A baseball blog written by a Fighters fangirl who moved back to the US after several years in Japan. Probably likely to continue being about Japanese amateur baseball and bashing the Yomiuri Giants, but who knows what the future holds.
After watching the Toshitaikou bracketing on Saturday, I was like "Hey, I was thinking of going to Jingu tonight for the Yakult-Hanshin game, wanna go?"
So we did.
Before the game, I had a very important piece of business to take care of, however. You see, it's been over a year now since Ryuji moved to Sendai, and it's been a long process for me to get over him and find a new guy. I'd started to notice a certain outfielder towards the end of last year though, and after some soul-searching this year, while I realized I am actually more into Mikinori, it's so unpredictable to know when I'll actually get to see him, you never know where he's going to be.
So I finally went ahead and committed to Yasushi:
And so far, he has reciprocated in kind :)
(In other words, I went and bought a Yasushi Iihara #9 jersey before the game, because I realized that getting a Mikinori Katoh jersey specially made was going to take more time and money than I have right now. And apparently I bring Iihara good luck for hitting home runs. Though I'm a little sad because I wanted an away jersey rather than a home jersey, but "free size" away jerseys have like a 31" chest, whereas "free size" home jerseys had a 40" chest, so I had to go with the one that was actually going to, you know, fit me.)
Anyway, we went and found seats in the infield part of outfield unreserved kind of near the bullpen, and I went off to the top of section D to say hi to Kozo and some of the other Tsubamegun friends. While lineups were announced, I was in the underpass getting food and putting on sunscreen and stuff, so imagine my surprise when I emerge back into daylight and see this:
MIKINORI KATOH! WAS THE STARTER! INSTEAD OF MURANAKA! DUDE!
See, I may have mentioned that part of why we went to the Toshitaikou bracketing in the first place was to find out when former Tokyo Big 6 guys would be playing in that tournament, so finding out that former Keio ace Mikinori Katoh was starting the game at Jingu was also a nice added bonus. Mikinori was the last guy to win 30 games in a Big 6 career -- and I was there for his 30th win, against freshman Yuki Saitoh in the Fall 2007 Soukeisen. Which is ironic because Saitoh himself is now up to 27 wins, so if he can get 3 more this coming fall, which is his last chance, he'll be the next one.
And Mikinori just got his first pro win a week or two ago, too.
So I was pretty psyched to see him out there again!
...until Kenji Johjima blasted a home run to left field in the 2nd inning to make it 2-0 in favor of Hanshin.
And it just got worse in the 3rd, what with a Murton 2-RBI single and a Takahiro Arai 2-run homer. 6-0. Katoh came out of the game right after the Arai homer and Shun Takaichi came in.
And I spent the next few innings being pretty bummed out.
Aoki scored a run in the bottom of the 3rd off two wild pitches -- no, really, he singled to right to get on base, moved to 3rd base on a wild pitch to Hiroyasu Tanaka, and then Hiroyasu walked, the 4th ball also being a wild pitch and Aoki scored then. 6-1.
A crazy thing happened in the 4th -- with a runner at 3rd base, Keiichi Hirano hit a bouncy grounder to second. Hiroyasu Tanaka fielded it and threw to first just in time to get Hirano out on a headslide into the bag. But Hirano didn't agree with that and threw his helmet to the ground and got ejected from the game, and a bunch of Hanshin coaches ran out and argued. Wada shoved the umpire and ALSO got ejected, and the call still stood, and both guys were out of the game, Yamato replacing Hirano at 2nd base.
We were lamenting that it wasn't Hiroki Uemoto replacing Hirano, being as we are partial to former Big 6 players, even Waseda ones, and Uemoto's little brother is currently at Meiji anyway. But apparently Saturday was the only game of the weekend where Uemoto DIDN'T make a token appearance.
Anyway, Hanshin continued to happen. Murton singled in the 5th, Arai followed it with a double to put runners at 2nd and 3rd, and then Murton scored when Brazell grounded out to second, and Arai scored when Kanemoto grounded into a rare G4 Unassisted play as Hiroyasu Tanaka was just faster than both Kanemoto and Josh Whitesell to get the ball and get to the bag. So that brought it to 8-1.
My boy Yasushi Iihara hit a ball into the right-field foul pole for a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 5th to cut the lead to 8-4. Hooray!
Takashi Toritani (dude, can you count how many Waseda alums were in this game?) walked to get on base in the 6th, stole second during Yamato's at-bat... and the throw to get him at second was a little off and so he was safe. The stupid thing is, the ball got away from Tanaka at 2nd base and went into the outfield, and NOBODY got it, so Toritani took 3rd as well! Sheesh. He scored on a Murton single a little bit later. 9-4.
I visited the upper outfield again in the 8th inning, and while I was there, Aaron Guiel pinch-hit a doule and scored on a Miyamoto single to make it 9-5.
(And as people were saying that apparently Yasushi did think I look good in a #9 jersey, I pointed out that "See, if they'd had Katoh #16 jerseys, he would have hit a home run today instead!")
Lotte Hanshin starter Yasutomo Kubo almost got the complete-game win, but in the 9th inning with two outs, up around 150 pitches, he gave up a single to Aoki and then another single to Tanaka, and so Mayumi pulled Kubo and put in Kyuji Fujikawa to pitch to Yasushi Iihara... and it took all of 3 pitches to get Iihara to ground out to end the game, sadly.
Matt Murton was 4-for-5 with 3 RBI on the evening, so he was the game hero.
Oh well.
I still enjoyed sitting out at Jingu for the evening. I really DO seem to live there this year, don't I.
I happen to be home and the Fighters-Tigers game happens to be on BS1 to kick off interleague, so I happen to be trying to liveblog it!
Wish I was there though. Koshien is one of two pro stadiums in Japan that I haven't seen the Fighters play at. (I've been there plenty, just haven't been there for a FIGHTERS game.)
I have a Tokyo Big 6 Weekend Photopost in the works, but I've been sick or something the last few days, REALLY tired.
Kensuke 2b Murton cf Hichori lf Hirano 2b Inaba rf Toritani ss Koyano 3b Arai 3b Itoi cf Johjima c Shinji 1b Brazell 1b Kaneko! ss Sakurai rf Tsuruoka c Katsuragi lf Keppel p Kubo p
Top of the first (F 0, T 0) Kensuke grounds out to short. Hichori strikes out. Inaba... grounds out to second. That took all of like 3 minutes.
Bottom of the first (F 0, T 0) Murton gets to a full count before grounding out to second. Hirano singles to center. One on, one out. Toritani... watches a pitch go by low and THE PITCHOUT IS SUCCESSFUL and Hirano is caught stealing! Two outs. But then Toritani walks. Oops. One on, two out. Arai grounds into a fielder's choice, short to second. Three out.
Man, are these special interleague uniforms again for Hanshin? The weird trim isn't nearly as bad as some past ones they've pulled, I suppose.
There's Kanemoto on the bench -- I assume they're keeping his games played streak alive even if the innings one isn't...
