Photopostish Game Report: All-Japan College Baseball Semifinals, Hosei vs. Kansai Kokusai

Went to Jingu on Saturday for the All-Japan College Baseball tournament semi-finals. The first game was Hosei University (Tokyo Big 6 League) against Kansai Kokusai University (Hanshin University League), and the second game was Soka University (New Tokyo University League) against Fuji University (North Tohoku League).

Me being a Tokyo Big 6 fangirl, I was really familiar with Hosei, but had to get up to speed on the other teams. I knew that Kansai Kokusai is where the Fighters' Ryo Sakakibara went, but that was about it. The thing is, these tournaments are a great way to see a lot of the good college teams. It's just a shame all the games were held during work hours for the most part.

I dragged Gen to the games because he's cool and I thought he'd enjoy them because he also loves Koshien, and to me, college baseball is like the spirit of Koshien with a higher level of play. Although "dragged" might not really be the right word since actually, he was kind enough to show up early and get two great seats right behind the first-base dugout so we could take a ton of photos.

Ace Kazuhito Futagami started for Hosei, and my thought was that if he could go most of the game, Hosei would probably win. Given I didn't know that much about Kansai Kokusai's starter Tajima except that he was really short (like 165 centimeters) and left-handed. He wasn't getting a ton of speed on his pitches but he was getting decent movement.

However, Hosei put a run on the board from the get-go; their leadoff man Shingo Kamegai singled to right, Shota Waizumi bunted him up, and freshman Hiroshi Taki batted him in. Taki eventually ended up being 4-for-4 on the day with all three of Hosei's RBIs.

Hosei's next two runs came in the 3rd inning and 5th inning, both on the EXACT same sequence: Tetsuro Matsumoto leads off with a single to center, Shingo Kamegai sac bunts him to second, Shota Waizumi hits a fly ball out to center for the 2nd out, and Hiroshi Taki singles to right to score Matsumoto. No joke. In the 5th inning, as the sequence unfolded the second time and Waizumi popped out to right, I said to Gen, "And now Taki singles to right and scores Matsumoto..." and Taki grounded to first, and somehow the ball must have hit a rock or something, because it suddenly BOUNCED up in the air over Kansai's first baseman Kanemaru and went into right field! Amazing.

Kansai Kokusai, for their part, managed to put two runs on the board against Futagami; in the third inning third baseman Yamamoto singled to right, was bunted up by catcher Fukuyama, and then shortstop Watanabe hit a single to right, and for whatever reason they stopped Yamamoto at third (I think he could have made it). Left fielder Sosuke Tanaka grounded to second, and Yamamoto scored as Watanabe was out on the force; second baseman Yoshikawa grounded out after that.

A similar sequence unfolded in the top of the 7th when Yamamoto walked, Fukuyama bunted him up, but this time Watanabe struck out before Sosuke Tanaka singled to drive in Yamamoto. It left the game seeming pretty close at 3-2.

For whatever reason, though, after Kansai Kokusai pitcher Masuda (who came in in the 3rd inning) struck out Tetsuro Matsumoto to start off the bottom of the 7th, they took him out for left-handed pitcher Kodai (I think) Matsunaga, and that was where the floodgates started to open. Shingo Kamegai singled to third, where third baseman Yamamoto kind of bobbled the ball, and then Shota Waizumi grounded to second; Kamegai was out on the force but Waizumi was safe at first (which is still kind of crazy since it looked like a really nice double play from our angle). So instead of the inning being over, Hiroshi Taki hit his fourth single of the day, this time to left field. Kansai Kokusai switched pitchers again, this time to Naohito (I think) Kitajima, a righty. Kitajima pitched to Masatoshi Matsumoto, Hosei's Big 6 batting champ who hadn't yet gotten a hit in the tournament... and Matsumoto chose that exact moment to hit a double to left field. Waizumi scored. Taki scored. Hosei was up 5-2.

Although they stopped the game for a few minutes in the 8th inning when Futagami came out for an injury delay, he came back into the game. The 8th inning was sloppy but the Kansai batters kept hitting groundballs and the Hosei fielders kept throwing out the lead batter at third. Futagami eventually finished out yet another complete game, throwing 115 pitches, as Hosei advanced to the finals.

I stayed for the second game too, but I don't have time to write about it yet (which is going to be weird if I do write about it after the finals actually occur, but hey).

Here are some of my photos, in no particular order:


Kazuhito Futagami in the first inning.

A sequence of photos:

Tetsuro Matsumoto comes running home in the third inning...


...he makes a diving headfirst slide and grab for the plate just as Kansai Kokusai catcher Fukuyama gets the ball...


...and he's safe! safe! Hosei goes back ahead 2-1!


Kansai starter Tajima, who was little and left-handed.


Kansai Kokusai pitcher Naoya Masuda at a weird angle.


Masuda comes back to the dugout.


Kansai Kokusai catcher Tatsuya Fukuyama comes back home after the batters fail to drive him in. He got all dusty taking a headfirst slide into first base.


Lefty pitcher Matsunaga.


Hiroshi Taki high-fives Shota Waizumi after Masatoshi Matsumoto drives them both in with the double in the 7th inning.


Kokusai pitcher Kitajima.


Hosei slugger Ryo Imai, who didn't play in this game, but who literally spent the entire game standing outside of the dugout yelling into a megaphone. He's the crazy kid who hit that walkoff homerun that won Hosei the Big 6 championship title.


Kazuhito Futagami is still pitching into the 9th.


Final score: Hosei 5, Kansai Kokusai 2.


In other notes...

Hosei had their usual full band out there, but Kansai Kokusai seemed to have only brought their tubas and baritone horns with them. I don't know if that's normal or not for them. At first, it had this really weird effect of feeling totally somber, like a funeral dirge, but once you got used to it, it was actually really cool! They were playing things like Whiteberry's Natsumatsuri, and YMCA, and all this crazy stuff, and they do cheers like the Hanshin Tigers' wasshoi, and so on.

About halfway through the game, a friend of mine who's a baseball scout came over to chat for a while. It was really good to see him, but besides that, it made me have two revelations about Kazuhito Futagami: first, his name which looks kind of like a Japanese proverb (二神一人, two gods one person) is actually that way on purpose; Futagami is from a kind of middle-of-nowhere fishing town in Kochi. Second, I realized that even though he's a really good pitcher, he has really good control and so on, the reason I just find him boring to watch is because I don't see anything special about him. Whereas I like watching Kisho Kagami because he's crazy. I like pitchers who seem somewhat out of the ordinary, and while Futagami is pretty talented, from a non-scout eye like mine, he's just not that exciting.

Also, sunburn. Sigh. I put on some sunscreen but apparently did a sloppy job, and when I played volleyball later that evening I was really feeling the pain. Oops.

I'll try to post about the Soka-Fuji game in a day or two -- first I'm headed to Chiba for the Marines-Tigers game, and something tells me that'll be more important to write about first.

Fighters Kanto Interleague Weekend, Day 4: Fighters @ Swallows - Abort, Retry, Fail?


Welcome to Monday Night Baseball! You are a pro baseball team in Japan!
Tonight you are facing the Yakult Swallows.
You have one runner on first base in the first inning.

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "bunt".

> bunt

You have a runner on second base and one out. Inaba is at the plate. He is good at baseball.

> hit the ball

You try, but you only succeed in grounding out and striking out.

> strike the opponents out

You try, but they aren't swinging. Perhaps you meant "walk them"?

> walk them

OK. Fortunately, your fielding prevents them from scoring... for now.
It's the third inning. You have a runner on first and one out.

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "ground into a double play".

> ground into a double play

OK.

> inventory

You are carrying:
1 decent outfielder
4 backup outfielders
3 catchers
3 decent infielders
7 dudes who really can't do anything but DH or play 1B
1 golden rookie (cursed)

It's the 4th inning. You have a runner on first and no outs.

