At approximately 7pm Friday night, my brain is going to explode.
The only Mariners-Angels game of the weekend I really feel like watching is starting then -- Jered Weaver vs. Felix Hernandez. I have both of them on my fantasy team, and figure that if I'm lucky, they'll strike out 20 guys between the two of them.
But, more importantly, the semi-finals for the Koshien tournament are starting then -- and after today's match results, the first game will feature Chiben Wakayama and Komadai Tomakomai. This is going to be a GREAT match. I may end up setting an entry to either liveblog or game thread it. We'll see.
Both quarterfinal games played today were absolutely amazing, seriously.
Komadai Tomakomai 5, Toyodai Himeji 4
This one was going on during the Mariners-A's game. I watched as Himeji jumped out to a 4-0 lead (coincidentally, at the same time the A's were leading the Mariners 4-0). Ryo Hayashizaki, who hit a home run in their last game as well, hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, and the team small-balled another run in the fourth on an RBI double by pitcher Kinya Tobiishi. He went to third on a groundout, and then scored on a throwing error.
Komadai finally started beating up on the Himeji pitching in the 6th inning. Catcher Suguru Kobayashi walked with one out, and after that the next four batters all got hits. Tadao Mitani singled to left, and Yuuya Miki followed that with a double down the first base line. 4-1. Ryuya Nakazawa smacked the ball to the left-center gap for another double, scoring everyone else on base. 4-3. Atsushi Honma hit a grounder to third that bounced badly, and Nakazawa scored on it. 4-4. Himeji then changed their pitcher to Masahiro Inui, who struck out two of the next three batters to end the threat.
Yamaguchi walked to start off the 7th for Komadai, and was subsequently bunted to second and moved to third on a grounder. Then Mitani grounded into a 3-1 play but apparently dove into the base ahead of the pitcher covering, and boom. 5-4 Komadai, and that's where it stayed.
Masahiro Tanaka pitched the entire game for Komadai, striking out 11 and walking 2. The guy's a machine.
The last time Toyodai Himeji made it to the Koshien quarterfinals was when former Mariner Shigetoshi Hasegawa was their ace pitcher.
I didn't actually see the last 2 innings because I headed out to play volleyball. I also, incidentally, only barely got to see Eric O'Flaherty's debut, as I walked by a TV inbetween volleyball games just in time to see him strike out Eric Chavez. Good stuff.
Chiben Wakayama 13, Teikyo 12
And as if the Komadai comeback wasn't crazy enough, when I got home from volleyball, I saw the last inning of the Chiben-Teikyo game. 13 runs were scored in that inning. No joke. It was 8-4 in favor of Chiben going into the 9th inning, and then Teikyo scored eight runs in their half of the inning, making it 12-8. But was Chiben going to take that? No way!
Of course, the actual way Chiben won the game was a little embarrassing. The first two Chiben guys walked, and then the catcher, Hashimoto, hit a 3-run homer, bringing the score to 12-11. After the pitcher walked another guy, Teikyo switched pitchers to Okano. Okano hit the next batter with a pitch, and then the next guy singled into center, making it 12-12. The next batter walked, loading the bases. After a foul and a bunch of bad pitches, suddenly the count's at 1-3, where one more ball will end the game immediately. Next pitch is fouled off, and the next one pretty much comes inside right under the batter's elbows, walking in a run and winning the game for Chiben.
So they won on walks. Insane.
The foul territory at Koshien is almost as big as the foul territory at McAfee Coliseum, come to think of it. A lot of those kids really lucked out on not having their foul popups caught.
Anyway, the Mariners have now lost 15 straight games to Oakland, which is just getting kind of nuts. Now they head off to Anaheim, but without Jeremy Reed, which means they won't have any offense. On the other hand, new callup Eric O'Flaherty's kind of cute. And amusingly enough, one of the runs in the game came in on a Meche balk -- a genuine Major League Balk! If you order a balk now, we'll include an Edgar Martinez statue!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
We Come In Peace, Shoot To Kill
First, so yeah, I'm going to be pinch-blogging for Jeff Sullivan over at Lookout Landing for a few days around the weekend while he's on a roadtrip to watch the Mariners lose in person. I don't expect things to be any different around here (and I don't expect to end up gushing about Koshien over there).
Second, Monday was Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's birthday, and I was glad to see Mark Lowe come out and kick ass in the game. He's really amazing. I dunno, maybe my initial reaction of there being a resemblance between the two is off. It was things like this pair: Lowe / Fidrych
Fidrych is one of my all-time "damn, I wish I could have seen him play" players. Lowe, well, he just keeps coming out and giving teams the bird.
Third, two more notes on Monday's game, from this article:
1) Kiko Calero apparently was also aware that yesterday's game was a rerun: "Kiko said to me in the sixth inning, 'Soriano's gonna come in and give it up,' Duchscherer said. I said, 'How do you know?' He said, 'I've watched this game a time or two.' And when it happened, he tapped my arm and said, 'I told you.'"
2) It was the one-year anniversary of Swisher's grandmother's death. Betty Lorraine Swisher was almost like a second mother to him, and he used to call her every day before games to calm himself down. He has "BLS" tattooed right over his heart (unfortunately, I can't remember any other clear pictures of it besides the infamous plug one), and yesterday, he even wrote "BLS" on his wristbands in her memory. So when he hit that home run, you could see him cross his heart and point to heaven before jubilantly high-fiving everyone in the dugout, and in that article he even says that "Milton and I were talking, wondering if my grandma and his grandpa were up there doing the home run dance."
(I know you're all probably sick of hearing about Swisher's grandmother, but it's really tough being so far from your family in those circumstances. My grandmother died on August 13th 2002, two weeks after I moved to the west coast. The only piece of jewelry I wear is a chain necklace that belonged to my grandmother, which I never take off, and it reminds me of her every day. It's dumb, but we're human. We do stuff like this.)
Fourth, I didn't even WATCH most of tonight's game, instead choosing to go to dinner with some college friends who are in town for a conference. I did catch the first two innings, so it was 3-0 when I left the house, and I checked the score on my cellphone during dinner, much to my friends' bemusement. "Did they lose yet?" "No, but it's 10-2..." "Great, so we can get dessert, right?"
If you're wondering, the squid sushi at Ototo is amazing, but the Strawberry Taiyaki dessert is really not worth it, even if your team is down by 8 runs in the 7th inning.
Fifth, it's been really awesome following Koshien. The other day I posted right before the Komadai-Aomori game started, and in the 3rd inning the Komadai pitcher Kikuchi got pulled with the team behind 7-1, and put in Masahiro Tanaka, the ace pitcher. The team rallied around him and managed to stage one of the most amazing comebacks ever to win 10-9. I had the game on in the background with no sound at work, and would occasionally look over as the Komadai team kept scoring runs. They tied it up at 8-8 in the 8th inning, and I left work to catch my bus in the 9th inning with guys on first and third for Aomori. I figured I'd get home to see it at 9-8 or 9-9 in extra innings, but this team seems to just be challenging destiny.
