Fighters Spring Training 2017 Part Two - A Cold Day in Peoria

Today was actually a pretty fun day overall, but it was tainted by one or two awful people who kind of ruined all the fun for us.

Weather today was supposed to be sunny and in the 70's, but it was cloudy and never got out of the low 60's, so most of my photos I took today aren't that great.  I went back to my hotel to get a jacket during lunch, even.

Also, there were Padres players working out on some of the nearer fields!  I had no idea they'd be there, although I also had no idea who any of them were anyway.

Camp menu for the day (honestly they look almost identical every day aside from which players are in which practice groups):



I ran into a group of fans who I'd met at Kamagaya a few years ago -- they remembered me because I caught one of the postgame photo shoot passes that day and gave it to them so I could go stalk rookies outside the clubhouse instead.  I also accidentally made friends with a woman who I thought was one of my Twitter friends.  She wasn't then, but she is now!  They were having a lovely little mini-picnic with Japanese food prepared by one of the locals and invited me and Dani to partake, which was nice.

My real goal for the morning was to get photos with the non-Japanese players.  Specifically, I hadn't met Edwin Escobar before, and I knew that once those guys finished their morning routines that we weren't going to see them again for the rest of the day.  But Chris Martin and Luis Mendoza are such super nice guys anyway (Edwin was nice too!) that I ended up getting photos with all three!  Dani was wearing her Ikemendoza t-shirt, and Luis was like "Cool shirt!" so she got him to sign it.

I wasn't able to actually watch the bullpen session though because they have it blocked off from sight.  The place is full of media and team staff, but fans are stuck on the other side of an opaque gate.  I snuck one or two shots in while a security guard pretended he didn't see me sneaking up to the side, but that was about it.  Matt had been telling me to watch Edwin's bullpen session, and of course I couldn't see it.

An absolutely crazy thing that happened during the morning was that Dan Evans was around in camp again (we've been Twitter friends for years and met during last year's camp), and the folks from HTB wanted to interview them.  However, since the non-Japanese players had left, none of the interpreters were around.  So they asked *me* to interpret for him.  Yikes!  Their interview was very very Ohtani and WBC centric though, and Dan was very specific that he was there to see *every* player, that he tries to understand who everyone is in the NPB and KBO.  He also said that he expects Japan to do just fine in the WBC.  The only part that was super hard to translate was that he said he has a lot of respect for Japanese baseball and for the Fighters as a team, and that he thinks their biggest strength is their fresh way of thinking.  I know what he means -- bringing the team to Arizona, signing people like Toru Murata, etc.  But it's sort of a tough concept to explain in Japanese, and I felt very awkward.

On the other hand, a little while later, Dan introduced me to Ryohei Endoh, who I've wanted to meet absolutely forever.  He was Todai's ace in the late 1990's, and he was the 4th player to ever go pro out of Todai, being drafted by the Fighters in 1999.  He's basically a legend to anyone who cares about their team at all.  He's been working for the Fighters front office ever since he retired as a player.  Of course, I don't think I said anything remotely intelligent to him, but I did gush about how I cheer for Todai and all.

The fields cleared out pretty quickly this time at lunch, so we headed out, but at the kiosk we ran into my friend Dave who I hadn't seen in person in around 10 years, and we also ran into Dan Evans again, with one of his students from his baseball course, and ended up talking to them for a while.

I came back in the afternoon, but it was still cloudy and cold.  We watched batting/running practice for a while (they were practicing hit-and-run and sac fly plays) and chilled out.  I did get a photo with Naoto Inada, since he was hanging out inbetween his TV shoots.  (We saw Inada, Tateyama, and Nishizaki all filming for various TV programs.)  It was exciting to meet him since he was such a funny part of the 2006 championship team.

Anyway, things started winding down with fielding practice, so we (at this point me, Dani, and Dave) headed out to the clubhouse to go stalk players.  My goal for the afternoon was to get as many signatures on my shinkansen jersey as possible, and also to hopefully meet rookie Ishii, and maybe ask Arihara for a photo again, and anyone else I hadn't gotten yet.

But of course there was yet another insane line of people trying to get Ohtani's autograph outside the Peoria clubhouse.  There were so many people, and even the media was into it; I got to talking with two guys from Nikkan Sports and from Doshin Sports, like "I'm not in the Ohtani line, I'm going to take pictures of the craziness with you guys."  I made a point of staying over to the other side of the area.

Something funny: I was trying to get my jersey signed, and at one point Konsuke, Morimoto, and Taishi Ohta came by on their way to the hotel, and I asked if they'd sign.  Tatsuya was like yeah, but Konsuke was like no, we're too busy, come on.  Taishi said sure, but on the way back.  On their way back, I asked again, Konsuke ignored me, Tatsuya apologized and promised he'd get me later.

Taishi asked me, "What the crap is with this huge line of people here anyway?"

I'm like "They're here to get Ohtani's autograph."

"Really?  That's all just for Ohtani?  What are you doing over here then?"

"Well, I'm here to meet the whole team, not just Ohtani, so that's why I'm over here."

He laughed and motioned me to give him the jersey, and he signed it.  I think Good Guy Taishi Ohta is winning over a lot of us who were pissed off about Shingo Ishikawa getting traded.

Lots of other guys came out in the meantime.  Tatsuta, Katoh.  Hakumura.  Even Uehara and Yagi signed my jersey, and then Kumon, Kagiya and Arihara (and Arihara actually took a photo with me!!!1!!1)

(Though a sad thing is that my friend dropped my IXY point-and-shoot camera after I got a photo with Kumon and now the lens is totally stuck, so the rest of my photos were with my phone.)

Yoshida and Iguchi came out together, and Shota Ohno came out separately and a bit further away from where everyone was, but a few people stopped him and then a line formed.  I hadn't spoken to Ohno yet so I got him to sign my jersey and I thanked him for coming to the US again this year too.

Oh yeah, it was Naoyuki Uwasawa's birthday.  So I gave him the card I got him, and Dani gave him a present, and many other people gave him presents too, and one set of people had a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner so they put that out and everyone sang happy birthday to him!  That was kind of crazy.

Dani and I ran over to talk to Enoshita.  He speaks pretty good English (his wife is a nisei from California I believe) and it was funny because he said to Dani how "Hey, I remember you, you came to Nago?" and all, and then I was like "Wait, you don't remember me?  I used to annoy you at Kamagaya all the damn time," and he said "Oh... like 3 or 4 years ago?" "Yeah." "Oh, okay, sure."  Dani mentioned later that she used to tweet at Enoshita a lot back in the day so that's probably also why he remembered her better.

Got Taniguchi and then also our rookie Ishii!  Yay!

At this point I was basically standing at the back of the Ohtani line, and that's about when Ohtani and his entourage came out, at 5:30 or so.  Dani and Dave came over and brought my backpack and jacket over too so that I didn't have to leave them sitting at the other side of the parking lot.  Probably a good thing given that the non-Japanese people were likely to just take off afterwards and also likely to steal something like that.

