Shigeru Takada (finally) resigns as Tokyo manager

I'm very happy to report that Takada will be spending more time with his wife from now on.

Former Tokyo manager, Shigeru Takada, formally ended his tenure after tonight's 3-2 home loss to the Tohoku Eagles. The farewell press conference was co-hosted by Tokyo's other prized knucklehead, team president Tadashi Suzuki (right).

Let us all remember that May 26th is a very special day. Let us never forget.

This picture captures the part of the press conference when he says that he doesn't want to be annoying or a hindrance to the team by not taking responsibility for the current state of affairs.

I think I speak for everyone when I say: Mr. Takada, you're more than two full seasons late.

Anyway, read the post over at Tokyo Swallows and feel free to join in the rejoicing.

Shigeru Takada (finally) resigns as Tokyo manager

Things that I'm excited about right now

Update [Mar. 25, 2010]

• The kichigai promotional site is up and running and can be found here.
  
• Another short film that I worked on last year, "Banki", is a nominee at the Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival taking place later this spring!

________________________________

It's been a very enjoyable month thus far even if I haven't been lucky enough to win an Olympic medal. I've been busy meeting friends, both old and new, and working on a pretty large swath of projects that will hopefully make waves later in 2010.

Here are some of the big things that are making me smile:

Script. I'm currently working on the spec script for a film that we'll probably start filming in late March or April. I'm very stoked about this because we're exploring a new genre and looking to build on what we learned from the production of Little Tokyo (more info on that later).

Pre-production. Not exactly film-related, but in the prep-stages nonetheless, a couple of new web projects look like they may be getting off the ground soon. One is an information portal related to living in Japan and the other is a site about celebrity fashion. My role in both projects is mostly on the developer side which is probably hard for some of you to believe--especially regarding the fashion site.

Filming. Japan Booze Blind continues to grow within the Japan Eats network. The word 'network' is apt here as we've been experimenting with live tapings of the show, and the next one is scheduled for March 28th at 3pm (Tokyo time). Live tapings via Livestream are a blast because I can interact with the audience in (nearly) real-time. The show on the 28th will deal with my favorite spring pastime, hanami. This post over at Tokyo Terrace will give you a good idea of what we've been up to.

Post-production. A film that I worked on last fall, Kichigai (Japanese title: Wasted), is in post production now and will hopefully be screened at a film festival later in 2010. There's a website being developed to help promote the film, but I've been advised that it's not ready to go live, so I'll hold off on posting a link just yet.

Promotion.  We'll be hearing back next month about whether or not Little Tokyo will be screened at the 2010 Short Shorts Film Festival. Please keep your fingers crossed  for us. Another film that I had a leading role in, Banki, will also hopefully get screened. Fortunately (for me, anyway), Little Tokyo and Banki are not entered in the same category.

Of course, there's also the redesign of the Tokyo Swallows website to be excited about. That took quite a bit of hair-pulling and face-slapping (my own) to get under control, but I think that it was definitely worth it. There are still several things to get sorted out, but I think that we'll have a better feel for what we need to do once more content gets posted within the new framework of the site.


And as many of you know, I've jumped face-first into the world of social networking sites (SNS). Facebook, Mixi, Twitter, and Disqus to name a few. I've actually hooked this site up with Disqus, a service that aggregates the social aspects of several SNS platforms, so make sure to leave a comment at the end of this post and see how it all works. I'm very interested in seeing how it helps users keep track of the ongoing dialogue as it moves and changes across the web.

Anyway, one thing that I'm very grateful for is that I've been able to easily reconnect with a bunch of people that I didn't have any idea how to contact, and that includes both family and friends.

So those are some of the things that I've been thinking about, stressing over, and working on recently. Just need to stay motivated and keep working with the talented people around me. Hopefully I can keep up.

Things that I'm excited about right now

I found the colonel!

He's in Jingu Stadium near the center field entrance.

[If you don't know what I'm talking about, please listen to this podcast.]

I found the colonel!

World Baseball Classic: Pool A Games (Tokyo)

I spent Friday through Monday at "The Big Egg" (ie. the monstrosity that is Tokyo Dome) watching the WBC games between Japan, South Korea, Taiwan Chinese Taipei, and China. We had good seats off to the side of the foul pole in right field and enjoyed ourselves immensely even though I think we grew to dislike that stadium a little bit more with each passing game.