Nichidai Yamagata and Imabari Nishi had a crazy 13-inning see-saw game, with Takuya Abe going all 13 innings for the win for Nichidai, throwing 200 pitches, walking four and striking out ten, as Yamagata eventually won 11-10. Yow.
Chiben Wakayama beat Yaeyama Shoko 8-3, which I'm sure makes IceX pretty happy, and Waseda beat Fukui 7-1, which I'm sure makes Sadaharu Oh pretty happy. Toyodai Himeji beat Kiryu Ichi, which I'm sure makes Shigetoshi Hasegawa happy.
We're getting into the quarter-finals tomorrow, with Komadai playing Himeji and Chiben playing Teikyo; after that Waseda faces Yamagata and Kagoshima faces whoever wins the Kumamoto-Fukuchiyama match currently going on. (morning edit: Fukuchiyama won 6-3.)
Second, Monday was Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's birthday, and I was glad to see Mark Lowe come out and kick ass in the game. He's really amazing. I dunno, maybe my initial reaction of there being a resemblance between the two is off. It was things like this pair: Lowe / Fidrych
Fidrych is one of my all-time "damn, I wish I could have seen him play" players. Lowe, well, he just keeps coming out and giving teams the bird.
Third, two more notes on Monday's game, from this article:
1) Kiko Calero apparently was also aware that yesterday's game was a rerun: "Kiko said to me in the sixth inning, 'Soriano's gonna come in and give it up,' Duchscherer said. I said, 'How do you know?' He said, 'I've watched this game a time or two.' And when it happened, he tapped my arm and said, 'I told you.'"
2) It was the one-year anniversary of Swisher's grandmother's death. Betty Lorraine Swisher was almost like a second mother to him, and he used to call her every day before games to calm himself down. He has "BLS" tattooed right over his heart (unfortunately, I can't remember any other clear pictures of it besides the infamous plug one), and yesterday, he even wrote "BLS" on his wristbands in her memory. So when he hit that home run, you could see him cross his heart and point to heaven before jubilantly high-fiving everyone in the dugout, and in that article he even says that "Milton and I were talking, wondering if my grandma and his grandpa were up there doing the home run dance."
(I know you're all probably sick of hearing about Swisher's grandmother, but it's really tough being so far from your family in those circumstances. My grandmother died on August 13th 2002, two weeks after I moved to the west coast. The only piece of jewelry I wear is a chain necklace that belonged to my grandmother, which I never take off, and it reminds me of her every day. It's dumb, but we're human. We do stuff like this.)
Fourth, I didn't even WATCH most of tonight's game, instead choosing to go to dinner with some college friends who are in town for a conference. I did catch the first two innings, so it was 3-0 when I left the house, and I checked the score on my cellphone during dinner, much to my friends' bemusement. "Did they lose yet?" "No, but it's 10-2..." "Great, so we can get dessert, right?"
If you're wondering, the squid sushi at Ototo is amazing, but the Strawberry Taiyaki dessert is really not worth it, even if your team is down by 8 runs in the 7th inning.
Fifth, it's been really awesome following Koshien. The other day I posted right before the Komadai-Aomori game started, and in the 3rd inning the Komadai pitcher Kikuchi got pulled with the team behind 7-1, and put in Masahiro Tanaka, the ace pitcher. The team rallied around him and managed to stage one of the most amazing comebacks ever to win 10-9. I had the game on in the background with no sound at work, and would occasionally look over as the Komadai team kept scoring runs. They tied it up at 8-8 in the 8th inning, and I left work to catch my bus in the 9th inning with guys on first and third for Aomori. I figured I'd get home to see it at 9-8 or 9-9 in extra innings, but this team seems to just be challenging destiny.
Nichidai Yamagata and Imabari Nishi had a crazy 13-inning see-saw game, with Takuya Abe going all 13 innings for the win for Nichidai, throwing 200 pitches, walking four and striking out ten, as Yamagata eventually won 11-10. Yow.
Chiben Wakayama beat Yaeyama Shoko 8-3, which I'm sure makes IceX pretty happy, and Waseda beat Fukui 7-1, which I'm sure makes Sadaharu Oh pretty happy. Toyodai Himeji beat Kiryu Ichi, which I'm sure makes Shigetoshi Hasegawa happy.
We're getting into the quarter-finals tomorrow, with Komadai playing Himeji and Chiben playing Teikyo; after that Waseda faces Yamagata and Kagoshima faces whoever wins the Kumamoto-Fukuchiyama match currently going on. (morning edit: Fukuchiyama won 6-3.)
Monday, August 14, 2006
Bench Potatoes
Rene Rivera, Mike Morse, Greg Dobbs, and Adam Jones were all sitting on the couch in the clubhouse.
"Goddamn, TV is boring these days," said Jones.
"Seriously," said Morse. "Everything's a freaking rerun."
Dobbs grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV. "Yeah," he said, "This is ALL a bunch of reruns. I don't even know what's good on TV anymore."
Rene Rivera piped up. "I hear 'Friends' is good!"
Dobbs snorted. "Rerun. Any other ideas?"
Morse thought. "Bloomquist likes Grey's Anatomy, so let's not watch that."
Adam Jones flipped through the channels. "Hey," he said, "It's an episode of Happy A's."
Dobbs blinked. "I've seen this one before too, dude. Washburn vs. Zito? That's TOTALLY a rerun. It was on, like, last weekend."
Rene Rivera tilted his head to the side. "Is this the show with Fonzie?"
"No, but it's got Kielty and Bradley and Swishie and Chavvy, does that count?"
Morse gaped as Ben Broussard hit a home run, giving the Mariners a 2-0 lead. "Wait a minute," he said, "That didn't happen last time. Are you SURE this is a rerun?"
Dobbs nodded. "I think so... I swear, I've been watching this show all season. It's true the plots start looking alike after a while, and there's only so many ways you can find for the Mariners to lose to the A's, right?"
"Yeah, they seriously need new writers," Jones agreed. "Maybe today something idiotic can happen like Bloomtard getting a home run, I bet that'd raise the ratings in Bremerton..."
The four sat there on the bench, watching the plot unfold. The A's scored a run in their half of the inning, and then Mark Ellis hit a home run in the bottom of the 4th.
"Oh my god, this is totally not a rerun," said Morse. "I've never seen Mark Ellis hit a home run before. Or anyone from South Dakota, for that matter."
