Marinerds, etc.

I gotta admit, I didn't even know what the hell QVC was until I just looked it up.



Going to The Stadium Formerly Known As Chiba Marine isn't all that much fun for me anymore. I have a lot of memories there, of course, from all the time I spent there during Bobby Valentine's time as manager, and so going there now feels strange, unless I'm sitting in the Fighters cheering section in left field.

But well, on Thursday night I had been sending phonemails with Steve to see if he was at the Tokyo Dome (he wasn't), and he suggested I come to Chiba Marine sometime during the weekend. And then they announced the starting pitchers for Friday night, and you wouldn't believe who was starting for Lotte...



Hiroki Ueno is one of my favorite favorite baseball players and through a lot of dumb luck, I barely ever get to actually see him play. Infact, I think the last time I got to see him start a game might have been Draft day 2008 when he was still at Toyo University.

Unfortunately, in this game at Chiba, he had a rough first inning -- he walked 3 batters, loading the bases, and then Seung-Yeop Lee (wearing the wrong uniform, apparently he didn't have his?) hit a 2-RBI single and Shogo Akada followed it up with another RBI single to make it 3-0.

The Marines put one on the board themselves in the bottom of the 1st, with Shota Ishimine leading off with a walk and stealing second, and coming in on a Jose Castillo single.

But that was it for a very long time as Buffaloes starter Yuki Nishi, all 20 years old of him, pitched a bunch of scoreless innings after that. In the meantime, the Buffaloes added a run in the 4th off a Sakaguchi RBI single, making it 4-1.

Nishi game out of the game in the 6th after giving up another run -- this time largely on letting Castillo advance on a wild pitch, so when Hisao Heiuchi made a dramatic infield single, headsliding into first just ahead of the throw from shallow center, it made the score 4-2.

As for Ueno, he went 7.2 innings, and if not for that horrible first inning, he would have won the game, so that made me kind of sad. Instead, the Buffaloes won 4-2, with Mamoru Kishida getting the save for them, and the Marines putting in Yuta Kimura for their last 2 innings.



Other things:

There were fireworks. Apparently they change the firing location each game? We couldn't see them at ALL from the infield jiyuuseki on the 1B side:



Another observation is how popular Shota Ishimine is. Batting leadoff with an interesting cheer song (hailing to him being from Okinawa with a big "I-YA-SA-SA" cheer in the middle), I'm surprised by how many #5 shirts I saw at the stadium, and they were Ishimine shirts, not all just old Koichi Hori shirts. I thought people might be more pissed off about #5 going to someone again so soon after Hori left, but Ishimine's a likely Rookie of the Year candidate and is trying to fill those shoes as best he can. I said it last fall and I'll say it again, Ishimine is the MAN. Heck, one of my college baseball friends was at this game just because she's been following Ishimine around, she doesn't usually go to pro games all that much.

I'm saddened by how boring the Lotteria at the stadium got. Ever since the Bobby Burgers went away it's been kind of silly, the Taekyun burger was terrible, and apparently this year's special was a Saburo menchi katsu burger, but of course, the team traded Saburo -- err, Ohmura -- to the Giants, so now there's basically nothing special. I forgot to hunt down some Karakawa karaage. Oh well.

I went to the Marines team store to try to find ANYTHING of Ueno, too -- a t-shirt, a towel, a cell strap, ANYTHING. But there was nothing. I even asked a store clerk, like "Hey, do you have any Hiroki Ueno merchandise?" "Uh, who?" "Hiroki Ueno. Tonight's starting pitcher. Number 15." "Oh, number 15. No we don't."

Sigh.

Hanging out with Steve and and his friend Lou was fun though. I really have no reason to go to Chiba much anymore except Fighters games, so it was good to have people to hang out with.

Oh yeah, and after the game...



Way too many mascots in Chiba. This one is "Cool".

Fighters games at the Tokyo Dome are really special to me. It was, infact, at the Tokyo Dome 8 years ago that I got my start as a Fighters fan. Thus, I planned my trip to Japan this fall to allow me to get to at least one Tokyo Dome game, and I'm really glad I did.

I showed up around 3:30 for the 4pm doors opening for the 6pm game, and there were already a ton of people out there, mostly because they now make Marines and Fighters fans both come in at the same gate for the outfield, which sucks. On the other hand, all of the established groups of friends I have were already out there waiting, so I basically just said hi to a bazillion people, and snuck in with one of my closer friends, who let me just get in line with him. This resulted in me getting into the stadium before the friends who were actually saving me a seat.

Mostly, people were like "Welcome back! When did you get in?" but several didn't know I'd left the country and reacted like "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THIS YEAR?!!?"

