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Dude! Great day out at the Meiji fields
So, Meiji University's baseball dorm and ground are in the middle of nowhere in West Tokyo. Literally, it's out in Chofu, over a mile from the nearest train station, and there are trees and grass all around where it is. I went there once last year for high school baseball, to see my former JHS student's team. At that time I did sit out by the dorm with Ogura, and we did chat with a few passing Meiji players. And... I followed her there and back, so I really had no clue how to get there.
But my friend Kobayashi said she was thinking of going to today's preseason game of Tokai vs. Meiji, and Tokai has this kid named Tomoyuki Sugano who's a surefire draft pick this year, he throws 97mph and his uncle is the Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara (who also went to Tokai). And Meiji has a surefire draft pick named Yusuke Nomura, who hates me for some reason.
Anyway, I was meeting Kobayashi at Shinjuku station at 10:45am, so we could ride out there together and I could just follow her there since she knew the way to get to the field. I left early and I stopped at Ikebukuro's Bic Camera to print out a few photos in the hopes of getting them signed (well, and so I'd be able to give some to some players as well). Spent about 1000 yen printing them and hoped it wouldn't be a waste.
We met up at the station and I followed Kobayashi to the Keio lines (not to be confused with the university). We rode out to Tama-Reien station, and then began the 20-minute walk to the Meiji grounds... she said that Ueda-kun had requested us to bring some snacks and drinks and stuff, so we stopped in a supermarket so she could buy like 8 bottles of various drinks. I'm really not making this up -- she was carrying 3 bags with her. One bag was her camera and some photos and whatnot. One bag was full of Japanese snacks and junkfood. And then the third bag was the drinks. She was just going to give them to various players. Me, I had my camera, and I had my normal bag. I brought a bag of chocolate Easter eggs and a package of yellow bunny Peeps, which I intended to give to Ikuhiro Takeda, the captain, and tell him to please share with everyone.
It's funny, I was thinking how in Japan we always bring food/gifts for our friends and for the players, but in the US I don't think people EVER do that kind of thing... like, bringing snacks and drinks and things for baseball players? I was telling Kobayashi how I think that in the US, people don't usually accept food from strangers because you never know if it's going to be okay to eat, like how crazy things happen on Halloween and all. She said it sure sounds messed up, that people would want to do stuff like that. I agreed.
Anyway, we arrived at the field and threw our stuff down on a bunch of seats way off to the side so that we could just spread out. And then... I didn't know he was coming but Toda-kun (a Rikkio 3rd-year non-baseball player friend of mine) was there with a friend of his from Waseda! And so we saw each other in the stands, and as a bunch of people are staring like "WTF is a gaijin doing here" we're both like "HISASHIBURI!!! GENKI?!?" Hehe. He was like "I can't believe you came back after the earthquake!" and I'm like "Some things are just more important..." So Toda put his stuff down with ours too. And he ALSO was keeping score :)
We also ran into Andoh-san. Andoh-san is AMAZING. She's 82 years old or so and still completely mobile and able to walk the mile and back out to the Meiji stadium. She comes to a lot of games and all the players know her and adore her because she's just a very sweet and genki old lady. She told me once how she lived in the US for a few years when she was in her 20's. (Which means in like the 1950's.) So she saw me and she's like "I heard from Kisho's (Kagami) mom that you came out to see him at Yokohama during the winter? I think he was pretty happy about it." "WHAT? He seemed angry at me at the time... I made trouble for him during rookie practice." "Nono, he was really flattered that you made the uniform and came all the way out there. At least that's what his mom said." "Really? I thought I was a big bother to him..." "I don't think so."
When I'm 82, I want to be like her.
Yoneyama was also there. Halfway through the game, Kobayashi and I went over to the Meiji bullpen side to shoot Kumabe (hehe) and found Yoneyama, who was like "OMG WHAT IS DEANNA DOING HERE?" Heh. He had a cool new 2011 Kamagaya hat and told me that the stadium got kinda messed up in the earthquake, but that I should try to come out there anyway if I can.
Anyway, there was a game. Only thing is, due to the power saving measures that everyone is going through, they weren't actually keeping score on the scoreboard, and were only using it for strikes/balls/outs. So, good thing Toda and I were scorekeeping, because people kept asking us "What inning is it? What's the score? Who's up next?" I had gotten an info sheet before the game, fortunately, which made it so much easier to keep score than at the damn Hosei game the other day!
