Marinerds, etc.

Hichori Morimoto had his Baystars team introduction event today in Yokohama's Chinatown. Usually these things involve a very serious press conference like thing sitting at a desk with reporters and whatnot, but well, this is Hichori, so instead, a few thousand fans came out to see him and he dressed up as Ramenman and performed stunts for the crowd in more of a festival environment.

At the time it was going on, I was in Nippori singing baseball karaoke with one of my groups of Fighters fan friends -- we planned today as our year-end party about 2 months ago, way before we had any clue that Hichori would even remotely entertain the thought of leaving the Fighters, so our party was at Hichori's parents' yakiniku restaurant in Nippori, where we've held a bunch of our parties before too. In the past two months, the Fighters traded away our group's namesake (Toshimasa Konta, #52 -- we called our group "Team 52" this year) as well as Sunaga, also traded away Takaguchi and Yamamoto -- and Takaguchi was another one of our group's favorites. Yoshinori Tateyama, my nemesis, signed with the Texas Rangers. And then, the unthinkable happened -- Hichori went to the Baystars.

So at our dinner tonight there was definitely a feeling of "How many of your uniforms are no longer valid?" among everyone, since half our group had Konta stuff, another bunch had Takaguchi stuff, or Tsuboi stuff (he was cut and Itoi was dropped to #7), or Tsuruoka stuff (he got Tateyama's old #22), and so on. To add insult to injury, one of the guys in our group wore a Baystars Terahara jersey (he was just traded to Orix). Of course, the irony is that there was another group of baseball fans having a year end party there tonight -- an Orix ouendan. So we had some good-natured yelling and singing back and forth between our groups.

Anyway, several years ago I used to cheer for Yokohama, and the only Baystars jersey I owned was a Takuro Ishii #5 jersey, which has largely sat in my closet unused for the last two years since I got pissed off at the team and stopped going to ichi-gun games. I went and ordered a Kagami #21 jersey on Monday after the Baystars finally introduced their new players and announced numbers for them. So, I suppose now I have two jerseys. But, go figure, guess who has #5 on Yokohama now? None other than Hichori.

So I suppose it's okay to wear this jersey again after all.



I got a photo with Hichori's dad, who was surprised that I already had a Baystars #5 jersey, but I pointed out that it was very old and joked that I'd erase the "T. Ishii" and superimpose "H. Morimoto" on it. He also asked if they'd see me on TV next year cheering for Hichori in the Baystars cheering section, and I said that was unlikely as I was moving back to the US next month.

(Which, by the way, if you're wondering, is why I've been too busy to blog much...)

Also, for the record, their restaurant is still filled with Fighters stuff. I asked whether they'd be getting rid of it all and the answer was something to the effect of "Well, we're not going to be putting up any more Fighters stuff, and we probably will start to put up Baystars stuff as it exists, but the stuff that's here now won't go away until it needs to."

The most notable thing about this game is that HICHORI MORIMOTO HIT A HOME RUN AND I FINALLY SAW IT IN PERSON!

A few weeks ago at my JHS, I was asked to write a "postcard from Deanna" for a midterm exam for our 9th-graders, something they would have to read and answer some questions about. So I wrote a postcard about a fictitious trip to Sapporo and included the following lines, as the major grammatical point this semester was the use of perfect tense ("Have you ever been.." "I have never seen..." "I have just eaten dinner" etc):

"Yesterday, I went to the Sapporo Dome to watch a baseball game. The Sapporo Dome was built in 2001. It is used for soccer games and baseball games. I have been to the Sapporo Dome many times. But I have never seen a soccer game there, only baseball.

The game was very exciting! The Fighters won the game. Hichori Morimoto hit a home run. I have never seen him hit a home run before, so I was very happy!"

A few days later, I'm chatting in the library with a few students. One of my students is pretty serious about his Little League team and wants to go to a big baseball highschool next year and is a Teikyo (and sadly Yomiuri) fan. We talk about baseball fairly often (in Japanese of course), so this time he said "Hey, did you really write that Sapporo postcard on our test?"

"Yeah, I did. Could you understand it?"

"...mostly. Hahahaha, you never saw Hichori hit a home run? Really? I saw him hit a home run... I think it was at the Tokyo Dome during interleague..."