I was fortunate to run into a friend of mine who speaks fluent English and engineered it so that I ended up sitting with him for most of the game (his group and mine had saved seats next to each other). So that was great; I made him teach me some of the new cheer songs.

We went up to do pinbadges, too. (We ran into BB on the way and took the above photo then.) Of course, this is my only real chance this year to get them for sure; I want to go to Sapporo but don't know that I'll do it or not yet. My only real goal was getting an Imanari badge, since I have one for every year he's been on the Fighters. So I got my raijo badge, then went to get in line to do gatchapon badges... and while we were all there, some guy comes up to Crazy Matsuda like "I got these, they're mostly crap, anyone want to trade?" and I said "OMG YOU HAVE IMANARI!!!! I WANT I WANT I WANT!!!" so he basically just gave it to me for my Tadano, which is the one I got for just showing up. I *knew* that something would work out for me getting an Imanari badge as usual, I just had no idea what it would be. I immediately affixed it to my uniform, I was so happy:



Anyway...

I took videos of some of the new songs so I could study them later. Here's a few:


Fighters full lineup cheer before the game:
1. Scales 2. Yoh 3. Itoi 4. Koyano 5. Inaba 6. Nakata 7. Hoffpauir 8. Imanami 9. Tsuruoka


Micah Hoffpauir cheer song.
鍛え抜かれた体で　迎える敵を蹴散らせ　内に秘めた闘志　熱く熱く燃やせ
kitaenukareta karada de osaeru kataki wo kechirase uchi wo himeta toushi atsuku atsuku moyase

This was actually Micah Franklin's song ten years ago, bizarrely...


Bobby Scales cheer song.
溢れる力を出し　その名を刻め　希望の道を拓け　Ｇｏ！ＭＹ！ＷＡＹ！　レオン
afureru chikara wo dashi sono na wo kizame kibou no michi wo hirake GO MY WAY Leon!

This one was used for Andy Green for like, the 2-3 months he played for the Fighters in 2007... which was before I moved there that summer.


Atsushi Ugumori's new cheer song -- actually entirely new just for him.
ひかりの中に　素晴らしい明日あすを見つけて　がむしゃらに追い掛けろ　煌めく世界を
hikari no naka ni subarashii asu wo mitsukete gamushara ni oikakero kirameku sekai wo

On the subject of those guys, bizarrely, this one person had some cheering props for Scales and Hoffpauir, both of which were bad puns in Japanese. For Scales he had a 助さん (suke-san) sign, which I first thought was something to do with the word "suketto", but I have since been informed that it's probably a reference to Mito Komon's bodyguard. For Hoffpauir, whose first name is Micah, this guy had a squid hat. Get it? Micah sounds like "maika" in Japanese, which is a kind of squid.



Anyway, as for the game itself, it was less exciting than it could have been. The Fighters scored runs in the first and second innings; first off Scales reaching base on a dropped fl to right field, being bunted up and scored on a Koyano single, and in the second inning, Tsuruoka doubled, and Scales doubled, and that was it. Things largely progressed like that for the next few innings, with the Marines scattering some kinda sucky plays in the field that somehow didn't let the Fighters score, and eventually in the 8th inning Shota Ishimine led off with a walk, advanced on a single and a bunt, and then scored on an error by Bobby Scales, who dropped a fly ball in shallow center. That's most of the action for the game right there and the Fighters won it 2-1.



Bobby Keppel pitched 7 strong innings and was the game hero. It was Nashida's last game managing in the Tokyo Dome so they made a big deal out of that.



On one last note, here's a photo I took out of the Tokyo Dome:



Notice anything... strange... about that?

The Big 6 Bleacher Bum gang threw me a going-away party at the Abu-san izakaya in Yotsuya tonight. The restaurant is named after Abu-san, a baseball manga written by Shinji Mizushima. (The title character in it, Yasutake Kageura, is the only manga character in Japan to have a number retired in their honor.) It's pretty much completely full of baseball memorabilia and photographs, and there's always something baseball-related showing on the big-screen TV, and the patrons and staff are pretty much always big baseball fans who come there to eat and drink and chat with likeminded folks.

As such, baseball players actually come to the restaurant as well sometimes, which is probably how the place came to be completely full of memorabilia in the first place.

While we were there tonight, the rumor floated around our table that there was a Lotte coach sitting at a table near us, though nobody has any clue who it is. One of my friends tells me where the supposed coach is sitting and tells me to turn around surreptitiously and look when I have a chance.

I do, and I realize it's Kiyoshi Yamanaka!

