Photopost: Japan-US College Tourney, Game 2 -- Cary On

This is the game that was supposed to happen Monday night but became the morning game of a double-header on Tuesday. Originally, had Game 2 happened as planned in Durham, Game 3 was going to be at 7pm on Tuesday night in Cary, but instead, they put Game 2 at 11am in Cary, and then had Game 3 at 6pm in Durham.

For those wondering, they're really only 20 minutes apart or so. We looked at the weather in the morning on Tuesday and were able to get to the park in Cary fairly easily. The Cary game was at the National Training Complex, which is huge and has four full MLB-scale baseball fields. Undoubtedly, a big reason why this series took place in North Carolina at all is because USA Baseball is based there. I definitely got the impression, from talking to people, that this series was more of a showcasing for the US college players than for anyone scouting the Japanese college players, although the scouts were certainly watching Fujioka and Sugano.

Anyway, it was really hot and sunny, and we found a place to sit on the Japan side, right behind the dugout -- and immediately I ran into my friends from the other game, who said "Good thing you made it! We found out about this game when we got back to our hotel!" and I'm like "So did we!" I also ran into some of the cameramen I sat with for Game 1.

I got a photo with 3 guys from Team USA, who happened to be standing around by the team tent. I felt like, hey, might as well ask, it couldn't hurt, right? It's funny how all the US guys seem to be 6'3", really.


Me with Tyler Naquin, Michael Lorensen, and Erich Weiss.

I went to the bullpen to take pictures of Takahiro Fujioka warming up because he's awesome. As I was taking photos, there was this older guy watching Fujioka throw too. He saw my Chunichi shirt and asked me in Japanese, "You a Kawakami fan?" and I'm like "Yeah, when he was on Chunichi I really liked him. Nomura reminds me of him, you know?" and we got to talking. He asked if I was working at the game and I said no, I was just a big fan, and no, I didn't get to see Kawakami on this trip, though he's still playing in the minors here, etc. He asks if I've watched a lot of college ball and I explain that I loved college ball when I lived in Japan. So he asks if I saw Yuki Saitoh, and I'm like "...well, of course..." and then I admit that I'm a Fighters fan actually, but I start going on about how frustrating the media can be for players like Saitoh, and like they were in the past for Nakata Sho, and Darvish, and so on. And my favorite player was Hichori.

Well, uh, get this... this guy I was talking to was none other than Masao Yamada.

THE NIPPON HAM FIGHTERS GENERAL MANAGER.

Wow, do I talk too much. But, he seemed really amused by me -- and he kept saying "kuwashii!" which is Japanese for "Geez, you know EVERYTHING, don't you?" He gave me his business card, but sadly it doesn't have an email address. Also, he was there scouting with Matt Winters -- after the tourney they were going to go barnstorming through the southern US and hunt for some AAA guys that the Fighters might be interested in bringing over to Japan. He offered to introduce me to Winters, which sadly never happened. Alas.

I did put in my own two cents about how the first time I saw Fujioka was because I had come to a Toyodai game in the hopes of seeing Masahiro Inui pitch, and saw Fujioka (then a sophomore) instead, and have been watching him for the past 3 years and honestly think he's better than Inui. The Fighters drafted Inui in the 4th round this past fall and were really high on him. Yamada laughed and thanked me for my input.

Fujioka finished warming up and I called out, "Fujioka-kun! Ganbatte kudasai!" and he tipped his cap at me with a slight bow.

As the game was getting underway, a small ouendan materialized, too. Some people from the Japanese society at Duke showed up with a real taiko drum (which they said they built here in the USA). A guy in a Hanshin cap brought some blue megaphones, and so we were all yelling encouragement at the Japan team in Japanese. The first time the taiko drum beats happened, the entire Japan team came out of the dugout and looked up like "WTF?!" but they seemed happy about it.

I should also mention that the announcer at this game, while being SLIGHTLY better at the Japanese names than the one in Durham, was still pretty awful. He kept calling Hayata Itoh "Itu". To the point that some other guys in the dugout were yelling "ITU!!!" at him.