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "bunt".

> bunt

OK. The rest of your batters also fail to do anything productive.

It's the 6th inning and the other team is up to bat.

> throw a strike

OK. The batter hits you for 1 base point of damage.

> strike them out

I don't understand that command. You must mean "walk them".

> walk them

OK. There are now runners on first and second.

> strike them out

I don't understand that command. You must mean "walk them".

> walk them

OK. The bases are now loaded.

> swear

You swear. It does 2 points of damage as Guiel hits the next pitch into centerfield.

They have gained the lead.

Swallows: 2
Fighters: 0

> change pitchers for the love of god already

OK. To who?

> put in Ejiri

OK. Ejiri allows another runner to score on a groundout but otherwise gets out of the inning intact.

Fighters: 0
Swallows: 3

> sing fight song

Your fans sing the fight song. You now have enough mana points to cast one spell.

> cast "hit ball"

OK. You wave your wand very hard and the ball goes bounding towards the third baseman and the throw is not in time! It does 1 base point of damage.

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "walk".

> walk

OK.

> hit the ball

OK. You wave a Nioka at the ball and it does another base point of damage. The bases are now loaded.

> sing bouncy chance music

OK. The chance music recharges your mana points.

> recast "hit ball"

You wave a Makoto Kaneko at the ball. It does another hit point of damage and loads the bases.

Fighters: 1
Swallows: 3

They change pitchers to Matsuoka.

> cast "hit ball"

I'm sorry, you are out of mana points. You fly out to second instead.

> cast "hit ball"

I'm sorry, you are out of mana points. You strike out instead.

> hit the ball

With what?

> kensuke tanaka's bat

OK. You hit the ball with Kensuke Tanaka's bat. It does 2 points damage.

They no longer have the lead.

Fighters: 3
Swallows: 3

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "strike out".

> kutabare yomiuri

You wave your umbrella around and dance for the 7th inning stretch.

> get a run

I don't understand that command. You must mean "fail to do anything productive against former closer Ryota Igarashi and current closer Chang-yong Lim".

> yeah that

OK.

> change to a decent pitcher for the bottom of the 9th

OK. To who?

> put in micheal nakamura

I'm sorry, that item is not in your inventory.

> put in tateyama

OK. Yoshinori Tateyama takes the mound for you.

> put in shohei tateyama

I'm sorry, that item is not in your inventory.

> steal their tateyama

I don't understand that command. You must mean "give up a double."

> put in the GOOD tateyama do you hear me

I don't understand that command. You must mean "lose the game 4-3 on a walkoff single by Shinichi Takeuchi".

> quit

Do you want to save before you quit? (y/n)

> y

Then why did you put in Tateyama? Zing!

Final score:
Fighters: 3
Swallows: 4

You are in a maze of twisty little interleague games, all different...

Fighters Kanto Interleague Weekend, Day 3: Fighters @ Swallows - All it Takes is Some Takedas

For me, Sunday's game was almost as much about socializing as it was about watching baseball. Once you really start going to a lot of games and get to know various groups of people in the stands, you find that there are complicated social rites that you have to perform. They call it "aisatsu", which sort of just means "greetings", but there's more to it than just simple greetings. You have to make an effort to make sure you acknowledge and say hello to everyone you know before the game, and try your best to say goodbye to everyone after the game and tell them they did a good job cheering. Whether you're at work, or at home, or at a baseball game, it's considered rude not to make an effort to properly greet people, if possible.

Usually I go to Fighters games after work and so I barely have 10 minutes before the game starts to get settled, fill out the starting lineups in my scorecard, get all of my cheering stuff ready, etc, so it's okay that I only say hi to the people I'm sitting with.

On Sunday, I got into the Jingu outfield bleachers at 4:30 or so for a 6pm game, and fortunately some friends of friends saved seats for me. I suppose I could have just sat around waiting for the game to start for an hour and a half, but that's really no fun, so I wandered around to do things like getting food and filling out All-Star ballots and such, which also meant saying hi to a whole bunch of people as I walked past them. I also made a point of trying to go down to the field to say hi to the foreign Fighters players, but the guards wouldn't let me, not even for a minute, even after I said I needed to do aisatsu, so I could only stand about 5-6 rows back from the field behind the reserved seats. In a moment of weirdness, the team interpreter actually pointed me out to Brian Sweeney, so I got to wave hi and yell a few "what's up?" kind of things over everyone (and as usual ask when he was pitching, which was not Monday! Doh).

(I also went to try to say hi to the Tsubamegun guys, but wouldn't you know it, they weren't there. It definitely got me a LOT of strange looks in the right field stands, like "Why has this poor confused gaijin wandered into enemy territory?" since I was wearing my Fighters jersey.)

Pau showed up shortly after I finished helping a college student in the ouendan with their English homework; I get roped into some crazy things sometimes when I'm going around saying hello to people. Shortly after that, the pre-game festivities started, like lineups and cheering and so on. This is where I was sittting:



And this is the song the people on the other side of the field were (theoretically) singing before the game. Bad karaoke, anyone?



It, uh, goes nicely with things like "Just Play To Win".

So yeah, there was a game. Masaru Takeda started for the Fighters and Ryo Kawashima started for the Swallows, and there were no hits on either side for the first three innings. Infact, the first five innings of the game went by in about an hour and 15 minutes, with a total of three baserunners in that entire time period, all on hits.

Not to say that the game went by without incident. First, for whatever reason (has Jingu always been this way and I just didn't notice?) the ouendan didn't have drums to go with their trumpets. It was odd enough to me that I took a video of us doing Kensuke Tanaka's cheer song, because the Kensuke call without two drumbeats was so strange:



Seriously, doing all the cheers with no drums was kind of strange, especially things like the Inaba Jump and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang chance music.

Then there was an ouendan incident in the 5th inning, kind of -- Glasses Dude was standing up on a railing and, I'm not sure exactly what happened but I THINK that some guy complained that he was in his way, because next thing I knew, two of the ouendan guys were taking off their jackets and running up to this guy in a "WHAT did you say?" kind of thing. It was just far enough away that I couldn't hear what they were saying, though. Very weird. But the ouendan were in a grumpy mood the rest of the day, and at one point I saw the guy I always think of as "Shaggy" basically go up to a lady who was filming the ouendan, and he kind of just grabbed her camera and yelled at her for filming. REALLY weird, I've never seen them quite so grumpy before.

Anyway, the Fighters finally put some runs on the board in the 6th inning. Shota Ohno led off and was hit in the left shoulder by a pitch. Masaru Takeda successfully bunted him up to second, and then Kensuke Tanaka walked. Tsuboi sadly struck out, but then Inaba came up to the plate, and even though I claimed he would hit a home run and he didn't, what he DID do is single to center, scoring Ohno and sending Kensuke to third. 1-0. Shinji Takahashi followed that up with another single, scoring Kensuke. 2-0. Whee! Itoi grounded into a fielder's choice after that, but the game was finally going somewhere!

Pau made me take this photo in the bottom of the 6th because we both take a special interest in "Watch out for balls" signage:



Note that by adding an unnecessary article to the sign rather than adding the word "foul", they have made it all the more amusing.

Pau also noticed that the teenage girl in front of us must have been named Haruka, because every time the line "Tobase haruka, sutando e" in Makoto Kaneko's cheer song came up, the girl's mother would sing it and point to her with the word "Haruka". I know if it was me, I would have been whining a lot of "Mooooommmm, cut it out" after the first time, but this girl seemed to be embarrassed yet putting up with it. Hmm.

Koyano led off the top of the 7th by also getting hit with a pitch in the left shoulder, by pitcher Jun Hagiwara. I guess that's what we get for me saying "Hagiwara sucks" as he took the mound. Kaneko walked, and then Shota Ohno sac bunted into a double play (I'm not sure I've ever denoted a play as "FAIL B1-5-3" in a scorecard before), bouncing the bunt up to the mound, where Hagiwara threw it to third in time to get Koyano and then Miyamoto relayed it back to first in time to get Ohno. Sheesh.

