Just a moment from today’s baseball game. The Bay Stars are playing the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, one of the more difficult baseball names or ownerships for me to handle. I have a hard enough time following the pollution laden wealth that runs Japan and baseball. It is a relationship that could become so sour in one’s mouth if they took the time to think about it. It almost destroys everything. But yet there is that wabi-sabi beauty in watching Japanese baseball. It’s unstoppable. I can’t take my eyes off it.
This game is actually being televised. They remind us now and again that these broadcasts are illegal and very unwanted for terrible reasons. I cannot get regular coverage of this team I am following and it is very frustrating. I’ve written them a letter. But now, today I am lucky and they are playing in a very fabulous baseball facility. Seriously, Es Con Field Hokkaido is a wonder. It is a major league bit of architecture complete with retractable roof.
This game is ridiculous. As I am writing this, Go Matsumoto just made a Willie Mays catch in center. Tyler Austin, the Vancouver native who is raking right now, hit a blast to centerfield. If this wasn’t two, it was three. No one was going to get there. Well, Tsuyoshi Matsumoto got there. Unbelievable. I don’t care what other people think. I’m tired of American opinions of what is major and what is minor league. I will get you a replay and you can see for yourself.
Pitching for Yokohama today is Katsuki Azuma, who is the ace. He was the ace last year with a minus two ERA and he’s almost as good this year. Today though he’s a bit less than perfect. He’s not getting all of the calls. There are some questionable pitches that haven’t gone his way. But still, the fighters are getting wood on the ball and this is not going to be a pushover. Both sides are fighting today. By the way, so are the copyright holders for the broadcasts. Sons of bitches.
Shit, they just turned off the broadcast again. This is so frustrating. They are playing with us. Maybe they’ll bring it back in 10 minutes. I tried to pay but they just wouldn’t let me.
The inspiration for this entry is because of another fantastic outfield play made by the rising star, Takaki “Kouky” Kajiwara.
In the beginning of this year, I played a dice baseball game where I picked the opening day lineup for the Bay Stars based upon everything I knew about them. When I looked at the outfield, I saw Kajiwara as a starter. The manager of the Bay Stars, Daisuke Miura, disagreed with me and Kajuwara has been in the development team most of this year. He’s just come back and soon we are expecting Hideo Maki, the natural they have playing second base. He’s a high average hitter who has a ton of pop in his bat. He steals bases and runs well and does all of it on a really bad body. Exactly my kind of player. He is awesome and the team has potential to really score some runs but they just don’t. But maybe things will change.
The reason I picked Kajiwara as my outfielder was just what he looks like playing baseball. He’s a tall thin kid but he moves like that one in a million athlete that you run into from time to time. I don’t really want to tell you where I saw him but I met a basketball player who had this particular physical genius. It’s the boy who plays with every muscle in his body and doesn’t have anything but muscle in his body. Forgive me if I sound like I’m staring at a male body. I’m not. I’m looking at an athlete’s body. One who has the capacity to make movements that very few can.
Today is his day though. Today he is in right. Today his star is shining and he has arrived making a statement that he is a first team player. In his first at-bat in the top of the second inning, they had him batting eighth. With two outs, Yamamoto singled to right field. Kajiwara worked the count to one and two and then he lashed the ball into the rightcenterfield gap and ran like the wind all the way into third base standing up. Genuine speed. Lightning speed. That was one to nothing Bay Stars.
But it was in one of those moments. I feel really lucky.
Yokohama is up one nothing in the bottom of the second. Azuma does not really have everything under control. He gives up a walk to Ariel Martinez but then strikes out Tsuyoshi Matsumoto. Yuudai Yamamoto, Mr excellent behind the plate with his canon arm and Major League pop time guns down Martinez trying for second for a double play. Azuma though really hasn’t got it. He walks Catcher Yua Tamiya and then new leftfielder, Kazuki Miyazaki gets his first major league hit to right field. They kept the ball for him and he gets also to keep the broken bat. I think it is a standard thing in Japanese baseball that when they begin the interleague part of the season, there are a lot of young call-ups. There does seem to be a lot of new faces in the lineup.