Top of the second (F 0, T 0) Koyano singles to center! One on, no out. Itoi follows it with a low fly ball to right, caught. One on, one out. Shinji hits a couple fouls, including one that gets Brazell to dive headfirst into the camera well, before ARGH grounding back to the mound for a double play, 1-6-3. Three down. Sigh.
Bottom of the second (F 0, T 0) Johjima hits a pop fly up to right. Brazell hits one up the middle for a single. One on, one out. Sakurai hacks one down the left field line and Koyano throws it to second for the force, no double play though. One on, two out. Katsuragi grounds up towards first and Shinji makes the out. Three down.
Johjima looks older than I remember him. I guess he always had some salt-and-pepper hair, but it just looks like more now? I mean, he's only a year older than me...
Yay! "Shiroi Ball Fantasy"! See, the Pacific League is cooler because we HAVE a league song.
Top of the third (F 0, T 0) Kaneko fouls one off his leg (ouch - at least it was the one with the shinguard) before getting called out on strikes. Doh. Tsuruoka hits a high fly to shallow center, caught by Toritani. Keppel also hits a high fly pop, this time to right, caught, three outs.
Bottom of the third (F 0, T 0) Kubo grounds out to short. Murton strikes out swinging! Hirano grounds out to Kaneko. Hooray!
Top of the fourth (F 2, T 0) Kensuke singles to left while I am downstairs putting in laundry. Hichori bunts him up to second, SB1-4, 2nd, one out. Inaba Jump!! singles to left and Kensuke scores!!! 1-0!! Unfortunately, Inaba tries to get to second on the play and is out in a rundown, 7-4-3. Two out. Koyano hits a long fly ball to right and Sakurai alllllllmost gets it but it bounces off his arm and falls for a double!!! 2nd, two out. Itoi walks! 1st and 2nd, two out. Shinji hits a grounder to short and it TAKES A BAD BOUNCE AND GOES THROUGH TORITANI for a hit! Safe at first, Itoi at second, and Koyano scores! 2-0!! 1st and 2nd, two out. Kaneko grounds out to second.
Still, two runs! Even though I'm not there, it'd be nice to see the Fighters win one :)
Bottom of the fourth (F 2, T 0) Toritani grounds out to first, unassisted. Arai hits a pop fly to right. Johjima grounds to third and Koyano is AWESOME and makes this awesome running snag and throw to first.
Dear the MLB: This is how defense SHOULD be.
Top of the fifth (F 2, T 0) Tsuruoka strikes out. Doh. Keppel grounds to third -- nice try but the throw barely beats him to first base. Kensuke also strikes out. Three down.
This is unrelated, but hearing the announcers pronounce Keppel as "Kep-peh-ru" reminded me of how today at my JHS we were talking about animals, and trying to get people to prounounce a "Wolf" as one syllable in this country is near impossible -- just like how when Brian Wolfe is pitching, he becomes "u-ru-fu", and I can't convince Fighters fans of his one-syllableness either.
I am going to also say that the most amusing thing of this half-inning was watching the police come and escort three people out of the front row of seats behind home plate, including a dude in a Kanemoto jersey with a big yellow and black afro wig. You know, if you're going to go sit somewhere you don't have tickets for, does it make any sense to sit right behind home plate in the front row and be super-conspicuous?
Bottom of the fifth (F 2, T 0) Brazell hits a BIG BIG BIG FOUL BALL!1!11 HAHAHAHA no, seriously it barely missed the foul pole in left. Then he hits ANOTHER HUGE FOUL BALL but this time to right. Well, anyway, a few balls and fouls later, when the stadium is no longer being faked out, he singles to right. One on, no out. Sakurai gets called out on strikes. 1st, one out. Katsuragi grounds into a double play, 4-6-3, and that's the inning! Yay.
Top of the sixth (F 2, T 0) Hichori grounds out to third. Inaba hits a pop fly out to left. Koyano, unfortunately, gets called out on strikes. Three down.
Bottom of the sixth (F 2, T 0) OMG SHINJIRO HIYAMA IS PINCH-HITTING!!!!!! but he grounds out to second. :) Murton grounds out to second. Hirano grounds out to first with the pitcher covering.
For the record, it's 7:30pm. I have to go take my laundry out in about 15 minutes.
Also, Kubo got replaced on the mound by YUSUKE KAWASAKI!!!!!!! Holy crap! He looks totally different in a Tigers uniform. And he's wearing #62. I find it somewhat amusing that a former Lotte pitcher was followed by a former Lotte reliever... in interleague.
Top of the seventh (F 2, T 0) Itoi strikes out looking. Shinji...has to wait a minute for a pitching change, as the TV cuts to the Hanshin bullpen, where we see Ryo Watanabe warming up.
So, Watanabe replaces Kawasaki on the mound. The Tigers fans start blowing up their balloons. I hope they all pop by the time they get released.
Shinji walks on four straight pitches. 1st, one out. Kaneko grounds into a double play ARGH. 6-4-3. So much for popping.
Bottom of the seventh (F 2, T 1) Toritani walks. Arai hits a grounder to third that is barely fair and Koyano makes the grab and turns to get the ball to second in time to catch a sliding Toritain for the force. 1st, one out. Johjima hits a grounder that glances off of Keppel's left glove to go into center; Arai makes it all the way to third. 1st and 3rd, one out.
Nashida, Shimazaki, and a host of interpreters go to the mound to go have a talk with Keppel, but he is apparently still in the game.
Brazell grounds to short. Kaneko throws to second for the force, but Arai scores and there is no throw to first. 1st, two out. And 2-1.
ANIKI HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING that is to say Kanemoto is pinch-hitting for Sakurai. Also Shunsuke Fujikawa is pinch-running for Brazell at first. And Kanemoto singles to second, kinda -- it glances off a diving Shinji and Kanemoto is safe by the time Kensuke gets the ball. 1st and 2nd, two out... Katsuragi grounds out to second. Whew.
Top of the eighth (F 2, T 1) Few changes in the field: Katsuragi moves to first, Shunsuke Fujikawa takes right field, and... and Keisuke Kanoh!?!?! enters in left field. Wow, I'm really out of it -- I had no idea he was playing the outfield since Johjima came along, but it makes sense. (He was a catcher before, see...)
Tsuruoka strikes out looking. So does Keppel. Kensuke strikes out swinging at a low pitch.
Bottom of the eighth (F 2, T 1) Mitsunobu Takahashi pinch-hits for Ryo Watanabe.... and is called out on strikes. Matt Murton strikes out swinging. Hirano grounds out to first unassisted.
Top of the ninth (F 4, T 1) Ken Nishimura replaces Ryo Watanabe on the mound.
Hichori walks. Inaba OMFG!!!!!! Inaba HITS A HOME RUN INTO THE NETTING IN DEAD CENTER! Yeah!!!! Hichorinaba both score, making it 4-1!!!Koyano fouls one that actually smacks the umpire in the head... whoops. And then he strikes out. Whoops.
Hirotaka Egusa replaces Ken Nishimura on the mound.
Dai-Kan Yoh pinch hits for Itoi and strikes out. Shinji grounds out to end the inning.
