Lot's of negative things to report about the game tonight, but I'll keep it short.
Tokyo was beating Hanshin seven to nothing after two innings. We lost the game seven to nine.
That's embarrassing.
I'll ask it again: can we please hire some new/real pitching coaches? Yes, we know that you're dealing with young talent. But you haven't done anything constructive with all that middle-aged and old talent that's lying around the bullpen either!
Labels:
baseball,
sports,
Tokyo Swallows
Labels:
crime,
justice,
Lindsay Ann Hawker,
Tatsuya Ichihashi
I just posted again over at Trans-Pacific Radio. This time I wrote about Japanese Professional Baseball.
Please swing by and have both a look and a listen. The podcast is in interview form (as are all the posts in the "Spotlight" section of that site), and it diverges sharply from what is written in the post itself.
You can listen to the podcast without actually downloading it. Just click on the little doohickey that says "listen now".
It's the middle of August now which means that summer sale season is basically over [eyes become misty].
I was out shopping in Shinjuku on Friday. I picked up a Hyper-Cardioid microphone to help make voice recordings less awkward and more efficient. On my way to "Don Quijote" to look at undershirts, I noticed a large pear-shaped man dressed in a black tank-top and black shorts walking towards me. Just as he was weaving between myself and a young couple, he knocked into the girl.
She didn't really seem to notice, and her boyfriend was busy joking about something, so they just carried on their way. But I could have sworn that he reached out and elbowed her on purpose.
He had already passed me, so I turned around as the above thought process was still sliding around inside my head. Just as I turned I saw him do it again. Boom! This time the young woman noticed because it must have hurt. A forearm shiver isn't pleasant even when you are expecting it.
My immediate reaction was to get angry, but then I decided to just follow him. Approaching him about his behavior could have turned ugly, and since I'm a guest in this country it would quickly have been decided that I was in the wrong. So following him was about the best I could do.
I immediately noticed a pattern; he only targets young women. He never elbowed any men, and women who appeared to be over the age of 40 were off the hook as well. Only nicely dressed ladies who looked like they might be high school age or older qualified, and he would walk out of his way to tag some unsuspecting lady with his forearm.
I started following him near the ABC Mart (shoe shop) that is closest to the Don Quijote in Kabuki-cho. He forearmed at least 6 women (some could nearly be classified as body-checks because he was literally three times the size of some of his targets) before I stopped following him when he bought a JR ticket and got on the train at Shinjuku station.
I wonder what is going on in this guy's mind. He went about elbowing women like it was a very normal part of his day--almost like it was his job. Furthermore, he never looked back to see the reaction of the person he had just bashed into (and possibly bruised).
More importantly, I'm wondering how to video blog. I have video of him bumping into a woman in Shinjuku station that was taken with my phone. The quality isn't great, but it's enough to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
Does anyone know how to post video on blogger?
Labels:
life in Japan,
oddities
Tokyo completely dismantled Miura and the rest of Yokohama this evening.
Final score:
Tokyo 15 -- 1 Yokohama
There was no dark cloud today, so I can't really speak of a silver lining. Everything seemed to go right tonight.
The only two innings we didn't score in were the 5th and 7th. Third year right-hander Kenichi Matsuoka scattered 10 hits over eight innings while giving up only 1 run in his sixth mound appearance of the season. He improved to 3-0. Meanwhile, Yokohama ace, Miura, was chased after only three innings of work. He gave up eight hits and six earned runs during those three long frames (71 pitches). Miura's record now sits at 9-10.
Picking a "hero" for this game would be tough. Matsuoka might be a logical choice, but several other guys had a very productive game as well. Iihara went 3 for 5 with one rbi. Aoki went 4 for 6. Ramirez went 2 for 5 with 2 rbi's, and Guiel clubbed his 24th dinger of the season. Tanaka, was 4 for 6 with 2 rbi's. However, the crown should probably go to Miyade who went 3 for 4 with five rbi's (including a three run home run).
