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The Weekend That Will Not Suck, Part 2 - Shunsuke Day!
Long story short: I got to go to the Lotte-Orix game for free today, see Shunsuke Watanabe pitch, meet a bunch of people, and shake hands with Bobby Valentine. The Marines lost, but oh well.
I went down to Chiba Marine Stadium for the afternoon for the Marines-Buffaloes game... well, more like I left here at 10am, but still. I went there with a friend of a friend (not exactly, but explaining this one would take way too long) named Mitch, and his wife and their 9-year-old son Max. They're Japanese, but all of them speak English. I wish all of my 9-year-old students spoke English as well as Max (although the part where he babbled about Doctor Who for twenty minutes was a bit crazy).
Anyway, we were guests of the Marines, which means we had seats up right under the press box, behind home plate, and even better, in the last row (row 26!!) so were in that small part with the overhang so when it started raining, we didn't get wet at all. That ruled. It was a little frustrating taking pictures through the netting behind home plate, so I just didn't really take a ton. (I've been promised that next weekend or some other time I'll get to sit in the field seats and I cannot wait.)
Mitch's wife bought us all Bobby Burgers from the stadium Lotteria. It turns out that they still have them there even though normal Lotterias do not, so I finally got to try the Bobby Burger! Yay! It was pretty good.
The Marines lost the game 4-1. Shunsuke gave up a big home run to Tuffy Rhodes in the 8th inning and came out of the game right after that. It was sad. But I had a pretty good time at the game anyway. First, Max is like the most enthusiastic baseball kid fan ever and he yelled lots of funny things. We were also sitting in a "special people section", kind of (as in... the old guy sitting to my left has been a Marines fan for like ninety billion years and babbled at me about the team for a while... then three rows in front of us was Marines coach Frank Ramppen's wife and kids, who Mitch knows... at one point Mary [Valentine] came out and waved to Mitch and Max... and so on). In the 6th inning Larry Rocca came up to say hi to us (he's the international business director for the Marines or something like that, and he wants to put me under Team 26 Marines Mind Control), and brought up a Chiba-ken CIR and friend to come sit with us, having just given them the tour of the stadium. They're apparently going to try some promotions for foreigners in Chiba at the stadium, including an English-talk night on Thursdays in the outfield picnic area.
After the game I got to go "backstage" briefly with Larry and the rest of our posse. I met the "Master of Information" behind the Marines, Pupo-san, who actually knew who I was and even said he had used my translated boxscores sometimes. He's from Spokane, so he asked me about Seattle and stuff. There were some other people around, coaches and whatnot, and literally like 40 feet away from us there were a crowd of reporters interviewing Shunsuke Watanabe (or, as Larry put it, "hey Deanna, look over there, it's your boy... you can kind of see him in the media swarm."), and then Bobby Valentine actually came down the hallway and Larry introduced him to me and not only did Bobby also know who I was, but he asked me, "Your stuff is great. Do you know if I can get translated KOREAN box scores anywhere?" And I'm flabbergasted and like "hmm... err... I have no idea, that's a really good question" and he's like "I'm all about good questions!"
Weirder, Larry kept telling everyone there like "this is Deanna the Marinerd, she's a great writer and she finally came out of hiding to meet us!" and I'd just stare at my feet like "uhh... thanks..."
We were only backstage for like 5 minutes and I was too scared to get my camera out and take any pictures there. Afterwards, I got a ride back to Tokyo with Mitch and his family. Max was like "Can you come over and play Wii Sports with me? Pleeeeease?" and I was like, "sure!" but then on the hour-plus drive back into the city he totally fell asleep, so they dropped me off at Iidabashi and I made my way home from there in the rain instead. Mitch gave me a Marines flag when I was leaving, so now I can wave a flag and yell "BA! MO! FLIO!!" with everyone, which is the Japanese version of "Vamos Julio!" for Zuleta. No, I'm really not making that last part up, either.
I went down to Chiba Marine Stadium for the afternoon for the Marines-Buffaloes game... well, more like I left here at 10am, but still. I went there with a friend of a friend (not exactly, but explaining this one would take way too long) named Mitch, and his wife and their 9-year-old son Max. They're Japanese, but all of them speak English. I wish all of my 9-year-old students spoke English as well as Max (although the part where he babbled about Doctor Who for twenty minutes was a bit crazy).
Anyway, we were guests of the Marines, which means we had seats up right under the press box, behind home plate, and even better, in the last row (row 26!!) so were in that small part with the overhang so when it started raining, we didn't get wet at all. That ruled. It was a little frustrating taking pictures through the netting behind home plate, so I just didn't really take a ton. (I've been promised that next weekend or some other time I'll get to sit in the field seats and I cannot wait.)
Mitch's wife bought us all Bobby Burgers from the stadium Lotteria. It turns out that they still have them there even though normal Lotterias do not, so I finally got to try the Bobby Burger! Yay! It was pretty good.
The Marines lost the game 4-1. Shunsuke gave up a big home run to Tuffy Rhodes in the 8th inning and came out of the game right after that. It was sad. But I had a pretty good time at the game anyway. First, Max is like the most enthusiastic baseball kid fan ever and he yelled lots of funny things. We were also sitting in a "special people section", kind of (as in... the old guy sitting to my left has been a Marines fan for like ninety billion years and babbled at me about the team for a while... then three rows in front of us was Marines coach Frank Ramppen's wife and kids, who Mitch knows... at one point Mary [Valentine] came out and waved to Mitch and Max... and so on). In the 6th inning Larry Rocca came up to say hi to us (he's the international business director for the Marines or something like that, and he wants to put me under Team 26 Marines Mind Control), and brought up a Chiba-ken CIR and friend to come sit with us, having just given them the tour of the stadium. They're apparently going to try some promotions for foreigners in Chiba at the stadium, including an English-talk night on Thursdays in the outfield picnic area.
After the game I got to go "backstage" briefly with Larry and the rest of our posse. I met the "Master of Information" behind the Marines, Pupo-san, who actually knew who I was and even said he had used my translated boxscores sometimes. He's from Spokane, so he asked me about Seattle and stuff. There were some other people around, coaches and whatnot, and literally like 40 feet away from us there were a crowd of reporters interviewing Shunsuke Watanabe (or, as Larry put it, "hey Deanna, look over there, it's your boy... you can kind of see him in the media swarm."), and then Bobby Valentine actually came down the hallway and Larry introduced him to me and not only did Bobby also know who I was, but he asked me, "Your stuff is great. Do you know if I can get translated KOREAN box scores anywhere?" And I'm flabbergasted and like "hmm... err... I have no idea, that's a really good question" and he's like "I'm all about good questions!"
Weirder, Larry kept telling everyone there like "this is Deanna the Marinerd, she's a great writer and she finally came out of hiding to meet us!" and I'd just stare at my feet like "uhh... thanks..."
We were only backstage for like 5 minutes and I was too scared to get my camera out and take any pictures there. Afterwards, I got a ride back to Tokyo with Mitch and his family. Max was like "Can you come over and play Wii Sports with me? Pleeeeease?" and I was like, "sure!" but then on the hour-plus drive back into the city he totally fell asleep, so they dropped me off at Iidabashi and I made my way home from there in the rain instead. Mitch gave me a Marines flag when I was leaving, so now I can wave a flag and yell "BA! MO! FLIO!!" with everyone, which is the Japanese version of "Vamos Julio!" for Zuleta. No, I'm really not making that last part up, either.