Year of the Lion

(image from Yahoo)

Seibu went through their entire pitching staff after a rough start by Fumiya Nishiguchi, and the game was at 2-1 with the Giants leading for a long time. Teenage Wonderboy Hayato Sakamoto hit a home run early on, and then later Hiram Bocachica hit one to give the Lions their first run.

I watched this game on TV with a friend and we actually spent the first two thirds of it in a "dammit, the Giants are going to win, aren't they" sort of mode, and then Kataoka got on base in the 8th inning, stole second (setting a Japan Series record at 5-for-5?), moved to third, and... came home on a groundout, tying the game. They intentionally walked Okawari-kun, which is understandable, but then unintentionally walked third-string catcher Noda, so when Hirao singled and Okawari-kun lumbered home and scored to make it 3-2, suddenly EVERYTHING changed.

We were glued to the TV from that moment until Ramirez grounded out to short to end the game, pretty much.

And I was really happy to see that Kishi was the Series MVP. That was really well-deserved -- there's no way they would have made it without him.

So, yeah! Lions vs Lions vs Lions vs... Wyverns... in the Asia Series. It's okay. PACIFIC LEAGUE PRIDE!

Also, this morning I went to the Wally Yonamine book event -- but I think I might actually post more about that in a few days when I actually read the book, since I've only got limited internet time right now.

Japan Series Game Report: Giants vs. Lions @ Seibu Dome -- Okawari-kun's Second Helping of Two-run Homers

(Photos at the end of the post in one lump sum, for the most part.)

Further in the realm of "Things I get to do in Japan, but not in America", I went to see the Lions play the Giants at the Seibu Dome tonight... for game 4 of the Japan Series. Yes, it would have been nicer if certain other teams had made it, but... I GOT TO GO TO SEE THE JAPAN SERIES. (Thanks to a friend who works for the Lions, I even had help to get tickets to sit in the FIFTH ROW behind first base. Dude.)

Accompanying me for this game was my friend Brian, who is visiting Japan for the week from Seattle. I've known him since our freshman year of college, which is longer ago than I'd like to admit. He'd said before that he didn't mind getting dragged to a baseball game while he was here, but I'm pretty sure that having Game 4 of the 2008 Japan Series as his first ever Japanese baseball game was not exactly what he expected. I was in total verbose mode babbling about pretty much everything. "...and those guys, they're called the ouendan. That means support group, or cheering group. They have flags and trumpets and they lead everyone in singing cheer songs for players. And see that big guy right there? His name's Nakamura, but everyone calls him Okawari-kun. It basically means 'Mr. Second Helping.' And that guy over there, that's Bocachica, he actually played for the Mariners back in 2004. Yeah, the bad year. These balloons? No, we'll blow them up during the 7th inning and everyone in the stadium will throw them into the air together. Really!"

I bought a bunch of souvenirs, including a 2008 Pacific League Champions towel, which I promptly opened up and put around my neck, being as we were on the Seibu side and I was prepared to be my usual Giants-hating self. I got a 2008 Japan Series noisemaker, and so even though it felt REALLY strange to be singing along to the Seibu ouenka and cheering for the Lions, that's just the way things went.

I was a bit disappointed there was no ceremonial first pitch, considering Saturday night I watched on TV as Yukiko Ueno threw the pitch in the Tokyo Dome, and last night Tulio Tanaka, the Brazilian-Japanese star player for the Urawa Reds soccer team, threw out the first pitch at the Seibu Dome. Something funny: I would say that Tulio threw like a girl, except given that Ueno IS a girl and can throw 100mph or whatever, I'm not sure that's the right way to put it.

Starting for the Lions was Takayuki Kishi, and starting for the Giants was Seth Greisinger.

And for a change... unlike Tuesday night where Giants leadoff batter Takahiro Suzuki got on base and scored within the first 5 minutes of the game, setting the pace for the Giants to win, this time the Giants went down quickly and the Lions leadoff batter Yasuyuki Kataoka got on base, stole second, and Kuriyama hit a double up the right-field line to bring him home -- scoring the first run for the LIONS in their first five minutes and setting the pace that way. 1-0.

Kishi didn't even give up his first hit of the evening until the 4th inning when Ryota Wakiya hit a hard grounder to the mound that Kishi couldn't field cleanly. The first REAL hit of the evening for the Giants came for a pinch-hitting Takuya Kimura in the top of the 6th.

Meanwhile, the Lions offense -- or more like, Nakajima and Okawari-kun -- were keeping busy on the base paths. Kind of. Nakajima was having a tough time of it at first when he came up in the 4th inning, and he took some big swings off of Greisinger and looked kind of unhappy about it, even walking around home plate to get his bearings... came back in, and BAM, the ball hit him in the arm. Except for whatever reason, rather than Greisinger tipping his cap and Nakajima calmly going to first, Nakajima took a few steps towards the mound, yelling, Greisinger took a few steps off the mound, yelling, and then EVERYONE ran out of the dugouts towards the mound and EVERYONE was yelling. Eventually Ramirez kind of got Greisinger away from the crowd and walked him towards the mound, and Kuriyama pulled Nakajima away.



