Twelve hours have passed since the home opener at Koshien ended, and I am still unable to process everything that went down. Check out a list of a few unbelievable plays/events from the game, plus video footage taken by yours truly from the 1B side at Koshien.
As already detailed in a prior article, the Hanshin Tigers bats have failed to impress this season. Their franchise-worst eighth straight game scoring three or fewer runs and getting nine or fewer hits was capped with a 10-3 drubbing on Saturday night in Hiroshima. Led by key free agent acquisition Yuki Nishi (RHP), the team…
This year’s team slogan, announced last November at the team’s annual Fan Appreciation Day, is 執念 Tigers Change 2018. 執念 (shuunen) means “tenacity” and manager Tomoaki Kanemoto was hoping the slogan would give his team that extra push to be tenacious at the plate, on defense, on the mound, in all situations. But the fact…
Source: Tospo In light of Shintaro Fujinami‘s recent struggles, particularly at Koshien Stadium (where he is winless since April 27, 2017), the Hanshin Tigers club has asked that fans tone down (or completely stop) their jeering of the young thin-skinned ace. Apparently, Fujinami has gone as far as to tell one of his friends that…
The Tigers came back to Koshien on Tuesday and laid an egg against the Chunichi Dragons on Tuesday. The weather was gloomy after that, too, and it looked as though the rest of the series would be rained out… but somehow they squeezed in the game on Wednesday. Speaking of squeezes, everyone’s favorite catcher came…
Life as a Tigers fan had been pretty depressing for much of June. Surprisingly, one of the few teams we’ve had success against this season is the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Thanks to them (really, thanks to some untimely errors) we were able to put that 5-game losing streak behind us. SWEEP! Game 66: Brought to…
I hated Wadaball. So did most of you. And when his time at the helm ended in October 2015, and Tomoaki Kanemoto took over the reins, there was a lot of excitement in Tigerland. Things were going to be different, at last! Aniki’s team would be faster and (much) stronger than the yawn-inducing lineup Yutaka…
After a lot of rain and mediocrity during the week at Koshien, the Tigers took their act on the road for the final week of interleague play. First stop: Sapporo Dome to face the resurgent Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Given the powerful bats they have, Hanshin would need theirs to come out and play, plus…
I have to admit, it’s a special atmosphere at these games against the Yomiuri Giants. But in the seven that I have seen at Koshien, the home team has won just one (against five losses and a tie). And this one twice looked like it would end in a loss or tie. But it didn’t. Starting…
You want Randy Messenger to play in his first ever NPB All-Star Game, right? Last year we were well represented, with Marcos Mateo, Ryutaro Umeno, Takashi Toritani and Yoshio Itoi being voted in. Takumi Akiyama also got selected by the CL Manager. Here are the results of the voting so far, as of June 11:…