2009 Interleague Madness: Rakuten vs. Yokohama in Sendai A.K.A. Totallly Owned

Hello again everyone. This past weekend, Saturday June 13^th and Sunday June, 14^th, I took a trip to Miyagi Prefecture in north Japan to see the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles take on the Yokohama BayStars at the ever famous Kleenex Stadium Miyagi. Now despite the name of the stadium as possibly being on of the worst ever, the stadium itself is a really nice place and Rakuten has done quite well in terms of marketing and really capturing the attention of the people in Miyagi and the surrounding areas. They drew 20,000+ crowds for the two games this past weekend and it was great to see people supporting the Eagles. The Rakuten eagles have only been in existence for about 5 years but already they are pushing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Pacific League and quite frankly, the team has gotten my attention and I’m listening. I can’t explain it but there’s a charm about the Eagles that makes them attractive in my opinion and I think I’ve somewhat become enamored with them as they are my second favorite team along with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the Pacific League, who both are behind Seibu of course. Maybe it’s their young stud pitchers Hisashi Iwakuma and Masahiro Tanaka, or maybe it’s the manager, Katsuya Nomura (highly doubtful on this one), but I like the Rakuten Eagles and really when I can’t cheer for Seibu , I can see myself putting on some maroon and pulling for the Eagles.

This is MR.CARRASCO, one of Rakuten's many mascots. He is known for doing crazy things such as stunts on a dirt bike and literally climbing the very small wall in the outfield and jumping into the stands. He totally rocks.

But before I go on, I’d just like to say thank you to Michael Westbay from JapaneseBaseball.com for the camera advice he gave on one of my previous posts. I’m still learning the ropes with my new camera so to speak and hopefully, as time goes on, this blog can serve as sort of a personal history to showcase my improvement in picture taking.

But enough joking aside, this weekend totally sucked for Yokohama. Now we all know that the Stars aren’t having the best season this year but after this weekend series, I can now officially say that they are content to be bottom feeders in NPB. I mean seriously, totaling 7 hits and 0 runs in two games just means utter fail. Yokohama is serving up its fans a double order of fail fries with a triple order of weak sauce every time they take the field seriously. It’s gotten to the point where I just don’t care enough about the team enough to pay attention to them aside from reading the sports news everyday to see how they did. And while I will always be a BayStars fan as they got me though some hard times a few years back, I absolutely refuse to be “a carp in a pond that eats whatever is fed to him” and I feel that that’s what many BayStars fans are as they just keep blindly following the team and hope that the team can win. They could learn a thing or two from the Chiba Lotte fans. Yeah, believing in your team is one thing, but when your team is in a tailspin and going downward with no end in sight, surely you must question what can be done to fix the team right? As a consumer, I want to get the most bang for my buck and am using this as a chance to explore other teams and take my interest in NPB to the next level. So basically, I use Yokohama as an excuse to go on road trips as I’ll be going to Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium in late July to see the new stadium when the Stars have a series there.

Dan Johnson or "DJ" as he likes to be called. I don't know what happened but he isn't playing that well these days.

Yokohama centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjoh. Honestly, I like Kinjoh but it seems like this may be his last year in Yokohama.

New lead-off man Yuki Yoshimura. I admit, while the concept of Yoshimura as a lead-off hitter is intriguing, he strikes out way to much for my taste and shouldn't be batting lead-off in my opinion.

Seiichi Uchikawa trying to be gangster in left field before the game. All kidding aside though, I really like Uchi and honestly, I think that Tashiro-kantoku should give him a shot to lead-off again.

As for the games themselves, Yokohama was totally outclassed from the start. The starters for Game 1 were Ryan Glynn for the Stars and Satoshi Nagai for the Eagles. This was a typical start for Glynn as he gave up runs early in the game and didn’t receive any run support whatsoever from the offense. Rakuten needed little effort to win this game as they mainly used Glynn’s erratic control against him to do so.

After a fly out to left by Daisuke Kusano to start the bottom of the 2^rd, Tsuchiya Teppei walked and then advanced to third on a single to right by Kenshi. Yosuke Hirashi also walked to load the bases and then Rakuten catcher Motohiro Shima walked to make it 1-0 Rakuten with the bases still loaded. Then, leadoff hitter Naoto Wantanabe singled to center to make it 3-0 Rakuten and that’s where the score stayed until the bottom of the 8^th where Daisuke Kusano would add another run on an RBI double to make it 4-0 Rakuten. Again, Rakuten didn’t need all that much to win the game as they only had 6 hits total and 5 of them were singles.