"Wasn't this year or last year... and two years ago was when that jerk Kentaro Nishimura broke Hichori's hand with a pitch."

"Was Hichori pissed?"

"No, but the rest of us sure were. Lots of booing."

"I know I saw him hit a home run though. I don't like the Fighters but I like Hichori because he's from Arakawa and Teikyo."

"He hit one last year in Chiba in the first inning. I showed up in the second. Go figure."

Anyway, this became sort of a running joke for a bit, because we trash-talk all the time about the Fighters and Giants. He tends to remind me as often as possible that the Giants are in 1st place and the Fighters are (until recently) in last place.

So I'm at the Tokyo Dome on Thursday night watching the Fighters-Hawks game. Yoshio Itoi hits a 3-run homer in the first inning off Softbank starter J.D.Durbin to put the Fighters up 3-0. The Hawks manage to run themselves out of their half of the 5th inning, and then the Fighters get two guys on base as Kaneko and Kensuke both hit singles.

Hichori comes to the plate, two on, no out, and BLAM! He smacks the ball out to center. Out, out, and OVER the wall! 3-run homer, 6-0!

I go nuts because I'm half thinking "Dude! Hichori just hit a home run!" and also "Dude! I hope my students are watching this one!"

Amusingly enough, Ojisan posted a video he took of the cheering section to his blog, and in the video, when Hichori hits the home run, can you hear the really high-pitched screaming? That's me :)

Even better, so Durbin comes out of the game after that, and Masahiko Monkeyboy Morifuku comes in to pitch to Inaba... and Inaba ALSO cranks a home run. 7-0.

So yeah, the Fighters won this game and took the series from the Hawks. The game heroes were Hichori, and Masaru Takeda, who pitched 8 scoreless innings. Kazunori Yamamoto, who was spending a brief few days up at ichi-gun, threw a scoreless 9th as well.

The women sitting next to me also double as Yakult fans, and know I'm a Mikinori Katoh fan, so they continued to update me on the Yakult game. "You're never going to believe this, but your beloved Mikinori is about to get his first career win... the Swallows are up 9-3 right now..."

So yeah, it was good. Although I am increasingly annoyed at how the Tokyo Dome big screen seems to only be willing to show me if I am NOT holding up signs or cheering or otherwise actually looking like I know what the hell I am doing, like they must keep up their stereotypes that white people are all tourists. I noticed, infact, that my group of friends ("Team 52") that all hold up matching towels and signs... we never got on the screen when I sat with them on Tuesday, but they were there several times on Wednesday and Thursday when I sat elsewhere. Coincidence? Maybe, but it's sure enough to make a gaijin paranoid.

Anyway, I come to school on Friday and tell my student about Hichori's homerun. His reaction? "His hand healed?"

"Eh?"

"From Nishimura's pitch."

"Dude, that was TWO YEARS AGO."

"It was?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you said..."

"I probably screwed up the Japanese. Anyway, Hichori! Yay!"

"Uh... yeah. Hichori! Yay?"

(I did this last year too, so why not?)

It's Hichori Morimoto's 27th birthday today!

As you know, Hichori is one of my favorite players in the entire world. He's a crazy good baseball player and a crazy funny person in general. Like his predecessor in the Fighters centerfield spot Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Hichori has a goal of making people laugh and enjoy baseball, whether it's fans, teammates, or whoever.

Sadly, unlike last year when lots of Hichori-isms were showing up in the press, this year's highschool slugger boy Nakata Sho is completely dominating the Fighters media (and you have no idea how annoying it's getting), so I'm not entirely sure exactly what Hichori is up to, although he was apparently spotted in Hawaii taking batting practice a few weeks ago, hanging out with Shinjo. Cool.

So, instead of rounding up a "What's up with Hichori" for Hichori day this year, I'm going to translate his Wikipedia page into English! Yay!