That place may have 40,000-plus seats, but it's not designed to hold that many people. The corridors where the vendors are situated are incredibly tight, and several of the bathrooms have nasty traffic-jam inducing pinch points near the entrance/exit (don't put the hand driers near the door!). Also, it feels like the stands are made of fiberglass or something. Whatever.

The paper cup pictured to the right is what you receive when you try to smuggle your own drinks into the game. The small print under the teary-eyed baseball player reads, "I'm sorry, but it isn't possible to take that pet bottle, can, bottle in the stadium".

Oh really?

They don't pour your beers out, they just empty them into these cups that are supposed to make you feel ashamed (?) of yourself for not agreeing to pay 800 yen (about US$8) for a draft beer with five inches of foam. That means that if you have a sixer in your bag, and the door guards find it when they rummage through your stuff (which they do to everyone), then you're going to be walking to your seat with a half dozen cups of beer in hand. Drink quickly!

Actually, the best way to go about smuggling beer into the Tokyo Dome, and you didn't hear this from me, is to put a couple beers at the bottom of a bag/backpack wrapped in an extra sweatshirt or something, and one or two in your coat pockets, and then carry one or two out in plain view. They'll usually nab the ones in plain view and then forget about checking for any more. Then you obligingly pour your two 'diversion beers' into paper cups.

It goes without saying that this is never really an issue at Jingu. They just pretend like they're searching your bag. At Tokyo Dome, however, they will dig around a bit, and if you didn't bury those cans, then they will be found.

I'm not sure whether they're worried about plastic/aluminum/glass drinking containers raining down on the field during the game or if they're trying to reduce the amount of garbage that is brought into the stadium every night. If they're worried about fans throwing things, then they'd be wise to stop selling baseballs at the concession stands. And if it's the latter that they're thinking about, well, congratulations, you just doubled the amount of garbage by forcing me to drink out of an extra non-recyclable container.

Anyways, back to the baseball. I didn't have a ticket for Thursday's Japan-China game, but I saw Korea kick the piss out of Taiw Chinese Taipei on Friday. On Saturday we witnessed the shock defeat of the Chinese Taipei team by the Chinese during the afternoon, and then returned that evening to watch Korea get whupped by team Japan (mercy rule). Sunday was the elimination game between Korea and China in which the former earned a berth in round two, and the latter, under former Orix Buffaloes manager, Terry Collins, was sent packing after another 7th-inning mercy rule game.

Monday night was the big rematch between Japan and Korea that didn't go well for the Koreans on Saturday night. This game, however, was totally different, and the stakes were quite high considering the fact that the loser will most likely have to square off against Cuba in the beginning of the next round.

There's a good discussion of this game over at the Tokyo Swallows website (English), but I'd just like to point out that I felt like "Samurai Japan" didn't do its homework before the game on Monday.

So much time was spent analyzing the mythical samurai-slaying slider of one Kwan-hyun Kim (whom they teed off on two nights before) that it appeared like the team Japan hitters were still looking for sliders when Monday night rolled around. Oops!

They didn't see many of them because it looked to me, judging by the speeds blipping up on the scoreboard, like the Korean pitchers were relying heavily on fastballs to both sides of the plate.

Long story, short: Korea won the rematch 1-0, and Matsuzaka will probably have to deal with the Cuban batters this coming weekend.

By the way, and I know that it's been said before, but Japan manager, Hara, is the weakest link on that team.

World Baseball Classic: Pool A Games (Tokyo)

Baseball

Haven't posted on this topic in a while, but Dave Watkins just did a very thorough analysis of what is going on with the Tokyo Swallows at this point in the season.

It's well worth a read if you're interested in the plight of an overlooked and under-appreciated sports team.

Baseball

Tokyo Pitcher Daniel Rios Steroid Scandal

Daniel Rios, Tokyo's only off-season acquisition that involved a foreign player, was recently given his marching orders.

Apparently only horses can get away with using that steroid.

Tokyo Pitcher Daniel Rios Steroid Scandal

Tokyo Yakult Swallows Blog

Our new blogging project, 燕軍： Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is doing quite well! There appears to be a large body of baseball fans, both in and outside Japan, that is interested in NPB, and the number of visitors to the site each day has continued to climb.

There's already a lot of content on the site (well, considering that it's only been up for a few weeks), so please pop on over and have a look.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows Blog

New Blog

Dave, Garrett and I have a new blogging project that is dedicated to the sap on our time, money and prospects for the future that is the Tokyo Swallows. The site, aptly named Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is up and running as of last night and will hopefully house some decent content within a week.