It all worked out okay as Kensuke led off the 8th with a double off Masao Kida, advanced on a Tsuboi groundout, and eventually score on a Shinji Takahashi sac fly to center. 3-0.

Masaru got a groundout from Guiel to start off the 8th and was then pulled for Yoshinori Tateyama (and I still contend that their Tateyama is much, much better than our Tateyama), who fortunately only succeeded in giving up a ground rule double to Yuichi Matsumoto, before giving way to Hisashi Takeda in the 9th, who closed out the game pretty easily, so the Fighters won. Yay.


Final score, 3-0 Fighters.


Masaru Takeda as game hero, with a scary ferocious bear behind him.


I'll take Fangirls of Players With Uniform Numbers Ending in 1 for $500, Alex!

(Actually, these were our friends in the row ahead of us, ducking down while we made our row of Tsuboi fan stuff.)


And here is me with my Ohno sign, which I made Pau take a picture of.


I'm off to Jingu for Monday night's game. I might add a bit more to this later, but maybe not. It's only Monday and the school week is already kind of wearing me out.

Fighters Kanto Interleague Weekend, Day 2: Fighters @ Giants - Sometimes An Ace Doesn't Beat A Jack

It's always frustrating when your ace loses. But it's even more frustrating when your ace gets defeated by your own team's former fan favorites.

Saturday was yet another day in the left-field bleachers for me at the Tokyo Dome. Shortly after I arrived, they announced the starting pitchers. I already knew Darvish was starting for the Fighters, but we also found out Utsumi was starting for the Giants. Is this an encouraging sign or what?



(If you can't read it, the left half says the Fighters battery is Darvish-Tsuruoka, with Darvish's record being 7-1, 1.09 in 9 games. The right half says the Giants battery is Utsumi-Abe, with Utsumi's record being 1-3. 3.40 in 9 games.)

I'm a bit of a closet Utsumi fan (you know, in the "I would love you if you were not on the Giants" sort of way), and secretly I know he just had a shaky start to the season and has been just getting a little unlucky recently, but seriously, I'd still pick Darvish to win this matchup, especially since recently our better hitters have been right-handed, not left-handed, what with Sledge out for a bit and having Shinji, Koyano, and Kaneko in the middle of the lineup.

But, I was wrong.

I blame these guys:



The guy on the left, you probably know who he is, Alex Ramirez. The guy on the right is Takahito Kudoh, and he was a Fighters outfielder last year, until someone in the front office had the brilliant idea to trade Kudoh and Micheal to the Giants for Nioka and Hayashi. Kudoh was relatively popular with Fighters fans for a new-ish semi-regular outfielder, probably because he runs very fast and makes nice plays in the outfield, and wears high socks and seems like an all-around nice guy.

Infact, as he came out to take practice in left field, about half the Fighters cheering section started yelling "KUDOH-CHAN!!!!!!" until he turned around and smiled and bowed to us. Ramirez also turned around and started waving and smiling, I'm not sure he realized what was going on.

Anyway, the game was going swimmingly well for a while. The Fighters put their first run on the board in the second inning, when Koyano doubled down the left-field line and then Itoi followed it up with what looked like a home run but ended up hitting the left-field wall pretty high instead for a double, scoring Koyano, 1-0. Kaneko walked, and then we had Tsuruoka and Darvish up next, who popped out and grounded out respectively. It felt like a CL game, that's for sure.

The fun part is, I got to sing Darvish's cheer song for the first time in a real game!


雄叫びあげて　唸るその剛腕　我らのエース　日本のエース
osakebi agete unaru sono gouwan warera no ACE nihon no ACE

Much cooler than all that stuff about "your uniform number is 14-3" and so on.

Fighters fielding ruled the next few innings, especially when Tsuruoka executed a "Thou Shall Not Bunt" play and snagged an Utsumi bunt to nail Lee at second, followed up by a 1-6-3 double play off of Wonder Boy Sakamoto.

And in keeping with the entire "Inaba only hits homeruns when Deanna is watching" gig, Inaba hit another home run in the 6th inning, putting the Fighters up 2-0. Whee! That makes 8 homers for him on the season, 7 of which I actually saw.

The story turns sour in the bottom of the 6th, at this exact moment:



Former Fighter Takahito Kudoh pinch-hit for Tetsuya Utsumi, and hit a single to center. Well, okay. We like Kudoh, we don't mind him getting a hit, sure.

Unfortunately, Hayato Wonder Boy Sakamoto followed it up with another single, Kudoh running to third, and then Matsumoto followed THAT up with ANOTHER single, scoring Kudoh for the first Giants run. 2-1.

Former Fighter Michihiro "Clean-shaven Doppleganger" Ogasawara came to the plate after that... and unfortunately he ALSO hit a single to center, over a jumping Kaneko. Crap. Sakamoto scored on the play, 2-2. And would you believe it, but it didn't stop there -- Alex Ramirez ALSO singled, scoring Matsumoto on the play for the go-ahead run, 3-2.

You see, it started with Kudoh and ended with Rami. A wild pitch during Kamei's at-bat allowed Ogasawara and Ramirez to move to 2nd and 3rd, but then Kamei lined to second and Kensuke Tanaka fired the ball to third to catch Ogasawara coming back, for an inning-ending double play.

The Giants went from biding time with their pitchers to putting in their good guys -- Kiyoshi Toyoda, Tetsuya Yamaguchi, and Marc Kroon. Toyoda dealt with the Fighters pretty quickly in his inning, though they really should have done better against Yamaguchi.

In the 8th, Jason Botts pinch-hit to lead off the inning (his first top-team at-bat this year), but grounded out. Inaba singled after that though, and so did Shinji, Inaba moving to 2nd. We started the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang chance music finally, AND KOYANO ALSO SINGLED, except that it was to center, and Inaba was running home on the play, and it was a really close call as Matsumoto threw the ball in from center, and Abe kind of blocked the plate, and we really couldn't see it from the outfield, but all we knew was that Inaba got called out. And that sucked. And even more chance music couldn't buy Itoi a hit.

The 9th was also interesting, but fruitless. Makoto Kaneko started off by laying off of Kroon's pitches, so he walked. Tsuruoka bunted Kaneko to second cleanly. Then... then Naoto Inada pinch-hit for Darvish. And what happened could be best described as bizarre: Naoto grounded back to the mound. Kaneko was already halfway between 2nd and 3rd base at that point -- and Kroon got the ball and turned to see where Kaneko was, and Kaneko kind of stood there staring at him. Kroon ran out to tag Kaneko, who ducked and started running back to 2nd. Kroon chased him. Eventually Kroon did make the tag, but in doing so, he kind of leaned out too far and fell down after tagging Kaneko, sprawling out on 2nd base.

Kroon sat on 2nd base for a while, and a couple of team staff members came out to check on him, and he walked back into the dugout. As Fighters fans we did a few "Zettai katsuzo Fighters" cheers and so on, until Kroon came back out to pitch to Kensuke Tanaka. And unfortunately, Kensuke struck out to end the game, so the Giants won 3-2.



Someone's got to explain to me why Utsumi was a game hero when he wasn't even winning the game when he was pinch-hit for, despite that he was still the pitcher of record when the Giants went ahead. I think there was another game hero too, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. Watching Giants fans celebrate is not exactly my favorite thing in the world.