But YAY INABA! That's kinda funny -- I'm not sure it would be all that easy for a batter to actually AIM for that net in center, let alone hit a home run there.
Keppel is up to 113 pitches but still on the mound going into the bottom of the 9th, apparently... Yoh enters in left field and Hichori moves to center.
Bottom of the ninth (F 4, T 2) Toritani... argh. Toritani hits a home run to left field, apparently. Yoh climbed on the wall to try to get it but it hits the left foul pole. 4-2. Arai singles to center... Johjima grounds into a double play!!! 5-4-3. Umm... Sekimoto pinch-hits for Fujikawa and doubles to center, over Hichori. Doh. 2nd, two out. Kanoh grounds to the mound and that's the game!
FIGHTERS WIN IT 4-2!!!
Well, I finally saw them win a game, I suppose, although it's really not the same as being there and getting to sing with my friends afterwards...
Looks like if there is a game hero, it is indeed Keppel... (not Inaba??) Araki-interpreter is ushering Keppel somewhere.
It's Keppel's first complete-game win. I'm gonna try to take down the hero interview:
- How do you feel?
It's a great day, great baseball atmosphere, I'm just happy we're winning some games now, hopefully we can put some more wins together.
- Are you tired?
A little bit.
- We heard that last year you were mainly a reliever. When was the last time you completed a game?
Last complete game? Wow. Uhh... a LONG time ago. 3 or 4 years? When I was playing with Craig Brazell.
- How do you like Koshien?
This place has a great atmosphere. I'd like to thank the Sapporo fans for coming down, but it's also amazing of you guys for filling this place up.
- The team has a four-game winning streak, what's your goal now?
[laughs] I think it's still gonna be to win!
...and that's about it.
Dude, I just saw a few of my friends on TV in the Fighters cheering section -- gonna go be jealous of people. Yay Fighters!
Went down to Yokohama today for a preseason game of the Baystars taking on the Hanshin Tigers. I really only had two goals for the day: 1) meet up with Mr. Westbay and with a guy who goes by Shinigami in our Koshien chats, and 2) wish Terrmel Sledge a happy birthday.
I was successful on both counts. I got to the park around 11:30, which was just a little bit too late for Baystars batting practice, but as the Tigers started to clear out and the Baystars started to do their pre-game jogging circles, I saw Sledge and I ran to the front and I held up a sign that was actually a combination of two signs made in the past, but were convenient for today:
(You've actually possibly seen these signs both before if you've been on this blog a while, as I made the Sledge one a while ago and the Birthday one last year for a certain Chunichi player.)
I yelled out, "HEY SLEDGE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAN!"
He looked out, saw the sign and me and laughed and waved hello and thanks.
The other people around me were all like "Whoa, it's his birthday today?" and I said yeah, and that I was really a Fighters fan, but would cheer him here too. So a guy standing next to me held up the sign and HE yelled happy birthday the next time Sledge jogged around in his circle, and then the lady with her young son ALSO took a turn holding the sign and yelling happy birthday. I took photos, but for some reason couldn't get a good one of the birthday boy:
Other than that, batting and fielding practice was pretty boring for me, really. I didn't feel like battling crowds to get to the front to see the Hanshin Tigers for the most part, especially since Futagami got injured and wasn't around supposedly, and as for the Baystars the most interesting thing to me was watching Yuki Takamori work out at first base alongside Uchikawa and Saeki.
Something stupid, though: the birthday boy Sledge wasn't actually IN the starting lineup! I was looking forward to recording the ouendan singing happy birthday to him, but I guess it's a Baystars thing -- I remember trying to go to the game on Takuro Ishii's birthday a few years back only to see him benched.
On the other hand, Kenji Johjima was in the starting lineup for Hanshin, and that had a lot of people excited on both sides of the stands.
Westbay finally showed up around 12:45pm, and he found me (wearing my Takuro Ishii jersey), and then he called Shini, and then the three of us got ready to watch the game. So, both goals accomplished. I also continued the Pau tradition of bringing Calbee Yakyu chips and opening them in a group and trading (I came out with a Tsuruoka and a Fighters team stats card)
Yuya Kubo started for the Tigers and Stephen Randolph for the Baystars, and at first things didn't look so good as Randolph gave up a home run to the very first batter of the game, Matt Murton, to make it 1-0. It was a big shot too, right over the wall in dead center.
But then the Baystars struck back with a vengeance. Ishikawa doubled, Shimozono bunted him up, and Uchikawa hit a double too! 1-1. Then Shuichi Murata came up and did what he does best -- a home run to left! BOOM! 3-1. Jose Castillo continued with a single, moved up on a Yoshimura grounder, and then Tasuku Hashimoto ALSO doubled to bring Castillo home, making it 4-1.
By the end of the inning we'd stood up to high-five and sing the Baystars song so many times that even Westbay was like "This is really weird, all of this run-scoring going on by the Baystars!" and I said "Yeah, I thought they rarely score 4 runs in a WEEK, let alone in one game, let alone in one INNING..."
I was also super-excited that Hashimoto is still using the same theme he did with Lotte as his at-bat music (the theme music of the late wrestler Shinya Hashimoto), and I even started doing the chop and yelling "HA-SHI-MOTO! HA-SHI-MOTO!" to it :)
More home runs in the second inning: Takahiro Arai in the top (4-2) and Tatsuya Shimozono in the bottom (5-2). Shimozono's was also followed up by another Uchikawa double and Murata single to score him, 6-2.
Things quieted down a bit after that. Shini and I tried to get onto the big screen holding up my Murata signs, but to no avail. Westbay had to actually go to the concourse to get Cokes for us all, as the only vendors we saw were carrying beer -- very odd that there wasn't a single cola girl given that there were so many kids at the park. He came back just in time to see Tasuku HA-SHI-MOTO! hit a 2-run homer into the right-field stands to make it 8-2!
Randolph gave up one more run to Hanshin (8-3), and he came out in the top of the 7th with the bases loaded. The guy replacing him on the mound was Shigeru Kaga -- I was like "Hey, that's a new drafted guy, right?" And sure enough, it was -- and even crazier, he came out and struck out Sekimoto and Murton! For whatever reason, Obana took him out at that point and put in Takayuki Shinohara to get the last out of the inning, which he did.
Hashimoto had another double in the 8th ("These former Lotte guys are working out pretty well for us, huh?" said Westbay) and a pinch-running Shingo Nonaka (!!!) scored on pop flies by Kinjoh and Saeki. 9-3. Hashimoto was 3-for-4 on the day with two doubles and a home run and 3 RBI. Not too bad -- let's hope he can keep it up this season.
Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh came out to play third base in the 8th and 9th innings, and Westbay was all like "Tsutsugoh is NOT Hama No Nakata -- he's a lot more humble than that!" and I said "I know, but he's a high school prospect hyped for hitting home runs," and I mentioned how Nakata Sho has actually lost weight and started running like a baseball player instead of a wounded gorilla, and then a little bit later Tsutsugoh managed to lose a fly ball in the sun. Whoops. "I didn't jinx him, did I?"
I think Westbay expected a postgame hero interview, and the fans expected the players to come throw their hats out into the stands or whatever, but instead, the game just unceremoniously ended and the ushers started telling people to get out.
