Marinerds, etc.

Saturday, November 7th, my half-birthday, the Yomiuri Giants won the Japan Series by beating the Nippon Ham Fighters 2-0 at the Sapporo Dome. Yet again, just as in 1981, the Giants beat the Fighters in the Japan Series 4 games to 2, and for the Giants, this was their 21st Japan Series title, which of course is still almost double the next-highest winning team, the Seibu Lions with 13 titles.

If you want to know about what actually happened in the game, I recommend reading up on it in other places:

Japan Times: Giants scratch seven-year title itch
Daily Yomiuri: Giants finish off Fighters / Capture 21st Japan Series title as 6 hurlers combine on shutout, MVP Abe provides punch
Japanball: Giants down Fighters in Game 6 to win Japan Series title
Yakyu Baka: Giants shutout the Fighters 2-0 to take the Nippon Series in 6!
and even Bleacher Report: Japanese Yankees Win Their World Series Too, where I want to punch the author by the end but he does have a valid point: have the damn Yankees and the damn Giants play each other already! Seriously!

As for me, what I'm going to share with you is the fan experience of watching the game at Fighters town Kamagaya on Saturday night, since I didn't keep a scorecard and the only moments of the game I really remember very well are Shun Tohno getting knocked down in the first inning and being replaced by Utsumi, and I remember when Ejiri came out to pitch, and I kinda remember the Giants scoring their runs because we were all like "OMGWTFINABA", and of course the last inning, where we really hoped the Fighters could put one or two of the guys on base into home plate for once but I think we all knew in our hearts it wasn't going to happen.


(More photos and videos at the end of the post.)

Kamagaya, for those tuning in for the first time, is a small town in Chiba prefecture, about 30-40 minutes out of Tokyo by train. The Fighters built a minor-league stadium and training center and dormitory there back in 1996, when their major-league team was still based in Tokyo. When the team moved to Sapporo, they kept the minor league team in Kamagaya, and as such, it has become a bit of a gathering place for the relatively large remaining contingent of Tokyo-area Fighters fans.

I read on the Fighters website that they would be having a free "Public Viewing" of Game 6 (and 7) at Kamagaya. They would set up a big TV and seating outside the stadium, and they advertised that there would be merchandise tables with special postseason stuff, and food stands and "fun events" and the minor-league mascot Cubby and some "presents" and whatnot.

So I emailed Hiromi and she emailed Ojisan, and by the time we arrived at Kamagaya around 5:30, we found Ojisan and another friend Chizaki sitting at a picnic table, and they had also saved some seats up front for us as well!

Before the game, I wandered around, said hi to friends I saw there, looked through the merchandise (there was a LOT, but none of it screamed out to me that I HAD to buy it), went to the food stand and bought some curry and rice, and sat down with my friends to have a little mini-picnic, since we had all brought snacks and whatnot to share with everyone. Chizaki had even brought a huge thermos full of hot water and some packets of powder to make coffee out of.

The "presents", by the way, turned out to be plastic folders, which you could get for free if you wrote your name and address and phone number on an information form for Tokyo Dome and Kamagaya 2010 season tickets. The PL championship folder is pretty cool though, has the entire team on it and says "WE DID IT" in big letters.

I was interviewed by a lady reporting for Chiba TV. Or more like, Ojisan dragged her over like "You HAVE to talk to Deanna! Get the international angle!" So after clearing up that yes, I can speak Japanese, I was filmed for about 3-4 minutes. Oddly, most of what she asked me was things like, who is your favorite player? Why is Imanari your favorite player, what do you like about him? Do you come to Kamagaya a lot? How long have you been a Fighters fan? Stuff like that, rather than about the Japan Series itself or anything. I'm just hoping that it didn't actually make it onto TV, or at least that nobody I know SAW it.

The pre-game festivities included having EVERYONE throw out an imaginary first pitch, and then singing the entire Fighters sanka (team song), all three verses, with the lyrics up on the big screen karaoke-style. They also lit up some strings of Christmas lights behind the screen to look like Mt. Fuji, and we did some cheering with Cubby, the mascot. Almost everyone had brought cheer sticks and wore jerseys, usually over several layers of jackets. Some people brought signs. A group of guys in the back even had big Fighters flags on poles that they waved as if we were in a real ouendan at the stadium.