I realized that part of what pisses me off about Giants fans is that... they're like... they're just not diehard baseball fans for the most part. A lot of them follow the Giants because that's the easy route -- the most convenient stadium, the team shown the most often on TV, etc, etc. It's like, "I like baseball, but I don't have the time or energy to be totally crazy about it, so I'll be a Giants fan." They go to the games at the Tokyo Dome and wave their towels, and know who the famous players are, but don't know much more. I can't imagine the average Giants fan following the team around the country like the fans of other teams do. And why would they have to? Giants fans are everywhere and they're always on TV, so there's no NEED to travel.

Note: I realize there ARE diehard Giants fans just as there are for any team. It's just that it certainly feels like a lot more of them are casual fans than of any other team, and that a lot more casual baseball fans are Giants fans than any other team. I mean, you can't BE a casual Tigers fan, for example. It just doesn't work that way.

Anyway, onward and upwards. I'm heading to Sunday's game at Jingu to see the Fighters take on the Swallows. I do, however, plan to dance the umbrella dance and sing a lot of "kutabare Yomiuri".

Fighters Kanto Interleague Weekend, Day 1: Fighters @ Giants - Shaggy Shugo's Shaky Start

Dicky Gonzalez picked up his sixth straight win to start the season, but most of it was because Shugo Fujii gave up 4 runs in the first inning as the Giants beat the Fighters 5-2.

Olympic swimmer Kosuke Kitajima threw out the first pitch, which was kind of neat. The Giants certainly do get their share of big names to take the mound for them.

Really, part of the disastrous first inning could be blamed on Kensuke Tanaka for kind of bobbling a ball and missing a double play, and even for letting Hayato Sakamoto on base to lead off the game. But neither of them were technically errors and they were pretty tough plays.

It's hard to come back from a 4-0 deficit in the first inning, though, and the Fighters never did.

Fujii also kind of got himself caught in a stupid rundown in the third inning which meant they went from runners at the corners with one out to runners at first and second with two outs. Inaba delivered a single which scored Kensuke, but should have been two runs. I'm not sure whether to blame that on Fujii or on 3rd base coach Makishi, who's been getting a lot of ire from the fans this year.

Inaba also hit a 125-meter home run in the 5th inning. In case you are counting, I think Inaba has hit 7 home runs this year, and I think I've seen 6 of them. Seriously. If he can only hit home runs when I'm watching, this should be a good weekend for him.

Oh yeah, and Giants infielder Takayuki Terauchi doubled his hit count for the season by getting 3 of them in the game.

I was really happy to see Shintaro Ejiri come into the game, and to also get 3 scoreless innings! His new sidearm delivery seems to be working out for him, although he was also saved by an awesome play by Hichori Morimoto in the 4th inning -- Terauchi singled to left and tried to stretch it into a double, and Hichori managed to get the ball in the leftfield corner AND throw it to first in time to get Terauchi out. It was such a nice play that we actually all stood up and cheered for Hichori on his way back to his position. (It is interesting that as away fans, we're behind the left fielder instead of behind Inaba at the Tokyo Dome.)

Sho Nakata pinch-hit in the 7th inning. He struck out. But, this was the first time I'd actually sung his cheer song, so maybe I will learn it after all. I kind of like how they make a pun on his name by ending the cheer in "翔たけ中田" - "habatake Nakata", meaning to fly, using the kanji from his name, Sho. Cute.

Anyway, Gonzalez was the game hero and I didn't really stick around for his hero interview.



But in something more fun, look at the new cool sticker on my cellphone!



My friend Hiromi went to Hokkaido for Golden Week and she made me a sheet of Fighters name stickers with my name on them in katakana (ディアナ)! The stickers are really cute and I'm very happy, so I immediately put one on my cellphone, and one on my scorebook, and I should probably put one on my cheer sticks, and so on. Very very cool.

Also, I made a cheering sign for Shota Ohno. I'll try to remember to get a photo of it when I go back for Saturday's game, even though Darvish is starting which means Tsuruoka will be catching. It also hopefully means the Fighters will win, which would be nice.

Tokyo Big 6: "Ohishi Theater" takes over at Soukeisen

I didn't actually make it to Soukeisen this weekend for various reasons, mostly weather-related -- not really worth braving the Handkerchief Posse crowds to sit out in the rain, basically. Instead, I went to Fighters Town Nippori (aka Yakiniku Erika) with Pau (who is a Hanshin fan) and we watched the Tigers-Fighters game there. The Fighters won and we got to chat with Hichori's dad a bit -- and even he said that Hichori's in kind of a slump these days. Very sad.

My school had its Sports Day on Sunday, so I couldn't go to Jingu that day, and it rained pretty hard in the late afternoon anyway. But I had Monday off in exchange for Sunday, so I planned to go to Jingu no matter what -- either for the third game of Soukeisen or for the first day of the rookie tournament. And well, Waseda won the second Soukeisen game on Sunday, so there was no third game.

When I heard about Sunday's Soukeisen game, though, I was REALLY sad that I couldn't be there. Not because Waseda won, but because of what some newspapers have dubbed Ohishi Theater.

If you somehow don't know already, I've been a huge fan of Waseda's pitcher Tatsuya Ohishi (大石達也) for the last few seasons. He can throw 155 km/h and strikes batters out left and right. Last fall he seriously struck out 34 batters in 16 innings, and that was without facing Tokyo. He allowed 5 runners all season. As a reliever, he's really amazing. This season Waseda tried having him start a game and that didn't work so well (probably because it just so happened that they tried it against Hosei, who were the eventual champions), but he still came out of the season having struck out 22 in 20 innings, a WHIP of 1.0 and an ERA of 2.70.

For a while it always felt like nobody really paid attention to him because they were so busy going nuts over Yuki "Handkerchief Prince" Saitoh, but lately I've noticed a lot of stuff about Ohishi-kun in the press. The cover story for the S09 issue of Daigaku Yakyu has Waseda's Ohishi, Saitoh, and Fukui-kun. The "featured interview pair" in College Base Heroes magazine is with Saitoh and Ohishi. Everyone generally agrees that he's going to be a high draft pick next year; me, I want to see him as the Fighters' closer in a few years, of course. I can dream, right?

But nothing, nothing, NOTHING tops what he did on Sunday.

At first when I looked at the box score from Sunday's Soukeisen game, where Waseda won 6-5, I did a double-take: why was there a [6] next to Ohishi's name? Did he START at SHORTSTOP? They put their CLOSER in as the STARTING SHORTSTOP? Whaaaaaat?

And as reported in several places, that is exactly what they did. There's even photo proof.

Not only that -- he was apparently GOOD as the shortstop. He made diving catches to stop grounders, turned double plays, and to add to all of that, he also HIT A TRIPLE at the plate and scored a run. I didn't actually watch the game so it's hard to say, but I'd bet he was actually better than Gotoh out there. Ohishi was quoted as saying, though, "This was my first time as a shortstop in an official game. I'm not very good at fielding grounders. I had to work very hard and was really worried."

Then during the bottom of the 7th inning, while Waseda was at-bat, and in the midst of the rain that was falling, he was told to go to the bullpen and warm up to pitch, which he did, and he took the mound for the 8th and 9th innings, allowing no runs and no hits (though no strikeouts). All that AFTER having played the first 7 innings of the game as the shortstop.

Waseda's manager Ohtake apparently said that he was a "treasured player" and remarked, "I'd like to bat him in the 3-spot. If he devoted himself to playing shortstop, I think he could win a batting title!" and pointed out that players like Ichiro, Toritani, etc, all started out as pitchers. Ohishi, for his part, said something to the effect of "Well, now that I've tried being a shortstop, I think I've discovered that I truly do want to be a pitcher..."

Yeah.

Well, on that note, the Tokyo Big 6 season is officially at an end. By taking Soukeisen 2-0, Waseda actually managed to technically finish the season in 2nd place, having only lost a series to Hosei, the champions. Keio finished in fourth place, behind Meiji. There is light at the end of the tunnel though, as Keio and Meiji are facing off for the rookie championship tomorrow. I'll post about Monday's rookie games in a bit. (Though for the other Koshien nerds, before you ask: I saw Yusuke Yamada play for Rikkio, but did not see Kei Tamura pitch for Keio except in the bullpen.)