And well, Tokai won 6-4. Though it was tied 4-4 for a while. Meiji's Toshiki Abe hit two triples, that was impressive! My new favorite college catcher, Tokai's Torai Fushimi, hit two doubles. Tokai's Tomoyuki Sugano pitched two innings and was amazing as usual. I got to see Morita and Kumabe (two of the Meiji boys that were at our New Year's dinner) pitch an inning and change each.
After the game I managed to get the courage to go down to where the Tokai players were going to come out... I saw Sugano sitting in the dugout and so with another lady we bugged him for autographs and for photos together. He was quite polite about it, several people were asking him for them, I think he's well aware that he's a hot commodity... and also aware that he's going to be getting 29340390543209 times more fans bugging him for autographs and stuff in the future. So, I was nervous, but I'm glad I managed it. In a year or two when he's playing in the pros here, I'll be able to say I got to meet him when he was still in college :)
He's so tall!!
So, I guess to be fair, I could have considered the day a success right then and there without anything else happening.
I walked around to the Meiji side, where players were getting ready for post-game practice. Yeah, they practiced in the morning, then played a 3-hour game, and then had 1-2 more hours of practice. No joke. I did catch Takashi Uemoto (his brother Hiroki plays for the Hanshin Tigers) and was like "hey, can I get you to sign something?" and he was like "sure," and so I had him sign one photo and gave him the other. I told him I saw his brother play when I was down in Kansai and he was like "Cool, did he have a good game?" and I'm like "Yeah, he played well. He and Araki were both in the lineup."
And well, then there was practice. I gave up on trying to get Yusuke Nomura, he blew me off not once but TWICE out there! Sheesh. I don't know why he hates me :( So instead I went up into the stands again and watched practice. The only people left there by then were me, Kobayashi, Toda, Toda's friend, Andoh, and... Yuka, the lady who I randomly latched onto at the Baystars day that I met Kagami. I have no idea why she was there today but we chatted for a bit, she told me that she's been out there to see Kagami a few more times and that basically he's not even playing in games yet but just building up his strength, basically once ichi-gun starts again and the Baystars get all their higher pitchers out of the ni-gun games they'll hopefully start playing some of the rookies.
Everybody else left except me and Kobayashi. We stuck around until the very very end of practice. It was fun, I got to see them make all the freshmen do base-running stuff, basically the fielders were practicing fielding, and so the freshmen were their targets to throw at, so to speak -- like a coach would hit a fly ball to the outfield, and so it was a freshman's job to tag up and run from 3rd base to home and get tagged out. Things like that. And even funkier was that some freshmen have their names written on their uniforms so I'd be like "Hey wait a minute that's Sano from Nichidai San. And that's Takahashi from Nihon Bunri!" And so on.
(And later on I also saw Imaoka from Yokohama Hayato! I was like "That guy... I've seen him at Koshien... Imaoka?" But I didn't talk to him. I don't want to freak out the freshmen, not yet at least!)
Finally, practice ended and we went down to meet some of the players on their way out. I got Kumabe and Morita and Ueda to sign photos for me :) Kumabe, when he came out, greeted Kobayashi normally and then was like "OMG!" when he realized I was with her. I told him I had some photos for him but wanted one signed, and he's like "oh these are cool, from the rookie tourney right? But I don't think we usually sign stuff until the league starts..." and I'm like "BUT I WON'T BE HERE WHEN THE LEAGUE STARTS, YOU SUCK" so he was like "I'll sign for you but don't look! I suck at writing and I don't want anyone watching me." It was so funny. He told us that he got a job with Honda Kumamoto after he graduates, though! So he's all set and can enjoy his senior year without worrying about job searching. Lucky him! He's actually a really smart kid even if he's a complete weirdo. We let him pick out some snacks from the snack bag and I told him I had chocolate and stuff from the US but it was really sweet and I didn't know if people could eat it and he's like "Sweet stuff is GOOD. I sit there eating raw sugar for the hell of it, you know." If only I had a Japanese phrase that would mean "Well, THAT explains a lot" I would have said it, but instead just said "You're joking," and he's like "Not joking!" Most of the players left while we were talking to Kuma and Morita, and Morita also took off, and then Takeda and Ueda came out and also did a double-take like "Hey! You guys!"