Woohoo! Two in a row! I'm not going to get too excited though. It's only our sixth win since the break.
Labels:
baseball,
sports,
Tokyo Swallows
The Hawker family was able to get the Japanese media (Japan Times) to run another article related to their frustration with the investigation into their daughter's murder.
The case has gone cold and Mr. and Mrs. Hawker are upset that communication with the Japanese authorities has been so vague and inconsistent.
Mrs. Hawker is quoted as having said, "Although we understand that there are some aspects of the case the police need to keep confidential, we don't feel that the standard of the investigation is the same as in the United Kingdom."
Sadly, Mrs. Hawker is completely accurate in her assessment of what is taking place in Tokyo and Chiba. There are allegedly 100 officers assigned to finding the prime suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, but very few of them have any real training or experience in investigating anything other than stolen bicycles.
Mr. Hawker cited the urgency of the hunt for Ichihashi when he said that "...we are concerned that he could strike again and leave another family facing a life sentence like we are." This very point has been argued before on several websites, including this one and Trans-Pacific Radio, as several key details of the murder bear a close resemblance to those of a sexual predator who is likely to strike again.
A website has been set up to facilitate global awareness of this case and to educate people that Ichihashi could be anywhere in the world right now.
For additional posts on this subject, click here.
To buy a t-shirt that will help in publicizing this case, click here.
Labels:
crime,
justice,
Lindsay Ann Hawker,
Tatsuya Ichihashi,
TPR
It's been rough since the All-Star break.
We have done very little winning, and a whole lot of people have forgotten how to play baseball.
The tear that we went on at the end of the first half of the season has been reversed by a humbling slide back down toward the basement of the Central league.
Tokyo is now 18 games below five hundred.
We haven't won the series since the break, and more and more people are starting to blame Furuta for the slide. He has been uncharacteristically impatient with our starting pitchers as of late (although they have given him ample justification for his change of heart), and he isn't really trying to conceal the fact that there are certain players he likes more than others (even though their performances don't necessarily warrant the extra playing time).
In Furuta's defense, the parent company, Yakult, spends very little money on developing young talent through the farm system (why does Yakult have only one minor league team?!?!?!!!!), so he doesn't have a whole lot of options.
The bad news: our relief pitching, on the whole, has gotten worse. Veterans such as Endo, Kida, and Takatsu have blown several leads between them (Takatsu has since been sent to the minors), and Yoshikawa isn't nearly as effective as he was during the first half of the season. Also, Fukukawa has been given the most opportunities behind the plate since the break, but continues to swing for the fences. Perhaps even worse is the fact that he seems to call for a lot of pitches that end up in the bleachers. Our starting pitchers aren't the best in the league, but it's hard to call a pitch a "mistake" if it was headed right for Fukukawa's glove. Personally, I would like to see Kawamoto start a larger percentage of games. While we're on catchers, if Furuta doesn't plan to put the pads on any more, he should at least be pinch hitting more regularly. And might I add that when he does decide to make a plate appearance (as he did last week versus Yokohama), he needs to approach the at-bat with a bit more purpose (a la Manaka). There are several guys on the bench that are capable of weak dribblers to second base.
The good news: Kawashima's back in the starting rotation! He had a very strong outing last week (seven innings), and he will hopefully inspire some of our other starters to dig a little deeper. Ramirez and Aoki are still duking it out for two of the batting titles (hits and average). Riggs has returned, and he's slowly getting back into the groove at first base. Iihara and Tanaka are contributing more consistently at the plate, and Guiel leads the league in "taking one for the team" (actually he's been hit by a pitch 21 times so far this season).
So, despite the drubbing of Yokohama tonight (10-3: Hanada got the win in relief and Ramirez went three for five with two home runs and six rbi's), Tokyo has a whole lot of work to do. There's still a hefty chunk of season left, but that coveted third playoff spot is 12.5 games away (we are 15 games behind league-leader, Yomiuri).
Labels:
baseball,
sports,
Tokyo Swallows