As mentioned in Saturday's entry, protocol this year has been that that Ohtani will sign for everyone in line. I'm not sure how they handled this on Saturday, but, today a bunch of the autograph hound dudebros were getting one thing signed and then trying to get back in line to get a second thing signed. So a group of Japanese women were pissed off about this and basically ran to where we were at the back of the line, made a group together behind us, and said "We're the end of the line. Anyone behind us is trying to get seconds."

So this one guy -- the one who left his folding chair out on Saturday and came back to get it today, even -- he first tried to cut back in line, and when people were like "No cutting, you already got an autograph," he tried to give a second ball to somebody who was still in line. And the group of Japanese women were like "What the hell are you doing?" And even I was like "Dude, do you not understand how this works? He only signs for everyone because we're in an orderly line without people pulling this kind of shit.  He used to be on a signing limit, and you guys are lucky that limit has become 'everyone in the line' because he's injured right now."

The guy said "Oh, I'm just asking this guy for an autograph here. See? Why are you so angry about that? Mr. [friend], will you sign my ball?"

I'm like "Yeah right. You're so full of shit."

He's like "You just don't understand a joke."  Then to his friend, "C'mon, sign this."

His friend takes his pen and slowly and deliberately writes on the cardboard ball box,

F U C K
Y O U
J A P S

and he and his cronies crack up and high-five and stuff.

Meanwhile I swear to fucking god Ohtani is still making his way through this line and signing for these assholes anyway.

Fortunately, I've become buddies with Ohtani's security guards (no, seriously, I got to talking with one of them before I even knew that was his assignment, last year at camp) so when they got up to me I told the guard, "Some guys are causing trouble by getting back in line once they get one signature. Those Japanese ladies here are the end of the line, and anyone behind them is cheating."

He was like "I thought some of these people looked familiar. Thanks for telling me."

The Japanese women also were saying in Japanese, "Ohtani-kun, these people already got your signature, please don't sign anymore, we'll see you tomorrow".

And they cut off the signing there.

Those guys were really angry at us, but seriously, WTF? They're the ones invading our little family just so they can get something signed and put it on Ebay for $300 or whatever. They don't even say "please" or "thank you" or anything when he signs for them, and they don't care about anyone else except for him. It's awful. The only good part is getting to hang out with the rest of the team AFTER they all leave (which they do immediately after Ohtani stops signing).

We stayed out there a bit longer and I got Takanashi, Konsuke, Shimizu, and even Sugiya to sign.  I wanted a photo with Sugiya but he said he was too busy.

A crew from NHK was doing a special about Ohtani and so they filmed Dave (who gave them good answers) and then gave up on filming me (because I was like "Ohtani is great, but I mean, one man does not a team make, everyone else is important too, you know...")

The three of us decided to go get dinner, although as we were preparing to leave, Tatsuya Morimoto finally came back out, like "ok, now I can sign for you," so he did.  And we chatted with him a bit.  He was asking Dani why she has purple hair and things (though he said he thought it was cute).  But he also said he was super duper tired and we were like "dude, go back to the hotel and sleep!" and so he was like "okay!  I sleep!  SEE YOU TOMORROW!"

Anyway, again, if you read this far, here, have a few more photos from the day.


Padres players warming up on one of the other practice fields.


At first we thought Tateyama was coming over towards us but it turned out he was just getting a good angle to do his TV broadcast from.


Edwin Escobar


I'm still amazed anyone lets the players drive, but here is Taniguchi driving and everyone else holding on for dear life.


During batting/fielding, this sign was up -- each player gets 5 hits.  They had to hit to the opposite field, then they had to do a hit-and-run, then a sac fly, then free shots (swing away!)


Good Guy Taishi Ohta


Grumpyface Haruki Nishikawa


The Elusive Daiki Asama


Nishizaki-san was also very busy reporting from camp


Shinji Takahashi is like "Why are you taking my photo?"


It was Uwasawa's birthday, and some people brought a big Happy Birthday banner and we all sang for him!


My friend Dave gets interviewed by the NHK crew doing a special on Ohtani.

And of course because you clearly haven't been subjected to enough two-shots of me, here's some more!

Todai legendary pitcher and Fighters front office man Ryohei Endoh.  I've wanted to meet him forever.


Chris Martin


Luis Mendoza


The new guy Edwin Escobar!


Naoto Inada, still makes us all laugh


Matt Winters was so super-helpful to me in camp this year again


Kohei Arihara (still hates me)


Yodai Enoshita!  His English has gotten so much better over the years, I can talk to him for real now.


Katsuhiko Kumon (the pitcher we got in return for Yoshikawa from the Giants)


Kazunari Ishii, the only rookie in camp!  (And former Waseda captain.)


You know, I think maybe people were right about getting the uniform signed with the wide side of the marker instead of the thin side... :(


...because as you can see these are awfully faint.  Though it looks fine in person.

Fighters Spring Training 2017 in Arizona, aka Two-Shot Saturday

I'm back in Peoria for Fighters Spring Training.  They're here from Feb 1 to Feb 10, but I'm only here from Feb 4 to 8, because you know, work and real life and all.  (I went negative on vacation days after taking a 3-week honeymoon to Australia, although I got to watch a Melbourne Aces vs Sydney Blue Sox baseball game while there and meet the Japanese players from Seibu and Honda, and I also watched an Adelaide Strikers vs Brisbane Heat Twenty20 Big Bash cricket match, which was super exciting in other ways.  But anyway.)

I'm writing this while ignoring the Super Bowl on TV, but yesterday was Saturday Feb 4, my first day in camp this year.  I ordered a bunch of championship gear in the offseason and got it in time to wear to camp, so I decided to wear it on the first day and get as many damn two-shot photos with Fighters as humanly possible.  (I did bring some things to get signed, but in all honesty, I've always preferred photos to signatures -- more on that a bit later.)

Actually, driving in, I saw Hichori Morimoto walking across the parking lot!  I parked and tried to catch up with him but you know he's got super long legs and is much faster than I am.  But, that was good, since I was really hoping to meet him; last year he left before I arrived.

I got to camp around 10am.  This was the day's training menu:


As you can see, Ohtani had his own "special" training menu.

But in all honesty I barely watched practice in the morning because I had to find Dani and I wanted to go say hi to a bazillion people.  Friends from all over Fighters circumstances; people I met at camp last year, people I met in Sapporo, people I know from my Tokyo ouen groups, and even people who I follow on Twitter but had only met on the train going home from the Seibu clinching game last year.

Well, and of course I also said hi to a lot of the random Fighters staff, since at this point I think I know most of them.

I got Masao Kida to sign my championship towel, and I talked to him for a little while; he says the team should be coming back to Arizona for the next few years since their renovations in Okinawa will take a while.  I then started my two-shot brigade by getting Ippei Mizuhara (one of the translators, who was like "You want a photo with ME?" "Yeah, I'm a big fan.  I saw you on TV with Brandon all the time."), and Yuto Takahama, inbetween the fields.

