Hanshin-Tigers

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Since I didn’t talk about the NPB yesterday I didn’t get a chance to put up another picture of a baseball babe. Sorry Min, that won’t happen again.”][/caption] 1 April NPB Hanshin Tigers at Hiroshima Carp. Appears to have been rained out. The Carp remain at 1-4-0 in last in the Central League. Rakuten Golden Eagles (2) at Chiba Lotte Marines (3). The Eagles are now 2-6-0 and in fifth place in the Pacific League. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Two straight wins at Mazda Stadium by the Tigers. When will the Carp stop the bleeding?!”][/caption] 31 March Hanshin Tigers (6) at Hiroshima Carp (4). The Carp are now 1-4-0 and in last place. Rakuten Golden Eagles (13) at Chiba Lotte Marines (4). The Eagles are now 2-5-0 and in fifth place. The bats seem to have awakened for Rakuten. Hiroshima gets closer, but still lags behind Hanshin. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“They’re off to a poor start, but hopefully they’ll start to bounce back soon”][/caption] This is a new idea I had to help me better track the records of the teams that I follow. Check it out weekdays if you care about the Marlins, Rays, Carp, Golden Eagles, Nationals, or Orioles. Since Japanese games are played 13 hours ahead and that can get pretty confusing, I’ll just post the scores on the day they happened in GMT -5 ...

The pride of my trip to Japan no doubt has to be the 12 jersey collection I brought home with me. Here is a quick rundown of each of the jerseys, a little background behind each, and what I think of it. I’m gonna cover them in the order that I got them, so that puts the Giants jersey a little later, even though that was the first game I went to. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“375” caption=“This guy is rocking a sick happi. I wish I had one too.”] [/caption] Three days in Sapporo. One to fly in, one to catch a game, and one to fly out. We really only needed two, but the remote location and the unpredictability of flights and baseball game lengths warrant three. It’s a real shame too, because if we had rolled our arrival date into our baseball watching day, we would have seen Yu Darvish pitch. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The greatest sign I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world.”] [/caption] This was one of the days I was most looking forward to on the trip. The Hanshin Tigers may not have the raw popularity of the Yomiuri Giants, but they’ve definitely got the most rabid fanbase in the entire country. Beyond that, Koshien Stadium is said to be the “soul of Japanese baseball,” most likely because, beyond the already crazy Tigers that play there, everything from college games to the high school championships are housed within Koshien. It’s a storied stadium most often compared to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park here in the States. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Today’s post brought to you by Coca-Cola (Not really! Please don’t sue me!)”] [/caption] Ok, so I’m being a little dramatic in the title, but with David gone and most of the day occupied by riding bullet trains across Japan, the day was definitely on the dull side. [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“375” caption=“The thrilling remains of a lunch eaten on an exciting train ride to Fukuoka.”] [/caption] ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Brilliant Advertising”] [/caption] Today’s story is no ordinary tale. It is the story of how two otherwise ordinary men became extraordinary. This is the story of how Dave and I overcame obstacles and became the Official Japanball Vice-Presidents of Diplomatic Affairs (and then went to a baseball game). It started on a day like any other. Dave and I got up as usual for our early morning brief to take a tour of the local sights. On the agenda were Ryōan-ji and Kinkaku-ji, two Buddhist temples in the area. During the briefing I started to feel something getting really hot in my pockets. Alarmed, I started trying to dig through my pockets and felt my change was all really hot and so were my batteries. I successfully pulled all of that out of my pocket and learned an important lesson: Never put your batteries in the same pocket as your coins, lest they complete some sort of bizarre short circuit and set your pants on fire or explode. From then on, I kept my change and my batteries in opposite pockets. ...