But Satoshi Nagai on the other hand, totally handcuffed Yokohama by throwing a complete game while allowing 2 hits and striking out 8 while walking 4. Perhaps this will make Rakuten manager Katsuya Nomura appreciate what pitching he has instead of grumbling about how Iwakuma and Tanaka ore the only good pitchers there are and how he can’t send them out everyday to start. I guess I’m a spoiled Yakyu fan as earlier in the week, I saw Hideaki Wakui of the Lions also go the distance against Hanshin. Two complete games in one week is a great thing.

But to Yokohama’s credit I did see some things I liked. While I get on Ryan Glynn a lot, he did pitch great after giving up those 3 runs there’s no denying that. And also, I like what Tashiro kantoku did in mixing things up with the starting lineup. Now frankly, while having Yuki Yoshimura lead off and Dan Johnson bat second is not such a good thing in my opinion, he did something different and I think that deserves a little credit. But even that is stretching it out and can’t hide that fact that things were not so good in Sendai this weekend for the Stars.

Now, I had hope for Game 2 to be honest with you because Yokohama’s ace, Daisuke Miura, took the mound for Game 2 against the brick wall known as Hisashi Iwakuma. But alas, even “Hama No Bancho” was not enough to overcome defeat as he got hammered. Miura wasn’t his normal self as his control seemed a bit off and besides that, one of my friends told me that he hurt his leg or something during his last start so it’s also quite possible that he has been playing hurt as well.

Yokohama Ace Daisuke Miura warming up before starting the 1st inning.

Miura just before throwing his first pitch of the game.

Miura looking cool in his shades and practice uniform before the game.

Hisashi Iwakuma right before throwing a pitch.

Hisashi Iwakuma right after throwing a pitch.

Hisashi Iwakuma yet again.

Rakuten exploded and did most of their damage in the 5^th and 6^th innings by scoring 7 runs and totaling 9 hits in those two innings as well. Rakuten DH Takeshi “Hulk Smash” Yamazaki went 3 for 4 with 2 home runs and 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored and catcher Akihito Fuji went 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Seriously, if the Japanese were to ever make their own version of “The Hulk”, Takeshi Yamazaki would be the perfect guy to fill the role as he’s not only a decent sized guy, but he has the temper to boot.

Rakuten outfielder Teppei touching up first base during a pickoff attempt by Ryan Glynn during Game #1.

Teppei advancing to third on a single by Rakuten first baseman Kenshi during Game #1. It was the same play as the picture above too ironically.

Catcher Akihito Fuji standing on first base after recording his third hit of the day during Game #2.

Rakuten left fielder Masato Nakamura just after hitting a single in the 5th inning of Game #1.

Daisuke Kusano stealing second base.

But despite Yokohama continuing its losing ways, Sendai was great as always. Kleenex Stadium Miyagi is a gorgeous stadium and Rakuten has done a lot to improve it, although those Lawson “Group Seats” in the right field stands are totally stupid and messed up part of the charm of the stadium which were the little hills in the outfield where you could sit and lay your blanket out just like in the countryside stadiums (left field still has the hill where people sit). So, if you ever get the chance to go, please do as you won’t regret it.

http://www.rakuteneagles.jp/game/scoreboard/index/2009061401.html#5

http://www.rakuteneagles.jp/game/scoreboard/record/2009061301.html

http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/2009/games/s2009061400792.html

http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/2009/games/s2009061300781.html

And finally, I leave you with this photo:



BayStars veteran pitcher Kimiyasu Kudoh. When it comes to this season, the look on Kudoh's face pretty much sums up how I feel when I think about the BayStars. I think this is going to be my mandatory introduction photo for all BayStars related posts this year.