A reporter guy from HTB wanted to interview me and Dani, and since she's smarter than I am, she declined.  I'm sure the footage they use of me will be embarrassing as usual.  He asked things like "Where are you from?  How did you become a Fighters fan?  What player do you like?  How did you get the championship shirt?" and such.  Of course I answered honestly to everything, like how I went to the Tokyo Dome 14 years ago for my first game and lucked out that it was Fighters.  And my favorite player is Kagiya (he was like "who else besides Kagiya?" and I was like... "I dunno?  Umm... I like a lot of players?  I'm hoping for this year's rookie Moriyama to do well since I watched him in college a lot?").  As for the championship shirt, I said that I ordered it to my old roomate's address in Tokyo, and please don't kick me out of the fan club for that.  He also filmed the collection of Fighters gear I had with me.

In the meantime I saw all of the foreign players coming out but obviously I couldn't get out of the interview, so I missed a chance to see the new guy Edwin Escobar.  Oh well, there'll be more time later.

After that, I saw Hichori hanging out by the broadcast tower.  He didn't actually seem to be that busy, so I was like "I'm going to go ask him to sign my shirt!"  So I did.  I asked very politely in Japanese, like "Hichori-san, are you busy right now?  Would you sign my shirt?" and he was like, sure... and then a whole line of people formed behind me because everyone was like "OMG HICHORI IS SIGNING SOMETHING!" so, oops, I didn't mean to make that happen, BUT he was really nice and signed for everyone in line -- and I went in line as well to get a photo with him as well since I'd wanted to do that anyway.  One of the TV guys also tried to get me on camera, like "Whoa, why do you have this old shirt?  Were you a big Hichori fan?" and I was like "Yeah, I used to teach junior high school in Arakawa, where Hichori is from, so I always cheer for players who are from Arakawa..."



Upshot: Hichori is super-nice if you catch him when he's not busy, though :)

Caught up with Dani out by field 4, where she was talking to a bunch of Japanese women who turned out to live in the US and speak perfect English, who all had guest badges.  They were like, "Your interview was hilarious!"  I was just like "..."  But then it turned out they were guests of Toru Murata.  The Fighters signed Murata in the off-season, he spent the last 6 years playing in the Cleveland Indians system, though he only got into one game at the MLB level.  Anyway, his friends got him to come over after practice, so I got to meet him too, and he turns out to be a super-friendly guy and I'm really looking forward to seeing him play for the Fighters this year.

Other funny thing that happened: Kagiya and Yuki Saitoh were in the same training group, so when we were standing there looking in on Field 4, they jogged by us.  I waved hi at Kagiya and called out おはようございます！and he smiled and waved back!  And then Saitoh looked at us funny so I was like おはようございます！ at him too and he smiled but in this very WTF way.  Dani and I totally cracked up.



And after that, around noon, we decided to break for lunch; I said I'd meet Dani back at the field around 1.  I got a sandwich on the way back to my hotel and dropped off my Hichori shirt lest anything happen to it in the afternoon.  Also reapplied sunscreen and drank a ton of water.

I got back a little after 1 and afternoon fielder's practice was going on; by then all of the pitchers were gone indoors to do weight training and such.  One of the fields had people doing knock fielding with Shirai-coach, one of the fields seemed to be straight batting practice with some guys shagging flies in the outfield, and another field was special Ohtani practice, and then the tee area was various people either practicing swinging or bunting.

Dani wasn't there, but I went up to one of the fields where I saw Matt Winters hanging out talking to Brandon Laird and Al Hargesheimer, so I went up and talked to them all for a while.  It's always good to catch up with Matt and hear some stories (even if he still makes fun of me for the whole Jason Botts debacle).

I spent a while taking photos of the batting practice guys, watching some of the fielding practice, etc.  There was a big group of students from a local Japanese Saturday school called Arizona Gakuen, so things were kind of chaotic because of that as well.  And Dani never did come back.  So around 2:30pm I decided to wander out to the clubhouse exit area to see if maybe she was over there.

Dani wasn't there, but there was SERIOUSLY a line of at least FIFTY people already out there waiting for autographs.  Some had brought folding chairs.  Most were non-Japanese people who clearly didn't give a shit about the Fighters at all and were only there to try to get Ohtani's autograph.


(Seriously, the entire city of Peoria is here trying to get Ohtani's autograph)

I found one or two of my friends there and was like "WTF?"

Mei explained to me, "Oh, this is just the Ohtani line."

"So if I don't really care about an Ohtani autograph and just want to give Sugiya a birthday card and get two-shots with all of the other players?"

"Then you can wait wherever and approach people as they come out, yeah."

So I put my bag down off to the side of the pavement and hung out talking to (Japanese) people for a while.  I did make good on my idea to get two-shots with people.  I got Takahiro Nomo, and Yuki Saitoh (! he even smiled!) and Uwasawa, and Tatsuta, and Kishisato, and Uehara.  Some guys did come straight out of the clubhouse and made a beeline for the hotel across the street without going anywhere near the fan line.  A few players, I debated asking, then saw someone else approach them for a signature and get rebuffed.  And in Arihara's case, since he had blown me off in the morning, I asked again like "Hey, how about now, can we get a photo?" and he was yet again like "Nah, I'm busy."  I'm beginning to think he just hates me and/or hates fans or whatever since this is the 4th or 5th time he's turned me down.

But anyway, in the meantime, the funny part was, the huge throng of dudes waiting for Ohtani's autograph, every time any player came out of the clubhouse they'd all get excited and get their pens and bats and stuff out.  It became pretty clear pretty quickly that they had no idea who anyone was, and in most cases, they didn't even know what Ohtani himself looked like.

My Japanese friends were wondering what the deal was with all of these guys, so I figured I'd just go up and ask.  Turns out most of them were college students in the area, although a few were people who were just going to be in the area for Spring Training and were getting ready to hit up all the camps for autographs.  One guy had gotten his ball signed by a bunch of people (infact, I think he must have been taking cues from who I got photos with, because he had a lot of the same players I just listed).  I was like "do you even know who they are?" "Nah, but they always write numbers, so I'll look it up later."  I started telling him about some of the players, and one of the other guys pipes up like "Hey, do you know how I could get So Taguchi's autograph?  I'm from Philly and I had collected almost everyone from the 2008 World Series but he's impossible for obvious reasons."

Normally I would just roll my eyes, but it was actually sort of the exact kind of question that nerdsnipes me because I'm also from Philly, even though I don't collect autographs, and the 2008 World Series is sentimental to me for family reasons.  So we went and looked it up that Taguchi is a ni-gun coach for the Buffaloes now and I was like "Your best bet is to write to the team.  You may not get a response, but I think your letter would get to him if you tried."

But then the rest of the guys were all like "So do you know when he's coming out, anyway??"