Much of my boring drivel about baseball will probably migrate over there. Or at least the marginally higher-quality stuff anyway. Some of the junk will likely show up here every once in a while.

New Blog

Yokohama Baseball Stadium

View from the left field bleachers of Yokohama stadium. This was from a game in early April that we lost (9-6) because Rios was pitching. Three weeks later, actually, he's still in a bit of a slump. He often flirts with the 100-pitch mark by the beginning of the sixth inning, and he seems to have lost that knack for getting guys out that propelled him to the top of the Korean Baseball Organization last season.

Here's hoping that he finds it.

But this post is not meant to be a swipe at Rios. Adjustments take time. He'll find his groove again. The negative tone of my typing, however, is going to endure. For I found that I'm no longer as crazy about Yokohama stadium as I used to be.

On the plus-side, it's a short walk from either Kannai station (JR Negishi/Keihin Tohoku line or Yokohama Subway line) or Nihon Odori station (Minato Mirai subway line). If you're sitting in the outfield, though, there won't be many more pluses.

Yokohama has no control over the weather, so no blame can be assigned for the bitterly frigid wind that was sweeping around the inside of the bowl-shaped stadium. But very little was done to make us feel at home.

Ah! Open seating. There's another plus! Yokohama resembles Jingu in that regard. You can get your ticket and then wander around until you find something that you like. But don't sit too close to the center field scoreboard as the public address speakers are pointed directly at the fans. It's a lot like being crammed in a tiny bar that just got new floor-to-ceiling speakers and the owner insists on taking advantage of their potential. Deafening. Accordingly, sitting in left-center (or right-center, I would imagine) only allows you the privilege of viewing the scoreboard above home plate. It's a great view if your interest in the game starts and ends with ball/strike count.

Another oversight at Yokohama stadium, at least in left field, is the food. I had long ago dismissed all hopes of getting something decent to eat at Jingu stadium (although, admittedly, the selection did improve this year), but somehow I had tricked myself into believing that Yokohama stadium has more or less a similar selection of fare available for ticket-holders. It doesn't. Yokohama stadium makes Jingu look like the food section at Costco.

Alright, it's time to stop pissing and moaning about the stadium. At least the home fans there are friendly, the seating in left field is unassigned for most games, and the stadium has retained its intimacy.

I'll just have to keep packing my own picnic and sit a little further from the center field scoreboard from now on I guess. Or that would be the sensible thing to do anyway--not that I'm particularly prone to doing the sensible thing.

Tokyo plays Yokohama away on May 6th through the 8th.

Yokohama Baseball Stadium

Season Opener vs. Yomiuri at Meiji Jingu Stadium

It was kind of a wet weekend, that Friday, Saturday and Sunday when the 2008 season began for the teams of NPB's central league. The Tokyo derby was hosted at Jingu stadium and we were there for all three games.

The rain was particularly bad for the Sunday game after Tokyo had already beat Yomiuri easily in the first two games of the series. I had publicly stated before the series that Yomiuri was the team to beat this season, but they sure didn't look like it during that first series. Tokyo won all three games: 6-2 (Fri); 6-3 (Sat); 10-2 (Sun) leading to a central league table that looked very different from last year's.

Luke and Sally were back in town that weekend, so they were able to make it to the game on Sunday when the clouds emptied. Stephen, Miyoko and Reina were there as well (Stephen and Miyoko only like to come to games when it's raining), and we were able to have a bit of fun once it became obvious that the game was out of reach and the mighty Giants had all but given up.

The Swallows pitching is still a little shaky, but the upshot is that there are a lot of young arms in the rotation, so that can only mean good things for the future. Additionally, it looks like we may finally have a reliable closer in the bullpen. Chang-yong Im (last name sometimes romanized as Lim) throws really hard (94-95 mph) for a sidearm pitcher, and he has been fantastic thus far. I'm guardedly optimistic about him at this point. It's still early, so we'll see what happens when opposing teams have seen him a few times.

Season Opener vs. Yomiuri at Meiji Jingu Stadium

Baseball Season and a Revamped Jingu Stadium

I can't believe that we're more than three weeks into April already and I haven't mentioned baseball yet. Well, I did, but not here.

I've been to seven games so far this season, which is kind of a weak tally for me. There have been a few rained out games so far, and I had planned to be at Jingu stadium for two of them, so mother nature is partly responsible for my slack attendance thus far.