Dobbs raised his eyebrows. "I don't know. I mean, it still feels really familiar, doesn't it? False hope, and then a bunch of guys getting cut down by Zito curveballs, right?"
The next inning started and Willie Bloomquist hit a home run.
Everyone looked at Adam Jones.
"What?" he asked.
"I thought you said you hadn't seen this one before?" blinked Rivera.
"I haven't! Have ANY of us been following this show long enough to have seen Willie Bloomquist hit a home run? I know it hasn't happened since I've been watching."
Dobbs got quiet for a second. "Actually," he said, "This is proof that it IS a rerun. Because, like, Willie's LAST home run was ALSO off Barry Zito in Oakland. I remember that episode. I was TOTALLY there. I even pinch-hit for him after that."
Jones tilted his head. "Oh yeah? What did you do?"
Dobbs blushed. "I struck out."
Morse shrugged as the score went to 4-2, but then Frank Thomas hit a home run and it went to 4-3. Zito and Washburn both came out of the game, with Washburn holding the win, and it seemed impossible: Seattle vs. Oakland in a battle of the bullpens? This couldn't possibly be a rerun. The bullpens hadn't had a lead to protect yet this season.
The game went on, and the Mariners' lead held. Mark Lowe pitched a beautiful sixth and seventh innings, as did Chad Gaudin.
Morse said to Dobbs, "If this is a rerun, what's going to happen next?"
Dobbs gulped. "Grover's going to mismanage the bullpen. Just wait."
Sure enough, lefty George Sherrill pitched to lefty Eric Chavez, who singled. Then righty Rafael Soriano came in to pitch to Jay Payton, who was obviously a huge power threat. Nick Swisher came up to bat, from his favored left side of the plate.
BOOM! Soriano got a 3-1 count on Swisher, and then he swung away, belting a shot just over the wall in right-center.
All four guys on the couch were silent as Swisher ran back into the dugout and did a series of high-fives and crazy frat handshakes with every person in sight.
Dobbs said, "I'm not going to say I told you so, but I told you so."
Rivera looked confused. "Then didn't you just say you told us so?"
Dobbs shook his head with an exasperated motion. "Great, I've got to go bat against the only guy in the league whose name I can't spell. See you all later." He walked out.
"Well, then," Jones said. "Let's all make bets on how we think the game will end? I'm going with Bloomquist caught stealing."
Morse grimaced. "Dobbs tagged out at home for the third out."
Rivera almost laughed. "I say Jose Lopez pops out to Kotsay at the wall."
They watched as Dobbs grounded out, and Bloomquist flew out into a beautiful diving catch by Mark Kotsay. Then Ichiro came up to bat and did his thing, fouling off a bunch of pitches until he got one he liked and could bloop into shallow left for a single.
Rivera said, "See? You see? I win! I bet Lopez will--"
Ichiro took a step towards second, Duchscherer fired the ball to first, and Swisher got the pickoff tag. Game over. The three just stared at the TV screen with their mouths open in shock.
Dobbs came back into the clubhouse. "God, that sucked. Since when does Ichiro get picked off bases? Freaking hell."
Morse glared at him. "See? I TOLD you it wasn't a goddamn rerun, dumbass."
"Goddamn, TV is boring these days," said Jones.
"Seriously," said Morse. "Everything's a freaking rerun."
Dobbs grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV. "Yeah," he said, "This is ALL a bunch of reruns. I don't even know what's good on TV anymore."
Rene Rivera piped up. "I hear 'Friends' is good!"
Dobbs snorted. "Rerun. Any other ideas?"
Morse thought. "Bloomquist likes Grey's Anatomy, so let's not watch that."
Adam Jones flipped through the channels. "Hey," he said, "It's an episode of Happy A's."
Dobbs blinked. "I've seen this one before too, dude. Washburn vs. Zito? That's TOTALLY a rerun. It was on, like, last weekend."
Rene Rivera tilted his head to the side. "Is this the show with Fonzie?"
"No, but it's got Kielty and Bradley and Swishie and Chavvy, does that count?"
Morse gaped as Ben Broussard hit a home run, giving the Mariners a 2-0 lead. "Wait a minute," he said, "That didn't happen last time. Are you SURE this is a rerun?"
Dobbs nodded. "I think so... I swear, I've been watching this show all season. It's true the plots start looking alike after a while, and there's only so many ways you can find for the Mariners to lose to the A's, right?"
"Yeah, they seriously need new writers," Jones agreed. "Maybe today something idiotic can happen like Bloomtard getting a home run, I bet that'd raise the ratings in Bremerton..."
The four sat there on the bench, watching the plot unfold. The A's scored a run in their half of the inning, and then Mark Ellis hit a home run in the bottom of the 4th.
"Oh my god, this is totally not a rerun," said Morse. "I've never seen Mark Ellis hit a home run before. Or anyone from South Dakota, for that matter."
Dobbs raised his eyebrows. "I don't know. I mean, it still feels really familiar, doesn't it? False hope, and then a bunch of guys getting cut down by Zito curveballs, right?"
The next inning started and Willie Bloomquist hit a home run.
Everyone looked at Adam Jones.
"What?" he asked.
"I thought you said you hadn't seen this one before?" blinked Rivera.
"I haven't! Have ANY of us been following this show long enough to have seen Willie Bloomquist hit a home run? I know it hasn't happened since I've been watching."
Dobbs got quiet for a second. "Actually," he said, "This is proof that it IS a rerun. Because, like, Willie's LAST home run was ALSO off Barry Zito in Oakland. I remember that episode. I was TOTALLY there. I even pinch-hit for him after that."
Jones tilted his head. "Oh yeah? What did you do?"
Dobbs blushed. "I struck out."
Morse shrugged as the score went to 4-2, but then Frank Thomas hit a home run and it went to 4-3. Zito and Washburn both came out of the game, with Washburn holding the win, and it seemed impossible: Seattle vs. Oakland in a battle of the bullpens? This couldn't possibly be a rerun. The bullpens hadn't had a lead to protect yet this season.
The game went on, and the Mariners' lead held. Mark Lowe pitched a beautiful sixth and seventh innings, as did Chad Gaudin.
Morse said to Dobbs, "If this is a rerun, what's going to happen next?"
Dobbs gulped. "Grover's going to mismanage the bullpen. Just wait."
Sure enough, lefty George Sherrill pitched to lefty Eric Chavez, who singled. Then righty Rafael Soriano came in to pitch to Jay Payton, who was obviously a huge power threat. Nick Swisher came up to bat, from his favored left side of the plate.
BOOM! Soriano got a 3-1 count on Swisher, and then he swung away, belting a shot just over the wall in right-center.
All four guys on the couch were silent as Swisher ran back into the dugout and did a series of high-fives and crazy frat handshakes with every person in sight.
