Friday, May 16, 2008
Here I Come to Save the Day!!!!
So tonight was probably my last chance to enjoy one of the great joys of life in Japan: live professional baseball.
I trundled out to Koshien, an hour or so from here, and watched the Hanshin Tigers beat the Yakult Swallows 8-5. I actually didn't see all 5 though, as we left before the game ended to beat the crowd.
And I remembered a little something about expectation during the game.
My expectation was that my favorite pitcher would go for the Tigers, an older guy name of Shimoyanagi. He's got a week's beard growth and gives the impression of being surly and not the kind of guy you want to meet on the street. But I saw him receive the player of the game after a game one time and he was charming and self-deprecating. On TV, he was funny and interesting and I don't speak enough Japanese to know if he was or not. But he oozed coolness.
As a result, he is my favorite player on the team and I wanted to see him pitch. However, being Friday, I guess, we got Andoh.
I've seen Andoh maybe two or three other times and he was terrible, walking batters left and right. Now, I'm used to seeing him or hearing his name and thinking, "Loss."
Well, I got to tell you, Andoh was rockin' tonight. He had a four-hitter through eight and about seven strikeouts. He was in control and the Swallows (a weak team the last five years) looked helpless in front of him. To be fair, the defense bailed him out with some spectacular plays, too.
My general impression is that Andoh is a humble guy. I respect that. I think that in the past more had been asked of him than he could deliver.
I have never respected the manager of the Tigers, Okada. He's the kind of manager that stays with a player even longer than a loyal manager stays with a struggler before sending him down to the minors for help. Okada seems fixated. This didn't help Andoh in the past because he probably should have gone down to the Japanese "minor league" (developmental league) and fine-tuned his skills to be a very high-level pitcher.
It seems that hard work has paid off for Andoh, though, if tonight was any indication. Maybe the role he has has just taken him some time to grow into. Good on him!
On the other side, the Yakult pitcher, whose name I couldn't catch, gave up seven runs on 10 hits in four innings. It was three runs in three innings and five hits. You could tell he didn't have good stuff tonight and the manager should have gone to the bullpen after the third inning. Yakult used like six or seven pitchers by the end. Being down by seven after four innings is never good as you never expect that to happen.
Then again, expectations can be very negative things.
I trundled out to Koshien, an hour or so from here, and watched the Hanshin Tigers beat the Yakult Swallows 8-5. I actually didn't see all 5 though, as we left before the game ended to beat the crowd.
And I remembered a little something about expectation during the game.
My expectation was that my favorite pitcher would go for the Tigers, an older guy name of Shimoyanagi. He's got a week's beard growth and gives the impression of being surly and not the kind of guy you want to meet on the street. But I saw him receive the player of the game after a game one time and he was charming and self-deprecating. On TV, he was funny and interesting and I don't speak enough Japanese to know if he was or not. But he oozed coolness.
As a result, he is my favorite player on the team and I wanted to see him pitch. However, being Friday, I guess, we got Andoh.
I've seen Andoh maybe two or three other times and he was terrible, walking batters left and right. Now, I'm used to seeing him or hearing his name and thinking, "Loss."
Well, I got to tell you, Andoh was rockin' tonight. He had a four-hitter through eight and about seven strikeouts. He was in control and the Swallows (a weak team the last five years) looked helpless in front of him. To be fair, the defense bailed him out with some spectacular plays, too.
My general impression is that Andoh is a humble guy. I respect that. I think that in the past more had been asked of him than he could deliver.
I have never respected the manager of the Tigers, Okada. He's the kind of manager that stays with a player even longer than a loyal manager stays with a struggler before sending him down to the minors for help. Okada seems fixated. This didn't help Andoh in the past because he probably should have gone down to the Japanese "minor league" (developmental league) and fine-tuned his skills to be a very high-level pitcher.
It seems that hard work has paid off for Andoh, though, if tonight was any indication. Maybe the role he has has just taken him some time to grow into. Good on him!
On the other side, the Yakult pitcher, whose name I couldn't catch, gave up seven runs on 10 hits in four innings. It was three runs in three innings and five hits. You could tell he didn't have good stuff tonight and the manager should have gone to the bullpen after the third inning. Yakult used like six or seven pitchers by the end. Being down by seven after four innings is never good as you never expect that to happen.
Then again, expectations can be very negative things.