So now is the big at bat with Daigo Kamikawabata, the very western looking second baseman. This is a genuine problem. A hit scores the run and Kamikawabata is a contact hitter. Bam, he laces a single to right, the runners are going with the pitch. It’s going to be a tie score. But not really.
That’s right, they’ve got Kouky out in right.
He picks up the ball and comes up firing his laser cannon. Catcher Yamamoto does not need to move. The ball is a perfect strike right in front of the sliding Tamia. Whiplash! До свидания! Yamamoto pops up, points to Kajiwara for the throw and starts running to the dugout and all the players follow him. Goodness gracious! Goodness gracious! I’d say that you should listen to me when I talk but I don’t want to rub it in. Boom shakalaka boom! The Galaxy is saved. We have a Jedi Master in right field. (The replay also has the triple)
In the top of the fourth, Yokohama made it two to nothing with a lead off bomb into the right field stands by Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh.
Tsutsugoh’s first two games were pure awesomeness and then he fell into a funk. Now he’s coming back. His batting average is creeping up to 300 and this was his fourth bomb. He is a big leaguer. He is the heart and soul of the team. He is the home run hitter. Today he is the DH but I think they will be arguing about the outfield when interleague play ends and the DH goes away. Go go Tsutsugo!
In the bottom of the fourth, Azuma gave up a home run to the big firstbaseman, Yuya Gunji to cut the score to 2-1. Kajiwara struck out in the 5th and Yokohama did not score. In the bottom of the fifth, shortstop Tatsumi Mizuno hit a home run to tie things up. Azuma gave up two more hits but got out of the inning with a strikeout. He managed to get through the 6th without further damage.
Tokuyama Souma took over the pitching for Yokohama and started strong with two k’s but had two on when he finally got a grounder to second. In the top of the 8th, the Bay Stars went 3 up and 3 down. In the home half, Yasuaki Yamazaki took over the pitching but lost the lead singlehandedly. He gave up a hit to Martinez and then baulked him to second. Tsuyoshi Matsumoto laid down a good bunt but Yamazaki threw the ball away allowing Matsumoto to score. He got out of the inning but the damage was done. Fighters 3, Bay Stars 2.
But this game was not over. Tyler Austin, the brick-like Gaijun first baseman got a hold of Tadashi Tanaka’s second pitch and launched it into the right field seats for his 9th bomb of the season.
Flame throwing Kohei Morihara took over for the 9th. Three flyballs and we had extra innings.
In the 10th, with the bottom of the order coming up, the Bay Stars came to life. Yamamoto flew out to left field but Kajiwara lashed a single to center. Tatsuhiro Shibata pinch hit for the pitching spot and dropped a splendid bunt to move Kajiwara to second. Lead off batter Tatsuo Ebina was hit by a pitch putting two men on and then Keito Mori lined a 1-1 pitch into center. Kajiwara flew around third and slid under the tag for the score. DeNA was back in front four to three.
Toshihiro Sugiura came in to pitch against Austin and struck out the Georgia native for the third out.
Canadian Rowan Wick took the mount for the Stars in the 10. The man from Vancouver gave up a hit to Yuya Gunji who was sacrificed to second. But Matsumoto flied out to shallow center and Tamiya went down on strikes and it was a big W for Yokahama.
Great game. Wish I could have seen more of it.
Commentary
Baseball is a fleeting thing. If you’re young and you have the talent to play and the opportunity to play, it’s a beautiful thing. There are levels and it’s all competition right from the beginning. But some have what it takes and make it and they get their chance. But this is fleeting too. There is always a battle with the talent. There is always a fear that the talent will go. You can have bravado and you can believe but you worry. And of course, you get tested every day because they play everyday.