So, yeah, there was a game. For the first 6 innings it was a crazy pitcher's duel. Fujioka was amazing, he struck out 9 guys in 6 innings, with 2 hits and 2 walks. I stopped by to chat with Conor, who was sitting out with a radar gun and being all scout-like, and asked what he thought of Fujioka, and he said, "Your boy's pretty good. Nobody's getting solid contact off him at all."

Japan finally got a run ahead for 1-0 in the 6th, when Ryosuke Obuta singled and then Yoshihiro Ikeda hit a triple out to center, scoring Obuta. Daichi Suzuki walked and stole second, but then a pitching change later, Hayata Itoh struck out, and boy was he not happy about that. Nakashima replaced him in right field after that, and it almost looked like Itoh took himself out of the game, really.

Unfortunately, all hell broke loose in the 7th inning. Ficociello doubled, Elder singled to bring him in to tie the game at 1-1. Reynolds also singled, and then the US team orchestrated a delayed double steal -- that is, the Japan team threw to first and got Reynolds in a rundown and then Elder ran home, making it 2-1. Weiss pinch-hit and also singled, and then it was 3-1 and Fujioka came out of the game, which was very sad for me.

Tomoya Mikami replaced him on the mound, except that Mikami had literally been warming up since the 3rd inning or so, in this 95-degree heat. I was pretty sure he'd have nothing left in him by the time he got out there, and I was right -- Lorenzen bunted and got on when Mikami misfielded the ball, and then Fontana hit into a fielder's choice (but Obuta's throw to the plate was wide and so Weiss scored anyway, 4-1). Fontana got himself out in a rundown for the first out of the inning. Yay. Marrero singled, scoring Lorenzen; 5-1. Naquin doubled to left, scoring Marrero, 6-1. Elander singled to center, scoring Naquin, 7-1, and then Lyon pinch-ran for him. That was it for Mikami.

Lefty Yuta Iwasada replaced Mikami on the mound... and got a flyout from Ficociello, who was up yet again. A single from Elder brought Lyon to third but that was it as Reynolds grounded out to third to end the inning.

It was so depressing that I spent the 8th inning up in the small amount of shade the concourse offered, because I was really overheated, a little sunburnt, and quite thirsty. The Yomiuri cameraman I'd been chatting up earlier in the game asked, "You left your scorecard and camera?" and I said, "I can't bear to look at it again." I spent a while talking with him and another guy from Sponichi, which was interesting. (Amusingly, they asked "Have you considered writing about Japanese baseball?" and I felt too lame to say "I'm a semi-retired blogger...")

Anyway, I can tell you for a fact that the USA Baseball Box Score for this game has some errors -- notably, Koji Fukutani replaced Yuta Iwasada on the mound and pitched the 9th inning for Japan. Also, Tomoki Takata pinch-hit for Keisuke Okazaki in the bottom of the 9th as well.

Though, speaking of the 9th, more excitement happened when Dominic Ficociello had a broken bat foul and his BAT went flying into the stands right towards us! I ducked, the bat landed a few rows back. Mike went and retrieved it, and now we have a great souvenir from the game! In the US, college baseball players don't usually play with wooden bats, either, so it's kinda crazy. The bat was split straight down the handle part, there's still some tape on it.

Fukutani gave up another run, and the Japan team managed to score a run in that inning I was ignoring the game, so the USA team won the game 8-2. Whatever.

I took over 1000 photos during this game. A few came out somewhat decently.

First, here's way too many shots of Fujioka:





















This was the USA starter Kevin Gausman. He has this ridiculously high leg kick. Conor tells me it's even more ridiculously high than it used to be.







Tomoya Mikami is a pretty tall pitcher from Hosei, so I've seen him quite a bit. He's quite tall for a Japanese guy (190cm), and converted from an infielder to a pitcher his freshman year of college.






Here's lefty Yuta Iwasada, from Yokohama Shokadai.






And here's Koji Fukutani out there on the mound pitching the 9th for Japan (well, the first is in the bullpen). He's Keio's closer, it would have been nice if he was holding a lead...





