I was just thinking about the 2005 Japan Series again, since that was the first one I really followed every game for. As such, I have come to the conclusion that the following things are required for Lotte to win the Japan Series:
- a difficult weather phenomenon during Game 1 (2005: ridiculous fog that eventually stopped the game in Chiba. 2010: a typhoon hitting the eastern seaboard of Japan during Game 1, but it was in a dome)
- a Korean 1B/DH who first earns the ire of the Lotte fans but comes through in the postseason and gets back into everyone's good graces (2005: Seung-Yeop Lee, 2010: Tae-kyun Kim.)
- Shunsuke Watanabe throwing at least one complete-game win (2005: Game 2, 2010: Game 3)
- a closer named Kobayashi who blows at least one save in the postseason (2005: Masahide, 2010: Hiroyuki)
- a foreign pitcher to surprise everyone with a start (and win!) in Chiba (2005: Dan Serafini, 2010: Hayden Penn)
- Toshiaki Imae coming through in clutch situations and winning an MVP
- The opposition putting up an ancient lefty pitcher as a starter (2005: Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, 2010: Masahiro Yamamoto)
I'll add to this as I think of more -- or feel free to chime in yourself!
Oh, for the record, I bought a ticket today for the SK Wyverns vs. Chiba Lotte Marines game this coming Saturday. If you're thinking of going, I suggest jumping on tickets soon -- the Lotte fans are going to fill the Tokyo Dome, I think. (I'm expecting they'll have to sell a lot of IF unreserved tickets and open up the 2nd floor, honestly.)
3 comments:
Ha, I actually thought about this last night, although not as many as you did. Big difference between the two series - one was over before game 1 even started, and one seemed like it was gonna go forever.
Btw, I've started playing a neat online baseball game recently. (http://yto.hangame.co.jp/) It's a game where you buy baseball cards and then put out your own lineups, and compete with other people online. You basically need to spend only 10-20 minutes on it a day to maintain the team, but I guess it's something you can do during the off-season that's related to baseball. It's kinda neat too, especially if you get some luck and draw some good cards (I was lucky to get Darvish very early on, and now my team's pitching staff is anchored by him and Yoshimi.)
Go check it out if you're interested.
I agree with Shin on this one -- the 2005 Series was much less of a tooth-and-nail battle for supremacy. This year's Series was, basically, WAR!!!1!!!1
(Of course, being a Dragons fan, I'm biased in this regard, but although Lotte had the upper hand throughout this series you have to admit that Chunichi did not give up without a bare-knuckle fight. Congratulations to the Marines, but we were most decidedly formidable opponents.)
Oh, yeah, this was a much better Japan Series in general. I was just trying to make a funny by finding random things in common between the two of them. I seriously almost wondered if Chunichi was going to turn the tides and take the series towards the end.
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