Also, the Best 9 for this season were announced:
Pitcher: Kazuhito Futagami, Hosei
Catcher: Shuhei Ishikawa, Hosei
First: Shogo Shashiki, Meiji
Second: Masatoshi Matsumoto, Hosei
Third: Tetsuya Urushibata, Keio
Short: Hiroshi Taki, Hosei
Outfield: Shingo Kamegai, Hosei
Outfield: Toshiki Yamada, Waseda
Outfield: Hiroki Kojima, Waseda

I don't think this actually has a damn thing to do with what position they play at all -- this is basically the best batters in the league by position, plus the Hosei Championship Factor. I'm pretty sure Hiroshi Taki wasn't the best shortstop in the league by fielding, as I believe he led the league in errors, but he certainly was by batting.

The brackets are full for the big college tournament next week, by the way. A lot of the usual suspects are there, but some others too; will be interesting to see how that goes.

Interview with Terrmel Sledge

Before the May 4th Fighters-Marines game in Chiba, I had an opportunity to chat with Terrmel Sledge for a few minutes. It was coming off of the crazy weekend where the Fighters had three extra-inning games in a row, two of which involved walkoff home runs.

I realize the timing of posting this isn't so great as Sledge is currently rehabbing from a hamstring muscle strain, but he should be back up on the top team soon. He really has been one of the key guys in the Fighters' lineup in the past two years, and he's also a really nice guy, very easy to talk to.

It's odd, the first time I think I saw Terrmel Sledge play baseball was in Tacoma, in the 2006 season, and he hit a home run out of Cheney Stadium. He had great numbers in the minor leagues in general, and his talent combined with his attitude and personality actually make him a perfect guy to play baseball over here -- where a lot of what makes a player successful is not only their skill, but also their "wa" or whatever you want to call it -- the ability to adjust to the group and to fit in with the Japanese way, which Sledge is doing a great job of so far.



So let's start with the amazing series this weekend, every game going longer than nine innings. How was that?

It was pretty crazy, playing three extra-inning games like that, two walkoff game-winning home runs.

Was that your second hero interview on Saturday? I saw the first one at the Tokyo Dome a few weeks back.

Yeah, it was the second one. It's great, the way they do things here.

What do you think of doing hero interviews?

It was a little different at first, but I love it now. On the other side of the world, people leave the game in the seventh inning, but here they stay until after the hero interview. It's awesome.

Now that it's your second year here -- what do you see as the biggest difference about the game here?

They live, die, and breathe it, you know? It's not just what they do on the field, but also what happens behind the scenes. These guys, they just play baseball, it's more than a livelihood. It's their life, it's the way their heart beats.

Are you doing that too?

I'm trying, but it's a different style. These guys have been doing it this way their whole life. I just try to get my work done, not really to be like them. They do what they do, we do what we do.

Do you think it'd be better if people did it this way in the US?

Not better, just different. Here they take infield every day, batting practice every day, it's just their routine. In the states, we'll sometimes take a break no matter what the game is, not take batting practice once in a while. I just think it's a different way of doing things.

How are you adjusting? Did you have to change anything to your approach when you came here?

You have to learn to be a better breaking ball hitter over here. It's very different, you don't see a lot of straight hard pitches going side to side, you see a lot more balls breaking up and down. You don't see forkballs too much in the States.

That's true -- and they throw a lot more pitches here, too.

Yeah, a lot more pitches. The game is longer, so your focus has to be up to par.

Do you find yourself thinking a lot about the breaking balls? Whether to lay off more, or just see if you can hit it?

Well, it's still "see ball hit ball", but it just takes time to figure it out, you're not going to get it right away. There are guys like Tuffy Rhodes over here who gave me a lot of advice, and the biggest thing he told me is, "You're not gonna get it right away. This is different, you just gotta work on it."

Tuffy's got to be a great help to new players here. What do you ask him about?

Well, there's only one Tuffy. He's not like a Barry Bonds or whatever, he's just a TUFFY RHODES over here! There's no better foreign player here -- he's almost to 500 home runs, for someone to do that as a foreigner is amazing. I pick his brain a bit, mostly about the field stuff, the pitchers, what he does.

How long do you think you'll be here in Japan?

I like it here. I wouldn't mind finishing my career here. I don't want to think about the future TOO much, but I like it here, my family loves it here, I could really see staying here a while.

How about defense? Have they gotten on you about that a lot?

No, I get my work done. As long as you get your work done, as long as you give 110%, this management is fine. I only know this team, I can't speak for others, but that's all they want to see -- you give your 110% and you get your work in, it helps your game and it helps the team, that's all that matters.

Your defense has been fantastic this year -- everyone's been really impressed with it.

Thank you. Yeah, that's one of my goals for this year. Last year was disappointing, I was injured, I had to DH a lot. I think that's not really me, I want to be the best player I can be, so I want to show them I CAN play defense.

Where would you rather be playing? Left field? First base?

It doesn't matter.

Really?

Yeah, it doesn't matter. I just try to be prepared. Though right now I'm probably more comfortable in left field since I've been playing there most of the time. I'm DHing today. [laughs]

How do you like standing in front of the fans?

I love it! You can't really explain it unless you're a player in that situation. You kind of feel like a rock star in a sense, you know? Like you're on the stage, it's amazing.

What's it like hitting? Is it tough to concentrate with all the noise?

When you've been playing this game for a long enough time, you try to zone out, you try to focus out. You don't really hear the crowd. If you DO, THEN you're in trouble.

So the crazy cheering doesn't help, does it?

Oh, no, it helps! I'm big into bringing energy to the field. We want to perform, we're entertainers after all. We want to perform in front of the fans, we're not here to bore them, so whatever keeps them going keeps us going.

Did you know your cheer song says "North Carolina Power?"

Really?

Yeah -- the lyrics to your song go "North Carolina Power, Homerun Sledge" and all of this stuff about "heating up the hammer" and such.

That's amazing! I didn't know that!

Nobody ever told you? That's crazy!

Nope -- that's the first time I heard it.

But -- why North Carolina?

I was born there.

I think that's a Japanese thing -- your hometown is where you're born no matter where you go after. I thought you were from California.

Yeah, I AM from California. I was born in North Carolina, but I don't even remember it, I'm a California boy. I moved there when I was three or four years old.

A related question: did YOU choose "Sledge Hammer" or did they choose it for you?

It goes with my name, in that sense. It always has since the first time I picked up a bat -- you know, my name is Sledge, the first thing anyone thinks about is "hammer".

So after a year in Japan, what's been your favorite place to play here?

Sapporo Dome.

Heh, of course. Your second favorite?

On the field or off?

Either!

Hard to say. On the field, the fans are diehard fans everywhere. Japan is a nice place to play. Probably, though, the place that was most different for me last year besides Sapporo, was Hanshin.

The fans? Or the stadium?

The fans. The stadium was just big. It seats like 50,000 people, right? It has a different feel, kind of an American-Japanese feel. The fans, they're rowdy, you can't understand them, but you just feel that energy. Like they're true diehards... and you look out there and ALL YOU SEE IS YELLOW. That place was just big, open, really amazing.

What's your best memory here so far?

Probably this year, that walkoff home run in the Tokyo Dome.

Is the Sapporo Dome the hardest to hit home runs in?

This park [Chiba Marine Stadium] isn't easy either, with the wind! Sapporo is a big park, but it IS a dome, with pretty high walls, so you never know if it's going to be a home run or not.

What's the easiest place here to hit a home run in?

Oh, the Tokyo Dome. Definitely.

Who's been the best to work with here, of your teammates?