Jingu stadium has been slightly revamped. There's new turf and new hi-tech scoreboards in both center-field and on top of the stands behind home plate. The turf looks gorgeous, but the scoreboards, which are the largest ones in use in Japan at this point, are still not being used to their full potential. The scorers sacrificed two columns of real estate on the left and right sides of the center-field scoreboard to advertising, so it is no longer possible to view the players' batting averages unless they're batting. That needs to change. Another problem with the scoreboards, or the people operating them really, is the fact that they still don't show replays of nice defensive plays. Much like during the former scoreboard's tenure, the only pieces of action worth replaying are home runs.

The corners of the outfield were moved out 10 meters at the foul poles as well. This means that it's now 101 meters to the left and right field poles which is about three feet further than the average professional ballpark in Japan. Straight-away center-field still sits 120 meters from home plate. Several rows of 1,900 yen seats were sacrificed for the expansion of the field, but the home team's pitching staff has breathed a collective sigh of relief that a few extra longballs will stay in the park this season.

As mentioned earlier, the new turf is beautiful, and it seems to absorb the momentum of the baseball a lot like natural grass does. The only thing that the players will have to be wary of is the fact that those artificial blades of grass are pretty slick when it rains. I've seen position players, and umpires, hit the deck on several occasions when making otherwise routine runs on the new surface.

Other than that, most stuff at the park are the same. The food's the same, the fans are the same, the team...is actually quite different, but I'll save that for another post.

Oh! One thing that is different is that there's a new t-shirt stand outside the stadium near where members of the fan club pick up their tickets. Grand Slam Sports Enterprises has begun producing a revolving line of unique t-shirts that are more in line with the thought patterns of the diehard Tokyo Swallows fan than what was previously available through the team's official catalog. I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with one of the main guys at Grand Slam before the game on Sunday, and he seems to have a lot of good ideas about promoting the team through a variety of well-designed and wearable t-shirts.

The t-shirt pictured here is a typical example of what they have to offer, and it cost me 2,500 yen. If it's not obvious, the "We are Tokyo" message is alluding to the fact that there are two teams located within the borders of the metropolis, but the claim to being Tokyo's team has been decided.

It sounds like Grand Slam is going to bring out some new designs every couple of weeks, so be sure to check back every so often and see if they have your favorite player's tee out there. It sounds like they will be offering a lot of limited edition t-shirts this season.

I'm hoping that they make an Iihara t-shirt soon because the team has been so slow to make shirts for some of their young stars (unless they're pitchers). Grand Slam Sports Enterprises is being billed as one of the official t-shirt outlets for the Tokyo Swallows fan club this year.

Baseball Season and a Revamped Jingu Stadium

Sikorski Flies the Coop

Brian Sikorski, a guy I grew to love this past season, has been allowed to leave the team as well. Sikorski was easily the Swallows best option in middle/late relief this season. A right-hander with an odd hitch in his pitching motion, he was happy to throw on consecutive nights, and he always seemed to want the ball (no matter how many guys were already on base). The same could not be said for most of the other pitchers on the roster.

It was announced that Sikorski will pitch for the Chiba Lotte Marines under manager Bobby Valentine in 2008. The 33-year-old will make roughly 70 million yen (no word on incentives). He had previously played for Lotte for three seasons (2001-2004). He signed a one-year deal with Chiba.

Sikorski joins left-fielder Alex Ramirez, and pitchers Seth Greisinger and Kazuhisa Ishii in the bewildering parade of talent that has exited Jingu stadium during the off-season this year.

Sikorski Flies the Coop

Tokyo Yogurt Bird Update

Tokyo has allowed three of its top players to walk.

Greisinger, the winningest pitcher in the central league this season, was not re-signed.

Ramirez was also released by the Swallows. You will remember that Ramirez easily outclassed the CL MVP (Yomiuri's Ogasawara) this season, and would have easily won that honor had his team not been so utterly crap.

Number two in the rotation, Kazuhisa Ishii, walked on out to Saitama to join the Seibu Lions. He'll serve as a nice one-two punch with Wakui out there. We snagged Seibu's pitching coach, but Mr. Araki is going to have his work cut out for him at Jingu.

I wouldn't mind the personnel losses so much if I knew that the cash saved by not paying those three extra huge contracts would be reinvested in the team (like the farm team, for instance), but the front office is all but guaranteed to pocket it.

Tokyo Yogurt Bird Update

Shigeru Takada to Manage Swallows

Former Nippon Ham Fighters general manager, Shigeru Takada (62), appears set to accept the head coach position in Tokyo.

He replaces outgoing player-manager, Atsuya Furuta.

