Marines vs. Hawks, April 6 2008
Me, Bobby Valentine, and Isamu "Tokyo Sam" Maruhashi |
Me and Bobby Valentine. |
Again with Bobby (slightly color-balanced). |
Me with the Lotte Marines Mind Control Task Force, aka Larry Rocca. |
Hawks pitchers taking fielding practice. |
Hiroshi Freaking Shibahara |
Tsuyoshi Wada (nice sunglasses, dude). |
CJ Nitkowski |
Yuuki "Eyebrows" Kume, and Rick Guttormson |
Hitoshi Tamura |
Shibahara again. I was mostly just amused by the fact that I was close enough to zoom in on his name on his bat. |
Yoshihisa "The Boy that Couldn't Lose" Naruse greets Hitoshi "Most likely to die running into a wall" Tamura. |
"Oh my GOD that's Sadaharu Oh over there." |
Naruse goofing around with Munenori "Munerin" Kawasaki. |
Sadaharu Oh. |
Shibahara takes aim at the batting tee. |
"OH my GOD! That's Tatsuya Ide!" "Who? How the hell do you know that?" "He used to be the centerfielder for the Fighters... err..." |
Hitoshi Tamura. |
New import Michael Restovich. |
I'm still in "Oh my god, Munenori Kawasaki is standing right there" mode, see. |
Nobuhiko Matsunaka! |
Nobuhiro Matsuda. |
Catcher Katsuki Yamazaki. |
The special "press seats" down at field level. You can apparently buy tickets to sit here. |
The plates with the team rosters - they have these for every year. |
1974 team plate. Kaneda! |
Game lineup (from the day before) inside the Marines sports pub. |
Lounge/sports pub area near the VIP boxes. |
The bar in the sports pub. |
Closeup of that picture of the 1974 lineup having a reunion on the field in early 2005. |
View from one of the VIP boxes. |
Wacky perspective of picnic area brought to you by VIP room. |
The VIP room. |
The "izakaya" area near the rightfield foulpole -- complete with wooden seats and a magician doing tricks. |
Bobby wall outside the Bobby Magic Bar, part 1 |
Bobby wall, part 2 |
Jose Jose Jose Jose. |
Masahiko Tanaka and Frank Ramppen. |
That punk, Imae. |
Shoitsu Ohmatsu. |
"Oh my god, there's Shunsuke!" |
SABUROOOOO |
Bobby! |
Larry attacks Bobby with a marker and a bunch of baseballs. |
"WHAT TIME IS IT? GAME TIME!" |
The lineup inside the dugout, complete with lefty-righty splits for the opponents. |
The Minister of Information, Paul Pupo, is the reason for all of these lineups. |
If you don't bring some wacky sign, you aren't allowed in the right field bleachers. |
What a lovely wide expanse of green. |
Scoreboard with the opening lineups. |
First batter of the game, Munenori Kawasaki. |
Tsuyoshi Wada throws on the sidelines. |
More Wada. |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Ryuuma Kidokoro. |
Imae. |
Boy Wonder Nishioka. |
Tsuyoshi Wada. |
More Wada. |
More Shunsuke. |
We have many high numbers. |
Munerin! |
Munerin spray! |
Munerin at the plate! |
Munerin swing! |
Okay, what is UP with Ohtsuka's batting stance? Is he trying to emulate Hitoshi Taneda? |
Catcher Tasuku Hashimoto catches a pop foul. |
Tasuku Hashimoto. |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
The Hashimoto-Shibahara showdown in slow motion! 3... |
2... |
1... slide... |
And Shibahara has scored the first run of the game. Whoosh. |
Shunsuke! |
Shunsuke! |
Tsuyoshi Wada, still on the sidelines. |
"Hey, that's Matoyama from Orix isn't it?" |
"What's wrong, man?" |
Wada on the mound. |
It's a sign. |
Nishioka smash! |
Nishioka smash pop fly out! |
Tomoya Satozaki makes a mighty swing. |
And as usual, Satozaki can't hold onto his bat. |
Tamura seemed to be kinda slow. |
Koichi Hori! |
"Ok, so like, if someone hits the ball, you go THAT way. Got it?" |
Pay no attention to the big man at third. |
Oretachi no Benny! |
Benny hits a double. |
Benny chats up Munerin at second base. |
Tsuyoshi Wada |
Tsuyoshi Wada |
I can only dream of having one of these awesome lenses instead of my cheapo one someday. |
Benny! |
It's that Mune kid again. |
Tadaatsu Nakazawa, my hero zero. |
"Uh, here, take this. You'll need it." |
Nobuhiro Matsuda! What a smile. |
Mitsuru Honma high-fives the world after a home run. |
Oh-kantoku comes out to cheer everyone on. |
Yusuke Kawasaki comes out of the bullpen. |
Lefty with a big blue glove? Sounds familiar... |
Matsunaka practically limps off the field. |
Hidenori Tanoue |
I wonder if this moose is related to the Mariner Moose. |
Those crazy Marines fans. |
Fuusen whoosh! |
"Excuse me sir, but I did not hear you call me off." |
"What's that? I can get everything in shallow left field?" |
Pitching change and a big ol' "CHARGE MARINES FIGHTIN'" on the Auroravision. |
Takehara. |
"Hello, I am SABURO, and I am going to hit a BIG SAC FLY NOW OKAY?" |
Tatsuya Ide gives signals from the dugout. |
Benny runs home! |
Benny SLIDE! |
Daisuke Hayakawa. |
"Nice job, dude." |
Kawasaki pitches to Kawasaki... and Kawasaki bunts. |
Akihiro Yanase. |
Akihiro Yanase. |
Kume-kun! |
Yuuki Kume. |
Yuuki Kume. |
Yuuki Kume. |
CJ Nitkowski. |
More CJ. |
And another CJ. |
It's the bottom of the 9th and we are ready to RUMBLE! |
"No, dude, explain to them that I'm totally okay and we're gonna win." |
Unlikely game hero Masahiko Tanaka. |
Nishioka gets splashed after hitting home the winning run. |
Celebrate, part 1. |
Celebrate, part 2. |
Celebrate, part 3. Knockdown! |
Celebrate, part 4. Note the game hero lying on the ground. |
Tanaka as game hero, final score. |