Nakaji and Greisinger are not happy.


So naturally everyone has to run out and see what's up.


A completely non-violent but somewhat loud bench-clearing party.


Ramirez takes Greisinger back to the mound.


Kuriyama walks Nakajima to first base.


"It's because he's a damn gaijin, causing problems," one of the guys behind me said.

I turned around and made a face at him. He shut up.

(A bit later he actually tapped Brian on the shoulder and said something about "sorry we're being so noisy," which really meant "sorry for the gaijin comment", except Brian didn't understand it, so I was like "no problem, it's okay," really meaning "You probly didn't think I'd understand you anyway.")

I would also like to note that unlike certain Hosokawas I can name, catcher Tsuruoka actually managed to block the fight in a really effective way.

Anyway, exciting bench-clearing brawls aside, the very next thing that happened was, naturally, Okawari-kun Nakamura coming up to the plate and doing what he's been known for doing all year -- completely devouring the first pitch he saw, an inside pitch, and sending it over the left-field wall. BAM. 3-0.

A bit after that we got to see Giants centerfielder Takahiro Suzuki do one of his now-patented Golden Glove Diving Somersault catches. I always feel guilty admitting I like him, but he's really about as un-Giants-like as you get while still being on the Giants.

So naturally in the bottom of the 6th, Nakajima leads off again, and he's still pissed off, and he takes a huge chop, totally splits his bat, and the ball goes shooting to short on a choppy grounder. Teenage Wonderboy Hayato Sakamoto gets it, and makes a throw to first, but it's a bit wide and so Nakajima is safe.

Okawari-kun Nakamura comes up to the plate.

"MOU IPPON!!" I yell. "OKAWARI-KUUUUUN!!!1 MOU IPPON ONEGAISHIMASU!!!!" ("HIT ANOTHER ONE!")

The old guy next to me (who was a nice old guy, he and his wife kept being like "look at how nicely that young lady writes kanji!") laughed, and then the first pitch came to the plate, and

BAM

the pitch went up, up, and AWAAAAAAY and landed in the left-field Giants cheering section yet again. 5-0.



Okawari-kun Nakamura says, "I'll take another inside pitch, please!"


Nakajima and Nakamura high-five at home plate following the two-run homer.


Okawari-kun tips his hat to the Lions fans.


Greisinger came out of the game and Yamaguchi replaced him on the mound.

The excitement continued as Ishii singled and Gotoh walked (no home run for me today, sadly) and Tomoaki Satoh sac bunted them up to second and third. The Seibu cheering section actually did their running cheer for Satoh, even, which was pretty nuts given how crowded it was. Then Hosokawa came up to bat, and was just one gigantic pile of fail as he ended up striking out bunting, and Akada ("He's the player leader, but he spent half of the year in the minors," I explained) also struck out swinging.

During the top of the 7th, I got out the balloons I'd bought earlier. "NOW we blow these up... see... so are those people..."

The Giants actually got a runner to second base during their Lucky 7, but that was it. Although we'd already filled up our balloons when Abe came to the plate with two outs, so it took quite a while for him to single and move up to second on a wild pitch to the backstop, but then Kamei hit a sharp grounder towards right which went past the first baseman but Kataoka managed to snag it and throw to first in time for the play, and "Hoero Lions" started playing on the loudspeakers.

Let me tell you that it was VERY strange being on the other side of all that. This was infact the first time I'd ever been on the first base side for a game!

Kataoka walked to lead off the bottom of the 7th, and then... and then Kuriyama hit a big pop fly to left field, almost a home run, so Kataoka was off running on the crack of the bat. Kuriyama was out, Kataoka ran back to first, and then he was out too. How? We weren't quite sure. Everyone was in a "WTF" mode, until one of the younger guys behind me that I'd been talking to a bit said he heard on the radio that Kataoka went past second when he ran out and didn't tag it on the way back. Whoops!

Lions fans cheered and booed for Kiyoshi Toyoda when he took the mound for the Giants. It was kind of surreal.

Kishi stayed out there for the ninth inning, amazingly, and got through it 1-2-3, ending on an awkward grounder to first that Kishi had to cover the bag on, and that was the game as the Lions won it 5-0.



Watanabe-manager came out and gave a speech, and then Okawari-kun was a game hero and gave an interview (mostly "What were you thinking on those inside pitches?" "I was thinking I was going to hit a home run for Nakaji."), and then... and then the entire stadium started yelling "KI-SHI! KI-SHI! KI-SHI! KI-SHI!"

He came out after about a minute of that, looking kind of sheepish, in a "Wait, I'm a game hero too?" sort of way, and was very nervous during his interview, while they were saying how good his pitching was and everything else, he was just staring at his feet like "I'm just glad I could help the team and win an important game."

"ASHITA MO NAGERU YO!" ("Pitch tomorrow too!!") yelled one of the younger guys behind me, and everyone laughed.

Okay, because I'm writing this mostly offline, all the rest of the photos are in one big chunk. I admit the lighting in the Seibu Dome is still getting to me, but these are my last game photos for the year (technically; I still have old photos to sort through over the winter), so here's just a whole bunch of them.