Shigeru Takada to Manage Swallows

Rumors and Rumblings from the Bird Cage

The season is over and change is the force du jour in Swallows-land.

Here's a quick recap:

Furuta's replacement as manager looks to be Shigeru Takada.

The head pitching coach will be Daisuke Araki (a former Swallows player) who is being brought in from Seibu.

It appears that Alex Ramirez has played his last game in a Swallows uniform. The likely Central League MVP is now a free agent, and the boys at Yakult don't seem to care enough about winning to keep him around.

Dickey Gonzalez (who missed the entire season due to surgery), Adam Riggs, and Adam Guiel are slated to return.

Pitchers Greisinger and Sikorski would be logical hold-overs for the team (they're the only two pitchers on the team who consistently did their job well), but Yakult doesn't like people who demand market-value in contract negotiations. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Career saves leader, Shingo Takatsu, has been told to find employment elsewhere. Takatsu experienced his worst season ever in Japan, and saw his era balloon to above six.

More to come...

Update 1: [10/13/07, 1:55pm]

Shigeru Takada, the man who has been offered the Tokyo manager's job, said that he cannot make a full commitment to the job until after his current team is done playing. Takada is now the GM of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. His team, as you know, is prepping to defend its Japan Series title.

Update 2: [10/22/07, 11:39pm]

My prediction that Alex Ramirez would win the CL MVP award was probably not the wisest thing I've typed this month. Ramirez, as I've bragged a million times before, plays for the Tokyo Swallows...the worst team in Japan this year. MVP's in Japan, at least so far, do NOT come from last place teams.

However, I will state once again that he had, without a doubt, the best numbers in the league this season.

Rumors and Rumblings from the Bird Cage

Furuta's Last Home Game

Tokyo's player/manager Atsuya Furuta played his last home game last night against the Hiroshima Carp.

Hiroshima jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the first inning off of Tokyo starter Ishikawa.

Tokyo was never able to recover despite an rbi sacrifice fly by Riggs in the second, and solo home runs from Guiel in the 6th and 7th (the one in the 6th was an inside-the-park homer that resulted from a fielding collision in shallow left field).

Incidentally, Guiel is now one behind Yokohama's Murata for the central league home run title. As fate would have it, the final two games of the season are at hitter-friendly Yokohama stadium this afternoon. Look for Guiel to walk three or four times today and tomorrow as Yokohama tries to protect Murata's claim to the title.

To be fair, the game has no meaning in terms of the CL standings. Tokyo secured last place with it's shaky pitching last night, and Yokohama is in no danger of losing its title as the best crappy team in the central.

The only other things at stake are era's, Ramirez's chance to break Aoki's CL mark of 202 hits in a season and/or reach 30 round-trippers on the season, Aoki's ability to catch Ramirez for the batting title (batting average), and Guiel's proximity to the league title for most times being hit by a pitch in a season (he's been beaned 23 times so far).

Rewind: Dave and I arrived at the park at 2pm to get in line for tickets. The game was sold out, so we were cared for by Nakagawa-san and company and somehow ended up 35th in line for the right field bleachers. That meant that we were easily able to get our normal seats at the back of section D, and we were able to watch the stands fill up very quickly as gate after gate began hemorrhaging fans.

The wait was long enough that we had a pizza delivered to where we were standing in line. Pizza-la was able to find gate 17 despite the long walk, and the pizza was delivered with a smile.

The sell-out was due to Furuta's impending retirement from professional baseball. He started and played the entire game, and he received unbelievable support every time he came up to bat. Throughout the game, short videos were played on the giant monitor in center field that commemorated his role in turning Tokyo into a major force during the 90's and the first part of this century. Most fans held green placards with Furuta's number 27 on them every time he came to the plate.

The end of the game saw starter Ishii come on in relief and Takatsu (two guys that Furuta caught through several championship seasons) pitching in the ninth. Hiroshima's manager, Marty Brown, responded by sending in veterans Sasaoka and Maeda to help recreate some of the old days.

After all was said and done, including speeches, lots of flowers, Furuta getting thrown into the air several times by his teammates, and a long tour around the grounds to throw balls into the stands, Aoki and Ramirez followed Furuta back toward the right field fence where they hoisted him up so that he could climb on top of it and thank the fans in the bleachers that have been watching him play for nearly two decades.

Even those of us who have not been impressed by his stint as manager were quick to thank him for all that he's meant to the team and Japanese baseball.

I hope that he doesn't stray far from the game.