Everyone's like "Are you sure?" and I get out my cellphone, where I have various photos of me with players and such, and show them this photo from the 2009 season, when Yamanaka was still a minor-league bullpen coach for the Fighters. I used to actually say hi to him fairly often outside the Kamagaya minor-league facility, since he was buddies with Ojisan and was a fairly friendly and funny guy.

Our group all says, "You really ought to show him that photo and see if you can take a new one with him! I bet he'll be happy!"

I was a little too shy to do that myself, so when Yamanaka's group was leaving, one of the people in our group basically went ahead and called out to him on my behalf, like "Hey, will you take a photo with our friend? She's leaving Japan next week."



We take the photo, and I'm like "Do you remember me? I used to talk to you at Kamagaya a few years ago when you were a Fighters coach."

"Oh!" he said, "Yeah, I thought I'd seen you before..."

"I was really sad when you went to Lotte as a coach, but, CONGRATULATIONS on the championship this year!"

My friend was elbowing me like "Show him the photo from Kamagaya!" so I did. And he laughed, probably because he was making the exact same thumbs-up pose back then too.

So, that was surreal.

Here's another shot of the Abu-san restaurant that I took a few weeks ago:



It's really quite full of stuff. I always seem to spend one-third of my time there eating/drinking, one-third of my time talking, and the rest of the time staring at everything on the walls. They even have the name plate that was actually used in a scoreboard for Koji Akiyama (not sure what stadium... Heiwadai?):



Pretty cool.

And yeah, I'm leaving Japan on the 18th and moving back to Seattle. Very sad. You would never believe how many pounds of baseball magazines I'm trying to take back with me.

On the other hand, as part of my going-away gifts tonight I received both an Abu-san plate signed by Johnny Kuroki, and a pink baseball signed by my favorite Keio catcher Masahiro Nagasaki. That was pretty cool. My friends wrote me a card and also got the staff to sign it, including Makoto Ashikawa (an actor who works there as a waiter as his "day job") and Yoshida-kun, a waiter who used to play baseball at Horikoshi HS, though he was a few years ahead of Hisashi Iwakuma and a few years behind Hirokazu Ibata.

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.)

And the Chiba Lotte Marines are your 2010 Japan Series champions!

I spent today watching college football (yes, the kind with the prolate spheroid) with Kozo down in Yokohama and told Steve that I'd "try to be back home in time to watch the 11th inning". It was a joke due to Game 6 ending in a 6-hour 15-inning tie. But infact... I got home in the 8th inning and it was a 7-6 game at the time with Lotte leading, and sure enough, Kazuhiro Wada hit a triple to lead off the bottom of the 9th and next thing you know, it was a tied 7-7 game in extra innings yet again.

In the 12th, with Asao still in (and Firearm IMing me to say that "Ochiai just went full retard, Asao for a 4th inning?!"), Imae walked, pitcher Itoh bunted him over and for once did NOT fail. Satozaki grounded out and then Okada -- who the announcers kept marvelling at how he went from being an ikusei player to playing at THE JAPAN SERIES -- slammed one out to right field, back to the wall, and well, when the dust cleared, Imae was in for the go-ahead 8-7 run and Okada the ikusei wonder was on 3rd.

Iwase got my beloved Heiuchi to hit a fly out but well, this game was over. The bottom of the 12th featured a Tanishige fly out, Ibata watches a 3rd strike go by for the second out, and then a pinch-hitting Fujii grounded out to short.

And the Marines are the champions.

It feels still very weird and detatched for me for whatever reason. And my TV feed cut out so I don't even know yet who got the MVP or anything else.

EDIT> Word in from Nagoya (ie, Steve, who is in the Lotte ouenseki) is that Imae is the Series MVP, which totally makes sense, just like he was in 2005. My god, has it seriously been 5 years since then? I still remember staying up until 6-7am every morning to track the Marines-Tigers games back then.

Last game. Here we go.

                     

Nishioka ss                Kawasaki ss
Kiyota cf                  Honda 2b
Iguchi 2b                  Ortiz dh
Saburo rf                  Kokubo 1b
Imae 3b                    Tamura rf
Imaoka?! dh                Matsunaka lf
Taekyun 1b                 Matsuda 3b
Ohmatsu lf                 Hasegawa cf
Satozaki c                 Yamasaki c
 
Naruse                     Sugiuchi

Top of the first (M 0, H 0)
Nishioka fly out to right field.
Kiyota groundout to short.
Iguchi strikes out swinging.

Bottom of the first (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki strkes out swinging.
Honda grounds out to short.
Ortiz grounds out to second.

Top of the second (M 0, H 0)
Saburo hits a pop fly out to right.
Imae hits a pop fly out to right as well.
Imaoka grounds out to short.