The ouendan did some postgame cheers, including singing Happy Birthday to Sledge, who was already long gone, and they practiced some other songs (oddly, I still remember all of the cheer songs from when I used to cheer Yokohama up through the 2008 season, but I don't know any of the new ones, obviously), and I got a kick out of yelling "KATSUZO! YOKOHAMA! TAOSE! YOMIURI!"
I made the guys pose for a few photos with me:
(I should note, btw, that Murata hit his home run right after we started holding those signs up in the first inning. So there!)
And then we started getting out of the stadium.
We walked around towards the train station, and GUESS WHO WE SAW OUTSIDE THE HOME PLATE ENTRANCE? SIGN GUY!!!
So I made him pose for photos with his latest signs (the top one is awesome, he made a mock newspaper layout with the results of the Baystars beating Chunichi yesterday):
And then chatted for a bit. Just mostly "long time no see! Are you going to every game again this year?" and so on, he asked whether I was still teaching, etc. Even Westbay knows him now from the Searex fan fests. Shini was like "WTF?" But as we walked on, I explained how basically, Sign Guy is one of the few things that has actually been consistent about the Baystars the last few years, besides losing. He's just a fixture in the stands and it was good to see him again -- he even came up to say goodbye to us again when we were all standing in the Kannai train station chatting a bit before splitting up for our respective trains. He's so cute! I don't miss all that much about cheering for Yokohama, but I definitely miss Sign Guy. Sigh.
Anyway, good times! It's always fun to hang out with Westbay and always fun to meet new people, and I'm heading to Koshien next week with Shini to watch some of Senbatsu, rather than just talking about it in the chatroom. Hooray!
(I took a whole bunch of photos today, but I'll try to get around to cropping them and my Kamagaya photos soon -- wanted to write an entry first instead.)
On Tuesday the 29th, the junior high school I work at had a track and field event at the National Stadium in Sendagaya -- that big stadium that happens to be right next to Jingu.
So after a day of cheering for kids from my school as they ran past things, jumped over things, and threw things, I walked over to Jingu to cheer for the Yakult Swallows as they also ran past things, jumped over things, and threw things. All things considered, the oldest kids at my JHS are 15 years old, and the Swallows starting pitcher Yoshinori Satoh is 19 years old, so it wasn't THAT different, really.
I ran into two people that I'd met at the Tokyo Big 6 games over the weekend, a Meiji alum guy who is now in his 70's, and a lady in her 50's who just loves college baseball. They also happen to be Fighters fans, so I think they were as surprised to see me going to the Swallows game as I was to see them. So we got tickets and lined up to go into the stadium together.
On the way there, we saw a few Swallows players go by! I'd heard that if you got to the stadium super-early, you could see some of the players as they go from the clubhouse to the stadium, but this is the first time I'd ever actually experienced it. First we saw Takehiko Oshimoto, who used to be on the Fighters, but was part of the Fujii trade. I got a photo with him!
I told him, "I'm actually a Fighters fan, I used to cheer for you all the time!" and he was sort of like "Oh? I see, thank you."
(Also, close up, he looks kind of like my favorite Dragons player Masahiko Morino. It's kind of odd.)
We saw a few other players go by, and as we went towards the line to wait to go into the stadium, we saw Ryota Igarashi on his bicycle. He seemed to be in a pretty big hurry after signing one or two things for other people so I didn't get a photo with him, but I got a photo of him...
We told him "ganbatte" and all, and he thanked us and pedalled off.
We went into the stadium and sat up near the top of section D. It was raining on and off all day, even a bit during the game.
Christopher from Tsubamegun showed up around 6:45pm, which was good, since I didn't remember which people up there were with his group or not. It was good to hang out with him again, and another guy named Mike also came by, so we got to be the token foreigners in the outfield, I suppose.
Actually, Christopher already recapped the game, so I'm not going to go through everything myself as well, but just add a few of my own things:
- I hadn't noticed since I'm only ever in the outfield for Giants games there, but apparently it's not ALWAYS "Kutabare Yomiuri" during Tokyo Ondo. Really, "Kutabare Hanshin" doesn't have the same ring to it.
- Norichika Aoki hit a home run. Actually, his 2-run homer accounted for all the runs the Swallows scored.
- Oshimoto pitched in the game! Hooray! But unfortunately, his very first pitch was sent over the wall into the Tigers cheering section by Takahiro Arai. Doh.
- Former Fighter Hashimoto followed him and pitched a scoreless inning.
- Former Fighter Keizo Kawashima is out with a sore elbow. I bought a Kawashima towel after soul-searching between whether to get a Kawashima one or an Iihara one. I like Iihara a lot, but I think having a Kawashima towel is easier to explain to people since I used to like Keizo a lot when he was with the Fighters.
- Yuji Onizaki has gotten really good since I last saw him at ni-gun. Good for him! I wonder if he's going to step over Miyamoto and Kawabata in the ladder for the left half of the infield next year.
- Yoshinori really should have gone to college. More specifically, it would have been awesome if he'd gone to, say, Rikkio. Then we could still see him at Jingu all the time, but at least he'd be pitching on a more appropriate level for his development as a player, instead of getting his arm blown out as a hyped young star.
- I will admit I know absolutely nothing about Formula One, so it was pretty bizarre to me when they suddenly out of nowhere had David Coulthard driving a Red Bull race car around the Jingu field between innings:
Seriously, huh?
- Yakult ouenka are somewhat hard for my poor gaijin tongue to keep up with. However, I figured out that part of it actually is just that since taiko drums aren't allowed in Jingu, it's just a little hard to figure out the right cadence for the lyrics to the songs. (As in, I KNOW the words, but I always seem to be stumbling over them trying to keep up with everyone, if that makes any sense. Hiroyasu Tanaka's in particular always gets me.) I think that a lot of people are actually a little off-beat anyway, so it's not that big a deal.
- Anyway, the final score was 8-2. 12 hits by the Tigers plus 5 walks from Yoshinori and his own two errors certainly didn't help. I feel bad for the kid, really.
(I just hope they don't screw up Mikinori Katoh. I suppose he's a lot less of a "big name" per se.)
I'll be back at Jingu on Monday night for the Swallows-Giants game. Kutabare Yomiuri!
I don't know why on earth Pau ever wants me to go see Tigers games with him, as every time we watch them or plan to watch them, they lose. Seriously.
But Sunday afternoon we headed down to Chiba together for the first time and for the last time, to catch the Hanshin Tigers taking on the Chiba Lotte Marines. Pau was decked out in his Hiyama t-shirt and Akahoshi towel and Tigers noisesticks and all that stuff, and I was wearing my Satozaki t-shirt and Marines towel and so on. I'm sure most people who saw us thought we were just a bunch of confused gaijin wearing random baseball crap. Little did they know, of course.