Dobbs said, "I'm not going to say I told you so, but I told you so."
Rivera looked confused. "Then didn't you just say you told us so?"
Dobbs shook his head with an exasperated motion. "Great, I've got to go bat against the only guy in the league whose name I can't spell. See you all later." He walked out.
"Well, then," Jones said. "Let's all make bets on how we think the game will end? I'm going with Bloomquist caught stealing."
Morse grimaced. "Dobbs tagged out at home for the third out."
Rivera almost laughed. "I say Jose Lopez pops out to Kotsay at the wall."
They watched as Dobbs grounded out, and Bloomquist flew out into a beautiful diving catch by Mark Kotsay. Then Ichiro came up to bat and did his thing, fouling off a bunch of pitches until he got one he liked and could bloop into shallow left for a single.
Rivera said, "See? You see? I win! I bet Lopez will--"
Ichiro took a step towards second, Duchscherer fired the ball to first, and Swisher got the pickoff tag. Game over. The three just stared at the TV screen with their mouths open in shock.
Dobbs came back into the clubhouse. "God, that sucked. Since when does Ichiro get picked off bases? Freaking hell."
Morse glared at him. "See? I TOLD you it wasn't a goddamn rerun, dumbass."
NPB Roundup: Koshien and other fun
Koshien Round 3 starts today. Hokkaido's Komadai Tomakomai, the school I'm cheering for, is starting a match against Aomori Yamada in a little while. In Aomori's first game in the tournament, they won 7-0 as pitcher Yudai Noda threw a complete game shutout, striking out seven, AND slugged a home run as well. On the other hand, Komadai's star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka won their first game 5-3, pitching a complete game, striking out *14* (and walking 6).
(update: for whatever reason, Komadai started Kikuchi instead. Tanaka came in halfway through the third inning to deal with a 5-1 deficit. Ugh. Aomori's uniforms have an A on them that reminds me of Oakland's. Oh, now it's 7-1. Bleh.)
I guess in other matches of note, the second game today features Shigetoshi Hasegawa's high school, Toyodai Himeji, going up against Kiryu Ichi (attended by the hapless Rakuten's young hapless hotshot Yasuhiro Ichiba)
Sadaharu Oh's high school, Waseda Jitsugyo, plays Fukui tomorrow, having beaten out powerhouse Osaka Toin yesterday. Osaka Toin defeated Yokohama (Matsuzaka's high school) in the first round; it's odd having so many big-name schools face each other so early.
(Ichiro's high school, Aikodai Meiken, was knocked out 6-4 in the first round by Fukuchiyama.)
Those who watched the Kokoyakyu documentary will be delighted to know that Chiben Wakayama won their first game and their second, and get to face Okinawa's Yaeyama Shoko tomorrow.
Anyway, in other fun Japanese baseball news, Michihiro Ogasawara apparently wrote an autobiography! Neat! It's called "Guts no Full Swing", using the kanji 魂 for the word "guts". (Katamari players will also recognize that as the kanji pronounced "tamashii", usually meaning "soul". Ogasawara fans will recognize "Guts" as his nickname.) Anyway, he supposedly talks about the WBC and his family and other aspects of his private life, which is cool. Since he's generally been a fairly private guy who doesn't bathe in the media show and prefers to be humble to a fault -- almost superstitiously -- this should be a pretty interesting book. Hopefully I'll get a good chance to curl up with it and my Wordtank sometime in the offseason, assuming I'm able to find a copy.
As usual, the latest saga of the Hiroshima Carp's antics to support their manager via cool t-shirts is covered on Japan Baseball Daily. I can't tell exactly what the shirts say (pictures here and here) but it's definitely a "WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE" poster parody with some words about "arguing and cleaning bases: $2,000". I hope they make some of these available to fans. I totally want one of these and/or the "DANGER: My Manager Throws Bases" shirts. You've got to love the Hiroshima Carp for at least being *interesting* while they suck.
As for being interesting and sucking, there was an incident in a Hanshin-Yokohama game the other day. There's a bit of footage of it on the 8/10 NPB summary on YouTube, but it's still hard to tell exactly what happened. It seems that there were two batters on base when Takuro Ishii was up, and it got to full count. Andoh threw a breaking ball which bounced in the dirt, Ishii checked his swing, and the ball went bouncing past catcher Akihiro Yano, who thought there was a foul tip and thus didn't go after it. Various reports say that neither Yano nor Ishii moved; some say that Ishii waved the runners to advance on the passed ball; some say it looked like a foul tip and some say it just looked like a bad bounce. Either way, while Yano wasn't recovering the ball, two runs scored, and eventually he got so annoyed he started shoving the umpire around (as did several other coaches). Ishii, who walked, ended up on second before Yano was ejected and the ball called dead. This is just really messed up -- both the play itself, reminiscent of the AJ Pierzynski thing in the ALCS -- and that Yano's only getting like, a one-day suspension for attacking an umpire. Sheesh.
(update: for whatever reason, Komadai started Kikuchi instead. Tanaka came in halfway through the third inning to deal with a 5-1 deficit. Ugh. Aomori's uniforms have an A on them that reminds me of Oakland's. Oh, now it's 7-1. Bleh.)
I guess in other matches of note, the second game today features Shigetoshi Hasegawa's high school, Toyodai Himeji, going up against Kiryu Ichi (attended by the hapless Rakuten's young hapless hotshot Yasuhiro Ichiba)
Sadaharu Oh's high school, Waseda Jitsugyo, plays Fukui tomorrow, having beaten out powerhouse Osaka Toin yesterday. Osaka Toin defeated Yokohama (Matsuzaka's high school) in the first round; it's odd having so many big-name schools face each other so early.
(Ichiro's high school, Aikodai Meiken, was knocked out 6-4 in the first round by Fukuchiyama.)
Those who watched the Kokoyakyu documentary will be delighted to know that Chiben Wakayama won their first game and their second, and get to face Okinawa's Yaeyama Shoko tomorrow.
Anyway, in other fun Japanese baseball news, Michihiro Ogasawara apparently wrote an autobiography! Neat! It's called "Guts no Full Swing", using the kanji 魂 for the word "guts". (Katamari players will also recognize that as the kanji pronounced "tamashii", usually meaning "soul". Ogasawara fans will recognize "Guts" as his nickname.) Anyway, he supposedly talks about the WBC and his family and other aspects of his private life, which is cool. Since he's generally been a fairly private guy who doesn't bathe in the media show and prefers to be humble to a fault -- almost superstitiously -- this should be a pretty interesting book. Hopefully I'll get a good chance to curl up with it and my Wordtank sometime in the offseason, assuming I'm able to find a copy.
