I will freely admit it – sitting in the second deck behind home plate at Chiba Marine Stadium, watching game 6 – the decisive game of the Climax Series Final Stage, cheering loudly with my friends and fellow fans, seeing Ohmatsu golf a ball from Brian Falkenborg deep and high, being unable to tell whether …
Tag: Toshiaki Imae
Climax Series 1st Stage Game 2 – Indefatigable Spirit
“I feel like everything is shiny. Just… shiny.” -Katsu, about 60 minutes after the end of the game The world is indeed a shinier place this evening as yesterday’s comeback kings found a way to do it again today. Down late – again – needing a spark – again – wanting a hero to step …
Climax Series 1st Stage Game 1 – Never Say Die
‘‘This is what happens when you never give up,’’ said Fukuura, who pumped his right fist as he rounded the bases. – Kyodo News on Saturday’s Climax Series First Stage Game 1 If you were to make a time capsule for sports – a representative collection of the appeal of sport and the significance to …
Yatta! Look Out Seibu, The Marines are Invading
The wait is over – it’s been a long season, a stress-filled September, and it went right down to the last possible pitch. The three-year wait is over: Tonight, Our Marines clinched the final spot in the climax series by the slimmest of margins, taking a tight 5-4 victory from visiting Orix, and seizing the …
Modasho
As I have much lamented lately, the Lotte offense is just plain injured. Tonight’s starting lineup featured two batters well below .200 BA (Matoba at .172, Okada at .184 – the backup catcher and 6th outfielder, respectively) and had two more pinch hitters below .200 (Takehara at .145, Muniz at .136). But looky here – …
Righting Wrongs
So it’s just not possible to fix all of the world’s issues in a day. It’s not possible to right all of the wrongs in the Pacific League in a night either. But boy, Rakuten has sure been Kryptonite for our season and beating the stuffing out of them by the tune of 16-6 today …
Marine Warnings in Effect
I was poking around the Marine Museum after the game to see what new goodies they had in the shop. There was some interesting new items in there, and a bunch of stuff on clearance, so I scooped up a bit, paid my yen, and wandered into the humid evening. Lotte had just dropped the …
The Large Print Giveth, The Fine Print Taketh Away: Lotte vs Chunichi, Interleague Games 17 & 18
Let’s whip out the usual travel checklist: – Half day off on Friday: check – Nice outfield seats in hand: check – Train tickets, hotel: check – Uniform, flag, towel: check – Voice rested, ready to be destroyed my cheering at maximum volume: check – Camera packed, all charged up: errr… Yup, road trip time. …
Sweet Vengeance: Lotte vs Yomiuri, Interleague Game 16
Late in Tuesday’s game with Los Gigantes del Yomiuri I had a chat with one of the Chiba Marine security guards I know in passing. Him: “This feels good.” Me: “Yeah, yeah it does.” Him: “I went to both of the games in Tokyo Dome. Bad, very bad.” Me: “Mmm.” Him: ((pauses)) “This feels REALLY …
The Monster Awakens: Lotte vs Kyojin, Interleague Game 15
Where did all this pitching come from? In the last three games we’ve seen great pitching from Yoshimi, Shunsuke, Itoh, Yabuta, and Kobayashi. Tonight we added to that list with Bill Murphy, Kentaro Hashimoto, and Takuya Furuya. Aren’t we supposed to be limping, imploring our wounded arms to get better soon? Aren’t we supposed be …