Sigh.

(Actually, a Japanese staff member had told us he'd be out around 4pm, but I wasn't about to mention that.  The Fighters players were going to the Phoenix Suns basketball game that evening and had to be back in their hotel lobby to leave at 5:30, so they had ended practice a little earlier than usual.)

Anyway, Ohtani did come out a few minutes before 4pm.  I wasn't going to be part of the whole thing, but I had been waiting with everyone for an hour and a half by that point.  And one of my friends was just like "oh come on, get in line with us", so I did, and I got out my championship towel to be signed, figuring that would be more meaningful.  Honestly, I'd prefer a photo with him, but as far as I can tell, that's just something that doesn't happen except under extreme circumstances.  As I've said many times, an autograph on something can be sold, or traded, or lost, or whatever, but a photo is a nice little moment of "Hey, I met this baseball player" that has no value to anyone else so it can't really be sold and in the digital age can't really be lost, either.

Ohtani had a security brigade with him (well, one Japanese team staff member, and one of the Peoria security guards -- the same guard he had last year, even) and the media crew was also following along taking photos.  He basically just kind of went through the crowd with a determined look on his face the whole time and signed for everyone.

(When it was my turn, I put out my towel and pen and said, "お願いします！" and when he was finished, "ありがとうございます！".  I didn't think about it until later, but a lot of people didn't even thank him.  Sheesh!)

Also funny: one of the other guys out there, not part of the big hound crowd, although clearly not there for any reason other than getting an autograph, had an Ohtani jersey.  And he wanted it signed on the number, not on the uniform itself.  ("American style, not Japanese style," he said.)  Some of our group tried to help him get it ready by pinning it to a shikishi, but I was like "You know he's going to sign between the numbers, right?"

Sure enough, Ohtani not only signed next to the number, not on the number, but he also signed it at a right angle to the numbers!  I should have taken a photo, but I kinda felt bad for the guy.

I watched Ohtani make his way down the line for a while.  Toshi Shimada, director of operations for the team, came out to watch as well.  Toshi speaks perfect English (he used to be Matt Winters's interpreter) so I was like "Dude, this is crazy!  Don't you guys have him on a signing limit?" and he said "Well... he couldn't really do anything at camp today, so he felt like this was at least something he could do."  "Oh, I see.  That's really nice of him and the team, then."

Anyway, the nice thing about Ohtani coming out was that ALL THE AUTOGRAPH HOUNDS LEFT!!!1!!1 and then it was nice and peaceful.  The remaining 20-25 of us there all gathered around the normal waiting place and it got much easier to ask players for signatures or photos because there wasn't this ridiculous intimidating line of 150 people out there anymore.  Whew.

Though, somebody left their folding chair there.  We have no idea who.  It was still there when we went home.  For all I know it might still be there.

So after that I got photos with Yagi, Urano (!), Kagiya, Taniguchi, Hakumura, Shirai-coach (!), Yokoo, Iguchi, Yoshida, Kuriyama-kantoku, and Ishiryo.  Yeah, quite a collection.

Urano was funny because I was like "I've been watching you since you were at Aichi Gakuin but never managed to meet you," and he was like "Really?" and I said "Yeah, I first saw you at the Jingu Taikai 6 years ago?" and he was like "Wow, thanks."

Kagiya, I had given him some lip balm I brought for him (as usual, hehe) but then since he was still around after I got Urano, I went up like "Kagi-san, can I get a photo with you today anyway?  I'm wearing my championship shirt?" and he looked like "Oh yeah, of course".  Unfortunately the person who took it stood in the sun so we're both squinting but whatever.  :)

I didn't get a photo with Tatsuya Morimoto, but I started walking with him across the parking lot like "Hi Tatsuya!!  Do you remember me??" in English, and he was like "...??" and then I asked in Japanese, like "We spoke at Kamagaya last year." And then he was like "Oh yeah!  At the festival."  Then he was like (in English) "Do you speak Japanese?  Why??"  And I told him how I used to live in Tokyo, etc, and then he asked a really good question: "'Can you speak English?'と'Do you speak English?'って、どう違いますか？" And I was trying to think of a difference, but it's true, they basically do kind of mean the same thing when you ask.  So I did mention that "do you" and "can you" are usually different but not in this case.  Anyway, we were walking and talking almost all the way across the parking lot, which was fun, but I didn't want to get too far away from everything, so I was like "じゃあ、また", and he was like "SEE YOU!!"

I also didn't get a photo with Kenshi Sugiya, but since I was at the front of the line by the time he came out, I at least handed him the birthday card I'd brought for him like "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUGIYA!!" and he was like "THANK YOU!!  I'M THE BIRTHDAY BOY!"  But he was in a hurry so he pretty much blew through the entire crowd of people to get back to the hotel.

(The card I got him had a pretty silly joke in it so I wrote a note in Japanese like "If you don't get it, ask Laird.")

Dani did finally come back around 4:30, though most people and players were gone by then.  We ended up talking to a Japanese boy who's in college in LA right now, who apparently remembered us from camp last year too although I totally forgot him.  He's a big Asama fan, although when Asama came out he pretty much ran past and ignored all of the fans too.  Oh well.

We finally left for real around 5:30, which I may have mentioned is the same time that the players were gathering in the lobby of their hotel to go to the basketball game.  Dani and I were going to stop by the hotel and drop off her stuff, but she's staying in the same hotel as the players and we saw their bus out front, so instead we diverted and went and got dinner and she caught me up on crazy stuff that had happened at camp the first few days.

It's funny, you'd think that staying in the same hotel as the players would be exciting, but it sounds quite stressful.  See, normal protocol with Japanese fans is that you don't bother players in their private time, which means in the hotel, or out shopping, or whatever.  One of the fans said how "Well, I got in the elevator at the hotel and Takanashi was also in the elevator so you know, I just said hi to him, but other than that, like in the lobby and on the patio and stuff, you just don't talk to them, it's not cool."

The thing is, today, Sunday, I went to the Arrowhead mall nearby, and when I got there I saw several FIGHTERS/ANA bikes parked outside, and I realized that like half the team was going to be in the mall because of the off day, and because that's what young Japanese guys usually do on weekends.  And I was totally right.  I counted at least 16 players in there, and a few other staff.  Most of the guys were just wandering around in groups of 2 or 3, but I saw them all over the place.  It was very strange, because part of me was like OMG THE FIGHTERS ARE ALL OVER THE MALL but part of me was like OMG THEY ALREADY THINK YOU'RE A WEIRD AMERICAN STALKER.

Anyway, if you managed to get through all of this, or even if you didn't, here's some more photos from Saturday at camp.


Takayuki Katoh on the mound.


Yushi Shimizu during catcher's practice.


Brandon Laird messes with Shirai.


Taishi Ohta pounds baseballs over the fence.


Brandon signs for people before being carted off.