I handed the bag with the Peeps and chocolate eggs to Takeda, very formally like "Please, Mr. Captain, share this pitiful offering that I brought from America with your honorable teammates," and he laughed and bowed and very seriously replied something to the effect of "Why yes, we will happily partake of this wonderful gift." And then everybody laughed and got a lot less formal, like "and here's for you Ueda, all the junkfood you ordered. Hope you don't get fat!" We chatted for a bit. Takeda was wearing a Softbank Hawks #29 sweater and I'm like "Eh? 29? Is this from... Kume?" "No, it's from one of my kohai from high school, Chikada, he gave it to me as a gift." "Wow! That's so cool!"
Anyway, I got everyone to take a photo with me too:
From the left it's captain Takeda, Shogo Shibata, me, Ueda, Kumabe. I don't really know Shibata at ALL but I've seen him play a bit. Of all of them I probably know (and like) Kumabe the best. He's a trip. Though actually Takeda's changed a lot since becoming captain. I remember being surprised when he was named captain, since he'd always seemed kinda like a dorky little kid, but he really carries himself differently now, even in the game today he batted 3rd and was playing a lot more aggressive than I remember. So, cool. Kobayashi later commented that "well, when students reach their final year somewhere they often end up maturing a LOT all of a sudden," and I'm like "...yeah, I guess that's true. My JHS kids certainly were like that -- childish 7th-grade, TERRIBLE 8th-grade, and wonderful 9th grade."
So yeah, it was a very successful day. Lots of signatures, lots of chatting up players, lots of seeing friends, lots of watching baseball, etc, etc. I love these kinds of adventures!
We walked the mile+ back to the station, sat on the train going to Shinjuku, and then Kobayashi headed off to go shopping, and I headed off to go eat sushi in Ikebukuro because I could, and then come home. I sorted through photos a little, and wrote this entry.
Tomorrow is going to be an honest-to-god Swallows vs. Carp game at Jingu!!!! I'm so happy to go back to Jingu. It's not an official game, it's a charity game, and there'll be ouendan, but without trumpets and drums. So, we'll see what happens. I'm still hoping to see a bunch of friends and yell a lot though. And, Jingu! Wheeeeee!
But my friend Kobayashi said she was thinking of going to today's preseason game of Tokai vs. Meiji, and Tokai has this kid named Tomoyuki Sugano who's a surefire draft pick this year, he throws 97mph and his uncle is the Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara (who also went to Tokai). And Meiji has a surefire draft pick named Yusuke Nomura, who hates me for some reason.
Anyway, I was meeting Kobayashi at Shinjuku station at 10:45am, so we could ride out there together and I could just follow her there since she knew the way to get to the field. I left early and I stopped at Ikebukuro's Bic Camera to print out a few photos in the hopes of getting them signed (well, and so I'd be able to give some to some players as well). Spent about 1000 yen printing them and hoped it wouldn't be a waste.
We met up at the station and I followed Kobayashi to the Keio lines (not to be confused with the university). We rode out to Tama-Reien station, and then began the 20-minute walk to the Meiji grounds... she said that Ueda-kun had requested us to bring some snacks and drinks and stuff, so we stopped in a supermarket so she could buy like 8 bottles of various drinks. I'm really not making this up -- she was carrying 3 bags with her. One bag was her camera and some photos and whatnot. One bag was full of Japanese snacks and junkfood. And then the third bag was the drinks. She was just going to give them to various players. Me, I had my camera, and I had my normal bag. I brought a bag of chocolate Easter eggs and a package of yellow bunny Peeps, which I intended to give to Ikuhiro Takeda, the captain, and tell him to please share with everyone.
It's funny, I was thinking how in Japan we always bring food/gifts for our friends and for the players, but in the US I don't think people EVER do that kind of thing... like, bringing snacks and drinks and things for baseball players? I was telling Kobayashi how I think that in the US, people don't usually accept food from strangers because you never know if it's going to be okay to eat, like how crazy things happen on Halloween and all. She said it sure sounds messed up, that people would want to do stuff like that. I agreed.