Pre-game:

Taketoshi Gotoh, who usually hits a home run for me, but not today.


Hiram Bocachica! I yelled "GOOD LUCK HIRAM! FROM SEATTLE!!" and he turned and waved at me, though I'm not sure he remembered who I was.


Takumi Kuriyama, who would bat in the first run of the game.


Yoshihito Ishii, another Urawa Gakuin guy, joking around.


Nakajima and Hosokawa being silly.

During the game


Rami-chan.


Giants starter Seth Greisinger.


Yasuyuki Kataoka refuses to be picked off, and infact stole second shortly after this.


Teenage heartthrob Hayato Sakamoto.


One of Kishi's many fans.


Takuya Kimura, who hit the first REAL hit of the game.


Lefty Tetsuya Yamaguchi.


Takayuki Kishi, still pitching in the 9th inning.

After the Game


The Lions mascots.


Kishi and Kataoka walk off the field together.


Manager Hisanobu Watanabe gives a manager's victory speech.


Okawari-kun Nakamura: "Yeah, I like in-course pitches. Hitting home runs is fun."


"I'm... I'm just glad I could help the team."


I caption this one "Okawari-kun has balls."


Kishi waves to the crowd after saluting the outfield stands fans.

Anyway, it was really great to see a Japan Series game. Even if it wasn't in Sapporo.

As I finally manage to upload this, the Giants have won game 5, so it's now 3-2 in their favor. I'm kind of hoping Seibu can still win the Series mostly for Pacific League Power and all, plus then the Asia Series will be Lions vs Lions vs Lions vs Wyverns.

2008 NPB Golden Gloves

(Scroll down to see the 2008 Draft post, I'm still adding to it)

The lists are out. The CL infield is all Dragons, which should mostly not come as a surprise to anyone who has watched Arakibata The Two-headed DP Machine, and the PL is dominated by Fighters again, which also goes without saying.

Announced here (in Japanese):

     Central League                         Pacific League
(1)  Masanori Ishikawa   (YS)    P     (2)  Yu Darvish          (NHF)
(2)  Shinnosuke Abe      (YG)    C     (1)  Toru Hosokawa       (SL)
(1)  Takahiro Arai       (HT)    1B    (1)  Alex Cabrera        (OB)
(1)  Kenta Kurihara      (HC)    1B
(5)  Masahiro Araki      (CD)    2B    (3)  Kensuke Tanaka      (NHF)
(7)* Norihiro Nakamura   (CD)    3B    (4)  Toshiaki Imae       (CLM)
(5)  Hirokazu Ibata      (CD)    SS    (1)  Hiroyuki Nakajima   (SL)
(3)  Norichika Aoki      (YS)    OF    (3)  Hichori Morimoto    (NHF)
(6)  Norihiro Akahoshi   (HT)    OF    (3)  Atsunori Inaba      (NHF)
(1)  Takahiro Suzuki     (YG)    OF    (1)  Tomotaka Sakaguchi  (OB)

The number in parentheses is how many golden gloves they've won.

(*This was Norihiro's second GG in the Central League after getting 5 of them in the Pacific League. Also, seriously, Arai and Kurihara tied for CL 1B with 50 votes each so they both got the award... I wonder how often that's happened?)

My only question this year is, Alex Cabrera? WHAT? I will note that he only beat Kazuya Fukuura by two votes, but honestly I'm not sure Fukuura deserves it either. I don't really know WHO deserves it come to think of it, though. Bleh.

This is also going to pain me to say it, but I'm glad someone finally noticed that Takahiro Suzuki is pretty kickass at defense. I know I hate him on principle for being a Giants player, but he's really good in the field.

Ono! Here we go! (aka NPB Draft non-live-exactly-blogging, with photos!)

Today is the big draft -- none of this splitting into high school and others anymore, it's all done in one big day again.

But get this, I went to Jingu this afternoon to watch the Tohto league final week, with Asia University playing Toyo University -- they are the two best teams this year, many great players have come out of both colleges.

So I had been taking photos all day of Toyo starter Hiroki Ueno anyway, and he threw a complete game win as Toyo won the game 2-1. I was also taking plenty of Toyo catcher Shota Ono... and as the game went into the 8th inning, I got email on my cellphone saying "Fighters take Ono, first round!" and I'm just like "Whoa! He's RIGHT THERE!!"


Toyodai catcher Shota Ono, first-round draft pick by the Fighters! YEAH!


Toyodai starter Hiroki Ueno, third-round draft pick by Chiba Lotte!

More photos after the draft table. I'm getting the live draft from sportsnavi and information from Shukan Baseball and such.

