's a rookie on this year's Chicago Cubs. He's gotten off to an impressive start and immediately developed into a fan favorite. Although his prowess on the field deserves mentioning, his name alone made him legendary before he stepped on the field. You see Kosuke's last name is pronounced FOO-KOO-DOE-ME but it is spelled...F-U-K-U-D-O-M-E.

The scope of his name's notoriety was evident on opening day. Four shirtless Cubs' fans each had a letter painted on their chest. When they stood together in sequence it spelled F-U-K-U. Unfortunately, a picture of them was unavailable at press time.

During that first game, Fukudome had three hits including a dramatic ninth inning three-run home run that sent the game into extra innings.

Yes, the lowly Cubs had a public relations boon on their hands. If he could have retired as he crossed home plate, he would have been crowned president of Chicago. But alas, the game carried on and in the next inning, they proved to be the same old Cubbies...and lost.
Through the first half-month of the season, despite Fukudome being a bad mother-f , (shut your mouth), the Cubs are once again especially ordinary.
(Editor's note) - In 2006, while at the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio, Andrew and I listened to the Shaft theme song and they too had the edited version without the added "f."