Anyway, we arrived at the field and threw our stuff down on a bunch of seats way off to the side so that we could just spread out. And then... I didn't know he was coming but Toda-kun (a Rikkio 3rd-year non-baseball player friend of mine) was there with a friend of his from Waseda! And so we saw each other in the stands, and as a bunch of people are staring like "WTF is a gaijin doing here" we're both like "HISASHIBURI!!! GENKI?!?" Hehe. He was like "I can't believe you came back after the earthquake!" and I'm like "Some things are just more important..." So Toda put his stuff down with ours too. And he ALSO was keeping score :)
We also ran into Andoh-san. Andoh-san is AMAZING. She's 82 years old or so and still completely mobile and able to walk the mile and back out to the Meiji stadium. She comes to a lot of games and all the players know her and adore her because she's just a very sweet and genki old lady. She told me once how she lived in the US for a few years when she was in her 20's. (Which means in like the 1950's.) So she saw me and she's like "I heard from Kisho's (Kagami) mom that you came out to see him at Yokohama during the winter? I think he was pretty happy about it." "WHAT? He seemed angry at me at the time... I made trouble for him during rookie practice." "Nono, he was really flattered that you made the uniform and came all the way out there. At least that's what his mom said." "Really? I thought I was a big bother to him..." "I don't think so."
When I'm 82, I want to be like her.
Yoneyama was also there. Halfway through the game, Kobayashi and I went over to the Meiji bullpen side to shoot Kumabe (hehe) and found Yoneyama, who was like "OMG WHAT IS DEANNA DOING HERE?" Heh. He had a cool new 2011 Kamagaya hat and told me that the stadium got kinda messed up in the earthquake, but that I should try to come out there anyway if I can.
Anyway, there was a game. Only thing is, due to the power saving measures that everyone is going through, they weren't actually keeping score on the scoreboard, and were only using it for strikes/balls/outs. So, good thing Toda and I were scorekeeping, because people kept asking us "What inning is it? What's the score? Who's up next?" I had gotten an info sheet before the game, fortunately, which made it so much easier to keep score than at the damn Hosei game the other day!
And well, Tokai won 6-4. Though it was tied 4-4 for a while. Meiji's Toshiki Abe hit two triples, that was impressive! My new favorite college catcher, Tokai's Torai Fushimi, hit two doubles. Tokai's Tomoyuki Sugano pitched two innings and was amazing as usual. I got to see Morita and Kumabe (two of the Meiji boys that were at our New Year's dinner) pitch an inning and change each.
After the game I managed to get the courage to go down to where the Tokai players were going to come out... I saw Sugano sitting in the dugout and so with another lady we bugged him for autographs and for photos together. He was quite polite about it, several people were asking him for them, I think he's well aware that he's a hot commodity... and also aware that he's going to be getting 29340390543209 times more fans bugging him for autographs and stuff in the future. So, I was nervous, but I'm glad I managed it. In a year or two when he's playing in the pros here, I'll be able to say I got to meet him when he was still in college :)
He's so tall!!
So, I guess to be fair, I could have considered the day a success right then and there without anything else happening.
I walked around to the Meiji side, where players were getting ready for post-game practice. Yeah, they practiced in the morning, then played a 3-hour game, and then had 1-2 more hours of practice. No joke. I did catch Takashi Uemoto (his brother Hiroki plays for the Hanshin Tigers) and was like "hey, can I get you to sign something?" and he was like "sure," and so I had him sign one photo and gave him the other. I told him I saw his brother play when I was down in Kansai and he was like "Cool, did he have a good game?" and I'm like "Yeah, he played well. He and Araki were both in the lineup."
And well, then there was practice. I gave up on trying to get Yusuke Nomura, he blew me off not once but TWICE out there! Sheesh. I don't know why he hates me :( So instead I went up into the stands again and watched practice. The only people left there by then were me, Kobayashi, Toda, Toda's friend, Andoh, and... Yuka, the lady who I randomly latched onto at the Baystars day that I met Kagami. I have no idea why she was there today but we chatted for a bit, she told me that she's been out there to see Kagami a few more times and that basically he's not even playing in games yet but just building up his strength, basically once ichi-gun starts again and the Baystars get all their higher pitchers out of the ni-gun games they'll hopefully start playing some of the rookies.