Name                  Pos  HS/Univ/Company           B/T   DOB          Ht/Wt    
--------------------  ---  ---------------           ---   ----------   --------
Central League

Giants
1 Taishi Ota          IF   Tokaidai Sagami HS        R/R   06/09/1990   188/90    
2 Takefumi Miyamoto    P   Kurashiki HS              L/L   08/11/1990   185/72
3 Keisuke Saitoh       P   Chiba Keizaidai Fuzoku HS R/R   09/24/1990   185/84
4 Itaru Hashimoto     IF   Sendai Ikuei HS           L/R   04/28/1990   172/70
5 Shoki Kasahara       P   Fukuoka Shogyo Kito HS    R/R   01/09/1991   190/85
6 Hiroki Nakazawa     IF   Kokusai Budo Univ         R/R   01/22/1987   182/79

IS Akinori Sugiyama    P   Kyoto Ayabe HS
IS Ryuichi Bitoh       P   Gifu Johoku HS
IS Kazunao Yamamoto   IF   Osaka Economics Univ
IS Atsushi Fukumoto   IF   NOMO Baseball Club

Tigers
1 Ikketsu Sho          P   Nara Sangyo Univ          R/R   01/02/1986   181/86
x Hiromichi Fujiwara
x Keijiro Matsumoto
2 Kohei Shibata       OF   Kokusai Budo Univ         L/L   07/17/1986   175/72
3 Hiroki Uemoto       IF   Waseda Univ               R/R   07/04/1986   173/70
4 Ken Nishimura        P   Kyushu Sangyo Univ        R/R   12/04/1986   182/80

(Sho's real name in Chinese is Yi-Jie Hsiao)

IS Takuya Nohara      OF   BCL Toyama Thunderbirds
IS Koji Yoshioka       P   Tokiwa Univ
IS Kosei Fujii        IF   Kakokita HS 

Dragons
1 Kei Nomoto          OF   Nippon Express            L/L   07/07/1984   180/76
2 Junki Itoh           P   Gifu Johoku HS            L/R   01/07/1991   186/73
3 Kyohei Iwasaki      IF   Tokai Univ                L/R   04/04/1986   178/73
4 Shohei Takashima     P   Teikyo HS                 R/R   08/04/1990   175/81
5 Shinji Iwata         P   Meiji Univ                L/R   01/27/1987   181/80
6 Ryosuke Oguma        P   Ohmi HS                   R/R   08/11/1990   180/80
7 Shingo Itoh         OF   Chukyodai Chukyo HS       L/R   05/27/1990   184/82

IS Satoshi Katoh      OF   Osaka Sangyo Univ
IS Takaya Kobayashi   OF   Tokyo Yayoi Club
           
Carp
1 Takahiro Iwamoto    OF   Asia Univ                 L/L   04/18/1986   182/82
2 Ren Nakata           P   Koryo HS                  R/R   07/21/1990   188/80
3 Takeshi Komatsu      P   Hosei Univ                R/R   09/26/1986   179/75
4 Son-Hyon Shin       IF   Kyoto Kokusai HS          R/R   10/19/1990   183/80

IS Shota Matsuda       P   Kanazawa Gakuin Higashi HS

Swallows
1 Katsuki Akagawa      P   Miyazaki Shogyo HS        L/L   07/31/1990   184/87
2 Ryosuke Yagi         P   Kyoei HS                  L/L   09/29/1990   179/71
3 Yuhei Nakamura       C   Fukui Shogyo HS           R/R   06/17/1990   178/70
4 Ryo Hidaka           P   Nippon Bunridai HS        L/L   07/19/1990   181/73
5 Genki Nitta          C   Panasonic                 R/R   08/22/1982   172/80

IS Miranda Fernandez   P   Hakuoh Univ  (real name: Rafael Fernandez)
IS Koji Tsukamoto      P   SIL Kagawa Olive Guyners 

Baystars
1 Keijiro Matsumoto   OF   Waseda Univ               L/L   06/24/1986   180/78
2 Hitoshi Fujie        P   Toho Gas                  R/R   01/27/1986   177/68
3 Noriharu Yamazaki   IF   Yokohama Shogyo Univ      R/R   12/13/1986   177/76
4 Takeshi Hosoyamada   C   Waseda Univ               R/R   04/29/1986   178/75
5 Yota Kosugi          P   JR Higashinihon           R/R   12/08/1985   185/78

Pacific League

Lions
1 Yuta Nakazaki        P   Nichinan Gakuen HS        L/L   03/11/1991   179/79
2 Ryoma Nogami         P   Nissan                    R/R   06/15/1987   177/68
3 Hideto Asamura      IF   Osaka Toin HS             R/R   11/12/1990   181/78
4 Ryo Sakata          OF   Hakodate Univ             L/R   10/02/1986   178/86
5 Tatsuya Takeno       C   Fukuoka Univ              R/R   05/14/1986   180/82
6 Kazuki Miyata        P   Koga Kenko Iryo SG        L/L   11/16/1988   182/75

Buffaloes
1 Takuya Kai           P   Tokaidai 3 HS             R/R   12/18/1990   181/78
2 Masaki Ihara         P   Kansai Kokusai Univ       L/L   11/04/1986   185/75
3 Yuki Nishi           P   Komono HS                 R/R   11/10/1990   180/80
4 Tsuyoshi Takashima  IF   Aoyama Gakuin Univ        R/R   05/29/1986   176/78
5 Masato Nishikawa     P   SIL Ehime Pirates         R/R   06/17/1982   184/90