Bottom of the second (M 0, H 0)
Kokubo grounds out to second.
Tamura strikes out swinging.
Matsunaka hits a pop fly out to left.

(It's 6:30pm and the first two innings are done...)

Top of the third (M 0, H 0)
Taekyun hits a LINER to short and Kawasaki jumps to catch it. Oops.
Ohmatsu walks! First base-runner of the game! OMG! One on, one out.
Satozaki singles through Sugiuchi's legs and up the middle. First HIT of the game! Two on, one out.
Nishioka hits a pop fly to right. Two down, two on.
Kiyota grounds out to second, force on Satozaki for the fielder's choice 6-4. Three down.

Bottom of the third (M 0, H 0)
Matsuda hits a pop fly out to center.
Hasegawa grounds out to short.
Yamasaki strikes out stupid. Three down.

Top of the fourth (M 0, H 0)
Iguchi hits a pop fly out to straight center.
Saburo walks.
Imae hits a fly ball into the gap... and Hasegawa makes the catch at the wall, two down, one on.
Imaoka hits another pop fly out to right. Three down.

Bottom of the fourth (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki grounds out to first (3-1).
Honda hits a fly ball to center, caught. Two down.
Ortiz singles to left for the first Hawks runner of the game just as I was thinking "Wow, Naruse has a perfect game so far." He points to the sky when he gets to first base, if that matters.
Kokubo hits a pop fly out to second, three down.

4 innings over and it's 7:06pm.

Top of the fifth (M 4, H 0)
Taekyun strikes out swinging.
Ohmatsu hits a pop fly out to left.
Satozaki singles to left! That makes him 2-for-2 today...
Nishioka singles all the way out to the left corner. Two on, two out.
Kiyota walks -- so bases loaded, two out... that was apparently the 84th pitch of the night for Sugiuchi.
Iguchi is apparently hit by a pitch, on his leg (it looked like a wild pitch at first to be honest). Satozaki scores, 1-0.
Saburo ALSO walks. Oshidashi! Nishioka scores. 2-0.
Imae hits a bouncing grounder that bounces over Sugiuchi, and past a diving Kawasaki. Kiyota and Iguchi score on the single. 4-0.

97 pitches and Sugiuchi is switched off the mound to Masahiko Morifuku. (Sugiuchi seriously looks like he's going to cry but he also seems quite aware that there must be tons of cameras on him so instead he's towelling off sweat and getting a drink.)

Imaoka hits a pop fly out to right and that ends the bleeding for now.

Bottom of the fifth (M 4, H 0)
Tamura hits a pop fly out to right.
Matsunaka... ?! grounds out to first but it goes through Taekyun into right field and is called an E3. (I could almost see calling it a single.) One on, one out.
Matsuda hits a pop fly to right. One on, two down.
Hasegawa hits a pop fly out to center. Three down.

Top of the sixth (M 4, H 0)

Morifuku is off the mound and TSUYOSHI WADA HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING. Holy carp. Well, he hasn't pitched in 4 days, but... we'll see. He was untouchable before...

Taekyun strikes out.
Ohmatsu grounds out to second.
Satozaki grounds back to the mound. Three down.

Bottom of the sixth (M 4, H 0)
Tanoue pinch-hits for Yamasaki and grounds out to short.
Kawasaki also grounds out to short.
Honda hits a pop fly to left and it's the 7th inning... at 7:53pm...

Top of the seventh (M 4, H 0)
Nishioka grounds out to short.
Kiyota pops a fly out to right. Two down.
Iguchi singles to right-center. One on, two out.
Saburo hits a pop fly to right-center, caught by the rightfielder. Change.

Bottom of the seventh (M 4, H 0)
Ortiz hits a pop fly to right.
Kokubo strikes out swinging.
Tamura singles to center.
Matsunaka strikes out swinging.

Top of the eighth (M 7, H 0)
Falkenborg on the mound in place of Wada.

Imae singles to short.
Heiuchi pinch-hits for Imaoka comes up bunting and successfully bunts up Imae, 2-4. One down, runner at 2nd.
Taekyun singles back to the right-field wall, driving in Imae. 5-0.
Ohmatsu hits a HOME RUN TO RIGHT which brings in Taekyun as well. 7-0.
Satozaki singles up the middle. That makes him 3-for-4, btw. One on, one out again.
Nishioka grounds into a fielder's choice, 5-4. So still one on, but now two out.
Kiyota strikes out.

Naruse is still in there -- only 89 pitches to this point.
And the camera crew keeps showing very grumpy-looking Hawks players in the dugout.