Ryo Ishikawa said "Whoosh" after hitting each ball


Toru Murata meets with his friends


I got Ohtani's autograph but I kind of feel guilty about it


Ohtani's security detail and the photographers

And now for an onslaught of two-shots!  I did mention that I was doing my best to take photos yesterday rather than anything else, so I don't expect to get this many on any other day, but who knows.  I still have a few people I haven't gotten yet...


Yuto Takahama


Toru Murata (what a nice guy!)


Yuki Saitoh (and you can see the autograph dudebros in the background)


Shota Tatsuta, who also is injured right now :(


Takayuki Katoh


Taishi Ohta (he IS a pretty big guy)


Ryosuke Kishisato


Kenta Uehara


Shogo Yagi


Hiroshi Urano


Yohei Kagiya


Yuya Taniguchi


Akihiro Hakumura


Coach Kazuyuki Shirai, the funniest guy on the team


Toshitake Yokoo... he was trying to get the sun out of his eyes too


Three-shot with Kazutomo Iguchi and Yuki Yoshida


Manager Hideki Kuriyama!


Ryo Ishikawa

Ten years and two days later, the Fighters win it all again!

(pictures from the Fighters website)

And unlike in 2006 when I was able to slack off quite a bit for a week or two of work and stay up all night, now I work at Google and have way too much going on to actually watch any significant part of the Japan Series.  I did catch the 5th and 6th games of this year's PL Second Stage playoffs, because they were at 2pm Japan which is 10pm here, and they were also aired on Pacific League TV.  But the Japan Series games were all at 6:30pm in Japan, which is 2:30am here, and the reliable streams seemed to hop around every day.

I was at the Seibu Dome on Sept 27-28 for the adventures of clinching the Pacific League though, and should write that up sometime.  But everything else I've had to experience from the US during my precious waking hours.

Those final playoff games were a doozy -- Game 5, on Oct 15th, happened right after a Meiji-Waseda game where Yuya Yanagi got 19 strikeouts in 12 innings in his last weekend before the draft, and so I switched over to the Fighters, and then the Hawks kept hitting home runs and chipping away at Takanashi, and eventually won the game 5-2, with my highlights being getting to see Kagiya and Hakumura pitch a few innings.

Game 6, unlike game 5, had the Hawks go up 4-0 in one inning instead of in 4 innings, pretty much beating up rookie starter Takayuki Katoh.  But Anthony Bass came in and pitched four scoreless innings to hold off the Hawks while the Fighters waited for Tadashi Settsu to lose his curveball and start giving up runs.  Kensuke Tanaka hadn't really hit at all in the playoffs so he was benched in favor of Kenshi Sugiya who not only fielded well but also hit the Fighters second RBI (the first was a Sho Nakata solo homer).  In the 4th inning, with the bases loaded, Hiromi Oka pinch-hit for Shota Ohno, which seemed like a weird move, but then he hit a double to center which scored the tying runs, and the Fighters went up 5-4 immediately after on a squeeze bunt by Takuya Nakashima, which was kind of ironically perfect as the Hawks had ruined our night on Sept 27th by going up 3-2 on the Marines on a squeeze play.

The rest of Game 6 belonged to Shohei Ohtani, who not only hit a double in the 5th inning and scored on the Kensuke Kondoh hit that brought the game to 7-4, but, also, Ohtani impossibly came into the game to close it out pitching in the 9th inning.  And almost every pitch he threw was over 160 km/h, including two of them hitting 165 km/h, which is a new speed record in Japan.  (I'm not even sure why the Fighters keep making new merch every time he does this.  I haven't bought any because duh.)

There was a week off between the playoffs and the Japan Series, during which the draft happened.  The only real update there is that Fighters' 6th-round pick Yujiro Yamaguchi has said he's not going to join the team because he's pissed at getting picked lower than 4th.  Whether or not you believe him on that being the real reason, or whether or not you think this is broken or not, please respect my right to call him a dumbass and be annoyed at him.  Thanks.  That's all I really feel like saying on the subject.  It's kind of silly, though, that since 2000 there have been 5 normal-round picks to turn down their teams, and 3/5 have been Fighters, and 2/5 have been goddamn Hisayoshi Chono.

Anyway.  Did I mention that the Fighters won the Japan Series?

I really truly honestly didn't get to see or follow most of the games.  The first two were in Hiroshima, and the Fighters lost both of them 5-1 -- this was bizarre enough that on Sunday morning when I woke up and looked at the score I had to make sure I had loaded the right page, but no, it really was Ohtani vs. Kris Johnson in the first game and Masui vs. Yusuke Nomura in the second.

Johnson, by the way, won the Sawamura award this year, first time a foreigner had won it since Gene Bacque in 1964.  I feel like this along with Balentien's home run record a few years ago is kind of showing that NPB, and maybe Japan as a whole, may be slightly more accepting of foreigners than before.  Not really much, but just a tiny tiny tiny bit.  And every tiny tiny bit helps.

(Now, to be honest, this was the first year EVER in the past decade that there weren't a few scattered racist morons that treated me like a dumb foreigner at Fighters games.  But that's also because I became pretty famous after spring training in Arizona.  So instead of getting "Oh... where are you from?  Oh, do you like Fighters?" in broken bad English from people in the stands, I got a lot of "OMG YOU'RE THE GIRL FROM ARIZONA WHO WAS ON TV ALL THE TIME!")

The Fighters went back to Sapporo for Games 3-5, and won all of them!  Game 3 involved a walkoff RBI hit by Ohtani in the 10th inning to win it 4-3, and Game 4 involved a huge Brandon Laird go-ahead 2-run homer to win it 3-1, and Game 5 involved, amazingly, a walkoff grand slam by Haruki Nishikawa, the second in Japan Series history (the first being the Swallows' Toru Sugiura in Game 1 of the 1992 Japan Series).  It should also be noted that Takayuki Katoh only gave up 1 run in the first inning but also got pulled pretty quickly to let Luis Mendoza hold up the fort for most of the game.

Now here's the thing: the home team had won all of the first 5 games, and we were going back to Hiroshima, so I wasn't feeling all too good about that.  The first Japan Series I ever followed was 2003 when the Hawks and Tigers faced off and the home team won every game in that series as well.

However, this year was different!

I actually watched the first 4 innings of Game 6 -- not because I wanted to be awake, but because I was having some acid reflux issues combined with failing to swallow an antacid pill properly, and so I was way too uncomfortable to sleep and having esophageal spasms.  So, I found a site streaming the game, although it was very choppy, and watched as the Fighters went up 1-0 in the first inning on a Haruki Nishikawa triple and an infield blooping hit by Hiromi Oka.  And I also watched as the Carp went up 2-1 in the second inning on a wild pitch by Masui and an error by Brandon Laird.

Note: Game 6 was Masui vs Nomura, which people seemed confused about, ie, why leave aces Kuroda and Ohtani until Game 7?  But I think it was a solid move on both sides.  (And I feel a little bit bad that my job since 2007 Koshien seems to be watching Yusuke Nomura lose really important games.)