Interleague Madeness 2009: Hanshin vs. Seibu @ Seibu Dome or A G'DAY for baseball

Hello again everyone. On Wednesday, June 10^th, I went to the Seibu Dome for another rare weeknight game against none other than the Hanshin Tigers. I attended this game with my friend Mike, who lives in the general area nearby and honestly we didn’t know what to expect other than there would be a lot of Hanshin fans at the stadium. We had both wanted to see either Hideaki Wakui or Takayuki Kishi pitch and we got our wish when the starters for the game were announced as Hideaki Wakui going for the Lions and Minoru Iwata for the Tigers. Now, I believe that this was Iwata’s first start of the year as he had been hurt to start the season. I really didn’t know what to expect from him but he went way above and beyond the call in my opinion as this game was a total pitching match and it was pitching ironically that ended up deciding who won the game. This was also my first time seeing Hanshin live this season so, I was pretty pumped about that. And even though I detest most Hanshin fans because of their attitudes and manners, you cannot help but admire and appreciate the atmosphere of a ball game whenever and wherever Hanshin plays, be it on the road or in Kansai.

Hanshin got things going in the top of the first when 3^rd baseman Takahiro Arai hit a home run to deep right field to give Hanshin an early 1-0 lead. But, in the bottom of the first, Seibu responded when Takumi Kuriyama doubled to deep right center and promptly after that, Hiroyuki Nakajima blasted a 2 run home run to center field to put Seibu on top 2-1. But Hanshin wouldn’t stand idle for long as Tomoaki Kanemoto would give Hashin the lead again in the top of the 3^rd on a two run RBI single to center allowing Keiichi Hirano and Norihiro Akahoshi to both score. Both batters had been walked previously by Wakui and interestingly enough, those were his only two walks of the game. And for the next few innings, Kanemoto’s RBI single would stand as the difference maker until the bottom of the 6^th when Yasuyuki Kataoka doubled to right to start off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt by Takumi Kuriyama moved Kataoka over to third, Hiroyuki Nakajima grounded out to short allowing Kataoka to score which tied the game at 3-3 and from there the game got interesting.

Hanshin 3rd baseman Takahiro Arai crossing home plate after hitting a home run in the top of the 1st.

Arai standing on second after getting a hit in the 6th. Feel free to add your own caption.

Arai swinging at a pitch.

Arai swinging at another pitch.

Yasutuki Kataoka after swinging at a pitch.

Tomoaki "Aniki" Kanemoto striking out in the top of the 8th.

Kanemoto taking a short breather in between pitches.

Kanemoto getting ready to swing at a pitch.

Norihiro Akahoshi not looking happy after a called strike.

Shinjiro Hiyama fouling off a pitch.

Seibu infielder Hiroshi Hirao. Hard to believe Hirao is a 15 year veteran.

Hirao coming up to the plate.

Both pitchers had dominated the game each giving up 3 runs a piece and limiting their hits and walks. But 2/3 of the way into the 8^th inning, Mayumi kantoku decided it was time for a pitching change when he brought in Scott Atchison to replace Iwata. I’m not so sure I agreed with that decision, as it was good for the end of the 8^th when Atchison got out of a jam with runners on first and third with two outs by getting Nakajima to ground out to end the inning. But it was Atchison and later Jeff Williams who blew it for Hanshin. After striking out “Okawari” Nakamura to start the bottom of the ninth, Atchison walked Hiroshi Hirao, who was then lifted for pinch runner Haruki Kurose. Kurose then advanced to third on a GG Sato single to right. Tomoaki Sato was then intentionally walked (why Mayumi did this, I’ll never know) and Atchison was pulled in favor of lefty Jeff Williams. Catcher Tsumitani Ginjiro was lifted for pinch hitter Yutaro Osaki and Williams walked Osaki on four straight pitches to bring home the winning run for Seibu, giving them a 4-3 victory over the Tigers. Hey, it wasn’t the way I’d prefer to win but I’ll take it, as a win is a win after all.

Saitama Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui.

Wakui again.

Hanshin starter Minoru Iwata.

Iwata after throwing a pitch.

Iwata waiting for a ball after throwing a pitch.

The conference in the top of the 8th and the Iwata's finish.

Wakui got the win for Seibu and Iwata took the loss for Hanshin. As I said earlier, both pitchers were outstanding and their numbers were pretty much the same (see box score below) but, I have to say that Iwata impressed me more because he was more “economical” with pitches having only thrown 99 pitches by the time he was lifted in the bottom of the 8^th whereas Wakui ended up throwing 141 pitches by going the distance. I really love Wakui as Seibu’s ace and think the world of him but I can’t help but think in the back of my mind how much damage these complete game/high pitch counts will do to him in the future.

Game hero Yutaro Osaki addressing the crowd after the game.