Final score:

Tokyo 3 -- 6 Hiroshima

W: Hasegawa (5-5, 2.95 era)

L: Ishikawa (4-7, 4.38)

Update: [Tuesday October 9th, 2007; 1:12 am]

Ramirez was able to rewrite the CL record with his 203rd hit, and Aoki captured the batting crown with three hits and a season average of .346 (to Ramirez's .343). Guiel walked twice. Tokyo lost the game 5-4 and sealed their position as the worst team in Japan this year (despite having one of the most potent offenses).

Furuta's Last Home Game

Ramirez Gets 200th Hit!

Ramirez became on the third player in the history of Japanese professional baseball to record 200 hits in a single season.

In last night's 3 - 1 victory over the Yokohama Baystars, Ramirez reached base safely in his third at-bat. It was the 139th game of the year for him.

The two other players to reach the 200-hit milestone are Ichiro Suzuki (who now plays for the Seattle Mariners) and Ramirez's teammate on the Tokyo Swallows, Norichika Aoki.

Meanwhile, Ramirez just needs one more home run to reach 30 on the season.

Ramirez Gets 200th Hit!

Dave's Dance

Dave and his swallow do a little dance while Scott and Sarah provide relief and song.

PS. Yes, the quality is still crappy. Feel free to buy me a new phone anytime.

Dave's Dance

What the Hell's Going On?

Tokyo just swept the Tigers. I don't know how or why it happened, but it did.

My only regret is that I opted not to go to the stadium today because I thought it was going to rain. Instead I went to Dave's house to watch the game on his 150" screen TV (I swear, that TV is huge!) which, to be fair, was a decent compromise because the beer's a lot cheaper. He whupped my ass in some stupid PS3 baseball game that he apparently plays every day to make up for the fact that I depleted half a fridge drawer full of brew.

Here's a quick rundown of the three games:

Game 1:
Tokyo 8 -- 1 Hanshin
W: Greisinger (16-6, 2.73 era)
L: Andou (2-1, 3.75)

Greisinger did the job again. He scattered eight hits over eight innings, and had some solid run support to help keep things cool. He also helped his own cause with a two-run double in the second inning.

Game 2:
Tokyo 9 -- 6 Hanshin
W: Kawashima (4-1, 3.13)
L: Watanabe (1-1, 2.55)

Game 2 bright spots:
Five starters had multi-hit games, and Yuichi led the pack by going 4 for 5!

The relief pitchers allowed no runs off of only four hits through four innings of work. The highlight was definitely Hanada coming in with two men on and no outs and then proceeding to strike out the next three batters that came to the plate.

Game 3:
Tokyo 3 -- 0 Hanshin
W: Ishii (8 -- 10, 4.28) [complete game shutout!]
L: Uezono (6 -- 5, 2.69)

Game 3 bright spots:
It's all Ishii here. Complete game shutout! He only gave up two hits and beaned only one batter (Akahoshi took one for the team...he'll definitely feel that one in the morning). He struck out nine and didn't walk anybody.

The infield defense was pretty solid (especially Miyamoto and Hatakeyama), and both Yuichi and Aoki had multi-hit games.

Overall:
We showed the kind of baseball that we should have been playing all year. The surprising thing is that the most solid performance during that three game stretch was from Ishii. An even better surprise has been the display of some of the raw talent that has stayed cooped up on the bench all season. Yuichi has been on fire! The kid raised his batting average back up over .400 by hitting 9 for 14. Hatakeyama is also a solid performer who can handle a couple of different positions, and Kawamoto has all but ended Tokyo's search for a new catcher. Add to those names the more established Iihara and Tanaka, and you've got more than half a starting lineup of guys who are 25 or 26 years old. Throw Miyamoto, Ramirez, Aoki, and Guiel into the mix, and you have a team that, teamed with the right coaching, can make a serious run at the playoffs next year.

Mysteriously, pitching is slowly becoming less of an issue. I don't really know how to explain it. Usually the starters begin to burn out in September (understandable when you consider that they throw between 150 and 300 pitches on "off" days), but guys are starting to find their control down the stretch. I think part of it has to do with the fact that most of our starters have spent a considerable stretch of the season on the sidelines, so they're more rested than they would normally be. We're out of playoff contention at this point, but a final month of play above the .500 mark would definitely be a breath of fresh air.

What the Hell's Going On?

Family at the Game

Tokyo versus Hanshin at Jingu stadium. Photo courtesy of Dave Watkins (September, 2005).

Family at the Game