Bottom of the eighth (M 7, H 0)
Matsuda singles to center. One on, no out.
Hasegawa grounds into a double play, 5-4-3. Two down.
Tanoue singles to right... one on, two out.
Kawasaki strikes out swinging. (I think that's 6 strikeouts for Naruse.)

Settsu in for the Hawks pitching now.

Top of the ninth (M 7, H 0)
Iguchi grounds out to third.
Saburo hits a pop fly out to left.
Imae singles to left. One on, two out.
Fukuura pinch-hits for Heiuchi and strikes out.

Last 3 outs for Softbank... and Naruse is still in there.

Bottom of the ninth (M 7, H 0)
Honda hits a pop fly out to left. (2nd pitch.)
Ortiz hits a pop fly out to right. (First pitch.)
Kokubo swings at the first pitch, strike one. Fouls off the second pitch, strike two. Third pitch is in the dirt, ball one.

Kokubo breaks his bat hitting the ball to short. Nishioka, who started crying as Kokubo was at the plate, MAKES THE CATCH and then collapses on the ground crying.

The Marines are going to the Japan Series!

Um... some screenshots. I don't know, I feel weird about this entire thing. Like, I'm happy for the Marines players that I've been watching the last few years... but at the same time I feel kind of funny to see Bobby's guys up there going to the Japan Series without Bobby. (To be fair, Nishimura did say that "we couldn't have gotten here without the last manager, who I was a coach for in the 2005 Japan Series", but still.)


Heiuchi, because this is my blog and I can put him in here.


Nishioka before the final out.


Naruse before the final out.


Nishioka after the final out, crying.


Helping Nishioka up and off the field.


Grumpy Akiyama-manager in the Hawks dugout.


Doage (not of Nishimura, they only threw him twice. I didn't catch who this was.)


Saburo and Iguchi.


Hayden Penn and Bill Murphy back in the dugout.


Nishimura's speech.


Pennant banner thingy.


Final ceremony starts.

I got home from work just in time for the second at-bat of the game and realized I may fall asleep if I don't figure out a way to stay involved in the game, so I'm going to liveblog. (It's been a long week and I'm pretty tired.) Feel free to email/IM/comment if you're also watching.

(I don't know a feed online, I'm watching on BS1. I think there are several on justin.tv though.)

                     

Nishioka ss                Kawasaki ss
Kiyota cf                  Honda 2b
Iguchi 2b                  Matsunaka lf
Saburo rf                  Kokubo 1b
Imae 3b                    Tamura rf
Imaoka?! dh                Petagine! dh
Taekyun 1b                 Hasegawa cf
Ohmatsu lf                 Matsuda 3b
Matoba c                   Tanoue c
 
Naruse                     Sugiuchi

Top of the first (M 0, H 0)
Nishioka grounds out to second.
Kiyota singles to center! One on, one out.
Iguchi walks -- 1st and 2nd, one out.
Saburo strikes out swinging.
Imae hits a low fly ball to center and Hasegawa runs in for the catch. 3 out, change.

Bottom of the first (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki singles to left.
Honda sac bunts right in front of the plate, 1-4 play. One out, runner at 2nd.
Matsunaka walks. 1st and 2nd, one out.
Kokubo strikes out swinging. 1st, 2nd, two out.
Tamura walks, the 4th ball being a pitch aimed at Matoba's left foot pretty much and bounces in the dirt and gets away. (I suppose people can't advance more than one base on a wild pitch if the guy walks?). So, bases loaded, 2 out.
Petagine strikes out swinging. Inning over.

Top of the second (M 3, H 0)
Imaoka hits a ball way out to right for a double. 2nd, no out.
Taekyun manages to catch one on the end of his bat and bloop it to right field for a single. 1st and 3rd, no out.
Ohmatsu WALLOPS one to right field that sails up up and away for a home run. BOOM. Everyone scores. 3-0.
Matoba grounds out to short as he is often wont to do. One out.
Nishioka strikes out swinging. Two out.
Kiyota walks. One on, two out.
Kiyota steals second on the first pitch to Iguchi. 2nd, two out.
Iguchi takes forever but finally strikes out. Change.

Steve pointed out in the comments that Ohmatsu's homer is already on Youtube, an hour later or so.

Bottom of the second (M 3, H 0)
Hasegawa grounds out to first, Naruse covering the bag. One down.
Matsuda grounds out to third.
Tanoue strikes out swinging. Change.

I want to mention that they saw fit to put up on the screen during this inning an announcement that the dollar is the lowest against the yen that it has been in 15 years. Ugh.

Top of the third (M 3, H 0)
Saburo strikes out swinging.
Imae pops out to shallow left, Kawasaki making the catch.
Imaoka hits one to shallow center and Hasegawa runs in and makes a diving sliding catch to get it. Change.