The first order of business was actually to get my Bobby 2010 t-shirt from Declan, and to make Pau sign the Bobby 2010 petition. I would be surprised if they didn't hit the 100,000 signatures mark this weekend, given that there should have been around 20,000 Tigers fans around that hadn't been to Chiba yet this season, who are just as crazy as the Marines faithful. They're supposedly presenting the petition to the front office this week. I doubt it'll make any difference, much as I wish it would. Mostly, I hope Bobby stays in Japan since he's been such a great ambassador for Japanese baseball (and he kicks my ass at learning kanji).
The next order of business was to get into the stadium and get Bobby Burgers. We were successful on both counts. It was also amusing that 90% of the people in line at the stadium Lotteria were wearing Tigers gear.
After that, we were just going to sit around and cheer our respective teams and try not to trash-talk too much.
There was some sort of "Let's go to Kyoto!" promotion going on this weekend, which was appropriate given the opponents. As a result, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by a representative of the Kansai region...
(However, unlike certain other women who have become representative of baseball in Kansai, this one didn't have a particularly good knuckleball.)
The Marines mascots were also visited by some new friends for the pregame festivities:
Lucky seemed to get along with Rine-chan just fine, but To-Lucky was getting abused by the rest of the mascot squad. They stole his hat and tried to eat it.
For the real game on the field, we had Hiroyuki Kobayashi starting for the Marines and Yuya Andoh starting for the Tigers. I was a little surprised that Kobayashi was starting given that I thought he was still doing the bullpen thing, but hey, whatever works.
Both pitchers and both teams seemed eager to win this one, which was a sign that it'd be a pretty good game, and for the first three innings neither team was able to put a run on the board. Andoh was actually perfect through three as well. The first Hanshin hit was actually almost by accident -- Hirano was trying a safety bunt, popped it up in the air as Imae ran in to catch it... and it sailed OVER Imae, amazingly enough.
The second Hanshin hit of the game was Lion-turned-Tiger Craig Brazell, who hit a home run into the right field stands to make the game 1-0 in the top of the 4th. Brazell's shot was so loud and was a line drive sailing upwards that you could pretty much tell from the crack of the bat that it was going to be gone. The entire Tigers lineup came out of the dugout and lined up to high-five him on his way back, and the camera well emptied to take photos of it, too. (No, I wasn't down there for this game.) I've rarely seen that happen, where everyone actually comes OUT of the dugout.
Katsuragi followed Brazell's shot with another line drive to right, though this one was only a double. After a fly out by Lin, Toritani singled to right, but Ohmatsu (Ohmatsu!) threw the ball in so fast that Katsuragi had to stop at third, and Kanoh grounded out after him.
Before the bottom of the 5th, we saw an interesting sight on the scoreboard screen...
Apparently a couple got married, I assume before the game, and had their reception at Chiba Marine Stadium in one of the big party rooms down the 3rd base line. That's pretty cool. I've been to a wedding at a game once before, but I don't think I'd ever seen such a thing in Japan before. (We were also noting how you don't get the proposals on the big board here like you do in the US, although the Fighters matchmaking seats is kind of similarly embarrassing in a way.)
I was thinking it was a shame that the Marines were losing during their wedding reception though, so conveniently Tomoya Satozaki decided to hit a home run to right field a few minutes later and tied the knot game at 1-1.
And well, 1-1 is where it would stay for a few innings, not for lack of trying on the Marines part. In the 6th they got runners to first and third with two outs but couldn't bring them in, and in the 7th they got runners to first and second with two outs, and Koichi Hori singled to left, and Saburo tried to score from second, third base coach Nishimura waving him in, and well, Saburo was totally out. I'm really not sure I agree with the choice to send him given that the ball wasn't hit that far out to left, Saburo isn't THAT fast a runner, and Fukuura was up to bat next, but I guess when you really want to get a run ahead, sometimes you make risky choices.
Speaking of the 7th, this is what happens when you get the two craziest fanbases together in Japan...
A bunch of Hanshin Tigers fans (must be around 50 of them!) coordinate putting up the lyrics to Rokko Oroshi, the Tigers' song, one letter per person.
And in the right-field stands we have the Marines fans sending an important message as well - ２６をナメるな! or "don't mess with Team 26!" I'm not sure whether this is aimed at the Tigers and their fans, or at the Lotte front office, to be honest.
The Tigers started off the 8th inning with Keiichi Hirano taking a headfirst slide into first base after hitting a grounder off Hiroyuki Kobayashi's leg (which bounced to second base). Hirano was safe, but Akahoshi tried to bunt and hit a short pop fly to the mound, which Kobayashi caught and threw to first in time to double off Hirano, who was preparing to run to second on the sac bunt. Arai also grounded out to the mound.
Jeff Williams came out to pitch the bottom of the 8th, and from the get-go he just ran into some control problems. Masahiko "Gingiragin" Tanaka pinch-hit for Lotte, and basically almost every pitch to him was inside. Tanaka broke his bat on a foul and eventually walked. Ohmatsu hit a pop fly out to center, and then Iguchi also walked. (Ohmatsu is a lefty batter so the ball was going outside for him, but for the righty batters it was inside all the way, almost hitting them a few times.)
Naotaka Takehara, a righty batter, came in to pinch-hit for DH Tasuku Hashimoto, a lefty batter. So Scott Atchison, a righty pitcher, took the mound in place of Jeff Williams, a lefty pitcher.
And Takehara hit the ball to right field! It went out to the warning track, and as the outfielders chased it down, Masahiko Tanaka and Tadahito Iguchi scored, and Takehara made it all the way to third base! 3-1. The crowd went wild -- and on the very next play, Tomoya Satozaki laid down a squeeze bunt. Takehara was off on the play and made it home safe before anyone could get the ball home, but for whatever reason, Satozaki DIDN'T run at all to first, so he was an easy out. Oops. Still, 4-1.
Brian Sikorski closed out the game, and aside from one wild pitch he had everything under control as the Marines won the game 4-1.
It was no real surprise that the game heroes were Hiroyuki Kobayashi for pitching 8 innings of 1-run ball, along with Naotaka Takehara for hitting that huge go-ahead 2-RBI triple.
After the game, I dragged Pau through the Marines museum since I hadn't been through there this year yet, and he had never been there at all. The thing that was new for me there this time was a bunch of ticket displays -- they had things like tickets for a Lotte-Giants 1981 Japan Series that never happened because the Fighters beat them in the playoffs, back in the 1st half 2nd half format era. There were game tickets from the 1970's and 1980's which were pretty neat to see though, and also a whole bunch of old posters that I hadn't seen before, including one from the early 1990's of a "young up-and-coming" infielder named Koichi Hori.
The weird thing is that the "visiting team goods" section seems to have disappeared from the big Marines store in the museum building, to be replaced with more throwback Orions stuff and whatnot. I was a little surprised by that, maybe it was just for interleague time, but I'm not sure.
Steve Novosel was also at this game and wrote about it on his blog, and unlike me he bothered bringing a real camera and sitting somewhere that wasn't behind a net. I kind of hurt my elbow at volleyball on Saturday night so wasn't really up for lugging my big camera to the stadium.