Fighters
1 Shota Ohno           C   Toyo Univ                 R/R   01/13/1987   177/77
2 Ryo Sakakibara       P   Kansai Kokusai Univ       R/R   08/04/1985   175/68
3 Toshiyuki Yanuki     P   Mitsubishi Fuso Kawasaki  R/R   12/15/1983   190/85
4 Kenji Tsuchiya       P   Yokohama HS               L/L   10/04/1990   179/73
5 Takuya Nakashima    IF   Fukuoka Kogyo HS          L/R   01/11/1991   175/67
6 Kenshi Sugiya       IF   Teikyo HS                 S/R   02/04/1991   173/75
7 Keisuke Tanimoto     P   VitalNet                  R/R   01/28/1985   166/65

Marines
1 Yuta Kimura          P   Tokyo Gas                 L/L   05/21/1985   190/86
2 Hisayoshi Chono     OF   Honda                     R/R   12/06/1984   178/80
3 Hiroki Ueno          P   Toyo Univ                 R/R   10/13/1986   181/78
4 Toshiki Tsuboi       P   Tsukuba Univ              L/L   07/07/1986   184/68
5 Tetsuya Yamamoto     P   Kobe Kokusai HS           R/R   06/06/1990   180/80
6 Ryoji Katsuki        P   Kumamoto Golden Larks     R/R   01/22/1984   180/79

IS Yukihiro Kimoto     P   Hidaka Nakatsu HS         L/R   07/31/1990   181/66
IS Akira Suzue         P   BCL Shinano Grandserows   R/R   12/25/1986   180/93
IS Kota Sumi          IF   Tokaidai Sagami HS        L/R   01/13/1991   168/74
IS Yuto Ikuyama       IF   SIL Kagawa Olive Guyners  L/R   05/10/1985   183/78
IS Yuji Nishino        P   Shin Minato HS            R/R   03/06/1991   180/72
IS Yoshifumi Okada    OF   All Ashikaga Club         L/L   07/06/1984   170/70 
IS Masashi Yoshida    IF   Ota Kogyo HS              S/R   04/08/1990   180/77
IS Takahiro Tanaka     P   Yokaichi Minami HS        R/R   09/07/1990   183/83

Eagles
1 Hiromichi Fujiwara   P   NTT Nishinihon            L/L   01/15/1985   177/77
x Kei Nomoto
2 Taishi Nakagawa     IF   Sakuragaoka HS            R/R   06/08/1990   185/89
3 Ryohei Isaka         P   Sumitomo Metals Kashima   R/R   10/19/1984   186/75
4 Yusuke Inoue         P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ        R/R   09/05/1986   181/83
5 Yusuke Kusuki       OF   Panasonic                 R/R   01/27/1984   177/80
6 Wataru Karashima     P   Iizuka HS                 L/L   10/18/1990   174/72

IS Jobu Morita        IF   SIL Kagawa Olive Guyners

Hawks
1 Shingo Tatsumi       P   Kinki Univ                L/R   01/10/1987   182/67
x Taishi Ota
2 Soichiro Tateoka    OF   Chinsei HS                R/R   05/18/1990   181/78
3 Reo Chikada          P   Hotoku Gakuen HS          L/L   04/30/1990   177/82
4 Sho Arima            P   Nichinan Gakuen HS        L/L   06/05/1990   174/75
5 Tadashi Settsu       P   JR Higashinihon Tohoku    R/R   06/01/1982   182/83
6 Mu-yon Kim           P   SIL Fukuoka Red Warblers  R/R   11/22/1985   180/78
7 Shunya Suzuki        P   Yamagata Chuo HS          R/R   01/08/1991   182/75

IS Koji Uchida         P   Osaka Sangyo Univ         R/R
IS Akira Niho          P   Kyushu Kokusai Univ       R/R
IS Yohei Yanagawa      P   Fukui Miracle Elephants   R/R
IS Kentaro Inomoto     C   Chinzei HS                R/R
IS Hayato Doue         C   SIL Kagawa Olive Guyners  R/R

(I know the team is really "Ehime Mandarin Pirates" but condensed it for the chart.)

(some extra info from Patrick)

Okay, now I have the main guys entered entirely, all of the Ikusei (instructional, taxi squad, whatever you wanna call them) guys entered at least in name, position, and where they came from, but I only have the vitals for the ones where it was easy (like Chiba Lotte making a page about their draft picks -- thanks guys!)

I got a lot of this information from Nikkan Sports and Sankei Sports but the main list with the ikusei draft is best on Sportsnavi, linked above.

Thoughts so far: WOW, Iwata went low. So did Hosoyamada, and I am surprised that teams like Chunichi and Hanshin weren't going more for catchers. And Hisayoshi Chono can BITE ME, I swear if I see him next year on Lotte it's gonna be really hard for me to actually cheer for him. I kind of hoped the Giants would get him so I could hate him there, but instead they did the right thing and took that gigantic HS kid Taishi Ota who's gonna pound a billion home runs or whatever. Oh yeah, it sucks that Ota went to the Giants, anyway.