(I'm leaving the Japanese in this post for now because I'm sure I'll want to tweak my translation in the future and it's easier to do it this way than to keep looking back and forth)

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森本 稀哲（もりもと ひちょり、1981年1月31日 - ）は、東京都荒川区出身のプロ野球選手。ポジションは外野手で、主に中堅手。北海道日本ハムファイターズ所属。真面目でとにかく明るい性格とスキンヘッドが特徴。イメージカラーは緑。

Hichori Morimoto (1/31/1981 -) is a pro baseball player from the Arakawa area of Tokyo. He is an outfielder for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, primarily playing center field. He has a bright and interesting personality and is known for having a shaven head. His associated color is green.

在日コリアン（韓国籍）の父と、日本人の母を持つ。生家は東京都荒川区西日暮里で焼肉店「絵理花」を営んでいる。

小学生の時、髪の毛はじめ体毛すべてが突如抜け落ち生えてこなくなる原因不明の難病にかかった。現在はこの病気を克服しているが、当時の苦労を忘れないように、そして同じ病気で苦しむ人に勇気を与えるためにと毎日自身で剃刀を当ててスキンヘッドにし続けている。

His father is a resident (zainichi) Korean and his mother is Japanese. They run a yakiniku restaurant called "Erika" in the Nippori neighborhood of Tokyo where Hichori grew up.

When he was in elementary school, suddenly all of his hair fell out due to an unknown disease. He has gotten better from the disease now, but in order to remember those times and also in honor of other people who have illnesses that cause hair to fall out, he shaves his head every day.

帝京高校では1998年に主将、遊撃手として夏の甲子園に出場。3回戦・浜田高校戦で8回に和田毅（現福岡ソフトバンクホークス）からバックスクリーンへの同点本塁打を放つも敗退。高校通算34本塁打。同年秋のドラフト4位で日本ハムに入団し、入団当初は内野手であったが外野手に転向した。

In 1998, Hichori was captain and shortstop for Teikyo High School's baseball team, which played in the Summer Koshien tournament. In the third round of the tournament, playing against Shimane Prefecture's Hamada High School, their team was down 2-0 in the 8th inning, and Hichori hit a 2-run homer off of Tsuyoshi Wada to tie the game (though Hamada went on to win the game anyway). Hichori hit 34 home runs total during his high school career, and was drafted by the Fighters in the fourth round of the 1998 draft, and they converted him to an outfielder.

2年目の2000年、1軍初出場。その後打撃で伸び悩むが、2005年、課題だった打撃が向上し、初の100試合以上に出場。翌年の飛躍につなげる。

He made his debut at the top team level in 2000, but it wasn't until 2005 that he really improved enough to stick around and play in over 100 games.

2006年
4月下旬から1番・左翼手に定着し、初の規定打席に到達。パシフィック・リーグ最多得点を記録。チームメイトの新庄剛志・稲葉篤紀とともにゴールデングラブ賞を受賞し、同チームで外野手部門を独占した。オールスターゲームに初選出されている。

2006 -
- At the end of April he established himself as the leadoff hitter and regular left fielder. He led the Pacific League that year in runs scored, and along with his teammates Atsunori Inaba (RF) and Tsuyoshi Shinjo (CF), won an all-Fighters Golden Glove outfield. 2006 also was Hichori's first time being elected to play in the All-Star game.

2007年
前年で引退した新庄剛志に代わり中堅手に定着。不動の1番打者として全イニング出場し、初の打率3割を記録。24試合連続安打はパ・リーグ歴代6位タイ、球団では大下弘と並び最多タイ記録。

2007 -
- Hichori inherited uniform number #1 from the recently-retired Tsuyoshi Shinjo. He batted leadoff and played in every single inning of every single game for the Fighters (ed. note: this is not strictly true -- he DH'ed in one game, the "dare aitsu" game of September 30, but it's true he never missed a game or an at-bat), and batted .300 for the first time. His 24-game hitting streak was tied for the 6th best in Pacific League history and tied for the team best with Hiroshi Oshita.

2年連続で最多得票でゴールデングラブ賞と、初のベストナインを獲得。補殺数は両リーグ1位の15個を記録した。

- He also led the Golden Glove voting for the second year in a row, made the Best Nine team for the first time, and led all of NPB outfielders in assists with 15. (ed. note: No joke. The next highest were 10 from Yokohama's Kinjoh and Rakuten's Teppei.)