As usual, the latest saga of the Hiroshima Carp's antics to support their manager via cool t-shirts is covered on Japan Baseball Daily. I can't tell exactly what the shirts say (pictures here and here) but it's definitely a "WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE" poster parody with some words about "arguing and cleaning bases: $2,000". I hope they make some of these available to fans. I totally want one of these and/or the "DANGER: My Manager Throws Bases" shirts. You've got to love the Hiroshima Carp for at least being *interesting* while they suck.
As for being interesting and sucking, there was an incident in a Hanshin-Yokohama game the other day. There's a bit of footage of it on the 8/10 NPB summary on YouTube, but it's still hard to tell exactly what happened. It seems that there were two batters on base when Takuro Ishii was up, and it got to full count. Andoh threw a breaking ball which bounced in the dirt, Ishii checked his swing, and the ball went bouncing past catcher Akihiro Yano, who thought there was a foul tip and thus didn't go after it. Various reports say that neither Yano nor Ishii moved; some say that Ishii waved the runners to advance on the passed ball; some say it looked like a foul tip and some say it just looked like a bad bounce. Either way, while Yano wasn't recovering the ball, two runs scored, and eventually he got so annoyed he started shoving the umpire around (as did several other coaches). Ishii, who walked, ended up on second before Yano was ejected and the ball called dead. This is just really messed up -- both the play itself, reminiscent of the AJ Pierzynski thing in the ALCS -- and that Yano's only getting like, a one-day suspension for attacking an umpire. Sheesh.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Weekend mini-wrap, and thoughts on pinch-hitting
So I'm driving to dinner on Friday night, and I turn the radio on to hear "And Jake Woods is now coming in to take over for Gil Meche," and I look at the time, and the game's only been going for like maybe an hour. Then, they go on to explain that Meche caught a case of Steve Blass disease and walked half of the state of Texas in the first inning, which is impressive, given that it was 105 degrees out and most Texans don't really go for walks under those conditions. Despite my incessant claims that Kip Wells sucks -- and he backed up my claim by giving up 6 runs in the 4th inning -- even the worst scrub can do a decent job when they're handed a 10-0 lead after two innings, usually. So the Mariners easily won that sucking contest as the Rangers beat them 14-7.
Today, at least, the Mariners only had to overcome a 5-0 deficit, and almost did, but still lost the game 5-4. I wish they wouldn't do things like pinch-hit for Adam Jones, but hindsight is always 20-20, I suppose. I didn't see today's game at all, I just followed the score from time to time. Mark Lowe seems to be okay, which is good; I was a little worried after the articles about his elbow being sore.
Anyway, the pinch-hitting for Adam Jones got me thinking about some things, and I'm not really sure how they fit together. Bear with me a second:
1) Starters are supposed to be higher quality pitchers than relievers, and in theory, a reliever who becomes a starter is expected to post an ERA one run higher than they did as a reliever, and vice versa. (Maybe not quite true, and recently examined on Hardball Times, but let's go with it for now.)
2) Pitchers in the National League post an ERA one run lower than pitchers in the American League, due to the fact that the National League sucks and that most (but not all) pitchers hit worse than most (but not all -- hi, Carl Everett!) designated hitters. This is also not exactly true, of course, but the transition between leagues definitely seems to favor pitchers in the National League.
2a) Someone like Ryan Franklin, therefore, who go from being a starter in the AL to a relief pitcher in the NL, should have seen his ERA drop by two runs -- one from the league switch, and one from the shift to the bullpen. Right? Well, not so fast...
3) Relievers in the NL supposedly don't quite reap the same benefit of starting in the NL -- even Wikipedia points this out -- because late-inning NL pitchers tend to be pitching to pinch-hitters rather than to pitchers, unless the opposing starting pitcher is doing well enough to stay in the game, in which case the reliever's team is probably sucking it up and this reliever isn't their best guy anyway.
4) In a Baseball Prospectus article, it was discussed that Pinch-hitters may actually suck WORSE than the guys they're pinch-hitting for. This doesn't apply to pitchers, but still. If pinch-hitters really did hit .228/.306/.336 as a whole in 2005, that's about the same as Carl Everett's .227/.297/.360 in 2006. Would you really feel heartened seeing your manager bring in Carl Everett as a pinch-hitter on a regular basis? Didn't think so.
4a) The conclusion, therefore, should be that NL relievers are still getting an easier ride than AL relievers, despite pinch-hitters, shouldn't it?
So what am I getting at? I'm not really sure -- there's a lot of holes in everything I'm thinking about here, and I know it. I should try to hunt down data on how often relief pitchers face pitchers and how often they face pinch-hitters. But anyway, Ryan Franklin's ERA rose when moving from the AL to the NL and the rotation to the pen. On the other hand, he also moved from a pitcher-friendly home park to two hitter-friendly parks. His peripherals continue to suck, of course.
But it's not just about Ryan Franklin. I'm just not sure what it's about. More on this as I get more coherent about where I'm going with it.
Today, at least, the Mariners only had to overcome a 5-0 deficit, and almost did, but still lost the game 5-4. I wish they wouldn't do things like pinch-hit for Adam Jones, but hindsight is always 20-20, I suppose. I didn't see today's game at all, I just followed the score from time to time. Mark Lowe seems to be okay, which is good; I was a little worried after the articles about his elbow being sore.
Anyway, the pinch-hitting for Adam Jones got me thinking about some things, and I'm not really sure how they fit together. Bear with me a second:
1) Starters are supposed to be higher quality pitchers than relievers, and in theory, a reliever who becomes a starter is expected to post an ERA one run higher than they did as a reliever, and vice versa. (Maybe not quite true, and recently examined on Hardball Times, but let's go with it for now.)
2) Pitchers in the National League post an ERA one run lower than pitchers in the American League, due to the fact that the National League sucks and that most (but not all) pitchers hit worse than most (but not all -- hi, Carl Everett!) designated hitters. This is also not exactly true, of course, but the transition between leagues definitely seems to favor pitchers in the National League.
2a) Someone like Ryan Franklin, therefore, who go from being a starter in the AL to a relief pitcher in the NL, should have seen his ERA drop by two runs -- one from the league switch, and one from the shift to the bullpen. Right? Well, not so fast...
3) Relievers in the NL supposedly don't quite reap the same benefit of starting in the NL -- even Wikipedia points this out -- because late-inning NL pitchers tend to be pitching to pinch-hitters rather than to pitchers, unless the opposing starting pitcher is doing well enough to stay in the game, in which case the reliever's team is probably sucking it up and this reliever isn't their best guy anyway.
4) In a Baseball Prospectus article, it was discussed that Pinch-hitters may actually suck WORSE than the guys they're pinch-hitting for. This doesn't apply to pitchers, but still. If pinch-hitters really did hit .228/.306/.336 as a whole in 2005, that's about the same as Carl Everett's .227/.297/.360 in 2006. Would you really feel heartened seeing your manager bring in Carl Everett as a pinch-hitter on a regular basis? Didn't think so.
