Based on my Daily Sports Column (Japanese) / トレバーの虎場（デイリースポーツ）の連載コラムから
Well, September was a real letdown of a month for the Hanshin Tigers, wasn’t it? Actually, though, they finished with a winning record (10-9-4), though you would never guess it based on the numbers or the mood in Kansai.
Those numbers included… only 10 home runs, 15 stolen bases, and a run differential of -27 (68 scored vs. 95 allowed). They have played extremely well against the Giants (4-0-2) but decidedly mediocre against the rest of the league.
Looking at three struggling individuals in particular…
Teruaki Sato went 0-25 with 3 walks and 15 strikeouts. He is hitless in 53 plate appearances.
Jerry Sands went 10-65 (.154) with no home runs, 4 RBI, and a .410 OPS
Ryutaro Umeno is 10-63 (.159) with no home runs, 3 RBI and a .490 OPS
The pitching staff did not do very well (4.08 ERA for the month), and neither did the fielders. Fourteen errors in 23 games is actually better than their season pace, but it does not include bad plays that did not find their way into the record books.
Meanwhile, the Swallows went undefeated in 13 straight games (9-0-4) before their small two-game skid to end the month, and are a game ahead in the standings. It feels more like five or six games, though, the way the Tigers have looked in comparison.
So what do we have to rest our hopes on? If the team is performing this poorly, how could anyone continue to believe that they can win the pennant here? The answer to that question takes us back 57 years. I’ll present you a few interesting things about the pennant-winning 1964 season, and you tell me if they sound at all like 2021.
- The Giants were not the team they needed to beat. In 1964, it was the Taiyo Whales (who are now the Yokohama DeNA Baystars) that held onto first place late in the season. This year, it is the Yakult Swallows. The Giants found themselves in 3rd place then, and that’s where they are now.
- Batting did not win them the championship. The 1964 Tigers could not hit their way out of a paper bag. Sure, they had a 31-home run hitter in Kazuhiro Yamauchi, but after him, the next best guy had 12. It was the pitching staff, which boasted some excellent starters, that made the difference. With the return of Haruto Takahashi, the current Tigers have six fairly reliable starters and, contrary to what most think, it is unrivaled in the Central.
- A tall, lanky-armed American right-handed pitcher pulled off a miracle. Gene Bacque pretty much willed the team to victory at season’s end when no one else would step up. The team had very low expectations of him when the year began, but he was the deciding factor in their come-from-behind victory. Could Joe Gunkel, whose story is not so different from Bacque’s, be the one to carry this team to the CL title?
- The Olympics were held in Tokyo, but the Japan Series came down to two Kansai teams. That’s right. The 1964 Hanshin Tigers faced off against Osaka’s Nankai Hawks (who are now in Fukuoka) in a very close series. With the Orix Buffaloes currently tied for first in the PL, could it happen again in 2021?
- They took over first place in a late-season head-to-head showdown. The 1964 Tigers needed to win four straight against the Whales, plus two of their last three against other teams, to secure the pennant. And they did just that. The 2021 Tigers face the Yakult Swallows in games 139 and 140, and will have three games after that to end their season. Lightning could strike twice!
I know, I know. None of these things are exact replicas of what happened in 1964, and there is absolutely no true correlation between the two seasons. It all sounds like a bunch of wishful thinking, in fact. But I stick to my guns nonetheless. I would rather be the guy who believed in the best and got his heart broken, than to be the guy who believed the worst and then looked like a crusty, foolish pessimist when things work out in the end.
Keep the faith in 2021, folks. A huge miracle happened to the Tigers 57 years ago. We’re long overdue for another.