同じ歳で元チームメイトの實松一成（現読売ジャイアンツ）とは親友である。また、新庄からは弟分のように可愛がられており、森本を自らの背番号1の後継者に指名した。

He is still close friends with former teammate and fellow 1998 draftee Kazunari Sanematsu (now with the Giants -- and thank god for that). Also, he feels like a younger brother to Shinjo, who gave him the uniform number #1 and named him as his "successor".

Uniform numbers
- 53 (in 1999)
- 46 (2000-2006)
- 1 (2007-)

Titles / Awards / Records

Titles:
- Golden Glove, 2006 & 2007
- Best Nine - 2007, OF

Awards:
- All-star game voting (2 times, 2006 / 2007)
- All-star game "new player award" - 2006
- All-star game MVP - 2007
- Japan Series MVP - 2006

Records:
- Every inning of every game - 2007
- 24-game hitting streak - tied for 6th in PL history, tied for top of Fighters team history
- 2 leadoff home runs in consecutive games (4/25/06, 4/26/06 vs. Seibu), the 11th person to do so
- Stole home during an All-Star game, the 3rd person to ever do so
- 6 hits in a game (9/17/2006 against Chiba), tying a league record

Firsts:
- Debut game: 8/2/2000, against Seibu at the Seibu dome, came in as a pinch-hitter in the 10th inning, struck out against Shinji Mori
- First starting lineup appearance: 8/10/2000, against Kintetsu at the Osaka Dome, batting first, playing left field
- First hit: same game (8/10/2000), in the third inning off Narciso Elvira
- First home run: same game, 9th inning, off Shinji Udaka
- First RBI: same game, it was that home run
- First stolen base: 7/18/2001, against Seibu at the Tokyo Dome -- in the 2nd inning, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, catcher Tsutomu Itoh

Trivia:
-「ひちょり」の命名は父による。「稀哲」の韓国語での発音「ヒチョル」から取られた。
- His father named him "Hee-chol" in Korean, and then they made the kanji for "Hichori" in Japanese.

- 入団当時「ひろより」と振り仮名を振ってあった名鑑もあった。また、「稀哲」を「秘哲」と誤植していた名鑑もあった。
- When he first joined the team they misprinted the kanji for his name, thinking it was "Hiroyori".

- 小学生時代に、当時好きだったクラスメイトの女子から「（ドラゴンボールの）ピッコロみたい」と言われた事がある。
- "He looks like Piccolo (from Dragonball Z)!" said female classmates of his in elementary school.

- 高校時代、登校日にはいつも両親手製の焼肉弁当（肉・タレは店で使うものと同じ）を持参し、他の野球部員と交換していた。仲間に焼肉弁当を堪能してもらおうという計らいによる。
- During high school, his parents always made him a yakiniku bento for lunch, which he would bring to school and trade/share with his other baseball teammates. Everyone liked this arrangement :)

- 2006年10月12日のパ・リーグプレーオフ第2ステージ・対福岡ソフトバンクホークス2回戦の9回裏、内野で送球が逸れた際に二塁からホームインし、サヨナラ勝利でリーグ優勝を決めた。優勝の瞬間については「何が何だか分からなかったが、稲葉さんを見たら『喜びを通り越した怖い顔』をしていたので、優勝したことに気付いた」と語っている。
- On 10/12/2006, during the second game of the Pacific League Second Stage playoffs, in the 9th inning, he ran home from second base to score the deciding (and only) run of the game, which won the league championship for the Fighters. He said of that moment, "With all that happened, I best remember seeing Inaba's face, which was of such complete joy that I realized we were the champions."

- 森本には専用の応援歌があるが、2006年のアジアシリーズ決勝戦（11月12日）の第4打席ではファンから後継者という期待を込め、新庄の応援歌の替え歌が演奏された（歌詞中の「メジャー」を「鎌ケ谷」、「新庄」を「稀哲」としていた）。
- During the final game of the 2006 Asia Series, fans sang a parody of Shinjo's player cheer song to cheer for Hichori, replacing the words "Major" with "Kamagaya" and "Shinjo" with "Hichori".