Anyway, there were more Haruki triples and hits and the Fighters went up 4-2 in the top of the 4th, and Kuriyama pulled Masui super early so I even got to see Kagiya pitch the bottom of the 4th, and I saw him pitching a scoreless inning culminating in striking out Takahiro Arai.  By then my stomach had calmed down enough to sleep, so I went to sleep.  It was 4:30 in the morning and I had to be up at 8:30 to go meet friends up in San Francisco anyway, so it was just as well.

When I woke up four hours later, I saw the final box score.  The Fighters won 10-4!  Holy crap!  It looks like Jay Jackson just had a very very bad 8th inning pitching for the Carp, and Brandon Laird hit a grand slam, which cemented him as the series MVP.

(You should just read Jason Coskrey's article about the game, since he was actually there and all.)

Today I seriously dug my 2006 Nippon Series Champions t-shirt out of the depths of my random Fighters crap and wore it around San Francisco. I cannot believe it's been 10 years since the last time the Fighters won the Japan Series, and how very much my life has changed since then.  It really has been a pretty insane adventure since then.  It was during the 2006 postseason that I had an ongoing bizarre AIM conversation with then-Japan-Times-writer Stephen Ellsesser that made me decide I was going to move to Japan to write about baseball one way or the other, and that's what I ended up doing, quitting my cushy software engineering job to go teach English in Tokyo and travel the country watching baseball.  I remember spending the entirety of October 2006 writing about the Fighters on this blog and thinking nobody out there really cared -- this was, after all, before Twitter, before Reddit, mostly before Facebook even, and before you could see live streams of games.  Now there's a pretty wide NPB audience online in English.

I still can't believe how much kindness I've been shown by the Fighters and the Fighters fans over the past decade, though.  While there have certainly been a few rocky moments here and there, overall it has been the most incredible time of my life.  I love coming back to Kamagaya every year and feeling like I'm stopping off at home to visit my family.  Same for going to the Sapporo Dome.  There are basically two places in Japan that I feel like I really belong there, and one is behind the dugout of a Tokyo Big 6 team with my camera and my friends there, and the other is in the middle of a Fighters cheering section.

I ordered a few of the championship goods from the Fighters site but I won't get them for a few months.  Hopefully they'll show up in time to wear to Arizona spring training next year :)  And wow, I really can't wait to see everyone there again.  It's going to be even more crazy this time around!

Draft 2016 Liveblogging

Hello and welcome to my 11th annual anguish over hoping the Giants don't draft my favorite college players, also known as Marinerds NPB Draft Liveblogging!

I'm preparing this post a little earlier in the day, and hopefully I'll be able to stay up all night tonight.

I just got back from Japan a few weeks ago (I was there in person when the Fighters clinched the PL pennant at the Seibu Dome and I really should finish writing that up one of these days) so I have a few draft magazines, and one of my friends gave me a whole slew of industrial league team pamphlets, but there are always going to be a few guys that slip through the cracks in the later rounds.  Always fun!

Hopefully the TBS stream will actually work this year, who knows.

Otherwise I'll just be watching the picks come in on various news sources such as Nikkan Sports, Sponichi, Sanspo, etc, plus team pages, as usual.

Moving commentary to below the draft results grid.  Also now the Ikusei grid is done and so this should be complete overall.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Orix Buffaloes
1 Taisuke Yamaoka       P   Tokyo Gas               R/L   09/22/1995   172/66
2 Yuta Kuroki           P   Rissho Univ             R/L   08/16/1994   178/75
3 Daisuke Okazaki       IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/L   09/17/1998   182/75
4 Yoshinobu Yamamoto    P   Miyakonojo HS           R/R   08/17/1998   177/72
5 Keisuke Kobayashi     P   Nihon Seimei            R/R   11/02/1992   187/86
6 Soichiro Yamazaki     P   Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   06/15/1998   188/84
7 Daisuke Iida          C   Honda Suzuka            R/R   09/19/1990   181/83
8 Keisuke Sawada        P   Rikkio Univ             R/L   04/27/1994   178/90
9 Kaoru Nemoto          OF  Kasumigaura HS          L/L   07/29/1998   185/78

i1 Yaku Cho             OF  Nihon Keizai Univ       R/R   02/26/1994   181/78
i2 Tsubasa Sakakibara   P   Urawa Gakuin HS         R/R   08/25/1998   180/80
i3 Fumiya Kanbe         P   Rissho Univ             R/R   05/09/1994   182/80
i4 Kazumasa Sakamoto    IF  Ishikawa Million Stars  R/L   11/16/1990   162/65
i5 Katsushi Nakamichi   C   Meiji Univ              R/L   04/30/1994   173/78

Chunichi Dragons
1 Yuya Yanagi           P   Meiji Univ              R/R   04/22/1994   180/80
2 Yota Kyoda            IF  Nihon Univ              R/L   04/20/1994   184/80
3 Masami Ishigaki       IF  Sakata Minami HS        R/R   09/21/1998   180/84
4 Shotaro Kasahara      P   Niigata Iryo Fukushi U  L/L   03/17/1995   177/85
5 Kento Fujishima       P   Toho HS                 R/R   05/08/1998   176/75
6 Taisuke Maruyama      P   Tokai Univ              R/R   02/05/1995   176/75

i1 Yusuke Kinoshita     P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   10/10/1993   183/82

Rakuten Eagles
1 Shoma Fujihira        P   Yokohama HS             R/R   09/21/1998   186/84
2 Takahide Ikeda        P   Soka Univ               R/R   10/01/1994   180/80
3 Kazuki Tanaka         IF  Rikkio Univ             R/S   08/08/1994   180/78
4 Shu Sugahara          P   Osaka Taiiku Univ       R/L   04/05/1994   182/78
5 Kohei Morihara        P   Shinnitetsu Hirohata    R/L   12/26/1991   184/83
6 Keisuke Tsuruta       P   Teikyo Univ (Rubber)    L/L   05/12/1994   180/84
7 Hiroki Nomoto         P   Sasebo Kogyo HS         R/R   05/16/1998   180/72
8 Tsuyoshi Ishihara     C   Kyoto Shoei HS          R/R   03/08/1999   169/87
9 Yuhei Takanashi       P   JX-ENEOS                L/L   07/13/1992   175/80
10 Naoto Nishiguchi     P   Koga Health Senmon      R/R   11/04/1996   183/80

i1 Kota Chiba           P   Hanamaki Higashi        R/R   04/22/1998   180/87
i2 Yosuke Minami        IF  Meisei Univ             R/R   08/07/1994   175/73
i3 Takumi Mukaitani     IF  Hyogo Blue Thunders     R/L   02/24/1997   170/68
i4 Toshiyasu Kimura     P   Riseisha Health Senmon  R/L   09/14/1995   176/76