Everyone's been great to work with, pretty unbelievable. As far as professional hitters, I enjoy watching Inaba. He's just... well, he's the face of the franchise. And watching him play, day in and day out -- you know he's not a 21-year-old, but he PLAYS like he's a 21-year-old!

Who's been the most fun person to work with?

Oh, that'd be Hichori, he's probably the most fun, totally crazy guy.

Does he make you put a glove on your head?

Yeah, he's done that a few times. It was funny.

Have you tried to learn Japanese at all?

少し！日本語が少し分かります。 I'm trying, but Japanese is tough. My vocabulary's probably about 50 words now.


At this point, the chat turned into talking about Japan and Japanese a little, I recommended he talk to Bobby for Japanese language tips, and then thanked him for his time, and asked if we could get a photo together:



I was really surprised when Sledge said he'd like to spend the rest of his career here, but I honestly hope he can make it work out, and I hope he can spend a long time playing for the Fighters!

Game Report: Tokyo Big 6 Championship Game - Hosei wins!

Hosei's Ryo Imai launched a sayonara home run off Meiji's Yusuke Nomura to bring home the Tokyo Big 6 Spring 2009 league championship on Sunday afternoon, as Hosei won their final game of the season 5-4. Even the weather couldn't commit to being rainy or sunny, and the tides of the game flowed with it. Hosei dominated under a cloud cover, and as the sun came out Meiji found their batting stride, and then Hosei took control again as the sun hid behind the clouds. Given that the kanji in "Meiji" literally mean "bright rule", I suppose it makes sense.

Really, though, Hosei's team this season was just ridiculously dominant in just about every way. Two of their batters, Masatoshi Matsumoto and Shingo Kamegai, posted OPSes above 1, as did game hero and relative newcomer Ryo Imai. (Seriously, where did this kid come from? The last record I see of him actually playing for Hosei's top team is in Spring 2007.) And the pitching was of course also really strong, leading the league in WHIP, ERA, and BB/9 pretty soundly. They just don't really walk batters very much, and allowed less than one runner per inning on average, Well, less than one earned runner, I'm not sure how many reached on errors. As it turns out, the only thing Hosei didn't really lead the league in was defense, in theory -- Rikkio was far and out the worst at 23 errors in 13 games (1.76 per game) and Waseda was the best with 7 errors in 11 games so far (0.63 per game). Hosei was right in the middle, with 15 errors in 12 games (1.25 per game)... fully one-third of which (5) were made by freshman shortstop Hiroshi Taki.

As of May 24 (with all colleges finished except the Keio-Waseda games this coming weekend), here's the team totals for the Tokyo Big 6 teams:

Pitching
          ERA     WHIP    K/9     BB/9
Hosei     1.41    0.95    7.87    1.82
Meiji     2.13    1.24    8.91    3.90
Keio      2.51    1.20    4.44    3.19
Waseda    2.67    1.11    10.96   2.58
Rikkio    3.05    1.54    5.49    4.96
Tokyo     7.38    2.11    3.27    9.49

Batting
           BA      OBP     SLG     OPS
Hosei     .300    .369    .410    .779
Keio      .255    .335    .318    .653
Waseda    .235    .319    .326    .645
Meiji     .228    .321    .275    .597
Rikkio    .227    .267    .308    .575
Tokyo     .197    .254    .247    .500

You know, Tokyo's probably proud that they came so close to the Mendoza line this year as a team.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and write way more detail about this game than anyone besides me would ever possibly want to know, but I vaguely figure it's not going to be anywhere else in English, so why not?

First let's start with the boxscore (mine, transcribed):

Meiji 4 - 5 Hosei
Sunday, May 24, 2009
                      1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9    R  H  E
Meiji                 0  0  0   1  2  1   0  0  0    4 10  1
Hosei                 0  0  3   0  0  0   0  1 1X    5 11  1

Meiji                 AVG  AB  R  H RB  K BB SH SB  E     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
S.Yamauchi, 3b-ss-3b .286   3  0  1  1  0  1  1  0  1    S6 .. G1 G6 .. b1 .. BB ..
Toyama, 2b           .257   2  1  1  0  1  1  2  0  0    b1 .. HP .. D7 KS .. b2 ..
Shashiki, 1b         .333   3  1  1  1  0  2  0  0  0    HP .. G4 .. D9 F8 .. BB ..
Komichi, rf          .225   4  0  0  0  1  0  1  0  0    KC .. G4 .. b5 .. G5 G5 ..
Tada, lf             .269   2  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0    G3 .. .. S8 .. .. .. .. ..
 Chida, ph           .167   1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. F6 .. .. .. ..
 T.Kobayashi, lf     .333   1  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. D8 .. ..
 Y.Kobayashi, ph     .000   1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. G6
 Ochi, ss            .---   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Araki, cf            .250   3  0  2  1  0  2  0  0  0    .. F8 .. BB S8 .. BB .. S8
Yasuda, c            .189   3  0  1  0  0  1  1  1  0    .. BB .. b1 .. F8 S7 .. F7
Uemoto, ss           .129   1  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0    .. KS .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Komachi, ph         .500   1  0  1  1  0  0  0  1  0    .. .. .. S7 .. .. .. .. ..
 Abe, 3b             .238   2  1  0  0  1  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. E4 KS .. ..
 Matsunaga, ph-lf    .---   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Nanba, p             .286   1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. G4 .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 T.Morita, p         .250   3  0  1  0  1  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. KS .. S8 F7 .. ..
 Nomura, p           .154   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Hosei                 AVG  AB  R  H RB  K BB SH SB  E     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
Kamegai, cf          .429   3  1  3  1  0  2  0  1  0    S8 .. H9 S8 .. BB .. IW ..
Waizumi, lf          .269   3  1  0  0  1  1  1  0  0    b5 .. HP G4 .. KC .. L5 ..
Imai, rf             .400   4  2  2  1  0  1  0  0  0    BB .. S9 F9 .. .. G4 .. H9
M.Matsumoto, 2b      .447   3  0  2  1  0  1  0  0  1    HP .. S7 .. S9 .. F3 .. ..
Sasaki, 1b           .250   2  0  0  0  0  0  2  0  0    G4 .. b2 .. b1 .. F1 .. ..
Taki, ss             .341   3  0  1  0  1  1  0  0  0    .. F7 IW .. KS .. .. S9 ..
Ishikawa, c          .286   4  0  2  1  0  0  0  0  0    .. D7 G6 .. F8 .. .. S7 ..
 Nakao, pr           .---   0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Mishima, p         1.000   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Mikami, p            .000   2  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. G6 F4 .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Y.Ueno, p           .000   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Nishi, p            .000   1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. F7 .. .. ..
 Kameda, ph          .250   1  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. S7 ..
 Hasegawa, pr-3b     .333   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Nanba, 3b            .095   3  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. F9 .. F7 .. G1 .. .. ..
 Kita, ph            .188   1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. E6 ..
 Hiromoto, c         .000   0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..


Meiji                 ERA   IP  BF  NP   H  HR   K  BBH  RA  ER
Nanba                2.33    2  13  42   5   1   0   3   3   3
T.Morita             0.00  5.1  24  89   5   0   2   2   1   0
Nomura (loss)        2.51  0.2   2   5   1   1   0   0   1   1

Hosei                 ERA   IP  BF  NP   H  HR   K  BBH  RA  ER
Mikami               1.93  4.1  22  90   5   0   3   4   3   3
Y.Ueno               1.29  0.2   2  15   1   0   0   0   0   0
Nishi                0.00    3  16  49   3   0   2   3   1   0
Mishima (win)        0.00    1   3  12   1   0   0   0   0   0

(Official box score from the Tokyo Big 6 site but without line scores, and in Japanese)

And here's the play-by-play. Keep in mind that it was slightly drizzling as the game started, and continued for the first several innings. Infact, this is what the Hosei cheering section looked like...