- 2006年11月18日、長袖を千葉県鎌ケ谷市・ファイターズスタジアムに送ってしまったため。札幌市で行われた優勝パレードに半袖のユニフォーム姿で登場した。
- Hichori's long sleeves were supposedly left in Fighters Town Kamagaya and thus he wore short sleeves for the Fighters victory parade in Sapporo on 11/18/2006.

- 2007年3月18日、北海道新幹線大使に任命。
- On 3/18/2007, he was an ambassador for the Hokkaido Shinkansen project.

- 2007年シーズンから、新庄の後を継ぐかのようにタイムリーヒット及び本塁打に「○○ヒッツ!」「○○ホームラン!」と命名している。
- From the 2007 season onwards, he took up Shinjo's gimmick of naming his RBI hits and home runs "so-and-so hit" and "so-and-so home run".

Performances/Jokes
- 2004年9月20日、試合前練習に他の外野手4人（SHINJO、島田一輝、石本努、坪井智哉）とともに『秘密戦隊ゴレンジャー』のマスクをつけて参加。
- 9/20/2004, before the game, he and 4 other players (Shinjo, Shimada, Ishimoto, and Tsuboi) went out in Mighty Morphin Power Ranger masks.

- 2006年7月2日、試合後のヒーローインタビューで尾崎豊の『きっと忘れない』を熱唱（前年のファン感謝イベントでの公約による）。
- 7/2/2006, he sang Yutaka Ozaki's "Kitto Wasurenai" song during a hero interview.

- 2006年7月21日、オールスターゲーム第1戦の試合前イベントに漫画『ドラゴンボール』の登場人物・ピッコロの姿で登場。しかし版権の問題からか、実況は一切コメントをしなかった。第2戦（7月23日）の試合前イベントにはカツラを装着し、差し歯を抜いて登場。
- 7/21/2006 - during the All-Star game, he dressed up as Piccolo from Dragonball Z.

- 2006年8月13日、試合前のスターティングメンバー紹介時に1人だけ「ラリージャパン」の幟をつけた自転車で入場（他の先発メンバーは全員ラリーカーに乗って入場。ラリージャパンの宣伝のため）。
- 8/13/2006 - during the starting lineups, he rode a "Rally Japan" little bicycle out onto the field, despite that all of the other players had ridden cars out.

- 2006年10月26日、日本シリーズ優勝決定後のビールかけの場にスピードスケート選手の衣装で登場。
- During the beer-spraying party following the 2006 Japan Series, he dressed up as a speed skater.

- 2007年6月2日、試合前練習に特注の竹馬とズボンを履いて登場。当日先発登板したダルビッシュ有の身長をはるかに超える3mの「ひちょ・マックス」姿で守備練習を行った。
- 6/2/2007, he came out onto the field before the game wearing stilts and called himself "Hicho MAX!"

- 2007年7月20日に行われたオールスターゲーム第1戦では帽子から「伸びた頭」を披露。しかし遠目ではよく分からなかったため、不評であった。
- 7/20/2007 - during the All-Star 2007 games, he dressed up as a conehead.

- 翌日（7月21日）の第2戦ではタイのムエタイ風の姿（上半身裸に緑のトランクス）で登場し、全パのヒルマン監督と打ち合った。
- The next day he came out dressing like a Muay Thai boxer in green trunks.

- 同年シーズンオフの三井ゴールデングラブ賞表彰式会場に、マイケル・ジャクソン『スリラー』の様な上下赤のレザーファッションとメイクで登場
- During the Golden Glove ceremonies, he dressed up as Michael Jackson.

- 同年（12月1日）札幌ドームで開催された日ハムのファンフェスティバルにて、選手のPK対決で同じ地元のJリーグチーム・コンサドーレ札幌のユニフォームを着てゴールを決めた(その時のキーパー役は鶴岡慎也)。
- During the fan festival, he came out dressed up as a soccer player for Consadole Sapporo, and kicked a goal (the goalkeeper was Fighters catcher Shinya Tsuruoka).

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Yikes, my brain hurts from going through all that. I need to add pictures to most of those later "episodes", although I'm sure by now everyone's seen the one of him dressed as Piccolo during the ASG...

Anyway, happy Hichori day! And remember.. Hichori Day means only one day until Spring Training!