4a) The conclusion, therefore, should be that NL relievers are still getting an easier ride than AL relievers, despite pinch-hitters, shouldn't it?
So what am I getting at? I'm not really sure -- there's a lot of holes in everything I'm thinking about here, and I know it. I should try to hunt down data on how often relief pitchers face pitchers and how often they face pinch-hitters. But anyway, Ryan Franklin's ERA rose when moving from the AL to the NL and the rotation to the pen. On the other hand, he also moved from a pitcher-friendly home park to two hitter-friendly parks. His peripherals continue to suck, of course.
But it's not just about Ryan Franklin. I'm just not sure what it's about. More on this as I get more coherent about where I'm going with it.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Song Parody: The Guy With The Slider
I could talk about tonight's Mariners game, but dude, that was just ugly. So instead, I've written that song about Mark Lowe that I promised. Technically, it was supposed to be a song about Mark Lowe's slider, but, well, inspiration hit me like a Padilla fastball, and I couldn't quite duck it.
The Guy With The Slider
(to the tune of "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor)
(new lyrics by Deanna "Marinerd" Rubin)
Comin' out, back on the mound
Got the sign, threw his pitches
Went the inning, now he sat them all down
Just a man and an armful of heat
So many times, they're taking the bait
He makes the batters look silly
He gets his grip and it's hurled to the plate
As they fight just to stay on their feet
(Chorus:)
It's the guy with the slider
It's the arc of the flight
Darting down as the batter is retired
And the last of the lineup
Tries to hit him tonight
But they're striking out facing the guy
With the slider
Face to face, out on the field
Brush 'em back, actin' angry
They'll track his arm, still he keeps it concealed
'til they've swung, having misjudged the speed
(Repeat chorus)
Comin' out, finished the game
Got the save, got the glory
Several years from now they'll mention his name
As a man in the pitching elite
(Repeat chorus)
It's the guy with the slider,
The guy with the slider...
The Guy With The Slider
(to the tune of "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor)
(new lyrics by Deanna "Marinerd" Rubin)
Comin' out, back on the mound
Got the sign, threw his pitches
Went the inning, now he sat them all down
Just a man and an armful of heat
So many times, they're taking the bait
He makes the batters look silly
He gets his grip and it's hurled to the plate
As they fight just to stay on their feet
(Chorus:)
It's the guy with the slider
It's the arc of the flight
Darting down as the batter is retired
And the last of the lineup
Tries to hit him tonight
But they're striking out facing the guy
With the slider
Face to face, out on the field
Brush 'em back, actin' angry
They'll track his arm, still he keeps it concealed
'til they've swung, having misjudged the speed
(Repeat chorus)
Comin' out, finished the game
Got the save, got the glory
Several years from now they'll mention his name
As a man in the pitching elite
(Repeat chorus)
It's the guy with the slider,
The guy with the slider...
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
PSA: Koshien Tournament
I don't know if there are links about this anywhere in English (aside from the thread on japanesebaseball.com), but the Summer Koshien tournament is going on right now, and even better -- they're streaming it live over the net! It's so cool! Especially right after "Japan Night"!
Koshien's this huge national high school baseball tournament (covered in the "Kokoyakyu" documentary). It's one of the biggest baseball events in Japan, period -- it gets as much press coverage as pro baseball does, and is played in the Hanshin Tigers' stadium (they go on a horrendous road trip for three weeks).
Here's the schedule of all matches. Japan is 16 hours ahead of us, so the games run roughly from 4:30pm until 2am Seattle time (8:30am to 6pm Japan time).
Here's the page with the live streaming link. Just click on the big blue box that says "LIVE!" in it.
Koshien's this huge national high school baseball tournament (covered in the "Kokoyakyu" documentary). It's one of the biggest baseball events in Japan, period -- it gets as much press coverage as pro baseball does, and is played in the Hanshin Tigers' stadium (they go on a horrendous road trip for three weeks).
Here's the schedule of all matches. Japan is 16 hours ahead of us, so the games run roughly from 4:30pm until 2am Seattle time (8:30am to 6pm Japan time).
Here's the page with the live streaming link. Just click on the big blue box that says "LIVE!" in it.
Game Report: Mariners vs. Devil Rays - Japan Night, or An Evening At Camp McClung
I was supposed to go to tonight's game as part of Japan Night; Kiyoshi from japanesebaseball.com had ordered a ticket for me. Unfortunately, he called at like 5pm saying that he was going to be stuck at work until at least 7:30pm-8, and the tickets were in his name at Will Call. That was a shame -- I was really looking forward to having someone to geek out with about Japanese baseball in person, but alas. Since I was already prepared with my camera and my scorecard book and my Nippon Ham Fighters jersey, I headed down to the stadium and bought a bleacher seat for the game, which I actually did sit in this time.
I missed most of BP, but Tim Corcoran was still signing stuff when I got there, so I ran down there and got him to sign my ticket. Rather than doing the typical scrawling that most players do, Corcoran was actually writing rather nicely on stuff. I got him to sign my ticket, and when he handed it back to me, I said, "You have the nicest handwriting of any baseball player I've ever seen, Mr. Corcoran!" He absolutely beamed at me and said "Thanks!" I guess I got double points for 1) complimenting his writing and 2) actually knowing who the hell he was. A lot of the other people were getting him to sign stuff and then asking other people "Hey, do you know who that is, anyway?"
I watched Jae Seo and King Felix warming up in the field. That was a lot of fun. In the meantime, they started the Japan Night festivities, with a taiko band playing drums in the outfield. I headed down to the bullpen around then, though, so I didn't catch most of the performance.
Felix says, "The Devil Rays are goin' DOWN, yo!"
"Short Bus" Version: This game was extremely frustrating for people like me who have Felix Hernandez on their fantasy team, because he was owning -- he really was -- but the Mariners weren't scoring any runs for him, and so he did post a great WHIP/ERA for the game, and tons of K's, but no win. So between Felix kicking butt and Jae Seo acting like a Korean Rodrigo Lopez, there's not much to mention about the first several innings, and the game actually moved incredibly fast, and I barely have any game notes until the 7th inning.
In the 3rd, the Devil Rays managed to score a run. Russ Branyan singled to the ball girl in right field, pretty much, and then Ben Zobrist walked (right after the kid behind me was like, "How does he have a .200 average and only a .192 OBP?"). They pulled off a double steal during Rocco Baldelli's at-bat, and Branyan scored when Baldelli grounded out. Crawford flew out foul to "shortstop", by which I mean, "about two feet short of landing in section 141", and then Cantu grounded back to Felix.
