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Fighters Week Part 3, Kamagaya -- Hime-chan no Homerun
Today I went to the middle of nowhere Kamagaya for another preseason Fighters-Buffaloes game, out of peer pressure :)
At least today they actually had buses running to the stadium, that was nice.
I showed up and bought a ticket, and bought the 2009 Fighters calendar (it's making me quite happy to have Kensuke and Kaneko up on my wall for March!) and went in and found my friends -- Hiromi yelled up as I walked by and cleared off a seat for me. We had a huge group again, an entire front row above the Fighters dugout, all women except Ojisan. Mariko's friend's teenage daughter (oops) apparently has been further indoctrinated into the cult, as she has now officially picked a favorite player (Matsuyama-kun) and gotten her photo taken with him AND gotten it signed by him, AND she made him a cheer board, also signed. Everyone was being all nostalgic for when they were teenagers and liked their first baseball players :)
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that while everyone was shouting out random stuff to the Fighters players by the dugout, I came over and said, in English, "Hey! Terrmel Sledge! Happy birthday!!"
It was, infact, Sledge's birthday today. He's only a few weeks older than I am. But he seemed totally surprised to hear English and to hear a birthday wish. So he looks up like "Hey! Thanks!"
I said, "Are you going to hit us a birthday home run?"
"You bet I'm gonna try! Wish me luck?"
"Good luck! Go out there and have a great day!"
"Thanks a lot, enjoy the game!" He smiled a big smile and ran off. I'd never talked to him before, but he seems like a nice guy. And then people as usual were like "Whoa, what did you say to him?" and I explained in Japanese, "It's his birthday! I just told him 'ganbatte' and all that kinda stuff."
Okay, so after that I wandered over to the bullpen, and on the way there, an older lady taps me on the arm and is like (in Japanese), "Hey, hey, were you at the Tokyo Dome yesterday? We saw you on TV!"
I'm thinking, "Oh crap", but I replied, "Really? What was I doing?"
"You were holding a cheering board for Tomochika Tsuboi and singing his cheer song and laughing!"
"Whoa! Really?" I replied, genuinely surprised. I think Mariko might have been messing with me about me looking like a dumb foreigner on TV. Or I just misunderstood what she said.
"Yeah! And aren't you the girl who always talks to Brian Sweeney?" said the other woman with her, I presume her daughter.
"Well... er... yeah... maybe... he is a very nice guy!"
They look at each other and say "Sugooooooooi." Which I guess roughly meant "Amazing." Or just "She IS crazy." Sometimes it's hard to tell.
That was bizarre. And then it turned out nobody was in the bullpen anyway except one of the bullpen catchers. Doh!
I walked back, and then saw that fielding practice was ending and the players were coming to the dugout for the pregame huddle. After it broke up, I yelled down, "Hey Jason! Jason Botts!"
He looked up and said "Hey! Yeah?"
I've never talked to him before either, but I just said "Did you notice we have a new cheer song for you this year?"
He made a funny face and was like "No... not really I hadn't, but..."
"Well, you should listen to it! It's awesome and I promise it has no references to foul balls or anything."
He laughed.
"I'm really sorry about last year," I said.
"It's okay, thanks a lot," he said.
I still have no clue whether I was indirectly responsible for him complaining about the "Ponyo" cheer theme we did for him last year which ended in "he hits a big, big, FOUL BALL", but at least for my own sake, I have now actually apologized to him directly.
Hiromi tagged me again and asked in Japanese, "What were you talking about??"
I giggled. "Cheer songs."
"Does he like the new one?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said, "But I do know he hated Ponyo!"
I've gotten a lot better at talking to players, I guess, because I wasn't shaking or having my heart beat in my throat or anything after talking to the guys this time. Now if only I could manage to get press passes again this year...
A bit after that the Fighters retreated into the dugout entirely, so I ran up and bought some yakisoba to eat for lunch, and they did the starting lineup announcing, and the starting pitcher for the Fighters was none other than Kazuhito Tadano! Who I just happened to have a sign for! So I very well might have ended up on TV yet again. Oops. As an aside, even the lady who was staff with Cubby-mascot was like "Oh! It's you, from last night at the Tokyo Dome! What's up?"
There was a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors through a big group of people in the stands for the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. No joke. It was won by this adorable little boy in an Inaba jersey.
So, there was a game. We watched, we took photos, we cheered. The Fighters beat the Buffaloes 6-2, which was nice for a change. Luis Jimenez, who is playing first base for the Fighters this year apparently, and hit a home run in the 5th inning, has been nicknamed "Hime-chan", and I'm really not making that up. I tried to explain why the hell nicknaming an extremely large Venezuelan man "Princess" is just way too freaking weird for my brain to process, but I'm not sure I got through to people. I mean, I do get where it comes from (the Japanification of his name is Hi-me-ne-su), but still. Also HOLY CRAP! He has the same birthday as me (well, 5 years later) and is also left-handed! I totally have to talk to him someday. Actually, Hiromi pointed out later, "Hime-chan was staring at you the entire time you were talking to Botts-san in English, he seemed surprised!" which I hadn't noticed, of course.