(he's always had this kinda weird head twist after he throws a pitch...)



Here's Hodaka Yamakawa, the boy who hit that huge homer in Game 1 and was launching them during batting practice, but only managed to hit a long long fly ball during this game...







(Doing his best Batozaki imitation?)

It would have been nice to see Hayata Itoh smile at all during the game, but...


Here he is in the field.


Hitting a fly out, sadly.


And striking out. Not the best day for the boy who is usually super-clutch whenever I see him play.

Hosei's Hiroshi Taki, who had a pretty crappy day at the plate. It seems he got a lot better once I stopped watching him...

Warming up.


At first base.


...this looks cool but in reality he's about to hit a foul. :(

Rissho's catcher Yuta Yoshida, former Sanko captain, etc. I hope I can find him again when I'm back in Japan sometime.








Yuji Kaneko, switch-hitting third baseman from Ritsumeikan. I liked him both in the field and at the plate, but I pretty much never get to see Kansai college ball. Switch-hitters are really rare in Japan for whatever reason.








Waseda's Koki Sasaki. I feel like I've seen him play a lot over the last few years, and yet I'm not really sure I have an opinion on him. Still not sure why Habu wasn't on this team. Either way, I took a bunch of photos of him because my Waseda fan friends wanted some.





(It looks like he's going to score, but no, the ball was caught.)

Toyodai captain and national team captain, shortstop Daichi Suzuki. Got one of two RBIs for Japan in this game.




Catcher Ryutaro Umeno, who tried his hardest at the plate to tag these guys out, but it just wasn't meant to be.

With Fujioka, the starting battery.


Umeno.


Trying to tag out Lorenzen.


Trying to tag out Weiss.

Second baseman Ryosuke Obuta, from Tohoku Fukushi. Scored both of Japan's runs in this game, bizarrely.



(this is him scoring the first run)

Rikkio's captain, Keisuke Okazaki, who went to PL Gakuen HS. Okazaki was coaching first base for Game 1, and finally made it into this game as a pinch-hitter and first baseman to replace Taki, in the 7th inning.






Meiji sophomore Hiroki Nakashima, whose job in this series seems to basically have been platooning with Hayata Itoh and replacing him in right field.




Hosei alum and current manager, Koji Kanemitsu.


The Japan dugout at some point about halfway through the game.


Final depressing score:


Teams shake hands together, before prepping to go back to Durham to play ANOTHER game...


These people brought a taiko drum to the game and were drumming to cheer for the Japanese team:


Mike retrieves the broken bat flung towards us by Ficociello:


And here's what the entire field looked like (since I've mostly just posted zoomed in shots of players):



After the game we drove back to Charlotte. By random chance, we pulled off the highway to refuel in Kannapolis and realized we were right by FIeldcrest Cannon Stadium, so we drove over there and looked around a bit. This is where Game 4 was played... well... more like, this is where the first 3 innings of Game 4 were played, before it was rain delayed for 2 days and continued today in Omaha. (No, really.)







Looks like a nice enough stadium for a Low-A place (it's home of the Kannapolis Intimidators), although I swear it also looked like a converted racetrack to me. I dunno.

Anyway.

One final story here would be that broken bat we got -- we realized that we definitely couldn't take the bat on the plane with us back to Seattle. Maybe as checked luggage, but even so, it might count as a sharp weapon either way.

So we decided to ship it back home.

We tell the car navi system to find us the nearest post office, which it does, about 4 miles away.

Arriving at the post office, we walk in with the bat, grab a long container and some bubble wrap, and go up to the counter to explain that we got the bat at the game, etc, expecting to get some weird looks.

Instead, the guy behind the counter totally freaks out like "MY NEIGHBOR'S A SCOUT FOR THE WHITE SOX! OH MAN I WAS TOTALLY GOING TO GO TO THE GAME!"

He starts showing the bat to all the other employees like "Look what these lucky bastards got at the Team USA game this afternoon."