First inning, top, Meiji offense (M 0 / H 0):
Shinnosuke Yamauchi started off the game with a whimper and not a bang, as he hit a ground ball to short, just deep enough that Hosei's Hitoshi Taki had to make too quick a transfer and throw, so the ball went over Sasaki at first base. Captain Yuta Toyama bunted Yamauchi to second base - one out. Shogo Shashiki (a former teammate of Sho Nakata's at Osaka Toin) barely took a 2-2 pitch to his forearm, and walked to first base. Things weren't looking so good for Hosei starter Tomoya Mikami, but then he managed to sneak a called third strike past cleanup batter Junpei Komichi for two outs, and get Hayato Tada to ground out to first base. Mikami threw 21 pitches in the inning (12 strikes).

First inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 0 / H 0):
Shingo Kamegai led off for Hosei by singling to center, and chatterbox Shota Waizumi cleanly bunted him up to second. One out, runner at second. Ryo Imai swung at one pitch and let the rest go by to walk to first base, and then league batting champ Masatoshi Matsumoto was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Meiji starter Gota Nanba took it in stride, though -- even when Yoh Sasaki hit a grounder back to the mound which deflected off of Nanba towards second base. Meiji 2B Toyama managed to grab the ball off the bounce, step on second base, and throw to first in time to catch Sasaki for the double play, so no runs scored. Nanba threw 14 pitches in the inning (6 strikes).

Second inning, top, Meiji offense (M 0 / H 0):
Fumiya Araki led off by hitting a liner into centerfield, that Kamegai ran in for a low catch. One out. Ryota Yasuda fouled off several pitches and eventually walked. Takashi Uemoto fouled off even more pitches before eventually striking out, though Yasuda stole second on the third strike, and it was a really close call at second (most people in the Hosei outfield started yelling about the umpire's eyes). Two outs. Gota Nanba grounded out to second, ending the inning. Mikami threw 26 pitches that inning, 18 of which went to just Yasuda and Uemoto, and he was up to 47 through 2.

Second inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 0 / H 0):
Hitoshi Taki started things off by hitting a fly to left for the first out. Team captain Shuhei Ishikawa hit a scorcher up the left-field line past a diving Yamauchi, which went for a double. The first pitch to pitcher Mikami was a wild pitch and Ishikawa advanced to third... which is where he would remain for the resto f the inning as Mikami grounded out to short and third baseman Masashi Nanba followed it up with a pop fly to right. Hosei's Nanba is easily the weakest link in Hosei's lineup, notable in that he was batting 9th behind the pitcher, even. Kota Nanba, on the other hand, pitching for Meiji, threw 13 pitches that inning for a total of 27.

I noted at this point that several Hosei pitchers who had been throwing off the bullpen mound decided to retreat from the rain into the actual bullpen cage, and started taking off their shirts to hang them up to dry. Good thing for them that I didn't have my real camera with me.

Third inning, top, Meiji offense (M 0 / H 0):
Shinnosuke Yamauchi led off this inning by hitting an easy grounder back to the mound, and Yuta Toyama was hit by a 2-2 pitch that went a little too far inside. Shashiki grounded out to second, and Komichi fouled off two pitches before grounding the next one to second as well. Quick inning; Mikami threw 14 pitches for a total of 61 through three.

Third inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 0 / H 3)
This is where things started actually happening for Hosei, as the rain got a bit stronger, and I think Nanba was having a bit of trouble because of it. The first two pitches to Kamegai missed the zone and the next one was straight down the middle and he slammed it to right field, where it went up, up, up, and over the wall, bouncing in the 2nd row of the outfield seats for a home run. 1-0. Waizumi got behind in the count, but then Nanba hit him in the leg with a pitch. Ryo Imai attempted to bunt Waizumi up to second, COMPLETELY FAILED, and with two strikes on him, rather than striking out bunting, he just swung away at the ball and singled to right instead; Waizumi was running on the pitch and made it all the way to third. With runners at the corners, Masatoshi Matsumoto hit the ball and accidentally lost control of his bat, throwing it way down the left-field line. Everyone thought the ball was foul, but it turned out to be fair. Waizumi scored, 2-0, and Imai advanced to second, and Meiji decided to spare Nanba of any further embarrassment and changed pitchers to Takayuki Morita.

Nanba threw a total of 42 pitches (25 strikes) through 2 innings plus 4 batters. 3 runs, no strikeouts.

Yoh Sasaki tried to continue the action, got up to a full count, and ended up bunting Imai and Matsumoto up to second and third base instead. One out. Then Meiji catcher Yasuda stood up to signal the next pitch -- yes, they were intentionally walking Hiroshi Taki. Maybe it was because Taki bats left-handed and catcher Shuhei Ishikawa bats right-handed, or maybe to hopefully set up for a double play, but either way it didn't work out. Ishikawa did hit a grounder to short, and Taki was out on the force at second, but Ishikawa beat out the throw to first. Two outs, 3-0. Pitcher Mikami hit a high pop fly in the infield, caught by the second baseman for the third out. Morita threw 17 pitches in the inning.

Fourth inning, top, Meiji offense (M 1 / H 3)
The rain finally started to let up at this point, which allowed Meiji to start scoring, apparently. Hayato Tada led off with a single to right, and then Fumiya Araki walked on four straight pitches. Ryota Yasuda bunted them up to second and third base, one out, and then Norifumi Komachi pinch-hit for Uemoto. Komachi managed a single to left, which scored Tada for the first Meiji run, 3-1. After that, pitcher Morita struck out and Yamauchi grounded out to end the inning. Mikami threw 21 pitches that inning for a total of 82.

Fourth inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 1 / H 3)
Masashi Nanba continued to not get hits by hitting an easy pop fly to left. Kamegai continued to hit by singling to center, and advanced when Waizumi grounded out to second after fouling off three pitches. Imai almost walked, then hit a looooooooooooong low fly ball out to right field, which looked like it might go for a home run, and Junpei Komichi ran back, back, back... and made a sliding catch all the way back at the right-field wall, even earning him a round of applause from the Hosei faithful in the stands. Morita threw 21 pitches that inning for a total of 38.

Fifth inning, top, Meiji offense (M 3 / H 3)
As I mentioned before, Meiji's game waxed and waned with the weather. Yuta Toyama started off the inning with a double down the left-field line that looked foul but wasn't, and Shogo Shashiki followed it up with another double, down the right-field line, that also looked foul but wasn't, and Toyama scored. 3-2. Komichi bunted Shashiki over to third, and so with the tying run standing at third and only one out, Hosei took Mikami out of the game and brought in Yushi Ueno. Mikami threw 90 pitches total, 52 strikes.

I swear that at this point, while Ueno was coming out to the mound and throwing warmup pitches, the weather went from cloudy and a little chilly to SUNNY AND HOT. I'd actually taken off my poncho the previous inning, and even put away my umbrella because I didn't need to protect my scorecard from the rain any more -- and so at this point I actually took my umbrella BACK out because it was so sunny I couldn't see in the glare, and was worried about getting sunburnt.

Anyway, Takayuki Chida pinch-hit for Hayato Tada, and only managed a pop fly to short. Two outs. But then Fumiya Araki hit a clean single to center, finally bringing home Shashiki from third. 3-3. With a 1-2 count on Yasuda, Araki took off for second base, and got himself totally caught in a rundown, 2-6-3 for the out, ending the inning. Ueno threw 15 pitches to 2 and a half batters.

Fifth inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 3 / H 3)
A quick inning. Matsumoto continued his hitting with a single to right, and Sasaki bunted him up, but Taki struck out and Ishikawa hit the 3-1 pitch for a fly ball... caught in centerfield. Morita threw 12 pitches for a total of 50 through 3 innings.

Sixth inning, top, Meiji offense (M 4 / H 3)
Hosei sidearmer Kohei Nishi took the mound for the top of the sixth.