It was just really nice to sit outside with my friends on a beautiful sunny day and watch some baseball and yell a lot in Japanese. Except, of course, we were watching the Japan-Korea WBC game on and off on Hiromi's phone, and it was just bad because they were down 3-0 so early, and the Fighters pitcher Darvish was starting, so it meant more to us. And THEN Johjima got thrown out of the game and everyone was just in a "WTF?" state. And then Korea won, which sucked, but the Fighters also won, so that was good.
After the game Hiromi tried to help me figure out what the hell to do about my lapsed fan club membership plus that I moved, and it was a pile of utter fail, so I'm gonna have to see if I can get in touch with the guy from the fan club who actually speaks English. Yikes.
We took the bus back together and rode the trains home about halfway together, back to Akihabara. When passing through Funabashi I pointed out the Lotte rookies poster with Hiroki Ueno and was like "Have you seen this guy? He and our new ni-gun boyfriend Shota Ohno were battery-mates in college! Isn't he cute?" and Hiromi agrees, "Super-cute! Why couldn't the Fighters draft BOTH of them?"
And this is why we get along so well, I guess. We spent the entire train ride home talking about TV shows and movies and music and crap, and some baseball stuff too. She told me that her husband finally got transferred back to Tokyo this month, and that she'd drag him to a game sometime so I could meet him. "I tell him stories about you all the time!" "Err... idiot gaijin stories?" "No, unbelievable gaijin baseball superfan stories!" "Thanks, I think?"
I ate at McDonald's again when I got home and got a Matsuzaka WBC file. I was just starving and it seemed as good an idea as any.
Sadly, instead of having a productive evening, I've had a little bit of productivity and a lot of goofing off. Even while writing this post, I was goofing off a bit... by the way JEFF! You wouldn't believe this, but Yamaji and Momo have blogs! TRULY mind-bending stuff. Apparently the Kanto kids DO all still hang out together. Does it count as Japanese language study if I'm trying to read the blogs of former Ainori cast members who all write in cellphone-speak?
At least today they actually had buses running to the stadium, that was nice.
I showed up and bought a ticket, and bought the 2009 Fighters calendar (it's making me quite happy to have Kensuke and Kaneko up on my wall for March!) and went in and found my friends -- Hiromi yelled up as I walked by and cleared off a seat for me. We had a huge group again, an entire front row above the Fighters dugout, all women except Ojisan. Mariko's friend's teenage daughter (oops) apparently has been further indoctrinated into the cult, as she has now officially picked a favorite player (Matsuyama-kun) and gotten her photo taken with him AND gotten it signed by him, AND she made him a cheer board, also signed. Everyone was being all nostalgic for when they were teenagers and liked their first baseball players :)
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that while everyone was shouting out random stuff to the Fighters players by the dugout, I came over and said, in English, "Hey! Terrmel Sledge! Happy birthday!!"
It was, infact, Sledge's birthday today. He's only a few weeks older than I am. But he seemed totally surprised to hear English and to hear a birthday wish. So he looks up like "Hey! Thanks!"
I said, "Are you going to hit us a birthday home run?"
"You bet I'm gonna try! Wish me luck?"
"Good luck! Go out there and have a great day!"
"Thanks a lot, enjoy the game!" He smiled a big smile and ran off. I'd never talked to him before, but he seems like a nice guy. And then people as usual were like "Whoa, what did you say to him?" and I explained in Japanese, "It's his birthday! I just told him 'ganbatte' and all that kinda stuff."
Okay, so after that I wandered over to the bullpen, and on the way there, an older lady taps me on the arm and is like (in Japanese), "Hey, hey, were you at the Tokyo Dome yesterday? We saw you on TV!"
I'm thinking, "Oh crap", but I replied, "Really? What was I doing?"
"You were holding a cheering board for Tomochika Tsuboi and singing his cheer song and laughing!"
"Whoa! Really?" I replied, genuinely surprised. I think Mariko might have been messing with me about me looking like a dumb foreigner on TV. Or I just misunderstood what she said.
"Yeah! And aren't you the girl who always talks to Brian Sweeney?" said the other woman with her, I presume her daughter.
"Well... er... yeah... maybe... he is a very nice guy!"
They look at each other and say "Sugooooooooi." Which I guess roughly meant "Amazing." Or just "She IS crazy." Sometimes it's hard to tell.