During the game itself, the atmosphere was not entirely unlike being spread out in the Fighters side of the Seibu Dome outfield, just without the trumpets and drums. Most of us tried to do the cheer songs along with the TV as we could hear them, including the Kensuke call and Inaba jump and the chance themes and even just clapping and yelling "Kattobase" and "Go go let's go" and so on. Guys waved flags in the back when Fighters got on base, and we all generally cheered as appropriate, although for the most part people stayed seated rather than standing up to cheer, partially because the seats were on flat ground and standing up would really get in other people's way.

Between innings, the TV display kept showing Kamagaya mini-commercials. Occasionally, there were even little mini-events between innings. Notably, we did YMCA at the same time they did it at the Sapporo Dome, and another time, they called out, "We have a special timed discount starting now! It's the 38 discount! Does anyone know what 38 is for? Yes, it's Masaru Takeda's uniform number! So from now, we'll be selling hotdogs for the next 38 minutes for 100 yen each! So hurry up and buy some!"

(You would be surprised how many people don't want a hot dog for 200 yen, but when you make it 100 yen, the entire place storms the food counter.)

They also often walked around yelling out advertisements for the merchandise there. "See the super-warm and comfortable Fighters 2009 Pacific League Champions parka she's wearing? Oh, it's very comfortable and so fashionable! And if you buy it now, along with a scarf and bag and cheer sticks, it only costs 5000 yen! What a deal!"

Cubby was out there for pretty much the entire game, cheering along with everyone. In the 8th and 9th innings when things were starting to look pretty bad, Cubby was going up to people and patting them on the head and high-fiving and making motions of "Come on, we can do it!"

Anyway, here are some photos and videos from the evening...


Here we are about 10 minutes before the game, doing the "first pitch" together.


Lighting up "Fuji".


And this was the view from my "seat" in the front.


Utsumi coming into the game after Tohno was knocked down and out.


Here's another view from sitting at our picnic table, towards the side.


One of the flag-waving guys way in the back.


Out in back, near where some charcoal grills were set up for people to come warm their hands by, people had hung out all of the normal big banners that they hang in the stadium during games during the season.


I got a photo in the midst of the "We Love Fighters" one.


Here's the merchandise tents.


A display of Fighters bears in various outfits, on a table with Japan Series programs. They also had the Cubby pinbadge capsule machines out as well.


Food stand.


Food stand being swamped by 600 people trying to get 38 hot dogs.

And, as promised, some videos...


Here we are doing the Inaba Jump in the 9th inning. (It starts with us waving cheer sticks for "I Was Born To Love You" though.)


And the Kita no Kuni Kara chance theme, for Naoto Inada's at-bat in the 9th inning. He eventually walked, and you can see how excited the crowd got every time Kroon threw a ball instead of a strike.


In case you are wondering, by the way, I do believe there were a few Giants fans watching the game there, but for the most part, they weren't vocal. (One guy was fairly vocal in the first inning, and he was either escorted out or told to stop it by the police.) I don't think there was any particular ban on Giants fans, but as someone else put it in Japanese, "Can't that idiot read the atmosphere? This is NOT a place to be cheering for the Giants."

(Seriously, if you're a Giants fan, shouldn't there be a better place to watch the game than sitting out in the cold with 600-700 Fighters fans at their minor-league facility?)

And overall, it was actually a pretty neat experience to be sitting out in the cold with a few hundred Fighters fans. I had been waffling about going because it takes me almost 2 hours each way to go there, but in the end I think it was worth it to finish off the season with my friends.

Thus the 2009 season comes to an end, and in theory in the worst possible way, having the Giants beat my Fighters and the Yankees beat my hometown Phillies, but really, I think I'm already over it for the most part, and focusing on how unbelievable the year actually was. Sometimes I think being a Fighters fan has actually turned me into a nicer person and mellowed me out a lot.

And don't worry, there's still more baseball on the horizon for me in 2009, even if it's not pro yakyu. Jingu Taikai next weekend, fanfests and the JUBF-U26 game after that, Master's league and other crazy things after that. Also some hockey, hopefully. I love this place!

It's Christmas, I suppose, but it's just a normal work day for me, so I haven't given it that much thought. I just watched Sennichi Hoshino as the Bistro SMAP guest on the SMAPxSMAP Christmas special, though, and that was really awesome. I'll talk a little more about it when I can get a copy of the episode and some screen shots like I did when Shinjo was on the show last year. Suffice it to say that all of the members of SMAP seemed to be huge Hoshino fans, and he's so naturally charismatic that it was really entertaining.

