Original Article (written by T-Ray) can be seen here 和訳はこちら
Do you remember the day you gave your life over to this team? I distinctly remember my conversion experience*. June 18, 2014. Hanshin vs. Nippon Ham. My Koshien debut. My wife and I headed to the stadium that day all decked out in my buddy’s Tigers gear. Their pitcher that day was none other than the current flavor of the month, Shohei Ohtani. He went 8 innings, giving up one hit and striking out 11. But I was enthralled by the baseball atmosphere at Koshien Stadium, and from that day on, I have been cheering for Hanshin.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Trevor Raichura. I was born and raised in Canada, and have been a huge sports fan for as long as I can remember. I’ve been in Japan now for 20 years, but only 7 of those in the Kansai area, and I’m still in just my 4th year as a Tigers fan. In fact, for most of my early years in Japan, I followed American sports exclusively, and didn’t care much for the Japanese professional sports scene.
But my workplace in those days always had the local sports papers in the lounge, and the Tigers were always on the front page. I couldn’t help but wonder what was so great about this team, that the whole Kansai region got so worked up about them day in and day out. I had to see it with my own eyes.
And despite being dominated by Ohtani on that day, I wanted to know more about the team afterwards. So I did a web search (in English, of course), but the results were pretty scant. Then I’ll just have to become a provider of such info for others, myself! So I created a blog, and a year later, started a podcast. And it’s been amazing – I have miraculously bumped into some of the current foreign players on the team, and through some interesting connections, I’ve also been able to contact some of the team’s foreign greats from the past. It’s not my full-time job, but I have been having a blast sharing my knowledge and passion for the team with the world out there.
So what do I think about this year’s team? Well, the season has just gotten underway, but I would say they’re a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Sure, they looked brilliant in winning the season opener, but they blew leads in the next two games, right. Still, they hit five home runs in that first 3-game set, and I got all excited, thinking this could be the year.
But since then, the bats have gone completely silent, hitting just 4 home runs in their last 16 games. Now, if it was just a power outage, I could deal with it. But they’re not exactly tearing it up on the base paths, either. That skinny line (1) indicating the team’s stolen base total on the year isn’t too encouraging. Neither is their shoddy defense at times or the meatballs our pitchers have served up on occasion. You can’t help but wonder what the heck is going on with this team.
The disappointment wouldn’t be so great if the expectations weren’t so high. It’s been fun to watch the young players develop under manager Tomoaki Kanemoto these past two years, and it seemed like this year might be the year they put it all together. Lots of baseball analysts predicted great things for the Tigers this year as well, but so far the players haven’t gotten results on the field.
All I can do is hope the team wakes up and bounces back from the funk that it is in. I still believe this team has a shot at a pennant, and I still have high hopes for the team that captured my heart 4 years ago. You can do it, Tigers!
* As a Christian man, I know these words are often used in a religious context, and I do not mean to imply that I put my faith in a baseball team now. I hope you can understand that I used those terms in jest.