Camp is over! The team packed up late this morning and are on their way back to mainland. Exhibition season up here starts on March 3 (in Fukuoka, where they’re selling “open seating” all-you-can-eat tickets for ¥2500) and runs through the 25th. Looking forward to see how the field and mound start to take shape!…
We’re most of the way through this long meal called Spring Training. The fifth course is now in the books, and on this, Wilin Rosario‘s 29th birthday, we bring you the news of the past 3 days. First, Rosario took some time during batting practice to teach struggling outfielder Taiga Egoshi about hitting. We can…
It’s still just the beginning of spring training. And it’s still cold in mainland Japan. So because of the frozen nature of my fingers, and the lack of heaviness concerning any and all headlines, here’s what you missed, in short spurts: Minoru Iwata threw a 200-pitch bullpen… in case Kanemoto gets really, REALLY mad at…
The Yomiuri Giants have gotten the better of us most of the year, especially on our home turf. Though our spot in the playoffs was secure, second was still up for grabs, and the Giants were looking to complete their comeback attempt at sneaking into third. Though the BayStars shut us out in two straight…
The Tigers are about as close as you can get to clinching a playoff spot. In fact, just a couple of wins and/or a couple of losses by both the Yokohama BayStars and Yomiuri Giants would lock up second place and the chance to host the First Stage of the Climax Series. Naturally, it would…
The Yomiuri Giants aren’t a fourth place team on paper. With three of the best starters in the Central, and a lineup of proven veteran hitters and free agents, they should be contending for the pennant. And when they play the Hanshin Tigers, they look like a pennant team. The reality in this series was…
Somehow in the past month, the Tigers have managed to take away the Hiroshima Carp‘s magic number. Twice. And in the month of August, they managed to cut an 11-game gap between the teams in half. And yet during that time, the team only went 2-3-1 in their head-to-head matches. This three-game set in Hiroshima…
The road trip of death has just one week left. So far it has been quite successful, but now is not the time to let up. Playing against the last-place Yakult Swallows, against whom the Tigers have had good success this year (who hasn’t, really?), it would be nice to win two or three. But…
Obon is the time of year that people all across Japan return to their hometowns and pay their respects to their dead relatives/ancestors. Roughly 100,000 fans paid respect to the not-so-alive Hanshin Tigers at Kyocera Dome over the course of these past three days. Game 104 – Tuesday 8/15. O NO! MEN, DEZ NOT GOOD!…
The long, hard road trip continues on with two crucial matchups. We put the series loss to the Yomiuri Giants in the rearview mirror, and try to remain positive in light of the bad news about Randy Messenger. On tap over the weekend was a crucial set against the hard-charging Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Getting swept…