That was bizarre. And then it turned out nobody was in the bullpen anyway except one of the bullpen catchers. Doh!
I walked back, and then saw that fielding practice was ending and the players were coming to the dugout for the pregame huddle. After it broke up, I yelled down, "Hey Jason! Jason Botts!"
He looked up and said "Hey! Yeah?"
I've never talked to him before either, but I just said "Did you notice we have a new cheer song for you this year?"
He made a funny face and was like "No... not really I hadn't, but..."
"Well, you should listen to it! It's awesome and I promise it has no references to foul balls or anything."
He laughed.
"I'm really sorry about last year," I said.
"It's okay, thanks a lot," he said.
I still have no clue whether I was indirectly responsible for him complaining about the "Ponyo" cheer theme we did for him last year which ended in "he hits a big, big, FOUL BALL", but at least for my own sake, I have now actually apologized to him directly.
Hiromi tagged me again and asked in Japanese, "What were you talking about??"
I giggled. "Cheer songs."
"Does he like the new one?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said, "But I do know he hated Ponyo!"
I've gotten a lot better at talking to players, I guess, because I wasn't shaking or having my heart beat in my throat or anything after talking to the guys this time. Now if only I could manage to get press passes again this year...
A bit after that the Fighters retreated into the dugout entirely, so I ran up and bought some yakisoba to eat for lunch, and they did the starting lineup announcing, and the starting pitcher for the Fighters was none other than Kazuhito Tadano! Who I just happened to have a sign for! So I very well might have ended up on TV yet again. Oops. As an aside, even the lady who was staff with Cubby-mascot was like "Oh! It's you, from last night at the Tokyo Dome! What's up?"
There was a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors through a big group of people in the stands for the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. No joke. It was won by this adorable little boy in an Inaba jersey.
So, there was a game. We watched, we took photos, we cheered. The Fighters beat the Buffaloes 6-2, which was nice for a change. Luis Jimenez, who is playing first base for the Fighters this year apparently, and hit a home run in the 5th inning, has been nicknamed "Hime-chan", and I'm really not making that up. I tried to explain why the hell nicknaming an extremely large Venezuelan man "Princess" is just way too freaking weird for my brain to process, but I'm not sure I got through to people. I mean, I do get where it comes from (the Japanification of his name is Hi-me-ne-su), but still. Also HOLY CRAP! He has the same birthday as me (well, 5 years later) and is also left-handed! I totally have to talk to him someday. Actually, Hiromi pointed out later, "Hime-chan was staring at you the entire time you were talking to Botts-san in English, he seemed surprised!" which I hadn't noticed, of course.
It was just really nice to sit outside with my friends on a beautiful sunny day and watch some baseball and yell a lot in Japanese. Except, of course, we were watching the Japan-Korea WBC game on and off on Hiromi's phone, and it was just bad because they were down 3-0 so early, and the Fighters pitcher Darvish was starting, so it meant more to us. And THEN Johjima got thrown out of the game and everyone was just in a "WTF?" state. And then Korea won, which sucked, but the Fighters also won, so that was good.
After the game Hiromi tried to help me figure out what the hell to do about my lapsed fan club membership plus that I moved, and it was a pile of utter fail, so I'm gonna have to see if I can get in touch with the guy from the fan club who actually speaks English. Yikes.
We took the bus back together and rode the trains home about halfway together, back to Akihabara. When passing through Funabashi I pointed out the Lotte rookies poster with Hiroki Ueno and was like "Have you seen this guy? He and our new ni-gun boyfriend Shota Ohno were battery-mates in college! Isn't he cute?" and Hiromi agrees, "Super-cute! Why couldn't the Fighters draft BOTH of them?"
And this is why we get along so well, I guess. We spent the entire train ride home talking about TV shows and movies and music and crap, and some baseball stuff too. She told me that her husband finally got transferred back to Tokyo this month, and that she'd drag him to a game sometime so I could meet him. "I tell him stories about you all the time!" "Err... idiot gaijin stories?" "No, unbelievable gaijin baseball superfan stories!" "Thanks, I think?"
I ate at McDonald's again when I got home and got a Matsuzaka WBC file. I was just starving and it seemed as good an idea as any.
Sadly, instead of having a productive evening, I've had a little bit of productivity and a lot of goofing off. Even while writing this post, I was goofing off a bit... by the way JEFF! You wouldn't believe this, but Yamaji and Momo have blogs! TRULY mind-bending stuff. Apparently the Kanto kids DO all still hang out together. Does it count as Japanese language study if I'm trying to read the blogs of former Ainori cast members who all write in cellphone-speak?
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Does it count as Japanese language study if I'm trying to read the blogs of former Ainori cast members who all write in cellphone-speak?
I guess you could write that off as social studies :)