Then there was a lot of people striking out or grounding out for a while, and an occasional ball to the outfield. Honestly, Seo and Felix have almost the same exact line, save Seo's 7 IP to Felix's 8 - 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K. In the 7th, Ben Broussard struck out, except the ball bounced into Dioner Navarro's chest and rolled towards third. So Broussard took off for first, and Navarro threw the ball after him, only it missed Travis Lee and went towards the stands, so Broussard ended up on second. Johjima singled to left, and Broussard managed to score on it. To try to push ahead another run for Felix, they sac bunted Johjima to second and then put Adam Jones in to run for him, but alas, Willie popped the ball straight up for an easy out, and then Ichiro hit a low liner to short for which Ben Zobrist happened to make a beautiful diving catch.
Felix managed to finish the 8th inning, but the same couldn't be said for Seo. Jose Lopez got on base via a throwing error, and then Seo seemed to be having trouble pitching to Beltre; a whole bunch of people came out to the mound to talk to him, and he shook them off, but after walking Beltre they pulled him and put in Jon Switzer. Switzer struck out Ibanez on three straight pitches, and his reward was getting pulled so Shawn Camp could pitch to Richie Sexson, who popped out, and then Broussard grounded out.
George Sherrill (!!) came out to pitch the 9th, and threw 8 straight strikes to strike out both Travis Lee and Greg Norton. Then he walked Dioner Navarro on four straight pitches, so Julio Mateo came out to replace him, and fortunately, he got B.J. Upton to ground out. Sadly, though, the Mariners couldn't put a dent in Shawn Camp in their half of the 9th, and at 9:32pm the game went into extra innings. Damon Hollins struck out, and then Ben ".192 OBP" singled... and was caught stealing. Rocco Baldelli struck out too.
Ichiro hit a ground ball along the line to left field to start off the bottom of the tenth inning, and just ran and ran. Crawford fielded it pretty well and threw to second, and it got there around the same time Ichiro did, but either Cantu was off the bag or Ichiro beat him there, so he was safe with a double. At this point, the Rays brought out their SECRET WEAPON -- Seth McClung. Hmm. Lopez sac bunted Ichiro to third, and then McClung intentionally walked Beltre and Ibanez to get to Richie Sexson with the bases loaded. You'd think people would have learned their lesson about doing that by now, and Sexson, in his "Big Richie Big Swingie" style, took the second pitch he saw and cranked it 423 feet into the people drinking beer behind the centerfield wall, and thus the Mariners won the game 5-1. I guess that's definitely more exciting than something like walking in the winning run, that's for sure.
I love my new camera. I really, really do.
Speaking of the camera, I got mixed results trying to shoot stuff with the zoom in the lower light conditions. Since I'd managed to snag a row 1 seat in the LF Bleachers, I tried using the wall and metal rope in front of me to stabilize the camera at times. One part that was fun was leaning over the wall to take pictures of the bullpen, and I have several interesting shots from that, which I'll hopefully put up at some point soon if I have time.
Gil Meche was warming up in the bullpen in the 10th inning. I'm not sure why. I saw him walking out to the dugout before the 6th inning and wasn't really sure what was up with that, since he just started on Sunday. Weird.
There were these teenage guys sitting down the row from me, and once it came out that I have way too much baseball in my brain, they started asking me random questions about players and whatnot (and also things like "Where the heck is Nagasaki?"). In the tenth inning, when we saw Seth McClung warming up, they were like, "Is this guy any good?" and I told them the entire saga of Seth McClung, and how he sucked, and sucked some more, and was sent down to AAA to stop sucking, and apparently stopped sucking enough to come back up, but I wasn't going to believe it until I saw it. We couldn't see the scoreboard, but I mentioned his 7-ish ERA and his 2-10 record (okay, actually 3-11) and all. Well, after he had the bases loaded, I said, "Get your glove out, 'cause Richie's going to hit one right to us." I was half right, I suppose.
Japan Night, for those of us not in the special sections, was pretty lame. There was no general giveaway this time, though I hear people in the Japan Night sections got special hats. They had these little "Japan Night Language Lessons" up on the board from time to time, with things like "Kenji wa tsuyoi - Kenji is Strong", except, well, you wouldn't really actually refer to him as Kenji if you were speaking Japanese. Then, for "Fact or Fiction?" they said, "We're going to list some team names, and you try to guess if they are actual team names in the Japanese Pacific League". Well, uhh. Yes, team names like the "Hamamatsu Stinging Jellyfish" or whatever aren't real names to begin with -- but when they put up stuff like "Yakult Swallows", I was like "That's a real team, but it's NOT IN THE PACIFIC LEAGUE GODDAMNIT," and they said "fact" anyway. Of course, they put up "Nippon Ham Fighters", and I stood up, wearing my Fighters jersey, and turned around like "THAT BETTER BE A FACT!", and a bunch of people laughed.
Still, it's just one of my pet peeves, and I'm surprised that on freaking Japan Night they couldn't be bothered to get the terminology right. (For the record, there are two six-team leagues in the NPB, the Pacific League and the Central League. They have different rulesets, similar to the AL/NL differences with the DH and lack thereof, though in Japan it also extends to scheduling and playoffs and other things. At any rate, if someone says "the Japanese League", they probably have no clue what they're talking about.)
Anyway, whatever. I'm currently watching two of my favorite young lefty pitchers in the world face each other as the Fighters' Tomoya Yagi is pitching against the Hawks' Tsuyoshi Wada. It's a Hawks home game, so it's being broadcast on Yahoo, which is great, except it also means I'm up way too freaking late yet again. Ex-Mariner and current Hawk Jolbert Cabrera hit a home run a bit ago to tie the game at 1-1, but now my favorite Fighter Michihiro Ogasawara just hit another home run to put the Fighters ahead 3-1. Woo! I should sleep.
I missed most of BP, but Tim Corcoran was still signing stuff when I got there, so I ran down there and got him to sign my ticket. Rather than doing the typical scrawling that most players do, Corcoran was actually writing rather nicely on stuff. I got him to sign my ticket, and when he handed it back to me, I said, "You have the nicest handwriting of any baseball player I've ever seen, Mr. Corcoran!" He absolutely beamed at me and said "Thanks!" I guess I got double points for 1) complimenting his writing and 2) actually knowing who the hell he was. A lot of the other people were getting him to sign stuff and then asking other people "Hey, do you know who that is, anyway?"
I watched Jae Seo and King Felix warming up in the field. That was a lot of fun. In the meantime, they started the Japan Night festivities, with a taiko band playing drums in the outfield. I headed down to the bullpen around then, though, so I didn't catch most of the performance.
Felix says, "The Devil Rays are goin' DOWN, yo!"