Anyway, I was busy the last few days entertaining some friends who were in town for the weekend, but then this morning they left to go back to America, so I had nothing to do for the afternoon today, so I decided to go see if I could find Fighters Town Kamagaya at long last.

The backstory here is that the Fighters set up this great minor-league stadium and training complex in Middle-of-Freaking-Nowhere, Chiba Prefecture, about ten years ago. I suppose that even back then it must have been a little weird that the Fighters were in Tokyo and had their farm team in Chiba, and the Chiba Marines had their farm team in Saitama, but now it's even weirder because the Fighters are in Hokkaido.

I took the train to Kamagaya Station, which involved going to Funabashi first and then taking the Tobu Noda line into the countryside. Lest you think I'm joking, take a look at the map of where I went today:



I am sure there are plenty of people living in Kamagaya proper, but the place where the Fighters stadium is located is in the middle of a bunch of tree fields and other farmlands, and is about a mile from the station, give or take a few hills.

To get there, you exit Kamagaya station at the west exit, and you turn left onto a street called "Pear Street Kamagaya". You know you're in the right town because plenty of shops have Fighters signs up all over the place:



You walk down Pear Street for a while. There's only shops and stuff for about two blocks, and then the sidewalk becomes super-narrow and there's a few houses and a lot of trees and some blank land, and just when you're wondering, "Am I still going the right way?" you see a helpful signpost saying "Fighters Stadium" to the right...



There's a REALLY confusing interchange after that right turn, though. You need to follow to the RIGHT of this temple:



And then you walk for a bloody long time, mostly past these bizarre fields where they're growing trees all sort of connected with each other. Just when you're AGAIN wondering if you're ever going to reach the stadium, you hit a big downhill slope with ANOTHER helpful signpost:



And you realize the blue thing in the background is the stadium! So you go down the hill and turn right, and find out that yes, you are in the right place:


("Fighters Stadium")


("Nippon Ham Fighters Town Kamagaya")




(I want this car.)


("Ganbare Fighters!")

Just inside the gate, there is a dilapidated information sign. Currently, it has the names of the recently-drafted Fighters players. Earlier this week there was apparently a New Players Ceremony there, but of course I was at work.



Now, to be honest, there was a sign on the gate that said something like "関係者以外立入禁止", which means something like "Unauthorized personnel forbidden", but at the same time the gate was OPEN. And when I was just standing there taking pictures of the stuff outside the compound, an older guy even walked out of the gate past me and said "Hello," in a friendly voice, so I figured, what the heck, I'll just walk in and take pictures, and if anyone gets angry I'll claim I couldn't read the sign and the gate was open after all.

There's a sign with information about the stadium in front. The grandstand was under construction and I didn't really try to go into it.



I walked up around the right side of the stadium. There was a gate to the field, but these guys are much smarter than those other minor league parks, and know to lock their gates or risk random gaijin wandering onto the field:



And here is the outfield seating. Though I'm not actually sure whether anyone sits out here during games (they didn't list separate prices for outfield seats):





I walked around to the centerfield scoreboard and took a picture of the infield from there. It really looks like a VERY nice stadium compared to all of the other minor league ballparks I've seen here so far. I wonder what minor league attendance is like in general -- something I ought to check out at some point.



Anyway, while I was loitering behind the centerfield scoreboard I heard a familiar sound -- the sound of a baseball hitting a glove. And then at that moment I realized that beyond the LEFT field side, there were some people throwing a baseball back and forth. I have no clue whether they were minor league players doing personal training, or random team personnel, or what, but I had this feeling that it was probably a better idea for me to get out of there than to go try to talk to them. I mean, for all I know they'd be cool about it, and maybe there IS more to this "Fighters Town" thing that fans are actually allowed to go to, but just in case, I really had no particular desire to spend Christmas Eve in a Chiba prefecture police station trying to explain why I was trespassing on a minor league ballpark, or spying on baseball players, so instead I just left. Yeah, I'm a wuss.

I'm going to go back there sometime for a minor-league game, I hope, but it's not really the sort of place I feel like going to just for the heck of it, especially since it takes like 2 hours to get there with the walking. Still, it was interesting to see a more rural part of Kanto, I suppose.

Hypothetical question: Is it illegal to sneak into a minor league baseball stadium and take a picture of yourself in the dugout? And is it technically sneaking if all of the gates were open anyway?

I sure hope not.