Anyway, we eventually manage to wrap the thing in bubblewrap and cram it into the shipping tube, fill out the address thingy, etc. In the process of doing that we talked to the counter guy, who mentioned he'd even thought of going to the 4th of July game. We tell him it got rescheduled to later that night, and Mike even gave him his ticket, since we weren't going to use it, we're like "Well, this will get you in for free if you decide you want to go! There'll be fireworks!"

The bat did show up as scheduled on Thursday afternoon. It was much easier to get OUT of the shipping tube than it was to get IN. Now my only problem is that I'm not really sure what to do with it! I've got display boxes for baseballs, but for broken bats? I'll have to figure something out. In the meantime, the cats are really frustrated that they can't fit into the shipping container. I tried to explain to them that it was for bats, not cats, but you know how these things go.

Japan-US College Tourney, Day 2 -- Rained Out

If you're here looking for info about the game, the short version is: it rained out, and they're doing a doubleheader tomorrow, 11am in Cary, 6pm in Durham.


So, today we arrived at Durham Bulls Athletic Park at 4:30pm, for a 5pm gates opening, for a 6:05pm game. (Why do they open the gates so late? Sigh.) At 4:45pm, it started raining and lightning and thundering.

At 5pm they opened the gates to the stadium. Mike and I went in and found Conor sitting in the covered seating area up behind 1st base, with some of the other scouts that had gotten in early to watch batting practice. "That Yamakawa kid hit a home run over the bull in straightaway left field," he informed me. (There's a bull billboard in left field, and it says "Hit the bull, get a steak. Hit the grass, get a salad.")

Speaking of Yamakawa -- I just read an article saying that he's the 2nd Japanese guy in the history of the Japan-US collegiate tournaments to hit a grand slam against the US -- and even crazier, the first one was Tatsunori Hara, 32 years ago.

Anyway, we sat and waited to see what would happen. In theory, the weather for the evening had said there'd be scattered thunderstorms starting around 8pm, and if we were lucky we hoped maybe the clouds would pass us over.

But, at 6pm, it was raining -- harder than ever.

At 7pm, it was STILL RAINING. And the field was starting to look like one big puddle, at that, so even if the rain stopped, it was unclear how long it'd take to clear the field out. They were showing videos on the screen of things like Baseball Bugs Bunny and such.

Around 7:30pm the rain was still going, though it was letting up a little. The staff really didn't want to have to cancel this game because there were so many people there, it was the 4th of July, they were planning fireworks, etc. They started doing trivia games and such to keep the fans entertained.

I went down to the Japan dugout, since some of the players had poked their heads out to figure out WTF was going on, and I got a photo of a few of them. I also ran into the Japanese lady I'd talked to a bit on Sunday, and so we hung out too, taking photos of stuff and chatting in Japanese. Fujioka poked his head out of the dugout and nodded hello at me and I almost fainted.

Around 8pm the rain had let up almost entirely, and so the Japanese players all came out to right field to jog and warm up. So we went over to watch.

And at this time, over the loudspeaker, they started saying "We hate to do this, but tonight's game has been postponed to tomorrow night. Same time, same place, same game, same fireworks, everything, just tomorrow at 6pm instead of tonight. You can use your same tickets and come back here. Tonight's game has been postponed."

My new Japanese friend started freaking out, since it turns out she speaks almost zero English (her husband does, though), and I translated, and so both of us are like "What are we going to dooooooo?"

Clearly what we decided to do then was hang out by the field and take photos. Some kids were around trying to get the Japanese players to sign stuff, which they did. Well, and some were still practicing, so I kinda translated that for the kids ("They say they'll sign for you after they finish throwing, okay?"), and I chatted with a few of the players as they went by. Taki in particular, I talked to for a bit. I'd sent a birthday card to Kazuki Mishima back in May, and included a Safeco Field postcard for the whole Hosei team, and wondered if it got there, and apparently it did. Whew. I asked whether the guys had been studying English for this trip and he was like "No, we totally suck. English is hard."