Oh yeah, and the Fighters got Tsuchiya! From Yokohama HS! I don't remember him being anything special but DAMN does he have a rubber left arm, so that's always good.

There's a lot of guys out of the Shikoku Island league drafted, though mostly in the ikusei part. Still, that is either good or bad news for the league, depending on how you look at it.

Also there were several names that were very obviously Chinese or Korean to me but I wasn't sure. And a Fernandez guy in the ikusei draft that I'm guessing is maybe part Japanese, but don't really know.

Anyway, more pictures from today:



Shota Ono with his mask on.


Ono at bat.


Ono hits a double to lead off the 5th inning!!


Takahiro Iwamoto, from Asia-dai, taken in the first round by Hiroshima.


Iwamoto slides into home plate to score Asia's only run of today's game. Note Toyo catcher Ono is waiting for the ball.


And another one of Hiroki Ueno for the heck of it. He was in a really good mood today, for obvious reasons.

Game Report: Todai vs. Hosei - Revenge of the Nerds

You know all of that stuff about "make legend" and whatnot that the Yomiuri Giants are dishing out? Well, I watched a miracle of a different sort take place on Monday at a Tokyo Big 6 League game, when the Tokyo University team beat Hosei University.

This might not seem like a big deal to you, but given that the last time Todai actually won 2 games in a season was 5 years ago... yeah. Todai is known for its difficult entrance exams and geeky students, and for producing the country's future leaders, not for putting out high-quality sports teams. They have been the doormat of the Tokyo Big 6 league pretty much since its inception, with a stellar record of 241-1430-52. Hosei leads the league with 42 championships, Waseda follows with 40, Meiji 32, Keio 31, Rikkio 12, and Tokyo... well... let's just say their best season ever was when they were in FOURTH place in 1946.

If there's a Japanese equivalent of the nerd cheer "That's all right, that's okay, THEY'RE gonna work for US someday" that my college marching band used to yell, I'm sure Todai yells it.

Anyway, I actually went to this game to watch Tokyo win, which might seem like an odd thing given what I've just explained, but what I didn't mention is that this year they actually have a pitcher who doesn't totally completely suck. His name is Yuuichi Suzuki, he's a tall left-handed kid from Aichi prefecture, and somehow he's been putting up ERAs around 5, which is damn good for Todai (last year's ace, Takuya Shigenobu, generally posted ERAs in the 8's). This year it's even lower -- he has two wins and a tie, although he's also been throwing about 180 pitches per game. (You want unreal? Look at pitcher stats for the league; Suzuki's at the bottom with his 3.78 ERA. But that's not the big deal -- look at the IP, batters faced, etc! Geez -- every other team has other pitchers except Todai.)

Of course, like the idiot I am, I accidentally ended up sitting on the Hosei side. I arrived early, towards the end of the Meiji-Rikkio game -- got to see Yusuke Nomura pitch an inning, apparently he's set some kind of record by pitching 34 innings with no earned runs or something. You might remember Nomura from the Koshien 2007 finals -- he pitched Koryo all the way there until his arm gave out with two innings left and he gave up that fateful grand slam to Soejima of the Saga Kita Miracle Squad.

I realized two things as the games changed:

1) I was on the Hosei side
2) I was on the third base side, which usually makes for less exciting photography. Oops.

But since I managed to get a seat in the VERY FRONT ROW, right next to the camera well, with nothing but a fence between me and the field, I figured I wasn't about to move. Plus Hosei pitcher Kazuhito Futagami started warming up and it was much more interesting to take photos of him than to think about my seating location.

Being as I'm writing most of this post offline, I'm going to just throw pictures at the end of it. First, here's my scorecard:

Hosei Univ 5 - 4 Tokyo Univ
Monday, October 27, 2008

                      1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9   R  H  E
Hosei                 0  0  0   2  0  1   0  1  0   4  9  0
Tokyo                 0  0  0   2  0  0   2  0  1X  5 10  1

Attendance: 1500


Hosei                AB  R  H RB  K BB SH SB  E     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
Kamegai, rf           3  0  1  0  0  2  0  0  0    S7 .. F7 BB .. E4 .. BB ..
Itoh, 2b              4  0  1  1  0  0  1  1  0    b1 .. G4 F8 .. F9 .. S9 ..
Kajiya, lf            3  0  0  0  1  1  0  0  0    BB .. F9 .. KS .. F8 .. ..
 Kita, cf             0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Ohyagi, ph           1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. F7 .. 
 Komatsu, p           0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Sasaki, 1b            5  1  3  0  0  0  0  0  0    S7 .. .. S7 G5 .. D7 .. F9
Matsumoto, cf-lf-cf   3  0  0  0  1  1  1  0  0    KS .. .. b1 F4 .. BB .. G5
Ishikawa, c           5  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  0    F9 .. .. F8 .. H7 G6 .. L1
Waizumi, 3b           3  2  1  1  0  0  0  1  0    .. G2 .. S8 .. F7 .. HP ..
Nanba, ss             3  0  1  1  0  0  1  0  0    .. G3 .. T8 .. G4 .. b1 ..
Futagami, p           2  0  1  0  0  1  0  0  0    .. G6 .. BB .. S8 .. .. ..
 Kagami, p            0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Tateishi, ph         1  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. KS ..
 Iwashima, lf         0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..