The sun shined on Meiji even more this inning. Yasuda was at bat again, this time hitting a pop fly to center. One out. Toshiki Abe, who had come in at third base in the fourth inning, hit a grounder to second base which Matsumoto just completely dropped and couldn't pick up in time to make a throw, so it was called an error. Pitcher Morita tried several times to bunt Abe over to second and completely failed -- and instead, with a 1-2 count, he swung away at the ball and managed a single to right-center instead. Abe was off and running and made it all the way to third base.

With runners at the corners, one out, and the sun high in the sky, Shinnosuke Yamauchi executed a squeeze bunt, which pitcher Nishi charged, and he threw it to home in what seemed like plenty of time to get Abe at the plate, but somehow he was called safe? It was kind of weird. 4-3. Toyama struck out after that and Shashiki hit a pop fly out to center. Nishi threw 23 pitches that inning.

Sixth inning, top, Hosei offense (M 4 / H 3)
Pitcher Nishi batted for himself to lead off the 6th, and after two ridiculous swinging strikes, fouled off a pitch and then sent the next one flying out to left field. One out. Nanba grounded back to the mound, and then Kamegai walked on 5 pitches. Kamegai stole second on the 2-1 pitch to Waizumi, but it was all for naught as Waizumi eventually let a called third strike go by to end the inning. Morita threw 17 pitches that inning for a total of 67.

Seventh inning, top, Meiji offense (M 4 / H 3)
Komichi grounded out to third. Takuma Kobayashi, who came in to play left field after Chida pinch-hit, hit a pop fly up to centerfield, which Kamegai made a nice run for, and got his glove on... only to drop it, and they called it a double for Kobayashi. Araki walked after that on four straight pitches. Yasuda singled to left, and Waizumi charged the ball and threw it in fast enough that Kobayashi had to hold at third. I thought for sure that they'd take Nishi out with bases loaded and only one out, but they let him work his way out of the jam, and he managed to strike out Abe and get a first-pitch pop fly out of Morita. Nishi threw 13 pitches that inning for a total of 36.

Seventh inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 4 / H 3)
A super-quick inning. Imai grounded out, Matsumoto hit an infield pop fly to first, and Sasaki hit an infield pop fly caught by the pitcher. Morita threw 6 pitches that inning for a total of 73.

Eighth inning, top, Meiji offense (M 4 / H 3)
It became patently obvious by this point that Nishi-kun had lost any control over his sidearm pitches whatsoever, as he walked Yamauchi on four straight pitches. Toyama bunted Yamauchi up to second, and then Nishi also walked Shashiki on four straight pitches. He threw two more balls to Komichi before Komichi managed to foul one off and then ground the next one straight to third base, where Nanba stepped on the bag and threw the ball to first for the double play to end the inning. Nishi threw 13 pitches that inning, 10 balls and 3 strikes, for a total of 49 over three innings.

Eighth inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 4 / H 4)
Hiroshi Taki led off the inning by singling to right -- and then took such a huge lead off first that he got picked off by the catcher on the very first pitch to Ishikawa. One out. Ishikawa singled to left, and Takashi Nakao pinch-ran for him. Kento Kameda pinch-hit for Nishi, and also singled to left, Nakao advancing to second. Yusuke Hasegawa pinch-ran for Kameda.

Kaoru Kita pinch-hit for Nanba, and he grounded the ball to short. Only Meiji's shortstop, Yamauchi, kind of got his hand on the ball and then he fumbled it and it went into left field. Nakao scored and Hasegawa ran to third, and Kita even reached second on the play as the ball was thrown home. 4-4.

Morita intentionally walked Kamegai (I don't blame him, as Kamegai was the second-best batter in the Tokyo Big 6 League and was already 3-for-3 with a walk and a home run for the day), and then just to prove that Meiji was NOT MESSING AROUND, they took out Morita and put in Yusuke Nomura.

Now keep in mind that Nomura had thrown 9 innings and 148 pitches the day before, but well, when the championship is on the line, I guess you put in your best guy and hope he has something left in his arm.

And apparently he did, as the next batter up was Shota Waizumi, who LITERALLY lined the FIRST pitch he saw into third baseman Abe's glove. It was so quick that Abe was on the third base bag before Hasegawa could turn around and run back, so it was an unassisted double play. Nomura threw... one pitch.

Ninth inning, top, Meiji offense (M 4 / H 4)
Kazuki Mishima took over on the mound for Hosei. Yousuke Kobayashi pinch-hit for Takuma Kobayashi, and grounded out to short for the first out. Araki singled after that, and Yasuda hit a pop fly out to left field for the second out. Here's where the boxscore looks weird: Sanshiro Matsunaga came in to pinch-hit for Toshiki Abe. And then on the 1-1 pitch, for whatever unknown reason, Fumiya Araki took off running for second base, and well, he was out by a mile, caught stealing, third out. Mishima threw 12 pitches that inning, and Matsunaga was never credited with an official at-bat, but did remain in the game as the left fielder. Ryuuichi Ochi came in to play shortstop, and Yamauchi moved back to third.

Ninth inning, bottom, Hosei offense (M 4 / H 5)
The first pitch to Ryo Imai was a strike. The next was a ball. The next was a ball. The next was a strike, and Imai hit it over the right-field wall for a game-winning home run that bounced in the second row of seats. 5-4.

Meet your new Tokyo Big 6 Champions of the 2009 Spring season, Hosei University...


The student cheering section throws orange streamers onto the field.


Manager Koji Kanemitsu gives the first speech, about how proud he is for the team working so hard, and how he was looking forward to taking the team to the All-Japan college tournament next, and hopefully doing well there too.


Then they turned to the game hero, Ryo Imai. "What do you think of winning the championship?" "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!"

Seriously, his hero interview was about as happy-stupid as they get. I'm not even sure he was listening to the interviewer, he just kept talking about how he was happy there were fans out there, and happy he had teammates, and happy about winning, and more "YAAAAY!!!" and stuff like that. I suppose I should cut him some slack being as hitting league-championship-winning sayonara home runs isn't all THAT common around here.


Kazuhito Futagami was also interviewed for being the staff ace this year. He was a bit more serious about the entire deal, and mostly said stuff to the effect of "I wanted to pitch well so that Hosei could win the championship and we could take pride in our university."


Team captain, catcher Shuhei Ishikawa. The interviewer asked him "So, how do you feel about winning the championship?" and Ishikawa replied, "Huh? What do you mean?"


The rest of the team were... patiently watching the hero interviews. Okay, not really -- they were yelling out and waving at their teammates being interviewed on the big screen, and also were doing things like getting out their cellphones and taking photos of themselves on the big screen.

I don't really blame them for being overjoyed, it was just interesting watching them all act like complete slap-happy idiots and completely not self-conscious at all for the most part.

I bought the Tokyo Big 6 Spring 2009 baseball card set this week, and it's kind of funny how they made cards for several guys who totally didn't contribute to the season championship (like Kajiya and Takeuchi) and didn't make any for some that did (like league batting champ Matsumoto). I guess it's pretty hard to predict how seasons will go in college ball, especially since there are different external factors that can affect how someone plays. (Naturally, I mean things like drinking parties. I doubt studying gets in the way of baseball for most of these guys.) The best card in the set is actually of Keio's Murayama, but I'm biased towards cool pictures of pitchers with funky deliveries.

Anyway, I believe Toyo University DID manage to actually take the Tohto League title from Asia University in two VERY close games -- both by a score of 3-2 -- so both Toyo and Hosei will be representing their respective leagues at the All Japan college tournament starting on June 9th. I'm definitely hoping to catch a few games of that! I've grown to love college baseball here so much over the last few years, as it's really a lot of fun to watch -- kind of the same spirit as high school ball, but with a higher level of play and less idiotic headslides into first base.