In other news, Hosei did win the college tournament, I still haven't finished cropping photos from the Fuji-Soka game, I may go to Jingu tomorrow for the Yakult-Lotte game if it doesn't rain too much, and I am heading to Hiroshima on Saturday for the Fighters-Carp series at the brand-new stadium! I'm psyched! (I also watched the Fighters-Tigers on TV last night, and if you are counting, which I am, Inaba has now hit 9 home runs this year and I have seen 8 of them.)
So instead, I went to Meiji Jingu Stadium with my friend Pau, for another rainy day of baseball as the Hanshin Tigers took on the Yakult Swallows. They were rained out on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I guess they wanted to get at least one game of this series in, despite that the skies were looking pretty wet yet again.
Pau is a huge Hanshin Tigers fan, so we were sitting in reserved seating on the third base side. And because it was raining, I didn't keep a scorecard. Besides, there isn't a lot to say about the game anyway. Masanori Ishikawa is good, and he kept the Tigers in check for a very long time, aside from a home run by Kodai Sakurai.
Yasutomo Kubo had a really rocky first inning, and the first run of the game actually came in on his second hit batter. Takeuchi doubled and was bunted to third, and then Kubo hit Aoki with a pitch and walked D'Antona, loading the bases, and then he also hit Guiel with a pitch. Oops. The Swallows added a go-ahead run in the 6th inning as D'Antona hit a fly ball to left that Kanemoto caught up with but then dropped in a somersault, and then Guiel doubled to right. That one run lead was all they needed to win with Chang-yong Lim closing out the game for his 9th save and still keeping his perfect ERA.
On the other hand, Pau was really excited because Shinjiro Hiyama pinch-hit and got a single off Lim.
I blew up jet fuusen, a rare occasion for me, because the teams I cheer for don't do them in general. They're neat, but annoying, IMO.
I even sang along to Rokko Oroshi and tried to sing ouenka, though in general all I really did is cheer for Kentaro Sekimoto. I also sang along to Tokyo Ondo, of course ("kutabare Yomiuri!").
And here we are. I was wearing #7 on the 7th. After the game we even went to get birthday cake, and it cost 777 yen.
I feel indebted to explain this one in Japanese briefly in case some of my Fighters friends come across this entry and wonder about it.
Oh, whatever. I wanted to be at a baseball game for my birthday. That is all. Tomorrow (really today now) I am heading to the Tokyo Dome to support Chunichi and yell a lot of stuff about how much I hate the Giants.
"I think he should have stayed buried at the bottom of the river," claimed one man, who thought the sight of the Colonel with no hands was "a travesty".
"The Boston Red Sox were able to win a World Series title without having to dig up Babe Ruth. Why should the Tigers be any different?"
Several fans have declared that the only way to rectify this wrong is to bury a new icon at the bottom of the Dotonbori river. As KFC restaurants in the Kansai region enacted a rule saying that no KFC restaurant can display a Colonel Sanders statue outside the store or without being properly bolted down within the store, Tigers fans would have a difficult time replacing the legendary entrepreneur.
Randy Bass, now comfortably in his second term as an Oklahoma senator, was not available for comment, but it is assumed he has no desire to be thrown into the river himself.
Thus it has been rumored that the only possible substitute for the Colonel would be another famous Dotonbori icon, Glico Man.
"If you squint," said one Hanshin fan, "Glico Man does look an awful lot like Kevin Mench."
Nobody is quite certain how the Hanshin fans will manage to dismantle Glico Man from his current position, but if there is one thing that has been established over the years, it is that one should never underestimate the potential power created by combining Hanshin fans with large amounts of alcohol.
I went all over the Osaka-Kobe area on Monday (9/22) doing baseball-related stuff. I'm sure you are all completely surprised by that.
Mint Card Shop Umeda
Over the winter I got to know a sports memorabilia chain called Mint pretty well in the Tokyo area, going to pretty much all of their nearby locations. (I've posted about it a bit.) I figured it couldn't hurt to hunt down one of their shops in Osaka, especially since I'm still looking for a G.G.Satoh Bikkuriman 2008 sticker, plus maybe they'd have some interesting Hanshin stuff. The Mint Umeda page has a map saying they were in the basement of the Shin Hankyu building.
The thing is, if you have ever been to the Osaka/Umeda station area, you'll note that finding a "Shin Hankyu Building" is a royal pain, as there are about ninety buildings labelled something Hanyku, a bunch called Shin Hankyu, and naturally there's a whole ton of Hanshin buildings as well to mess with your brain.
So, here: what you need to do is find the BIG HANSHIN DEPARTMENT STORE south of all the train stations and then go to the building behind it with the Book 1st shop, and go into the basement:
Go into the basement of the Shin Hankyu building...
...and wander around until you find the big Ichiro cardboard outside.
Sadly, they had exactly 3 bikkuriman stickers and actually NOT that much in the way of special Tigers goods. They DID have the new Hawks and Baystars historical sets out in singles so I could look through them -- that was really neat -- but other than that, eh. Oh, and they had Calbee binders going back to 1973, including one special one of Hanshin cards, so if you want a 1985 Randy Bass card, you can get one there for 3000 yen.
Moving onwards...
Tigers Shop in the Hanshin Department Store
So, noting the building I said to go behind... that's the Hanshin Department Store. If you go in there and go up to the 8th floor, they have a huge Tigers store. So you don't even need to go to Koshien to buy stuff! Of course, the Tigers store is located in the middle of a women's fashion floor, so if you take the escalator to get there, you have to walk through the lingerie section to get to the Tigers merchandise. I wonder if that's on purpose.
Anyway, once you get there, you can buy pretty much anything Tigers that you ever could possibly want. Seriously. (Except, perhaps, for Jeff Williams stuff. WTF? I seriously wanted a Williams keychain or pen or something, but couldn't find one.)
The Hanshin Tigers Store. 8th floor behind women's underwear...
...though naturally they also sell Hanshin Tigers women's underwear too...
...and enough omiyage to shake a stick at. A lollipop stick, of course.
I thought this shirt was unique when I saw someone wearing it, but naturally no, it's a new design in the Tigers store.
Also, in case you have a real tiger at home needing an outfit, or just want to dress up your dog...
And you can decorate your bathroom in Tigers stuff as well.
Seriously, there's a ton of stuff there. It's unreal. I got some omiyage for my students and a few special things for people.
Then, I headed out to Kobe.
Skymark Stadium
I got to Sogoundokoen station and, surprisingly, I could hear baseball sounds coming from inside Skymark. I figured it had to be high school or college, since all of the player's names had "kun" appended after them, but I wasn't sure. First I figured I'd take a walk around the stadium and see what I could see...
Here's a view of the big stadium name from the parking lot.
I was standing on a fence outside the left field gate when I took this one.
And here, uh, I basically slid my camera through a slot in a closed entry gate wall and managed to take a photo without dropping it. I just wanted to see what was going on.
Approaching the home plate gate.
Welcome to Ball Park!
I had seen a few people going into the stadium earlier, though it appeared there was only one gate to the main stadium area open, so I went up that... passing by what looked like some college ball players, and some guys in school uniforms, or at least, white button-down shirts, and gray pants. At first I ignored them and just walked around to the 3rd base side, where there wasn't much.