Also as a little side story, former Saitama Seibu Lion Craig Brazell made his return to the Seibu Dome but ended up going 0-4 in the contest. It’s great that Craig was able to get another shot to play in Japan after being let go by the Lions after the end of last season. For the time being at least, he seems to getting along nicely and has become an instant hit with Hanshin. Hopefully, he helps the team and has a productive season. And as a treat for all the readers out there, here are some shots of Brazell in his new uniform. Not bad pictures if I do say so myself. I think these are the first in game shots of him in a game but I’m not really to sure if they are or not.

Craig Brazell shot #1.



Craig Brazell shot #2.



Craig Brazell shot #3.



Craig Brazell shot #4.

Home Sweet Home in Ogano, Chichibu: 2-gun Saitama Seibu vs. Tokyo Yakult

Hello again everyone. I'm slowly trying to get my backlog of posts done but until they get posted, here's something special I did today. Now as many of you know, I used to live near Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture for nearly 3 years and I used to frequent Yokohama BayStars games quite often (almost everyday to be exact). But last year I moved out to Chichibu City in Saitama to continue working as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). So, you can imagine my surprise that Seibu actually hosted a game out near where I live and that meant I ONLY had to take a 30 minute bus ride over a mountain to go see a game Woo Hoo!!! Ogano town is actually in the western part of the Chichibu District of Saitama which basically means it's even deeper in the mountains than Chichibu City is and is further away from civilization. But, the area has it's charm and I do enjoy going there.

And also, because this was a local game in my area, baseball clubs from all over Chichibu came to watch the game and I spent almost the entire game in the outfield with one of my school’s baseball club. It was very fun and I got to know the kids a little better after it was all said and done. In addition, I recently purchased a Cannon PowerShot SX10 IS and used it to take pictures at a game for the first time so you may notice that the quality of my pictures has gotten better. I was quite pleased with how the pictures came out and I’m glad I just decided to get a new camera to replace my crappy point and shoot with it’s fuzzy pictures. But, enough with all that and let’s get to the game shall we?

The weather was gorgeous for the game on Sunday and Seibu did quite well in terms of attendance drawing almost 2,000 people to the game with the actual total being 1,861. Before the game too, Seibu held a サイン会 or autograph session in which the first 100 people to line up in front of the autograph tent got the chance to receive a signature from a player after paying a 200 yen fee. After paying, you received a numbered ticket with the letter A, B, C, D, or E on it and whoever sat in that particular chair that’s whose autograph you got. I was fortunate enough to get pitcher Koji Onuma’s autograph because he wasn’t signing at all. It appears that Seibu does this regularly before each local 2-gun game they play as they did it in Kumagaya and Omiya as well. Also too, I spent the morning with a student of mine autograph hunting before the game and got really sunburned in the process. But, the effort paid off as I made off with quite a number of autographs that day. Here’s a list of players that I got to sign (excluding Onuma) in no particular order:

Tomohito Yoneno (Yakult)

Masayoshi Miwa (Yakult)

Takayuki Shimizu

Taketoshi Gotoh (who is a really nice guy too btw)

Hideto Asamura

Takuya Hara

I was really angry that I just barely missed getting Shogo Akada’s autograph but despite that, I did quite well I feel as I did get Shimizu’s autograph which I really wanted to begin with.

But I do have a gripe with Seibu though about something. Now I’m not condoning anyone for their personal habits but smoking in an exposed tent in front of little children is a bad thing. It’s no secret that ballplayers smoke but if your going to do it, please do it in an enclosed area. Maybe they just didn’t do a good job of covering the tent up or whatever but that really got to me as these children look up to the players as role models and often imitate what they see. I experience this sort of thing everyday and it’s something I don’t really like to see.

Tokyo Yakult starter Shun Takaichi.

Seibu Starter Ryohei Fujiwara thinking before the game.

