SHINJI-RARENAI

I don't FREAKING believe it.

Shinji Takahashi's hand is ALSO broken after being hit by a pitch the other day, another broken left pinky finger. He's expected to be out for a month.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????

There was even a pretty good article in the Japan Times recently about the Fighters' ridiculously bad luck with injuries this year. I mean, seriously, who's next? Kensuke? Inaba?

(Don't answer that.)

If I was a conspiracy theorist I'm sure I'd be cooking up some idea about how this is all just some dire plot to get Sho Nakata up to the top team, or how the Fighters must have some weird yakuza tie and are paying back some debt in pinky fingers.

I'm kind of wondering who will come up from Kamagaya in his place. Maybe Ryota Imanari! That would be exciting (except he'd probably never get any playing time).

I didn't go to any baseball games this past weekend, due to rain or lack thereof. I did go to the Tokyo Dome on Sunday evening, but it was to see a L'arc en Ciel concert instead. You could say it was an awful lot like a baseball game in some ways. I mean, all the fans were wearing towels and wristbands and waving glow sticks and clapping and singing just like ouendan, and at some points even started jumping up and down in rhythm with the songs. The band had their lineup announced by the Tokyo Dome PA system just like a baseball game ("Batting first, drums, Yukihiro, uniform number 303. Batting second, bass, Tetsu. Uniform number 69. Third, Guitar, Ken. Uniform number 5. Fourth, vocals, Hyde. Uniform number 666.").

Halfway through the concert they even rode their pirate ship mini-stage from the outfield to home plate, just like a bullpen car, and then they all switched positions (Tetsu took over vocals, Hyde took guitar, Yuki took bass, and Ken played drums). And then various band members did hero interviews. There was even a 7th-inning stretch of sorts, an intermission where everyone ran out to the bathroom or whatever and the band took a break.

We were sitting in row 7 by where first base would normally be, and the fences were still in our way, and I almost expected the band to tell us to watch out for foul balls or something.

Anyway, there was no baseball for me. Congratulations to Waseda for winning Soukeisen, although I'm annoyed at the coverage it got on TV in highlights -- they said "Saito Yuki pitched, and Waseda won!" But they don't even mention that he only pitched 6 innings and the real winner was Tatsuya Oishi, the other sophomore capable of throwing like 95 mph. I feel kind of bad for Oishi, who's pretty much just going to end up in a shadow for his whole college career. Though it still sounds like Saturday's game was the craziest -- Waseda won that one 3-2 as well, the winning run coming in when second baseman Hiroki Uemoto STOLE HOME.

I'll hopefully get to one of the college tournaments in June, assuming they aren't all rained out. This weather sucks.