As seen in T-Ray’s Japanese Column in Daily Sports
No matter how long I live in Japan, it still feels a little lonely that Christmas is not celebrated around me. Even stranger for this toque-donning Canuck is a December 25th without snow on the ground. During this holiday season, memories of my childhood come flooding back. Cold winter days spent playing driveway hockey with my brothers in the day and watching our NHL heroes on TV at night.
That’s right, my first love is not the Hanshin Tigers, but rather the Winnipeg Jets. And although you might think the leap from tundra ice to Koshien dirt is a vast one, these two teams aren’t as different as you might think.
Both have a history of being good, but not good enough. The Jets, in fact, reached the semi-finals last season for the first time ever. The Tigers have but one Nippon Series Championship to their name.
Both fell victim time and again to a powerhouse dynasty with the greatest player in the history of the sport. Sadaharu Oh (1960s Yomiuri), meet Wayne Gretzky (1980s Edmonton Oilers).
Both have among the most rabid fans in the sport. In fact, jeering at either team’s home games is the stuff legends are made of.
Both teams have a period of darkness which fans choose never to forget. Hanshin was NPB’s laughing stock from 1987 to 2002. The Jets disappeared into a black hole in 1996, reincarnating themselves in Phoenix, and did not “come back into existence” until the Atlanta Thrashers recognized they were anything but a hockey town, and moved the franchise to Winnipeg in 2011.
More importantly, both teams are in the middle of a youth movement. When Tomoaki Kanemoto took over as manager in 2016, the Tigers went young (while keeping a bit of old in the mix). They will continue to try to develop that talent under Akihiro Yano, and there are a plethora of guys who are just a step or two away from dominating the league. Meanwhile, the Jets jettisoned some of their veteran talent several seasons back in order to get draft-rich, and now boast arguably the best offensive talent in the league.
And so, as I sit here enjoying the rise of my beloved Winnipeg Jets from the relatively temperate winter conditions of Japan, I dream. Not only of a White Christmas, but of a Yellow November.
Hanshin Tigers, 2019 is your time to shine like proverbial stars atop the evergreen tree. Merry Christmas, everyone.