The starting pitchers for the game were Shun Takaichi for Yakult and Ryohei Fujiwara for Seibu. Right out of the gate, Fujiwara was bad, as he had zero control as he couldn’t find the strike zone and walked 2 batters in the first inning alone. Yakult struck first on a bases loaded sac fly by Takayuki Saito to make it 1-0 Yakult in the first. Yakult added another run in the top of the 2^nd when 3^rd baseman Ryosuke Morioka hit a solo homer to left that made it 2-0 Yakult. Then, in the top of the 3^rd with 2 on, Yakult centerfielder Tsuyoshi Ueda blasted a 3 run shot to left center to make it 5-0 Yakult. After this, Fujiwara was finished and it seemed that this was going to be a quick game for the Swallows. But, in the bottom of the 4^th inning, something started to happen. Now, I don’t know if it was the clean country air in Chichibu or Yakult just decided to call it a day, but Seibu came back with a vengeance over the next 3 innings. Taketoshi Gotoh started things off for Seibu with a two run homerun in the bottom of the 4^th that made it 5-2 Yakult. Yakult struck back and added another run in the top of the 5^th courtesy of an RBI single by Yakult right fielder Munenori Shida which made it 6-2 Yakult.But not to be outdone, in the bottom of the 5^th, Seibu struck again as Takuya Hara hit a bases clearing triple with 2 on to make it 6-4 Yakult and then Gotoh singled to left for an RBI which pulled Seibu with in one making the score 6-5 Yakult.

Saitama Seibu 1st baseman/DH Taketoshi Gotoh crossing home plate after hitting his 2 run home run in the bottom of the 4th.

Gotoh again going for it all, YEAH!


Before the game, there was a local Taiko drum group that performed for the pre-game entertainment. What’s funny is that they ended up staying for the entire game and would start playing after Seibu scored a run. Needless to say, Seibu set off the Taiko quite a bit as they broke the game open and then some in the bottom of the 6^th. Seibu left fielder Hidekazu Hoshi led of the inning with a walk. Then, Keisuke Mizuta hit a two run homer to deep left to make it 7-6 Seibu. But not to be outdone by his teammate, 3^rd baseman Naomichi Umeda hit his own home run to deep left center to make it 8-6 Seibu. Now, you think that this would be it right? Not even close as Seibu was just humiliating Yakult by this point. Shogo Akada and Takuya Hara drew consecutive walks and were moved over to third and second respectively by a Hiroyuki Oshima single to load the bases. Then, the man of the day himself came to the plate in the form of Taketoshi Gotoh and promptly hit a 2 run RBI double to make it 10-6 and put runners on third and second. What happened next was just incredible as Takayuki Shimizu SMASHED a 3 run home run into the riverbed behind the stadium to make it 13-6 Seibu and as a result of this, Shimizu also managed to send a horde of about 30+ kids into the riverbed to try and get the ball. One of my students actually managed to get the ball so it was pretty neat. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at a Japanese baseball game to date. But Seibu wasn’t even done after all this. Keisuke Mizuta decided that 13 runs wasn’t enough and hit his second home run of the inning to left center to make it 14-6 Seibu. After that, the inning was finally over as was the game for the most part. Yakult managed to add another run in the 7^th counrtesy of a bases loaded walk by Yakult shortstop Yuji Onizaki but by that time it really didn’t matter as the damage had been done as Yakult would go down quietly in the 8^th and 9^th innings.

Takayuki Shimizu swinging at a pitch early in the game.

This is FORMER Gomiuri Giant Takayuki Shimizu. He looks 1 million times better in these colors than those other ones. Kutabare Gomiuri!!! And yes, he is really really popular with the Seibu fans.

All in all, a truly fantastic game by Seibu despite a rocky start by both the pitching and the hitting and plus the game being played in my backyard basically added to the excitement as well. Both teams did really well I feel and I honestly didn’t know that both teams turned the game into a slugfest as well until I checked the box scores after the game. Plus, seeing my students happy made me feel pretty good too as some of them were able to catch some practice balls that the players threw into the stands in between innings. It’s really great if you are a teacher and are able to share some of your student’s interests as they open up to you a little more and actually listen to what you have to say. If you guys ever get the chance to go to a 2-gun game then by all means go. For 1000 yen and 9 innings of baseball, what better way is there to spend a sunny afternoon on the weekend?

As usual, here’s the box score from the game:

http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/2009/games/fs2009060700742.html

http://www.seibulions.jp/farm/scoreboard/record/2009060701.html

Shogo Akada is NOT happy with that strike call!



Yakult Swallows catcher Tomohito Yoneno



Saitama Seibu pitcher Tetsuya Iwasaki. He has on of the wildest wind ups I have ever seen seriously.



Takuya Hara using his batting eye to draw a walk.



Yakult outfielders Munehiro Shida and Tsuyoshi Ueda reacting after Tetsuya Hara's triple.



Saitama Seibu catcher Shota Nakata going for the bunt.