I finally got a photo with Yuhei Nakaushiro! So I have gotten a photo with all 5 of the guys I set out to collect when this magazine came out. Hooray?

And we watched the guys tossing. Yoshida promised me a photo but once they got back from the dugout, except then we all got kicked out of the stadium. So the four of us went and stalked the Japan bus and said goodnight to the players as they came out, and I got a few more photos with people.

Oh well, here are a bunch of photos all at once:


The field, it is rainy. The players, they are somewhat enjoying it but not really. The fans, they are clustered in the stands.


"Okazaki, Sasaki, can I take a photo of you guys?"
"Sure. Why do you speak Japanese?"
"Uh, I lived in Tokyo for a few years and used to watch you guys all the time?" [holds up Tokyo Big 6 towel]
"Whoa! Crazy!"


Pitcher pow-wow after the rainout is announced.


Mikami and Fujioka threw a little in the bullpen anyway.


Some players sign for some little kids. (It was actually kinda funny because a kid would say in English, "Can I have your autograph please?" and the Japanese guys would go "...uh...sign?" and they'd be like "Yes, sign!")


Me and Taki :)


"Nakaushiro! Can I get a photo with you?"
"Huh? I gotta go, what do you mean?"
"Just a 2-shot."
"Uh, okay..."


So this was afterwards, catching players on their way to the bus. Here's me with Tomoya Mikami, adding to my Hosei collection.


"Kanemitsu-kantoku! Can I get a photo with you?"
"[double-take] Say what?"
"Uhh... I'm a big Hosei fan and would love to get a photo with you. [shows towel]"
"Well, thank you. Why are you a Hosei fan?"
"I really liked Kagami and became a fan because of him..."
"I see... thank you for cheering for us!"


"Yamakawa-kun! Can I get a photo with you?"
(His response was roughly the Japanese equivalent of "Sure, babe." I really like this kid, he's funny and he can really hit.)


Yuta Yoshida. I told him I'm a huge Nichidai San fan, he seemed surprised but at least slightly less WTF at me, like "Cool, thanks for cheering for them!" (He was Sanko captain a few years back.)


Waved goodbye to the bus, waved goodbye to the Ikedas (at the time I didn't know about the 11am game, just wasn't sure if we could stay for the 6pm game in Durham since we need to fly out of Charlotte early Wednesday morning, so it seemed unlikely we'd see them again).

And then we went off in search of dinner, which ended up being Bojangles. I'd never been there before, but it wasn't bad. We had Cook Out for lunch, too, which had fantastic milkshakes though I didn't think the food was that great. It's funny how North Carolina actually has significant regional food, though!

We may end up going to the game in Cary tomorrow morning if the weather looks promising. Probably not going to stay in Durham for the evening. Fujioka's supposed to pitch the morning game and Sugano the evening, which is also a deciding factor for me :)

Photopost: Japan-US College Tourney, Day 1 -- Battle of Big Innings

I'm in North Carolina! And as promised, I'm posting about the US-Japan tourney!

I had a pretty great day at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park today, watching the Japanese national collegiate team take on the US national collegiate team. I was so ridiculously happy when I got into the stadium and saw the guys warming up. I was just like "There's Fukutani! And Itoh! And Mikami! And Taki! And Okazaki! And Fujioka! OMG OMG OMG!" I hadn't realized how much I missed watching these guys play. There's only 8 guys on the roster from the Tokyo Big 6 league, and then a few others from Tohto, and then others from all over the place, but still.

I had my big orange Hosei towel, so I got Mikami to come over and chat for a bit, and said hi to Taki too. The guys on the team who know me were all like "Whoa, what are you doing here" but the rest of the guys were like "Why is there this crazy girl cheering for us?" Still, they seemed more amused than anything. I sat with some photographers from Japanese papers, and took photos, and yelled "GANBARE!!" a lot.

Awesomeness happened in the form of Asia Univ's Tomoki Takata throwing me a ball at one point (he was looking for someone to throw it to, I asked for it in Japanese, he threw it to me), and then after the game I got it signed by Hodaka Yamakawa, who is my new "WTF" player, in that I'd never seen this guy before but he blasted a grand slam over the left field "Blue Monster" wall. It was a BIIIIIIG hit.