Swallows
1 Naruki Terashima      P   Riseisha HS             L/L   07/30/1998   183/86
2 Tomoya Hoshi          P   Meiji Univ              R/R   04/15/1994   181/85
3 Yugo Umeno            P   Kyushudai Kyusan HS     R/R   01/13/1999   175/80
4 Hikaru Nakao          P   Nagoya Keizai Univ      L/L   09/14/1994   179/79
5 Yudai Koga            C   Meitoku Gijuku HS       R/R   08/07/1998   178/75
6 Ryusuke Kikusawa      P   Soso Ritech             R/R   05/16/1988   183/85

i1 Hajime Ohmura        C   Ishikawa Million Stars  R/L   12/21/1991   169/80

Lions
1 Tatsuya Imai          P   Sakushin Gakuin HS      R/R   05/09/1998   180/70
2 Shunta Nakatsuka      P   Hakuoh Univ             R/R   12/26/1994   191/103
3 Sousuke Genda         IF  Toyota                  R/L   02/16/1993   179/73
4 Shohei Suzuki         OF  Shizuoka HS             L/L   05/20/1998   174/75
5 Katsunori Hirai       P   Honda Suzuka            R/R   12/20/1991   180/83
6 Ichiro Tamura         P   Rikkio Univ             R/L   09/19/1994   173/80

Tigers
1 Yusuke Ohyama         IF  Hakuoh Univ             R/R   12/19/1994   181/84
2 Taiki Ono             P   Fuji Univ               R/R   05/30/1994   183/76
3 Hiroto Saiki          P   Sumashofu HS (Kobe)     R/R   11/07/1998   187/79
4 Masumi Hamachi        P   Fukuoka Ohhori HS       R/R   05/25/1998   183/88
5 Kento Itohara         IF  JX-ENEOS                R/L   11/11/1992   175/80
6 Shungo Fukunaga       P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   05/14/1994   185/90
7 Kenya Nagasaka        C   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   04/28/1994   173/78
8 Kosuke Fujitani       P   Panasonic               R/R   02/12/1996   194/95

Marines
1 Seigi Tanaka
1 Chihaya Sasaki        P   Oberlin Univ            R/R   06/08/1994   182/85
2 Tomohito Sakai        P   Osaka Gas               R/R   01/02/1993   179/80
3 Takaaki Shima         P   Tokai Ichihara Boyo HS  R/R   06/26/1998   180/82
4 Seiya Dohi            P   Osaka Gas               L/L   07/07/1995   185/81
5 Yuki Ariyoshi         P   Kyushu Mitsubishi       R/R   03/12/1991   179/87
6 Atsuki Taneichi       P   Hachinohedai Ichi HS    R/R   09/07/1998   183/80
7 Yuito Munetsugu       C   Asia Univ               R/R   07/06/1994   183/91

i1 Yoshizumi Yasue      P   Ishikawa Million Stars  R/R   05/26/1992   185/80
i2 Shota Sugawara       OF  Nihon Wellness Sports U L/L   09/19/1993   183/95

Baystars
1 Yuya Yanagi
1 Chihaya Sasaki
1 Haruhiro Hamaguchi    P   Kanagawa Univ           L/L   03/16/1995   173/78
2 Koya Mizuno           P   Tokai Univ Hokkaido     R/R   06/01/1994   175/74
3 Taiga Matsuo          IF  Shugakukan HS           R/R   04/05/1998   174/73
4 Masaya Kyoyama        P   Ohmi HS                 R/R   07/04/1998   183/72
5 Seiya Hosokawa        P   Meishugakuen Hitachi HS R/R   08/04/1998   181/85
6 Yuya Onaka            P   Hiroshima Keizai Univ   R/L   01/31/1995   172/70
7 Yukikazu Karino       IF  Heisei Kokusai Univ     R/R   07/31/1994   179/75
8 Takuya Shindoh        P   JR Higashinihon         R/R   07/16/1992   184/78
9 Keita Sano            IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   11/28/1994   177/77

i1 Takamasa Kasai       P   Shinano Grandserows     R/R   08/07/1994   179/93

Hawks
1 Seigi Tanaka          P   Soka Univ               R/R   07/19/1994   186/89
2 Yuto Furuya           P   Koryo HS (Hokkaido)     L/L   02/19/1999   176/76
3 Ryuhei Kuki           C   Shugakukan HS           R/R   09/05/1998   181/82
4 Masaki Mimori         IF  Aomori Yamada HS        R/L   02/21/1999   183/66

i1 Shogo Ohmoto         OF  Teikyo #5 HS            R/L   04/22/1998   186/94
i2 Hiroki Hasegawa      P   Seitoku Gakuen HS       L/L   08/23/1998   174/73
i3 Tsubasa Tashiro      OF  Hachinohe Kosei HS      R/L   03/19/1999   179/72
i4 Kosuke Moriyama     IF/P Fujisawa Shoryo HS      R/R   04/13/1998   187/86
i5 Rikuya Shimizu       OF  Kyoto Kokusai HS        R/R   01/22/1999   186/76
i6 Ryugen Matsumoto     IF  Sotoku HS               R/L   02/27/1999   175/72

Giants
1 Seigi Tanaka
1 Chihaya Sasaki
1 Naoki Yoshikawa       IF  Chukyo Gakuin Univ      R/L   02/08/1995   177/79
2 Seishu Hatake         P   Kinki Univ              R/L   05/31/1994   186/74
3 Tappei Tanioka        P   Toshiba                 R/R   03/21/1996   181/81
4 Shun Ikeda            P   Yamaha                  L/L   11/29/1992   174/72
5 Hosei Takada          P   Soshi Gakuen HS         R/R   07/04/1998   178/75
6 Ryusei Ohe            P   Nishogakusha HS         L/L   01/15/1999   171/75
7 Jen-Lei Liao          P   Kainan Univ (Taiwan)    R/R   08/30/1993   201/125

i1 Suguru Takai         P   Niigata Albirex         R/R   08/22/1995   180/78
i2 Shuhei Katoh         OF  Iwata Higashi HS        R/R   03/28/1999   178/84
i3 Motohiro Yamakawa    P   Hyogo Blue Thunders     R/L   01/04/1995   170/73
i4 Koki Sakamoto        P   Kansai Gakuin (Rubber)  R/R   08/19/1994   180/80
i5 Seiya Matsubara      OF  Meisei Univ             R/L   01/26/1995   173/70
i6 Ryutaro Takayama     C   Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/R   02/21/1995   186/80
i7 Hayato Horioka       P   Aomori Yamada HS        R/R   09/11/1998   183/84
i8 Yusuke Matsuzawa     OF  Kagawa Olive Guyners    L/L   07/01/1992   181/85

