Every Year is Golden Year in Chiba
Here in NPB we’ve already finished our Spring Camps, and we’re over halfway through the open-sen (preseason) campaign. The “tons of changes” that were promised after last year’s highly disappointing finish didn’t really materialize this offseason, with the only really headline-grabbing change being the (as expected) departure of long-time ace Yoshihisa Naruse for the yogurt peddlers at Jingu.
I wasn’t sure what would be the most interesting aspect of Spring Camp in Ishigaki this year. Typically I’ve enjoyed watching the pitchers the most as their performance is probably closest to what we’ll see from them in a real game. So I suppose I was mostly interested in seeing how our new pitching acquisitions …
It finally hit me – I mean really hit me – that the 2014 NPB Season is coming so very soon sometime around 11am on 12 February. Sure, Spring Camp has been open for almost two weeks now, but at that time I was able to stand next to the bullpen in lovely Ishigaki and watch some of our best pitchers…
This weekend, Spring Camps open for all NPB teams. Needless to say I have been waiting very impatiently for this time since October. We’ve got a lot of baseball ahead of us – camp in February, open-sen in March, the start of the Pacific League Season, Interleague play, the rest of the PL season, and inevitably a return to the Climax Series (and the Nippon Series) for Our Marines. It’s almost 10 months of baseball, and on 1 February 2014 it all kicks off.
I had most of a post written here way back in February 2012, but I never got around to posting it or the pictures associated with it.
I’ve been back from Ishigaki about a week now but the memories and good feelings about the 2012 Marines are still very fresh in my mind. There’s just something about escaping the winter chill and relaxing in the sun watching your team get ready for the season that clears the mind. Ishigaki goes all out …