Bottom of the third (M 3, H 0)
Kawasaki bunts up the left side but Imae is too quick for him. One down.
Honda singles up the middle. One on, one out.
Matsunaka walks -- two on, one out.
Kokubo grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. Change!

For some reason you can't hear announcers on the BS1 broadcast but you CAN hear the vendors yelling "How about a beer?"

Top of the fourth (M 3, H 0)
Taekyun singles to left. One on, no out.
Ohmatsu walks on 5 pitches. Two on, no out.
Matoba FAIL. Sac bunt, Tanoue scoops it up and fires to third, gets Taekyun and then Matsuda throws to first and barely doubles up Matoba as well, 2-5-3 double play. 2nd, two out.
Nishioka grounds out to short. Change.

Bottom of the fourth (M 3, H 0)
Tamura hits a pop fly out to left. One down.
Petagine grounds out to first. Two down.
Hasegawa grounds out to third. Change.

Top of the fifth (M 3, H 0)
Kiyota grounds out to third.
Iguchi singles to left. One on, one out.
Saburo grounds back to the mound for a 1-4-3 double play. Change.

Bottom of the fifth (M 3, H 1)
Matsuda... that was odd, he grounded to short, Nishioka moved over and got the ball, and when he transferred the ball from his glove to his hand and went to throw, the ball slipped out of Nishioka's hand and Matsuda was safe at first. They're calling it a hit, it seems. One on, no out.
Tanoue comes up bunting and eventually bunts Matsuda over, SB3-4. 2nd, one out.
Kawasaki singles to left, bringing home Matsuda for the first Hawks run. 3-1.
Honda grounds to short. Kawasaki is out on the 6-4 force but Honda is safe at first. 1st, two out.
Matsunaka is called out on strikes. Change.

Top of the sixth (M 3, H 1)
Imae grounds out to third.
Imaoka walks.
Taekyun fails, fouls, and strikes out swinging. One on, two out.
Ohmatsu is called out on strikes. Change.

Bottom of the sixth (M 3, H 1)
Kokubo strikes out swinging.
Tamura also strikes out swinging.
Petagine ALSO strikes out swinging! Whoa!

Lucky 7 inning time.

Top of the seventh (M 3, H 1)
Matoba hits a pop fly to right field.
Nishioka walks.

That's it for Sugiuchi -- 121 pitches and 6.1 innings and he's out of the game.
He's replaced on the mound by... TAKEHITO KANAZAWA!?!? WTF?

Nishioka steals 2nd on the 2-2 pitch. 2nd, one out.
Kiyota grounds out to second. 3rd, two outs.
Iguchi strikes out. Change.

The WTF on Kanazawa, btw, is that he was on the Fighters for a year or two. We got him in a trade with the Hanshin Tigers wherein both teams got rid of guys they couldn't release without feeling bad -- we gave them former ROY Itsuki Shoda, who they subsequently released and he's now playing in Taiwan. The Fighters released Kanazawa too, and he passed the 12-team tryouts and ended up playing for Orix, and then they traded him to the Hawks, and here he is pitching in the postseason. How WEIRD. I seriously rarely watch the Hawks and had no clue that Kanazawa was pitching well this year. Good for him, I suppose, but it's still freaking me out.

Lucky 7 for the Hawks, now. What's with all the red today? Red jerseys, red balloons... are any Hawks fans reading this and can clue me in? It's a bit odd for a team whose colors are black and yellow, y'know.

Bottom of the seventh (M 3, H 1)
Hasegawa hits a pop fly out to left.
Matsuda hits a pop fly to right.
Tanoue hits a pop fly out to center. Whee.

Top of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Saburo hits one out to center. It... bounces on the centerfield wall and then back onto the field? Is it a home run or a ground rule double? It's unclear, and the umpires and Nishimura are going to have a little chat, and watch a little video, it seems...

It's called a ground-rule double. Okay.

Kanazawa leaves the mound, anyway, and is replaced by little lefty Masahiko "Monkeyboy" Morifuku.

Imae grounds out to third. Saburo still on 2nd, one out.
Imaoka grounds out to short. Saburo to 3rd, two out.
Taekyun is INTENTIONALLY WALKED (!?) to put runners at the corners, two out...
Ohmatsu hits a pop fly up, caught just foul of first. Change.

Lucky for the Hawks that it wasn't a homer by Saburo, I guess.

Bottom of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Kawasaki hits a pop fly to right-center, Kiyota running out for the catch. One down.
Honda is called out on strikes.
Matsunaka grounds out to short, and... headslides into first?! Whoa.
double play to shortstop, headslide to first

Bottom of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Keisuke Kattoh takes the mound for the Hawks.