To be fair, you can read the game log on the USA baseball site, in English even. Or you can check out the box score. What basically happened in this game is that Japan had a huge 5th inning and the US had a huge 7th inning, and the USA eventually won 7-6. My observation is that the Japan relievers spent so damn long warming up, in the 95-degree heat, that maybe they were already kinda tired by the time they got into the game?

In addition to Yamakawa's bat, I was really impressed by the defense of third baseman Yuji Kaneko (from Ritsumeikan) and second baseman Ryosuke Obuta (Tohoku Fukushi). It was also a super treat to finally see Yuhei Nakaushiro, the crazy lefty sidearmer from Kinki Univ, pitch in person. Overall I'm sad that Japan lost, but happy that I got to see everyone play. Yusuke Nomura started, and then was Nakaushiro, and then two batters' worth of "little" Nao Higashihama, and then finishing with Tomoyuki "The man" Sugano.

The announcers were terrible at the Japanese names -- it was REALLY ATROCIOUS. The worst was him calling Higashihama "Hagashima". WTF? When the Japan-US tourney happened in Japan, they got an actual English speaker to do all the announcements.

Oh yeah, after 4 years I finally got a photo with Yusuke Nomura. Now the only one of the 5 left is Nakaushiro. Gotta stalk him tomorrow I suppose. I also got Takahiro Fujioka to sign a photo after the game, and after chatting with him a bit and saying I saw him in the preseason and took a photo together, he was like "OH! YES I REMEMBER YOU!" That was really neat :) When I told him I came here from Seattle, he was like "Isn't that far?" and I'm like "Not as far as Japan!"

I was also really happy to get to spend the day chatting in Japanese with people -- players, fans, photographers, etc. And I got to catch up with an old USSM friend Conor Glassey, who now works for Baseball America and told me some stuff about the USA team, since I babbled at him about the Japan team. (Seriously, how silly is it that I know absolutely nothing about US college ball? The US is huge. Yeah.)

Anyway, photos:


Hosei's Hiroshi Taki.


Takahiro Fujioka!


Keio's awesome Hayata Itoh takes some warmup swings.


Yuhei Nakaushiro joking with Yuji Kaneko.


Yusuke Nomura warms up in the bullpen (Meiji manager Yoshinami is the pitching coach for this team.)


Takahiro Fujioka throwing in the bullpen.


Formerly Nichidai San captain, and now Rissho University catcher Yuta Yoshida.


Hodaka Yamakawa, the kid who BLASTED a grand slam over the left field monster.


Hayata Itoh.


Kaneko taking some warmup swings.


The Durham Bulls mascot, "Wool E Bull".


Taki at bat.


Mark Appel. I've heard this guy is likely to be a pretty high draft pick over here in the US.


Itoh at bat.


Nomura on the mound (I had wandered to the other side for a bit to shoot those other guys batting.)


Ryutaro Umeno (catcher from Fukuoka Univ)


Hosei's Tomoya Mikami!


Waseda's Koki Sasaki diving back to first base.


The four guys high-fiving at the plate after Yamakawa's grand slam.


And a high-five for Nomura too.


Meiji University's Hiroki Nakashima, who came in as a pinch-runner for Itoh.


Nao Higashihama in the bullpen.


Yamakawa at bat.




Yuhei Nakaushiro.


Ryosuke Obuta at second.


Yuta Iwasada (from Yokohama Shokadai).




Tomoyuki Sugano!


Keio's Koji Fukutani (I really hope I get to see him pitch for real tomorrow...)


Final sadface score.


Look, I finally got a photo with Yusuke Nomura even if he looks completely nonplussed about the idea. It only took four years and moving back to the US!


This is the ball I caught from Takata and got signed by Yamakawa :)


Onwards to tomorrow! I'm so happy I get to watch these guys play! Though I feel kinda funny to spend July 4th cheering against Team USA :)