Saturday

[dr4b]

The MLB sucks and drivers in Seattle suck and I will write more later.

No, we were not in an accident or anything, but we very nearly were. And by the MLB sucks, I mean, you wouldn't believe what ridiculous acts of "fielding" were performed by the Mariners and Rangers today.

On the other hand, there are a lot of Japanese people in Seattle, apparently.

Comments

Just wondering..

[starkodama.livejournal.com]

Why do you like Japanese baseball so much more than American baseball, anyway? (I don't know anything about either style, but so often I hear that Japanese baseball is boring... I take it you don't agree? ;D)

Re: Just wondering..

[dr4b]

I'm really not sure how anyone can call Japanese baseball boring. Being a fan is a hell of a lot more fun (with the ouendan and all, you actually feel INVOLVED in the game), the players actually care a lot more about the fans, the fans actually know a lot more about the game, and the players are so much more interesting to watch because they are all so different. In the US, everybody out there is 6'2" and 220 pounds and muscular and pretty much looks almost exactly the same. In Japan, some of the guys are going to be 5'4" and some are going to be 6'4", most will be somewhere between that, some are going to be fast runners, some won't, some will throw the ball with their whole body, some won't... like, I don't actually need to see the uniform number to recognize most players, I can tell who they are just by watching them. I had trouble doing that in the US except for really special players.

My guess is that most people who call Japanese baseball boring are the ones who don't know anything about the players or the teams -- can't read Japanese so they can't follow what's going on -- and only care about seeing home runs, so they're like "what is this crap with these skinny little dudes running around?" But in terms of being a fan, it simply doesn't even remotely compare. I felt so isolated at the Mariners game. I'm used to feeling like I'm part of a big group of people supporting a team, but in the US most people are more interested in booing or drinking beer.

[hillsy2k.livejournal.com]

It's all relative. Good fundamental baseball can be entertaining, but some people just want to see "Sportscenter" plays. Seems that in yakyu, fundamentals are stressed a whole lot more. In US baseball, at least in the pros, managers don't focus on fundamentals because they think these players should have them already. Unfortunately, that's not the case. There were at least 4 times on Friday that Ichiro would start things be getting on base, they would get another on base, and then nothing. Terrible. Hope you're having fun here, Deanna!

[thunderbird8.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that Seattle traffic is considered among the worst in the nation...not if I can disagree with that...