Everybody else left except me and Kobayashi. We stuck around until the very very end of practice. It was fun, I got to see them make all the freshmen do base-running stuff, basically the fielders were practicing fielding, and so the freshmen were their targets to throw at, so to speak -- like a coach would hit a fly ball to the outfield, and so it was a freshman's job to tag up and run from 3rd base to home and get tagged out. Things like that. And even funkier was that some freshmen have their names written on their uniforms so I'd be like "Hey wait a minute that's Sano from Nichidai San. And that's Takahashi from Nihon Bunri!" And so on.
(And later on I also saw Imaoka from Yokohama Hayato! I was like "That guy... I've seen him at Koshien... Imaoka?" But I didn't talk to him. I don't want to freak out the freshmen, not yet at least!)
Finally, practice ended and we went down to meet some of the players on their way out. I got Kumabe and Morita and Ueda to sign photos for me :) Kumabe, when he came out, greeted Kobayashi normally and then was like "OMG!" when he realized I was with her. I told him I had some photos for him but wanted one signed, and he's like "oh these are cool, from the rookie tourney right? But I don't think we usually sign stuff until the league starts..." and I'm like "BUT I WON'T BE HERE WHEN THE LEAGUE STARTS, YOU SUCK" so he was like "I'll sign for you but don't look! I suck at writing and I don't want anyone watching me." It was so funny. He told us that he got a job with Honda Kumamoto after he graduates, though! So he's all set and can enjoy his senior year without worrying about job searching. Lucky him! He's actually a really smart kid even if he's a complete weirdo. We let him pick out some snacks from the snack bag and I told him I had chocolate and stuff from the US but it was really sweet and I didn't know if people could eat it and he's like "Sweet stuff is GOOD. I sit there eating raw sugar for the hell of it, you know." If only I had a Japanese phrase that would mean "Well, THAT explains a lot" I would have said it, but instead just said "You're joking," and he's like "Not joking!" Most of the players left while we were talking to Kuma and Morita, and Morita also took off, and then Takeda and Ueda came out and also did a double-take like "Hey! You guys!"
I handed the bag with the Peeps and chocolate eggs to Takeda, very formally like "Please, Mr. Captain, share this pitiful offering that I brought from America with your honorable teammates," and he laughed and bowed and very seriously replied something to the effect of "Why yes, we will happily partake of this wonderful gift." And then everybody laughed and got a lot less formal, like "and here's for you Ueda, all the junkfood you ordered. Hope you don't get fat!" We chatted for a bit. Takeda was wearing a Softbank Hawks #29 sweater and I'm like "Eh? 29? Is this from... Kume?" "No, it's from one of my kohai from high school, Chikada, he gave it to me as a gift." "Wow! That's so cool!"
Anyway, I got everyone to take a photo with me too:
From the left it's captain Takeda, Shogo Shibata, me, Ueda, Kumabe. I don't really know Shibata at ALL but I've seen him play a bit. Of all of them I probably know (and like) Kumabe the best. He's a trip. Though actually Takeda's changed a lot since becoming captain. I remember being surprised when he was named captain, since he'd always seemed kinda like a dorky little kid, but he really carries himself differently now, even in the game today he batted 3rd and was playing a lot more aggressive than I remember. So, cool. Kobayashi later commented that "well, when students reach their final year somewhere they often end up maturing a LOT all of a sudden," and I'm like "...yeah, I guess that's true. My JHS kids certainly were like that -- childish 7th-grade, TERRIBLE 8th-grade, and wonderful 9th grade."
So yeah, it was a very successful day. Lots of signatures, lots of chatting up players, lots of seeing friends, lots of watching baseball, etc, etc. I love these kinds of adventures!
We walked the mile+ back to the station, sat on the train going to Shinjuku, and then Kobayashi headed off to go shopping, and I headed off to go eat sushi in Ikebukuro because I could, and then come home. I sorted through photos a little, and wrote this entry.
Tomorrow is going to be an honest-to-god Swallows vs. Carp game at Jingu!!!! I'm so happy to go back to Jingu. It's not an official game, it's a charity game, and there'll be ouendan, but without trumpets and drums. So, we'll see what happens. I'm still hoping to see a bunch of friends and yell a lot though. And, Jingu! Wheeeeee!
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