Fighters
1 Seigi Tanaka
1 Chihaya Sasaki
1 Mizuki Hori           P   Hiroshima Shinjo HS     L/L   05/10/1998   177/72
2 Kazunari Ishii        IF  Waseda Univ             R/L   05/06/1994   181/76
3 Kazuki Takara         P   Kyushu Sandai Univ      R/R   06/25/1994   177/77
4 Keisuke Moriyama      OF  Senshu Univ             L/L   05/02/1994   187/85
5 Yuki Takayama         P   Osaka Toin HS           L/L   05/17/1998   180/70
6 Yujiro Yamaguchi      P   Riseisha HS             L/L   05/14/1998   180/87
7 Takuya Koori          C   Teikyo HS               R/R   04/25/1998   177/74
8 Taisho Tamai          P   Kazusa Magic            R/R   06/16/1992   178/78
9 Junnosuke Imai        IF  Chukyo HS               R/L   05/25/1998   177/88

Carp
1 Seigi Tanaka
1 Chihaya Sasaki
1 Takuya Katoh          P   Keio Univ               R/R   12/31/1994   175/90
2 Koya Takahashi        P   Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    L/L   09/27/1998   181/83
3 Hiroki Tokota         P   Chubu Gakuin Univ       L/L   03/01/1995   182/74
4 Shogo Sakakura        C   Nichidai Sanko HS       R/L   05/29/1998   177/80
5 Makoto Aduwa          P   Matsuyama Seiryo HS     R/R   10/02/1998   196/86
6 Ryota Nagai           P   Tsukuba Shuei HS        R/R   01/15/1999   181/81

12:53am: turns out that hahahaha no the TBS link does not work.
~1:10am: I have Konansports on, but it's so damn choppy that it's almost not worth watching.  That means that I missed most of the ceremonial starting stuff and I'm mostly ok with that since it's silly.

The main thing about this year is that they're making the winning and losing ballots more obvious after Manaka's little mistake with Takayama last year.  Wonder if we'll be able to tell or not.

Anyway, first round is in this order, and I'll put choices in:
Buffaloes: Yamaoka Taisuke, Tokyo Gas, P
Dragons: Yanagi Yuya, Meiji Univ, P
Eagles: Fujihira Shoma, Yokohama HS, P
Swallows: Terashima Naruki, Riseisha HS, P
Lions: Imai Tatsuya, Sakushin HS, P
Tigers: Ohyama Yusuke, Hakuoh Univ, IF
Marines: Tanaka Seigi, Soka Univ, P
Baystars: Yanagi
Hawks: Tanaka
Giants: Tanaka
Fighters: Tanaka
Carp: Tanaka

1:23am First ballot-off happens and it's for Yuya Yanagi.
And... OH NO HE GOES TO CHUNICHI.  Sigh.  I will miss you, Yanagi.  (Feels like after watching him for the past 7 years I am not likely to see him much with Chunichi, but who knows)

1:27am: Second ballot-off for Tanaka and it goes to Kimiyasu Kudoh drawing for the Hawks.  Sigh.  Like they need any MORE top talent.

1:36am: Pretty much everybody that had a choice after Tanaka tried to take Chihaya Sasaki and he went to the Marines.  Next!

1:46am the first round has finally been decided after the Chihaya lottery and I am a little bit sad that the Fighters did not take any of my favorite first rounders as Katoh went to the Carp and as you saw Yanagi went to Chunichi and all.

So, to sum up the actual first round...

Buffaloes: Taisuke Yamaoka, Tokyo Gas, P
Dragons: Yuya Yanagi, Meiji Univ, P
Eagles: Shoma Fujihira, Yokohama HS, P
Swallows: Naruki Terashima, Riseisha HS, P
Lions: Tatsuya Imai, Sakushin HS, P
Tigers: Yusuke Ohyama, Hakuoh Univ, IF
Marines: Chihaya Sasaki, Oberlin Univ, P
Baystars: Haruhiro Hamaguchi, Kanagawa Univ, P
Hawks: Seigi Tanaka, Soka Univ, P
Giants: Naoki Yoshikawa, Chukyo Gakuin Univ, IF
Fighters: Mizuki Hori, Hiroshima Shinjo HS, P
Carp: Takuya Katoh, Keio Univ, P

Ugh.

Ok, gonna fill in the table.  I have pretty much lost the ability to watch the stream after gaining it, which is kinda just fine with me.  It turned out the TBS stream DID work, but not on a macbook and not in Chrome, and my PC laptop is so old and crappy it's not worth listening to the fan blowing over the sound of the stream.

2:06am: just a note that the second round started while I was finishing putting the first round in the table, and the Swallows picked Tomoya Hoshi from Meiji in the second round, and that is kinda cool, I just met him during my last weekend in Japan, he's really good, that will be exciting.

2:26am: Done entering the second round and of course we are in the middle of the 4th round now.  Kazuki Tanaka from Rikkio went to Rakuten which is kinda exciting and I'm sure there are other ones that I haven't spotted yet too.

3:05am: Incase it isn't obvious, I am just flipping through draft magazines and trying to keep up with the draft (I think I'm mostly done the 4th round now but we're in the 6th).  Very excited about a few picks, very annoyed at some others, I will probably comment afterwards.  Also, Shu Sugahara got the award for "first dude not in the draft magazines", and there are a bunch of guys who clearly have been named after pro players by the kanji in their names -- Masumi Hamachi (looks like Kuwata) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (looks like Takahashi).

3:20am: Keisuke Sawada got picked by the Buffaloes!  It's not the Fighters but I'm so damn happy he got drafted.  We've been buddies since he showed up at Rikkio, basically, and I've always watched him kick ass and take names and somehow get screwed over by the fact that Meiji is always just a little bit better.  (ok, nose back to translation grind)

3:37am: Still grinding but I want to look up Keisuke Tsuruta later -- Eagles round 6.  He's from Teikyo University's rubber baseball club, which makes him almost as interesting as Takumi Ohshima (who got drafted out of Waseda's softball club)

Also want to look up Swallows round 6 Ryusuke Kikusawa.  At 28 he is the oldest in the draft and spent last year playing with the Sonoma Stompers, but I didn't make it up to any games up there (haven't been in a long time actually).

4:26am almost done the normal draft, not gonna do ikusei tonight most likely.  Got to the end of the Giants and was like who the heck is  リャオ・レンレイ?  and it seems to be Jen-Lei Liao who played in the Pittsburgh Pirates system for a bit.  I thought 201cm/125kg was a typo at first but apparently no.

4:40am I am done with the normal grid, for the information I have at my disposal so far.  I'm going to circle back and see if I can gather anything up for the empty spots, and if I'm still awake after that, I may try to translate the Ikusei draft, but you know the Fighters don't do that stuff so I'm not usually as interested in it.

5:20am I'll do Ikusei tomorrow sometime.  Gotta sleep so I can go to work in the "morning".

(Ikusei is done now.  Wow, there are a LOT of rubber baseball guys in this draft -- not just ikusei -- and a bunch of Senmon Gakko ones too.  Senmon Gakko is like a vocational school that people go to after high school to figure out a trade, and it's not typically somewhere you go to play baseball.)