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weekend of baseball -- yokohama and chiba -- semi-photopost
This weekend (Sunday and Monday) I spent, um...
4 hours sleeping
9 hours in transit
16 hours at baseball stadiums
Yeah.
So Sunday I woke up, did chores a bit like laundry... then got on a train around 3 to go to Yokohama. Arrived around 4:30, got my ticket, called my friend Ikeda, he had saved me a seat BUT his other friend didn't come. Saw Matt, who was sitting literally 6 rows ahead of us with his group. Ikeda read my blog, or tried to, and he gave me a Baystars raincoat and a fan club 30th anniversary pinbadge. So I gave him my extra Miura and Yoshimura pinbadges in return. I am kinda bad at the Japanese gift-change deal.
Baystars lost to the Dragons like 8-4, thanks to Yukiya Yokoyama sucking a lot. Shuuichi Murata hit two homeruns though and it turns out he actually hit four consecutive home runs in four at-bats between Saturday and Sunday's game. He's up to 40 for the season now. Yay. As for the Dragons, my wonderful favorite player ever Masahiko Dragonbutt Morino went and hit a freaking OUT OF THE STADIUM HOME RUN, right over where I was sitting, too -- seriously -- I was saying how I love Morino a lot, even though I was cheering for the Baystars that day, and Ikeda was like "You know he'll be a FA next year and he was a Baystars Fanclub member as a kid... maybe he'll come to Yokohama..." and then BLAM. Seriously, out of the damn stadium, right over the outfield wall. Crazy. Morino was also game hero of course. I love him but it's always sad to be sitting in the losing-team cheering section.
I was originally going to go to the game and try to stalk Tyrone Woods, but decided I didn't want to pay $50 for an infield stalking seat, basically.
My hero. Usually.
Stalking Sign Guy as always :)
Monday was another nutso day. I got to sleep at like 3-3:30ish on Sunday night and then had to wake up at like 7:30-8ish in order to go to Chiba Marine Stadium bright and early, I was there as a media-type person. I didn't have any goal though except to talk to Bobby Valentine, which is why I failed at really accomplishing anything else. I tried to get the courage to talk to Sadaharu Oh but just couldn't, and I missed the Hawks foreign players coming in while I was hanging out in Bobby's office.
Westbay and his son were on the field for a bit before noon and despite that I am totally not supposed to do this, I got a picture taken with...
Yeah, it's me with the stuffed gorilla that they keep in the dugout because Toshiaki Imae broke his wrist and is out for the season. Imae's nickname is Gori because he looks kinda like a gorilla, so.
I guess I hung out a while, ran into MAB-san, the Lotte ouendan leader, and he chatted with me for a while, he's a nice guy. He pointed out all the players wearing Oakley sunglasses and said he supplies them for the team. Jose Ortiz came over to give MAB a signed jersey, no joke, that was bizarre. Benny also came to talk to MAB and completely ignored my existence. Ah well. I'm sure the players all think I am crazy anyway.
I went up to the stands and sat with our Gaijin Gang for this game -- Westbay really wanted to see a game from the picnic seats in Chiba, so we did. It was me, Matt, Simon, Kris, Westbay, and Westbay's son. The picnic seats are nice and I spent the whole game keeping score, taking pictures, cheering, eating, etc. We also did balloons for the 7th inning for once, which I almost never do. The Marines managed to win the game but barely, being ahead most of the time and then falling to a 7-7 tie in the late innings. Akira Ohtsuka hit a walk-off RBI single to win 8-7. That was cool.
After the game, Westbay drove to Yokohama, and Matt and I leeched a ride with him. I sat in the backseat with Westbay's son and talked about card games and the Baystars. I seem to be okay at talking to 10-year-olds as long as they aren't my students.
Matt and I got to the stadium around the 4th inning and the Giants were already up 3-1. Dammit. His friends saved a bunch of seats up front so I sat in the FRONT ROW OF THE OUTFIELD but because it was raining I totally didn't take any pictures. The Giants won 6-4 and boy did that suck. Baystars fans, just like everyone, get REALLY pissed off at the Giants of course. People were heckling Yoshitomo Tani in right field the entire game, even saying things like "How's your wife? She's a better athlete than you are, loser!" (Tani's wife is the extremely famous judo athlete Ryoko Tamura-now-Tani.)
Matt is super-popular apparently, EVERYONE there says hi to him. It's really wacky.
After the game I briefly met up with this guy Max who reads my blog sometimes and sent me email a while back, and his girlfriend who is a Giants fan. Max is a Baystars fan but he's friends with Marc Kroon so they were sitting on the Giants side. I'm gonna hopefully go to a game with them next month, probably Giants-Dragons. Awesome.
Then I sat on a train for an hour and a half again and got home in time for half of Ainori. I kind of passed out around 2am from lack of sleep and all.