Age catches up to everyone. They say that athletes die two deaths. They die that first and most horrible death when their body can no longer support their genius.
I will admit that I am not visually fixated when I watch a baseball game. Of course you can have a high pressure game or a playoff situation and this means a lot as a viewer. I’m not a gambler but people do like to put their money on things to add to the interest. I really love watching Japanese baseball because to me, there is something in the way they play it that makes all of the negatives from MLB that I have acquired go away. I don’t mind watching them play while watching MLB games is almost infinitely tiring for me.
But I can’t watch the games. The schedule is perfect for me. They either play at 8:00 in the morning or 12:00 noon. I have no work schedule. I can take 2 hours off at 8:00 in the morning or at 12:00 noon happily. I feel a bit like my father watching the Red Sox. He would make time to watch every Red Sox game. I can’t blame him. They hit. They’ve got that ballpark. I can’t blame him for living for those Red Sox games. That’s why we went to Fenway together. That’s why all of that happened. But there is no way to get a broadcast. They just don’t allow it. You can’t pay for it and you can’t steal it. They hide it like it’s a state secret. Gaijun outsiders are not supposed to be able to do this.
I really got lucky today. I only got to watch maybe 10 or 15 minutes of the game before they killed the broadcasts but there was so much in it. It was beautiful and inspiring. And there was that play by Kouky Kajuwara.
I really don’t know what to do about this. I am interested in following the team. They have been slightly more disappointing than thrilling but this team has so much talent, I can’t imagine why they are not in first place. They need something to wake them up because they are collectively awesome as athletes. They have got major leaguers up and down line up but they just can’t quite get certain fundamentals right. I think they are too conservative. They have not been aggressive base runners. They will go station to station unless it is obvious but they will almost never pull the trigger and take the extra base. Sometimes they get thrown out when they try and this seems to be really negative. Earlier in the season, they were bunting way too often. Bunting to sacrifice a runner from first to second is a bad play. Unless you have two high average boys in a row coming up to hit, even putting your fastest runner on second is not worth the out to put him there. And they are all such terrible bunters.
I think the real problem comes from identity. I can’t blame the manager for all of the things that go wrong but Yokohama doesn’t really play as a team. They are aloof from one another. Maybe this is Japanese but I don’t really think so. When I watch the really hot teams play, I’m talking about teams like the Tigers who have that frighteningly sharp reflex about their hitting and fielding that tells you that they can put together a series of plays to bring a W home. They vibrate with life. Yokohama is a little fat maybe. It’s hard to put my finger on it but they just don’t seem to have that life that a true first division team would have. But yet, so much talent. They are so talented up and down the lineup. They are a finger snap literally from becoming a juggernaut.
But for now there’s nothing to it but wait and see. Maybe today was meaningful. Maybe the magic is trying to happen. I am not claiming any responsibility here but they have not responded to my letter yet. I don’t know what I have to do. I would happily pay for the package to watch the games but they just don’t allow foreigners to have access. Maybe I could offer them a spot on my website. I am sort of turning this newspaper into my private affair. I guess you should expect a little vanity production when G is the publisher. But still, we wait and wait and wait for a little bit of baseball from Yokohama to brighten the days around here. Maybe they will see reason. Maybe this is a magic year for Yokohama.
Okay. Let’s try.
こんにちは。2通目の手紙です。私はベラルーシ在住のアメリカ人ライターです。主に環境問題を取り上げていますが、ベイスターズのファンです。チームの試合を観戦したいのですが、観戦は許可されていません。有効なリンクを教えていただけますか？喜んで支払います。私のウェブサイトでチームのスポンサーシップを喜んで提供します。試合は共有しません。自分だけのためです。これは私にとってとても重要です。今日の試合の私の報道はこちらです。https://green2021.org/?p=1663
ありがとう、アダム・グッドマン
