Could the annual “Road of Death” road trip start anywhere worse than Nagoya Dome? Our boys have NEVER fared well there, except perhaps the last time we won the pennant, back in 2005. Having been completely humiliated the last time we faced the Chunichi Dragons in their territory, Hanshin needed to take at least two…
It’s actually a scary thing to be facing a team that is riding a 13-game losing streak. Because you know that streak will eventually come to an end, and you don’t want to be the team that helps them snap it. The Yakult Swallows last won on June 30th against these very Hanshin Tigers. So…
This Hiroshima Carp team is strong. Really strong. Though the Tigers entered this series with a slight 6-5 edge in 11 head-to-head games this season, the last two were lopsided enough to make it feel like it’s 2016 all over again. But things would be different in this series, right? I mean, the games are…
It’s All-Star Break… no real baseball to watch and analyze, so let’s look at our crop of pitchers and give a few brief comments about each of them. What’s your take? Whom do you like in those final couple of rotation spots? In the bullpen? The above “depth chart” is just my own observations, and…
After a humiliating series sweep at the hands of these young upstart Dragons, Hanshin needed to get their revenge by winning their final two games before heading in to the all-star break. And although Nagoya’s boys came to Kansai on a two-game losing streak, they saved two left-handed import pitchers (against whom Hanshin has had…
The hard-charging Yokohama DeNA BayStars could leapfrog Hanshin with a series sweep in the two teams’ last showdown before the All-Star Break. But Hanshin was also showing signs of breaking out of their worst slump of the year, having won two straight to end the series against the Swallows. Which team would prevail? Game 73…
Original is in this magazine 元の記事はこの雑誌から Messenger Remembers His Teammates Written by Randy Messenger, translated to Japanese, then re-translated here by T-Ray The Real Ichiro Hits Homers at Will I forgot to mention something in the last column. I want to talk about Barry (Bonds = Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants) a little. He holds…
The following interview was a 5-week series found on the Hanshin Tigers official website. I always find it hard to translate these, because the original answers given by Randy Messenger were in English, then interpreted into Japanese, transcribed, read by my eyes, and put back into the English I think Randy might have originally spoken….
Life as a Hanshin Tigers fan has not been any fun lately. Since the bullpen meltdown on June 18 against the Eagles, the team has managed just three runs in three games, two of which came with the team down a dozen runs against the Carp (and neither was an RBI hit). Could they right…
While the Carp had a slightly better interleague record than the Tigers, the standings atop the Central were still close heading into this one. Last year at this time, Hanshin opened the post-interleague schedule in Hiroshima with an embarrassing 3-game sweep. Everyone knew that and had revenge in their minds. They did not have it…