And today, I go back to work. Whee.
4 hours sleeping
9 hours in transit
16 hours at baseball stadiums
Yeah.
So Sunday I woke up, did chores a bit like laundry... then got on a train around 3 to go to Yokohama. Arrived around 4:30, got my ticket, called my friend Ikeda, he had saved me a seat BUT his other friend didn't come. Saw Matt, who was sitting literally 6 rows ahead of us with his group. Ikeda read my blog, or tried to, and he gave me a Baystars raincoat and a fan club 30th anniversary pinbadge. So I gave him my extra Miura and Yoshimura pinbadges in return. I am kinda bad at the Japanese gift-change deal.
Baystars lost to the Dragons like 8-4, thanks to Yukiya Yokoyama sucking a lot. Shuuichi Murata hit two homeruns though and it turns out he actually hit four consecutive home runs in four at-bats between Saturday and Sunday's game. He's up to 40 for the season now. Yay. As for the Dragons, my wonderful favorite player ever Masahiko Dragonbutt Morino went and hit a freaking OUT OF THE STADIUM HOME RUN, right over where I was sitting, too -- seriously -- I was saying how I love Morino a lot, even though I was cheering for the Baystars that day, and Ikeda was like "You know he'll be a FA next year and he was a Baystars Fanclub member as a kid... maybe he'll come to Yokohama..." and then BLAM. Seriously, out of the damn stadium, right over the outfield wall. Crazy. Morino was also game hero of course. I love him but it's always sad to be sitting in the losing-team cheering section.
I was originally going to go to the game and try to stalk Tyrone Woods, but decided I didn't want to pay $50 for an infield stalking seat, basically.
My hero. Usually.
Stalking Sign Guy as always :)
Monday was another nutso day. I got to sleep at like 3-3:30ish on Sunday night and then had to wake up at like 7:30-8ish in order to go to Chiba Marine Stadium bright and early, I was there as a media-type person. I didn't have any goal though except to talk to Bobby Valentine, which is why I failed at really accomplishing anything else. I tried to get the courage to talk to Sadaharu Oh but just couldn't, and I missed the Hawks foreign players coming in while I was hanging out in Bobby's office.
Westbay and his son were on the field for a bit before noon and despite that I am totally not supposed to do this, I got a picture taken with...
Yeah, it's me with the stuffed gorilla that they keep in the dugout because Toshiaki Imae broke his wrist and is out for the season. Imae's nickname is Gori because he looks kinda like a gorilla, so.
I guess I hung out a while, ran into MAB-san, the Lotte ouendan leader, and he chatted with me for a while, he's a nice guy. He pointed out all the players wearing Oakley sunglasses and said he supplies them for the team. Jose Ortiz came over to give MAB a signed jersey, no joke, that was bizarre. Benny also came to talk to MAB and completely ignored my existence. Ah well. I'm sure the players all think I am crazy anyway.
I went up to the stands and sat with our Gaijin Gang for this game -- Westbay really wanted to see a game from the picnic seats in Chiba, so we did. It was me, Matt, Simon, Kris, Westbay, and Westbay's son. The picnic seats are nice and I spent the whole game keeping score, taking pictures, cheering, eating, etc. We also did balloons for the 7th inning for once, which I almost never do. The Marines managed to win the game but barely, being ahead most of the time and then falling to a 7-7 tie in the late innings. Akira Ohtsuka hit a walk-off RBI single to win 8-7. That was cool.
After the game, Westbay drove to Yokohama, and Matt and I leeched a ride with him. I sat in the backseat with Westbay's son and talked about card games and the Baystars. I seem to be okay at talking to 10-year-olds as long as they aren't my students.
Matt and I got to the stadium around the 4th inning and the Giants were already up 3-1. Dammit. His friends saved a bunch of seats up front so I sat in the FRONT ROW OF THE OUTFIELD but because it was raining I totally didn't take any pictures. The Giants won 6-4 and boy did that suck. Baystars fans, just like everyone, get REALLY pissed off at the Giants of course. People were heckling Yoshitomo Tani in right field the entire game, even saying things like "How's your wife? She's a better athlete than you are, loser!" (Tani's wife is the extremely famous judo athlete Ryoko Tamura-now-Tani.)
Matt is super-popular apparently, EVERYONE there says hi to him. It's really wacky.
After the game I briefly met up with this guy Max who reads my blog sometimes and sent me email a while back, and his girlfriend who is a Giants fan. Max is a Baystars fan but he's friends with Marc Kroon so they were sitting on the Giants side. I'm gonna hopefully go to a game with them next month, probably Giants-Dragons. Awesome.
Then I sat on a train for an hour and a half again and got home in time for half of Ainori. I kind of passed out around 2am from lack of sleep and all.
And today, I go back to work. Whee.
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