Matoba pop fly to right.
Nishioka strikes out swinging.
Kiyota also strikes out.

Well... it comes down to the theoretical last three outs of the game...

Bottom of the ninth (M 3, H 1)

Naruse is still on the mound. Okada comes in to play center for the Marines. Kiyota moves to left.

Kokubo hits a pop fly out to left. One down. Two outs remaining...
Tamura strikes out swinging.
Ortiz pinch-hits for Petagine and hits a pop fly up, up, out to left, and CAUGHT! Three out!

Game over. Marines are now tied 1 and 1 game with the Hawks (thanks to the 1st-place team 1-game advantage).

Complete game for Naruse. Not too shabby.

Hey -- just a note to say that I am in Sapporo but will probably not be writing much in the next 3 days, despite that I'll be at games, because I'm crashing with a friend who doesn't have internet at her place yet.

The rest of this, I wrote on the train today while travelling from Tokyo to Sapporo. It took over 10 hours total. The tunnel is NOT that exciting but the scenery in northern Japan is beautiful. I'll expound upon this more sometime if you really want to know.

My upcoming game/travel schedule:
Aug 20: Tokyo->Sapporo (by train)
Aug 21: Fighters vs. Lions @ Sapporo Dome
Aug 22: Fighters vs. Lions @ Sapporo Dome
Aug 23: Sapporo->Akita (by train)
Aug 24: Eagles vs. Fighters @ Akita
Aug 25: Akita->Morioka, Eagles vs. Fighters @ Morioka
Aug 26: Morioka->Tokyo (train)
Aug 27: Tokyo->Hiroshima (train), Carp vs. Giants @ Mazda Zoom-Zoom
Aug 28: Hiroshima->Matsuyama (boat), Tokyo Big 6 All-Stars @ Botchan Stadium
Aug 29: Matsuyama->Takamatsu (train), Kagawa Olive Guyners vs. Tokushima Indigo Socks
Aug 30: Takamatsu->Tokushima (train), Tokushima->Wakayama (boat), Wakayama->Tokyo (train I guess -- haven't figured out that far out yet)

Should be a pretty fantastic roadtrip aside from reports of possible rain. Sigh.

Anyway, I got back to Japan on Wednesday, and sadly missed International Day at the Tokyo Dome, as all my friends informed me later ("You could have done YMCA on the field again, and translated all the English crap that they were saying during the game for us!!") but was back in action for Thursday night's game -- the last Fighters Tokyo Dome game of 2010 and maybe my last ever if I go through with my plan to move back to the US at New Year's (well, I suppose I could time a trip to Japan in the future to coincide with them, but...). It was special for me because I got my entire start in Japanese baseball at a Fighters game at the Tokyo Dome back before they moved to Sapporo, so I wanted to try to get to at least one last one before leaving.

For some stupid reason, they were only letting fans come in through gate 25 for outfield unreserved -- that is, rather than Marines fans at gate 11 and Fighters at Gate 25, so it was RIDICULOUS. I got in around 4:40pm, but friends had saved a seat for me, so it wasn't a big deal. I went around greeting some people (got a few "I thought you moved back to the US after you didn't show up in Chiba or the first few games here!") and then went to do pinbadges. I was decked out in Hichori Green and ran into Hichori's mom in the concourse, who smiled and said hi when she saw me.

This time of year is called Obon, and a lot of people go travelling to visit relatives or friends outside of Tokyo, so basically everyone came to the game with souvenir sweets from various places around Japan to share with everyone. I came with a box of fruit bars from Seattle, which went over well too just for the novelty, I think.

And I also went around talking to various people who were Brian Sweeney fans when he was with the Fighters and I told them that I went to a Mariners game and saw Brian and he's doing well and all -- when I showed them the photo of him in the Mariners bullpen but holding my Fighters BB keychain, it was like "that's so cool that he's in the majors again but hasn't forgotten us! Did you see him pitch? Is he doing well there?" I even talked to Akki, who was basically like "Is he still pissed at me?"

The Fighters starter was Masaru Nakamura, who just graduated from Kasukabe Eikyo High School in March. He's 18 and will be 19 in December. And this was his SECOND pro start already. Holy crap, huh? They used to call him the "Darvish of Saitama" when he was in HS, despite not being half-Japanese. And Yuki "Karaage-kun" Karakawa started for Lotte, and he just turned 21 last month. What a day for young kids.

Also oddly, the ouendan changed our call for Nakamura to "Ganbare, ganbare Masaru!" which is making me wonder if that's what we will continue to yell for Masaru Takeda also...?