Tokyo                AB  R  H RB  K BB SH SB  E     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
Furugaki, cf          4  1  1  0  2  0  0  0  0    KS .. .. S9 G1 .. KS .. ..
 Horiguchi, cf        0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Iwasaki, 3b           3  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0    G6 .. .. b1 .. G3 .. KS ..
Takahashi, 2b         4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1    KS .. .. F9 .. F9 .. KS ..
Utsumi, rf            3  1  1  1  2  0  0  1  0    .. KS .. S9 .. KS .. .. ..
 Kihara, rf           1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. F8 ..
Maeshiro, lf          4  2  3  1  1  0  0  0  0    .. KS .. D7 .. .. D8 .. S7
Suzuki, p             4  1  1  0  1  0  0  0  0    .. KS .. G3 .. .. S1 .. G4
Kasai, 1b             3  0  1  1  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. G3 .. F4 .. S9 .. ..
 Nishiyama, pr        0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
 Ijiri, 1b            0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. IW
Ohtsubo, c            4  0  2  1  1  0  0  0  0    .. .. KS .. S9 .. G6 .. S7
Hamada, ss            3  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. KS .. KB .. G5 .. ..
 Ageba, ph            1  0  1  1  0  0  0  0  0    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. I4


Hosei               IP  BF  NP   H  HR   K  BBH  RA  ER
Futagami             6  25  92   7   0   9   0   4   4
Kagami               1   3  14   0   0   1   0   0   0
Komatsu (loss)     1.1   8  35   3   0   2   1   1   1

Tokyo               IP  BF  NP   H  HR   K  BBH  RA  ER
Suzuki (win)         9  42 167   9   1   3   6   4   4

This game started exactly how you would expect any game against Todai to start -- the other team immediately managed to load the bases in the first inning, though somehow Suzuki-kun got out of the jam (despite throwing a pickoff throw to second at one point and having the second baseman totally not notice and the ball went into centerfield). And of course the Todai batters spent the first three innings pretty much striking out. (Come on, 7 strikeouts in the first 9 batters? Sheesh! You ever wonder where guys like Yuki Saito get their college strikeout records from? Meet Todai.) The only interesting thing to happen in the first 3 innings was actually when 1B Kasai grounded out to first, but his bat went flying over the dugout and nearly splintered a cameraman.

Things picked up in the fourth inning. A lady a few seats down from me was yelling all of the players' names and yelling "NICE!!! NICE!!!" after pretty much everything, starting in that inning. Hosei's firstbaseman Sasaki led off with a single and moved to second on a bunt, and tagged up to move to third on catcher Ishikawa's pop fly to center. (I suppose they weren't expecting a particularly strong throw in.) Chatterbox thirdbaseman Shota Waizumi singled to center after that, scoring Sasaki. 1-0. Waizumi stole second during shortstop Nanba's at-bat, but it was irrelevant as Nanba hit a monster fly ball out to center, and Furugaki stumbled around trying to get it and the play was a stand-up triple by the time the dust settled, Waizumi easily scoring. 2-0. Suzuki-kun walked the next two batters, pitcher Futagami and centerfielder Kamegai, but then got an easy popout from secondbaseman Itoh to end the inning. Whew. It was one batter short of a rally.

I guess maybe Futagami let up on the Todai batters a bit at that point because Furugaki immediately made up for his outfield slowness by hitting a single through the Hosei second baseman. Freshman thirdbaseman Shuhei Iwasaki, who turned 19 on Tuesday, bunted Furugaki up to second, and then secondbaseman Takahashi hit a big pop fly out. But cleanup batter Shota Utsumi, all 5'10" and 150 pounds of him, hit a blooper to right field that actually fell for a single. Furugaki had advanced on a wild pitch, so he scored on the single! 2-1. During Takeru Maeshiro's at-bat, Utsumi stole second, and I really have no clue how it was successful given that it was the worst jump and slowest running I've ever seen, but whatever. Maeshiro, who would eventually be 3-for-4 on the day, doubled to left, scoring Utsumi, and Todai had TIED THE GAME! 2-2. Suzuki grounded out to end the inning and get his butt back on the mound.

This amazing state of Todai not losing lasted for all of 2 innings before Hosei catcher Shuhei Ishikawa got a good pitch and launched it over the left-field wall for a solo home run. 3-2.

Around 4pm, which was about the bottom of the 6th inning, it started to get dark outside, but they didn't actally turn the lights on until around 4:30pm, halfway through the bottom of the 7th. I wonder if that was responsible for Todai actually starting to pick up, or not... Maeshiro led off the bottom of the 7th with a double to the centerfield wall, and then Suzuki-kun meant to bunt him up but actually was safe on a bad throw to first. Kasai singled to right, scoring Maeshiro (3-3!) and moving Suzuki to third, and the Hosei manager took Futagami out of the game, replacing him with sophomore Kisho Kagami. Kagami got Ohtsubo to ground to short, with a pinch-running Nishiyama out at second on the play, but Suzuki scored. 4-3 and Tokyo actually had the lead again. Whoa.