Came around back past home plate again, and heard one of the guys making a comment like "there's that weirdo gaijin again, what the hell is she doing there?" so I figured I'd go talk to them.
"Excuse me," I said in Japanese, "What kind of baseball game is going on here today? High school? University?"
These three guys look at each other, then one gets a pained look on his face and says in slow and broken English, "This is Kansai Roku -- jaa, Kansai SIX League!!"
I continue in Japanese, "Oh, okay, university ball, I see. What university are you from?"
The kid answers in English again, "We are Ryukoku Daiga... Ryukoku University."
I blink and say, "You are very good at English!!" while still speaking in Japanese, "I've never been here before and wanted to see the stadium, how much does it cost to enter?"
The two other guys are by now completely giggling at their third friend who's speaking in English for no apparent reason, but the third guy continues anyway, in English, "It twelbu hundred en. Berry byootifur stajium!"
"Hnmm. Expensive," I say in Japanese. "I just want to take photos. Thanks anyway!"
I smile and nod and continue on towards the first base side. I hear the other two guys making fun of their third friend as I walk off. Whatever. I wonder how they would have reacted if I said I didn't understand English either, or looked at him blankly like "なんでやねん？"
(When I got home later I looked it up, and yeah, sure enough, the games WERE going on for the 関西六大学野球連盟, or Kansai Six University League. I guess a few famous players have gone to Ryukoku, though I only recognized a few from the Wikipedia list, like ex-Fighter Kimoto and current Hawk Yanase.)
Anyway, the first-base side of the stadium is a LOT neater, and even outdoors there was plenty of interesting things to look at and take photos of. For example, there was a whole bunch of floor murals painted:
Nice painting of players going off into the sunset towards Tomotaka Sakaguchi.
By a children's sliding board/play area, a cute Blue Wave rainbow.
The old name for the park was Green Stadium Kobe, before the naming rights went all over the place.
As you can see in that last photo, there was also a Blue Wave Wall of Fame (which also includes their old Hankyu Braves stuff). Many interesting players, but I was obviously most interested in a particular pair of them...
Hisashi Yamada, the legendary submarine pitcher from the Hankyu Braves (who I just saw throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at an industrial league game a few weeks back)
Some Ichiro guy. I thought it'd be funny to try to take a self-portrait of myself with him and had a somewhat inspired pose.
I pretty much could not see into the stadium at all -- I guess that is by design -- and so I decided to just go ahead and leave. I stopped by the Kobe Sports Center info booth, since Skymark is in the middle of a big sports complex, and talked to a lady who used to be part of the Seattle-Kobe Sister City association. Though, she seemed a lot more surprised that I came down from SAITAMA than from SEATTLE per se.
If I had paid more attention to the schedules for the complex, I would have noticed that Orix's minor-league team had practice going on somewhere on a spare field nearby, but alas, I didn't realize it at the time. Not like I am that familiar with their minor league players these days anyway...
Koshien -- A Speck of Blue in a Sea of Gold
I got on a train and headed to Koshien at that point, even though it was only around 4pm. I figured it'd give me a chance to wander around a little, except that due to the Koshien Renewal Project, the scenery seemed a lot less interesting than it did when I was there two years ago:
The fake greenery looks more tacky than anything, to me. I guess it's better than plain old scaffolding, but...
The one thing that does seem to be brand new and nice everywhere is the Tigers Shops, of which there are a bazillion, and yet they are all always crowded no matter when you enter.
The separate Tigers Alps shop seems to have been moved across the highway from where it used to be, too.
I walked around the entire stadium once, because last time I was there I didn't have time to find the Babe Ruth plaque, and this time I simply couldn't find it. I briefly wondered if it was hidden behind some fake ivy somewhere.
Finally, I figured, what the heck, might as well go in. It was about 4:40pm at that point. I went in, climbed up from the front of the outfield to the visitor's ouen seats -- yes, I planned to cheer for the Baystars, and had specifically bought a "visitor's cheering seat" ticket -- and immediately noticed two main annoying things:
1) The section appeared to actually be mostly Tigers fans, even down to like the 3rd row, and 2) There was a big honking outfield light obstructing me from actually being able to see the lineup part of the scoreboard.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about the first part. I had a seat in the fifth row and had been a little worried that even there wouldn't be safe, but by the time the section filled up, the front two rows were all Yokohama fans, the third and fourth rows were about half and half, and from there on back it was Tigers fans with some spotty Yokohama fans. I'm really curious what it looked like from afar, to be honest.
Here's my view of the infield, complete with Baystars ouendan guy.
Here's the sunset over right field, and you can see how the board is obstructed.
I snuck out to centerfield to get a different view, and this is what I saw.
Here's that damn light, viewed from centerfield.
I went to get food and use the bathrooms, both of which were vaguely traumatic experiences. Infact, if you are a Hanshin fan or Koshien fan, I advise you to skip reading the next few paragraphs. I realize that perhaps people think it's sacrilege for a huge baseball fan and history nut to say the following, but let me just put it out there:
I hate Koshien Stadium.
No, really. I honestly can't find much to like about it. It's not just that it's an old stadium, because it's really only 3 years or so older than Jingu, and I am rather fond of Jingu, all things considered. At least at Jingu, the management realizes that they have to bother making an effort to get fans to come to the stadium, whereas I'm pretty sure the Tigers management knows that they could essentially print "Hey Tigers fans, SCREW YOU" as a slogan on the tickets and they'd still have sellout crowds every night.
First, the seats are really small and cramped. I had enough trouble with this when sitting in the infield two years ago, to the point that I seriously lost circulation in my legs from having them crushed under my seat, but in the outfield, it's even worse, if that's possible, plus if you suddenly move your legs at all you will most likely end up kneeing or kicking someone in front of you, since there are no seat backs on bleacher seats. I was really lucky that the two young women sitting to my left wearing Tigers jerseys apparently decided that despite buying "visitor's ouen" tickets, they didn't REALLY want to sit next to a pesky foreign Baystars fan, and went off to... somewhere. I don't know where, but they never came back, so everyone else in the vicinity swarmed on the free space like vultures; me and two other people put our bags on the seats so we'd have some leg room. And I still regularly got elbowed by the kid next to me, and hit in the head by balloons and cheersticks from people behind me. (As usual the kid next to me was a huge freaking Kanemoto fan as every 9-year-old in Kansai seems to be, and he was actually a good kid and asked me about my scorecard and other stuff, but he was a little overly hyper as well.)
Second, the food is terrible. There's not much variety and most of what there was didn't look all that appetizing, mostly along the lines of overpriced izakaya food. I ended up getting yakisoba because that seemed safe enough, and it was easily the worst yakisoba I've ever had in my entire life. Getting a non-alcoholic beverage from your seat during the game is nigh impossible.
The bathrooms are disgusting. I realize that it's not REALLY a valid complaint to mention that there simply seem to be NO western toilets, but still.