The kids kept things tied at 0-0 for the first 5 innings and then everything rained down from Lotte in the 6th. Imae singled, Iguchi walked, Fukuura also walked to load the bases, and then Saburo hit a grand slam into the very front row of fans in right-center; we weren't even convinced it was a homer until a dude stood up with the ball and threatened to throw it back and some guards came over to make sure he didn't.

Atsunori Inaba made some FANTASTIC plays in the last few innings including some amazing catches against the wall, a bullet throw to third where he gunned down Shoitsu Ohmatsu running, and another play where he outran Yoshio Itoi for a catch in right-center. And all this from a guy who turned 38 two weeks ago. Inaba is awesome. I am honored to have had a final chance to sit behind him in the right-field stands.

The Marines eventually won the game 7-0, which sucks, but I had a good time anyway. Karakawa got a complete-game shutout. And the Fighters ouendan wanted to do the Tokyo Dome Chance Theme but there were never enough people on base, so we just did it for the entire 9th inning instead...



Another funny thing I have no video of is that during YMCA, when last year a groundskeeper at first base would have gone crazy, this time BB came out to first and was trying to MAKE a groundskeeper go crazy. But the groundskeeper wasn't having any part of it. It was cute though and we all cheered for it.

The big event of the game for us was when BB came into the right-field stands and cheered with us in the 8th inning! He stood with me and my friends for Kensuke Tanaka's at-bat..


This is my friend Tsuyoshi with his new Kensuke towel that he made.


Kensuke call with pink inflatable hands.


"Kattobase, Kensuke!"


And a better shot of BB in front of us doing the motions.


BB takes one of Junko's towels and holds it up too... but then Kensuke grounded into a double play to end the inning. BB pretended to cry and use the towel like a handkerchief.


Final score.


And well, I'm uploading this now. If any of you are going to the Fighters games up here, drop me a line -- I can read email on my phone even if I can't update Blogger :)

In lieu of an actual game report, I will show some photos and just kind of talk about how things went along the way.

Some of these are repeats from the placeholder post. I figured it made sense to just have everything together in one photo post in the end.

So, first, the ceremonial first pitch was Randy Johnson. Apparently he is in Japan shopping for music? I dunno, got that pointer from NPB Tracker...





The Marines starter was Yuki "Karaage-kun" Karakawa, who is now old enough to drink.









The Eagles starter was Satoshi Nagai, another one of Toyodai's finest.





Here is Norihiro Nakamura hitting a 2-run home run in the 2nd inning, which made it 2-0.



Here is Takeshi Yamasaki. He got on base via an error in the 4th inning (a grounder to shortstop and somehow it didn't connect at first. The amusing thing is, I had turned down to my scorecard to write the 6-3... and then the entire stadium roared as he was safe! Whoops. Then he got into a rundown during Norihiro Nakamura's at-bat, caught off second between Imae and Nishioka.







The Marines tied the game between the 4th and the 5th inning, on a Satozaki RBI double and a sac fly by Tae-Kyun Kim, to make it 2-2.

Here's the bottom of the 5th inning. Fuminori Yokogawa was hit by a pitch and got on base, though he was caught out at home on a Naoto Watanabe grounder shortly after I took this photo of him standing on third base.



Then Takeshi Yamasaki hit a single to center that scored Hijirisawa and Naoto -- here they are at the dugout. 4-2.



Teppei followed it up with a single and Yosuke Takasu broke for home, diving over Satozaki. He was safe. 5-2.



Karakawa came out of the game at that point. Norihiro and Kusano hung out in the on-deck circle waiting for Itoh to come to the mound, and something funny happened in the Marines dugout but I have no clue what.



Anyway...

In the bottom of the 8th, Bryan Corey was pitching...



And Teppei walked, and Kusano singled him home. Vroom. Another close call at the plate in favor of the Eagles. 6-2.



Motohiro Shima hit a 2-run homer after that over the fence in left-center to make it 8-2 but I do not have a picture of that.

Rakuten closer Kawagishi finished out the game and that was that. Game heroes were Nagai for pitching 7.2 innings of 2-run ball, and Yamasaki for batting in the go-ahead runs.



This was Rakuten's first "home game" in the Tokyo Dome, so they lined up to thank the 41000 fans or so who showed up.



I took a whole bunch of other photos that don't fit into the story per se, so here they are:


Shoitsu Ohmatsu


Tae-Kyun Kim


Naoto Watanabe caught a liner




Fuminori Yokogawa




Tadahito Iguchi


Takumi Kohbe (Kohbe Kohbe Kohbe!)


Backup catcher Naoki Matoba


This weekend, I am going up to Sendai. I hope it doesn't rain.