Some baseball bloggette in the dugout of the Lotte Urawa Stadium.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

While searching for information on NPB events in November, I found out that there's a series of "Futures games" going on right now. They seem to be a series of games featuring a bunch of NPB minor leaguers playing against various industrial league teams. Sadly, I found out about the one today a little bit too late (and it was at the Giants park in Yomiuri Land anyway, bleeeggghh) but next Sunday afternoon there's going to be a Futures game at the Lotte minor league stadium, NPB Futures vs. JR Higashi Nihon. Yes, I'm planning to go to the Konami Cup finals on Sunday at 6pm, but that gives me plenty of time to go catch a futures game at 12:30pm, right?

Well, it gets even better. I looked up where the Lotte minor league stadium is, and it's in Saitama -- in Urawa, even! Now, I live in Kawaguchi, so it's about 4 miles from where I live as the crow flies, and a bit more on bicycle, but that sounded like it'd be a nice ride. So today I rode out to check out the stadium and see what the area's like, and whether I could bike it, or if I should take the train to Musashi-Urawa instead.

Anyway, I found the stadium without too much trouble. And much to my surprise, the stadium gate was actually open.


Welcome to Lotte Urawa Stadium.

I saw a pretty funny sign on the gates, actually.


This sign basically says, "From the players: In order for us to concentrate on the game, we request that you please don't ask us to sign stuff before or during the game. Thanks."


And this sign, which is posted up on the wall inside the gates, basically says, "Lotte kindly requests that people don't bring noisemakers and instruments for cheering players."

Yeah, that's right, inside the gates. I walked in and poked my head around and said in Japanese, "Hello? Is anyone around?" but didn't get a response or hear or see anyone there, so I walked around a little bit to see what was there. There wasn't all that much anyway -- this is just a minor league stadium and not a big one at that. But, I'd come out here to see what it was like, so I wanted to, you know, see what it was like.

Then I walked to where the field was, and that gate was ALSO open.

So I took a picture or two of the field.


Urawa Stadium has a huge dirt infield!


A minor league stadium without a bazillion ads in the outfield. Is that allowed?


I wonder if this really IS all the seating they have there. I suppose it might be more of a picnic-type place.

So, anyway, I took those pictures while just standing in the gateway looking at the field, but still nobody appeared to be around, so I... walked along the edge of the infield for a bit. And there was still nobody there. So I went right into the dugout and sat down for a minute, set my camera's timer, and quickly took that picture shown at the beginning of this post.

I wanted to try to take some good shots of the field, except I was really sure I was going to get caught at any moment, plus I only had my little camera and it was sort of cloudy out anyway. So I basically snapped a few more pictures and ran off the field, rather than worrying about composition or anything. Hence, it mostly looks like it's a vast sea of dirt, when in reality that's just the infield. The outfield fences are pretty close -- 96 meters to the corners, which is 314 feet.


The area behind home plate.


The Urawa Stadium sign up on the first-base side.

I walked around a little bit more. There was something resembling a clubhouse or at least an equipment room open, but there wasn't anyone in there.


Maybe it's a laundry room. I dunno.

I finally saw a human being when I was on my way out. Well, kind of. If you look at the picture of the stadium gates, you can see that there's a window of some sort, with a few inches at the bottom of the window under the window shade. So, I did see that there was some guy in the office there, but he was doing paperwork or something and wasn't looking up at all.

Either way, I figured I should leave, so I did. I mean, it's not like I did anything wrong, and I didn't take anything except pictures, but it was both really awesome and really freaky that I was able to just wander into the dugout of the Chiba Lotte Marines minor-league park, if you know what I mean.

Across the street from the stadium there's a big indoor practice center building, though:


"Chiba Lotte Marines Indoor Practice Place"


Yeah, see, THIS one had big gates that were quite closed.

Down the street from the stadium is a big Lotte factory of some sort. (For those that don't know, Lotte is a gigantic company that does all kinds of things, but in Japan mostly seems to be associated with candy, gum, ice cream, fast food, and Bobby Valentine.) The building smelled really strongly of chocolate, so I had my suspicions. When I got around to the other side I saw big signs on top of it for Lotte Chocolate and Lotte Yukimi Daifuku, which is a kind of mochi ice cream ball (which are AWESOME, I have a few packs of them in my freezer right now, I love daifuku). If they at least do some chocolate processing there, it'd make sense, I think.

Anyway, yeah. Next weekend I'll get to watch some baseball again! Hooray!

I'll try to post all the stuff I've discovered about fall camp schedules and fan fests soon.