I have no clue whether the infield is any more accessible for people unable to climb a bazillion stairs, but in the outfield area it's pretty much a nightmare. I was also somewhat astounded to note how far you really are from the field when you're out there; you can't even actually go up to the outfield wall because the area behind it is a walkway. I suppose this is actually perhaps by design, but I think it is neat to be able to yell down to players and say hi in other stadiums, which is simply not an option at Koshien. And taking photos from out there is not really an option either. Maybe from the infield seats, I dunno.
I realize the "atmosphere" of having the entire stadium cheering for Hanshin is a bonus if you are a Tigers fan, but if you aren't, it's actually another downside of the stadium. A drunk Tigers fan came up and started an argument with one of the Baystars ouendan, and eventually they had to be separated by policemen, and the cops actually hung out around the visitor's ouenseki for the rest of the game. To protect us or to protect against us? I'm still not sure.
And last, once you've managed to survive the entire game, you have to survive the trip back. Which means either finding something else to do (read: drinking) in the area for an hour or two, or trying to get into Koshien Station with the other 50,000 people who are trying to do the exact same thing. Note: I bought my return ticket when I arrived at the park, and I urge you to do the same.
At least I had the sense to take off my Baystars jersey before leaving the park...
Uh, anyway, Koshien rant over. I think I do want to go back there for the high school tournament someday, but I doubt I'm ever going to go there for a Tigers game again on my own.
So, there was a game, and surprisingly, while the Baystars lost, it didn't involve them getting TOTALLY crushed or anything. Yuji Yoshimi started for Yokohama, and Shunsuke Ishikawa started for Hanshin. Ishikawa was just drafted last year out of Jobu University, and this was actually his first professional start (though not appearance). Again, the Baystars have been a nice opponent for teams to use to ease their rookies from starting in the minor leagues to the major leagues here.
I was overjoyed that Takuro Ishii was in the Baystars starting lineup, since I showed up with my Ishii jersey and towel, but he kind of had a bad day.
The Tigers got off to a quick 1-0 lead in the first, mostly aided by the fact that Saeki was playing left field for the Baystars and he is really slow. I think I counted four foul balls to left field that I am fairly sure any other team's fielder would have managed to catch, but that Saeki didn't. Akahoshi started the game off singling, and Sekimoto should have been out on one of those fly balls, but instead ended up walking, and Makoto Imaoka singled in Akahoshi after that. A bunch of easier fly balls after that ended the inning.
Bottom of the second inning, Asai singled, was moved up by pitcher Ishikawa's sac bunt, and then Akahoshi walked, and Sekimoto doubled to left, and have I mentioned lately that Saeki is slow? Yeah? And that he throws like a girl? And that I love him anyway, but it's still painful watching the Tigers get two runs off of that, to make it 3-0? Yeah.
Finally, in the top of the 4th, Murata got a single off Ishikawa, and then BOOM, Yoshimura hit a towering fly ball to left field, which was coming back, back, back, GONE! 2-run home run for Yoshimura, and 3-2 score for the game.
In the bottom of the 4th I finally got a video of Kentaro Sekimoto's at-bat intro. I kept trying for the rest of the game, but that pesky bugger Akahoshi kept getting on base right before he came up.
Everybody say - Sekimoto!
I thought it was really cool. I used to really like Sekimoto a year or two ago.
Infact, really, aside from Sekimoto's at-bat music, I did appreciate three things about being at Koshien and the Tigers fans:
1) seeing the ENTIRE stadium doing the Kanemoto right-field wave cheer thingy 2) seeing the entire stadium doing the Wasshoi chance theme, annoying as it may be 3) Kyuji Fujikawa entering the game to "Every Little Thing Every Precious Thing" by Lindberg. It still cracks me up. I would LOVE it, if he someday does become a closer in MLB, if he kept that as his intro song. It's very Kyuji. I can't explain why, it just is (besides that the band wrote it for him, I just mean, it suits him).
The Baystars put some pressure on the Tigers in the top of the 5th, loading the bases with Shuuichi THE MAN Murata at the plate, but... but... but he got called out on strikes. That sucked. I almost think that kind of took the steam out of the Baystars for the rest of the game.
Oh, but hey, Yukiya Yokoyama came into the game to pitch in the bottom of the 6th, with runners on first and third, and those runners DIDN'T SCORE! YEAH! Even better, he struck out Imaoka! Whee!
Sometime around the top of the 7th, the scoreboard showed the out-of-town scores. They put up the Giants-Carp one, where we all saw that the Giants were beating the Crap out of the Carp, and so the Tigers had to win this game in order to avoid falling to second place.
So all of the Tigers fans were like "ARGH!!"
...then they mentioned that Ramirez hit his 41st homerun of the year, tying Yokohama's Murata for the lead.
And all of the Baystars fans were also like "AARRGGHH!!!"
For a minute or so, we were all united as one, like "DIE GIANTS DIE DIE DIE!!!"
Then we came back to our collective senses, turned to each other like "You guys suck, I hope you lose" and went back to cheering our respective teams.
Not that it mattered. Scott Atchison and Kyuji Fujikawa held down the fort for Hanshin, and amazingly Yuya Ishii and Shun Yamaguchi held down the fort for the Baystars.
In the top of the 9th, the first two outs came fairly quickly, and the Tigers fans blew up their balloons, and Takehiro Ishikawa grounded to second... Hirano made the throw... a bunch of fans released their balloons... and the throw was HIGH and Ishikawa was safe at first and he and Sekimoto fell to the ground. Oops. But eventually they got up and play continued. Ishikawa stole second, then they intentionally walked Kinjoh after a 2-0 count or so, and then backup catcher Toshio Saitoh hit a pop fly out to second, which Hirano didn't make a mistake on this time, and the final score was the same 3-2 that it had been for the last two hours or so.
The rest of the Tigers fans released their balloons then, and sang Rokko Oroshi and whatever else, as the few Baystars fans packed up their stuff. The game heroes were Shunsuke Ishikawa and Kyuji Fujikawa, and in the interview Ishikawa kept calling Kyuji "sempai", though I'm not entirely sure why, besides just being on the Tigers staff.
A few more pictures from the late game:
Naturally, I can't go to a Baystars game without stalking Sign Guy.
Blue Baystars flag towards the 8th or 9th inning.
White Baystars flag after Ishikawa got on base... note all the Tigers fans holding up their balloons below.
Oh yeah, and like the moron I am, I stopped in the Tigers Alps store for a second on the way out because I thought I saw a cool t-shirt. I was right:
Wei-tzu Lin t-shirt.
New t-shirts that started selling THAT DAY for Scott Atchison and Aarom Baldiris. But I wanted a Jeff Williams shirt, dammit!
I realized that a flood of Tigers fans were coming out of the stadium, so I figured I'd just start making my way through the sea of people and hope to escape in one piece. It worked, mostly, although for a while there I could barely breathe while being pressed into a gigantic crowd of people trying to move through a small hallway up to the train platform. Eventually I got onto a train, and even got a seat, so I was happy enough.
And I was even happier when I got back to my hotel, watched the sports highlights, and saw Darvish get the win for the Fighters, and Hisashi Iwakuma got his 20th win against Seibu. Yeah!
All of the photos on this site are taken by me unless otherwise indicated. I would appreciate it if you at least email me before you steal them. Thanks.