Oh yeah, Suzuki managed to pick runner Sasaki off second in the top of the 7th. That was pretty funny, though I vaguely ascribe it to the dark lights plus Todai's second baseman not napping for once.

Anyway, before I make him sound superhuman again, he started off the top of the 8th by plunking chatterbox Shota Waizumi in the arm. Waizumi had spent the entire pitching change in the bottom of the 7th talking to Suzuki and coach Kuroiwa, but I have no idea if he said anything that would inspire being hit, it looked like an accident. Nanba bunted Waizumi up to second, and eventually he scored on a two-out single to right by secondbaseman Nobuhiro Itoh. It was actually a fairly good throw in, but I think the Todai catcher was afraid of the runner. No, just kidding, it was a close play at the plate, but Hosei tied the game, 4-4.

Hosei ace pitcher Takeshi Komatsu came in to pitch the 8th and 9th. The 8th he did very quickly and effectively -- two strikeouts and a pop out before anyone had even noticed the inning starting. But the 9th... that was another story.

Suzuki-kun was somehow STILL OUT THERE PITCHING and had managed to get through Hosei quickly in the top of the 9th as well, so the bottom of the 9th started with Maeshiro at the plate and Suzuki in the on-deck circle. Maeshiro got yet another hit, singling to left, to start the fun. Suzuki came up bunting but went down grounding out to second -- it was still effective and moved Maeshiro to second. After that, first baseman Tetsuya Ijiri came up, and... and I'm not sure why, but they intentionally walked him. (I can't honestly imagine any reason to walk any Todai batter, but that's just me. You know their best batters are usually batting around .200 or so. Iwasaki is batting .220 this year, amazingly.) Catcher Ohtsubo came up after that, with runners at first and second, and he hit a big blooper to left field, and Hosei left fielder Iwashima chased it down, ran, ran, dived.. and it FELL! I guess the Todai runners weren't ready for that, which is why they stopped at third.

Ryo Ageha, who batted under .100 last season, pinch-hit for Hamada after that. And Ageha stayed there and... and fouled off the ball. A LOT. Eventually he finally didn't foul off a ball, he hit a weak grounder, and (I think) the secondbaseman ran in, got the ball, and threw it home, but Maeshiro managed to slide in safe before the throw got there and OH MY GOD TODAI ACTUALLY WON THE GAME! 5-4.

Man, what a surprise.

Suzuki, Maeshiro, and Ageha were the game heroes.

What was really funny is, as the Todai players were jumping up and down hugging each other and going nuts on the field, I saw a flash of light, and I'm like "Is that lightning? Hmm..." I left after a little while, and not 5 minutes later, the skies opened up. And I'm not just talking a little bit of rain, I'm talking HAIL, RAIN, THUNDER, LIGHTNING, ETC. It's as if some major balance in the universe had just been thrown out of whack and the weather had to make up for it.

Anyway, here are some photos from the day:


Meiji pitcher Yusuke Nomura, formerly of Koryo HS. Won the league ERA title this year with a humongous 0.00 ERA.


After losing the game, the Rikkio captain addresses the fans and apologizes. This was their last game of the year.


Kazuhito Futagami, the Hosei starting pitcher, warming up.


Futagami on the mound.


Yuuichi Suzuki, Todai ace, pitching.


Suzuki-kun at bat.


Todai mound conference. I kind of imagine it being like "So uh... Suzuki-kun... you know... we've got a lot of brains on this team but not many arms... just yours... so please use them... brains too, okay?"


Suzuki sliding into third base in the 7th inning.


Chatterbox Waizumi talking to Suzuki at 3rd base.


Skinniest cleanup batter ever, Shota Utsumi. Batted in the first Todai run.


Super-young third baseman Iwasaki tries to bunt and mostly succeeds.


This was such a funny picture of centerfielder Furugaki running that I just had to post it. This was off that wild pitch in the 4th inning.


Surprisingly, this is the only picture I took of Maeshiro all day. Weird.


The infamous Todai marching band. They don't do a field show, but instead they get up and run across the (tons of) empty seats in the stands as part of their performance. It's kind of like marching but a lot cooler in some ways.


Hosei outfielder Iwashima.


Hosei's Takeshi Komatsu.


Komatsu again.


OH MY GOD TODAI WINS!!!!


Final scoreboard.


By the way, if you actually read all of this and are wondering, the reason why I wrote up this game and uploaded it with higher priority than the Dragons and Fighters playoff games I attended... well, between being busy moving and doing paperwork and preparing to go back to the US, plus not having internet at home, my priorities have gotten out of whack. And I have pictures of Todai, but not so much with the others. Plus, there are already articles about those games in English, but I have this vague feeling very few native English speakers go cheer for Todai's baseball team, let alone blog about it :)