"Short Bus" Version: This game was extremely frustrating for people like me who have Felix Hernandez on their fantasy team, because he was owning -- he really was -- but the Mariners weren't scoring any runs for him, and so he did post a great WHIP/ERA for the game, and tons of K's, but no win. So between Felix kicking butt and Jae Seo acting like a Korean Rodrigo Lopez, there's not much to mention about the first several innings, and the game actually moved incredibly fast, and I barely have any game notes until the 7th inning.
In the 3rd, the Devil Rays managed to score a run. Russ Branyan singled to the ball girl in right field, pretty much, and then Ben Zobrist walked (right after the kid behind me was like, "How does he have a .200 average and only a .192 OBP?"). They pulled off a double steal during Rocco Baldelli's at-bat, and Branyan scored when Baldelli grounded out. Crawford flew out foul to "shortstop", by which I mean, "about two feet short of landing in section 141", and then Cantu grounded back to Felix.
Then there was a lot of people striking out or grounding out for a while, and an occasional ball to the outfield. Honestly, Seo and Felix have almost the same exact line, save Seo's 7 IP to Felix's 8 - 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K. In the 7th, Ben Broussard struck out, except the ball bounced into Dioner Navarro's chest and rolled towards third. So Broussard took off for first, and Navarro threw the ball after him, only it missed Travis Lee and went towards the stands, so Broussard ended up on second. Johjima singled to left, and Broussard managed to score on it. To try to push ahead another run for Felix, they sac bunted Johjima to second and then put Adam Jones in to run for him, but alas, Willie popped the ball straight up for an easy out, and then Ichiro hit a low liner to short for which Ben Zobrist happened to make a beautiful diving catch.
Felix managed to finish the 8th inning, but the same couldn't be said for Seo. Jose Lopez got on base via a throwing error, and then Seo seemed to be having trouble pitching to Beltre; a whole bunch of people came out to the mound to talk to him, and he shook them off, but after walking Beltre they pulled him and put in Jon Switzer. Switzer struck out Ibanez on three straight pitches, and his reward was getting pulled so Shawn Camp could pitch to Richie Sexson, who popped out, and then Broussard grounded out.
George Sherrill (!!) came out to pitch the 9th, and threw 8 straight strikes to strike out both Travis Lee and Greg Norton. Then he walked Dioner Navarro on four straight pitches, so Julio Mateo came out to replace him, and fortunately, he got B.J. Upton to ground out. Sadly, though, the Mariners couldn't put a dent in Shawn Camp in their half of the 9th, and at 9:32pm the game went into extra innings. Damon Hollins struck out, and then Ben ".192 OBP" singled... and was caught stealing. Rocco Baldelli struck out too.
Ichiro hit a ground ball along the line to left field to start off the bottom of the tenth inning, and just ran and ran. Crawford fielded it pretty well and threw to second, and it got there around the same time Ichiro did, but either Cantu was off the bag or Ichiro beat him there, so he was safe with a double. At this point, the Rays brought out their SECRET WEAPON -- Seth McClung. Hmm. Lopez sac bunted Ichiro to third, and then McClung intentionally walked Beltre and Ibanez to get to Richie Sexson with the bases loaded. You'd think people would have learned their lesson about doing that by now, and Sexson, in his "Big Richie Big Swingie" style, took the second pitch he saw and cranked it 423 feet into the people drinking beer behind the centerfield wall, and thus the Mariners won the game 5-1. I guess that's definitely more exciting than something like walking in the winning run, that's for sure.
I love my new camera. I really, really do.
Speaking of the camera, I got mixed results trying to shoot stuff with the zoom in the lower light conditions. Since I'd managed to snag a row 1 seat in the LF Bleachers, I tried using the wall and metal rope in front of me to stabilize the camera at times. One part that was fun was leaning over the wall to take pictures of the bullpen, and I have several interesting shots from that, which I'll hopefully put up at some point soon if I have time.
Gil Meche was warming up in the bullpen in the 10th inning. I'm not sure why. I saw him walking out to the dugout before the 6th inning and wasn't really sure what was up with that, since he just started on Sunday. Weird.
There were these teenage guys sitting down the row from me, and once it came out that I have way too much baseball in my brain, they started asking me random questions about players and whatnot (and also things like "Where the heck is Nagasaki?"). In the tenth inning, when we saw Seth McClung warming up, they were like, "Is this guy any good?" and I told them the entire saga of Seth McClung, and how he sucked, and sucked some more, and was sent down to AAA to stop sucking, and apparently stopped sucking enough to come back up, but I wasn't going to believe it until I saw it. We couldn't see the scoreboard, but I mentioned his 7-ish ERA and his 2-10 record (okay, actually 3-11) and all. Well, after he had the bases loaded, I said, "Get your glove out, 'cause Richie's going to hit one right to us." I was half right, I suppose.
Japan Night, for those of us not in the special sections, was pretty lame. There was no general giveaway this time, though I hear people in the Japan Night sections got special hats. They had these little "Japan Night Language Lessons" up on the board from time to time, with things like "Kenji wa tsuyoi - Kenji is Strong", except, well, you wouldn't really actually refer to him as Kenji if you were speaking Japanese. Then, for "Fact or Fiction?" they said, "We're going to list some team names, and you try to guess if they are actual team names in the Japanese Pacific League". Well, uhh. Yes, team names like the "Hamamatsu Stinging Jellyfish" or whatever aren't real names to begin with -- but when they put up stuff like "Yakult Swallows", I was like "That's a real team, but it's NOT IN THE PACIFIC LEAGUE GODDAMNIT," and they said "fact" anyway. Of course, they put up "Nippon Ham Fighters", and I stood up, wearing my Fighters jersey, and turned around like "THAT BETTER BE A FACT!", and a bunch of people laughed.
Still, it's just one of my pet peeves, and I'm surprised that on freaking Japan Night they couldn't be bothered to get the terminology right. (For the record, there are two six-team leagues in the NPB, the Pacific League and the Central League. They have different rulesets, similar to the AL/NL differences with the DH and lack thereof, though in Japan it also extends to scheduling and playoffs and other things. At any rate, if someone says "the Japanese League", they probably have no clue what they're talking about.)
Anyway, whatever. I'm currently watching two of my favorite young lefty pitchers in the world face each other as the Fighters' Tomoya Yagi is pitching against the Hawks' Tsuyoshi Wada. It's a Hawks home game, so it's being broadcast on Yahoo, which is great, except it also means I'm up way too freaking late yet again. Ex-Mariner and current Hawk Jolbert Cabrera hit a home run a bit ago to tie the game at 1-1, but now my favorite Fighter Michihiro Ogasawara just hit another home run to put the Fighters ahead 3-1. Woo! I should sleep.
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