Japan Blog

Weeks 25 & 26: July 15th - July 28th

Entries completed: July 15th, 18th, 24th, 25th

July 15th

Rain in Chiba...

Chiba was a total mess. After battling our way to through a back and forth win in the opening game of the series we lost the next two games to rain. I am now starting to understand why there are so many dome stadiums in Japan. That was the first time I had ever heard the word "typhoon" mentioned in a weather forecast.

We are in the midst of the rainy season here and they weren’t exaggerating when they told me it rains here a lot in June and July. We have arrived in Sapporo to play the Fighters. They are indoors so we know we’ll have 3 games here. The Fighters are in first place and would be good for us to have a good showing here, winning at least 2 out of 3 would be nice.

While in Chiba we stayed at a hotel that did not have internet service. That struck me as a little unusual. It is 2007 and I am in a nice hotel within the Tokyo region and they do not have internet? They also had a VCR in the room. I couldn’t help but think to myself, what year is this?

I was glad to get to Sapporo. The Prince Hotel here has some of the nicest rooms in the league. My room is as good or better than any room I have ever had while playing in the major leagues. We have all night games here so I’ll be putting the comfortableness of the bed to good use. I really enjoy night games over day games. I get much more sleep on the road than I do at home. For some reason my apartment in Fukuoka is really bright really early in the morning. That makes it tough to sleep in.

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July 18th

Bringing Them To Their Knees...

Well we did the minimum of what I was hoping we would in Sapporo, we won 2 of 3. Our starting pitchers put in a great effort leaving only 1 inning available for the bullpen in the 3 game series. I was glad I got to pitch that inning.

One of the downsides to having such a good starting rotation is that there are not nearly as many innings available to the relievers. Relief pitching is a sticky business. You go through times when you really need to pitch and you go through times when you could really use a day off. I like to pitch in games regularly, it keeps me sharp and it is almost always when I am at my best. In Japan it has been an adjustment for me not pitching as much as I am used to. There is nothing you can do about it, you just have to give it your best when you get the ball. In my perfect world I would through 1 inning every other day. Keep dreaming.

Tomorrow we start our All-Star break, I am excited about that because it means more family time for me. 5 days is unusually long for an All Star break for a foreigner. Back in the U.S. we get 3 days. Of course it won’t be 5 off days, actually only 2 and then we’ll practice the other 3. Yeah practice!!

Sapporo was fun, I really like it up here. I had a funny incident just a few minutes ago. I went out of the hotel to Lawson’s to get some ice cream. On my way back there was a small group of fans in the lobby. They were calling me by my nickname, Nicochan, which I love. As I got into the elevator I could see into the lobby and one of the girls blew me a kiss. I thought I’d play along and I blew her one back. She literally fell to her knees. It was really funny, I hope my wife feels the same way because when she reads this it will be the first time she is hearing this story. I am arrogant enough to think I can knock a woman off of her feet I just never thought I was good enough to do it from a distance.

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July 24th

All-Star Break Over...

The All-Star break has come to an end and as much as I like the off days I look forward to starting games again. We are right in the thick of the Pacific League race, trailing the league leading Nippon Ham Fighters by 4 games. This may go down to the wire.

The 5 off days off were nice. I spent the first two days in Osaka with my family. We went to Universal Studios Japan. It was pretty fun. My kids (7 & 5) had a really great time. My wife was sad because at almost 3 months pregnant she couldn’t ride any roller coasters. She is a thrill seeker. Me? I am perfectly happy keeping both of my feet on the ground.

Surprisingly I ran into a lot of people I knew at USJ. You figure I am in Osaka, Japan who would I possibly see on my vacation? Well, I saw a teammate, a member of the team’s official website, a former teammate who players for Hanshin and a Japanese woman I met while playing here. Really crazy.

We did have practice the last 3 days of the break. Practice can be really boring during the season because you are so geared up to play games. Mr. Oh said we would be doing a lot of running at our first practice. He made a pretty funny comment about it too, he said if you don’t want to run then you should have made the All-Star team.

Speaking of the All-Star game the Hawks didn’t have a good showing. Our closer Mahara took a loss in the first game after allowing three runs on two homeruns. Pretty amazing considering he has allowed only 2 runs all season (0.48 ERA in 37 2/3 IP with 25 Saves). I gave him a hard time about it when I saw him yesterday. You can do that when a guy is having such a ridiculously good season. Our other pitching representative Sugiuchi gave up 2 runs in the second game. He is also dominating this league this season with 12 wins and 1.76 ERA.

After our last day of practice the Hawks organized a team dinner at the Sea Hawk Hotel. It was the gaijin favorite, yakiniku. Team dinners are a lot of fun and are great for team chemistry. Getting together over a meal with a few inspirational words from ownership, our manager and our team captain is never a bad thing. We know we have a small hill to climb but we are very confident we can finish the season in first place and more importantly win the Japan Series.

One last thing, I did an interview with Fuji Television when we were in Chiba last week. I am told the interview with run tonight at midnight I believe. It will be on TNC locally here in Fukuoka. One of the translators tells me it is a big program and will be a big deal. I am not sure I believe him. They wanted to talk about the work I am doing for the Associate Press. The articles I have written are now available in English and Japanese. (Thank you KE).

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July 25th

Darn It!

First game back from the All-star break wasn’t a good one for me. I pitched the 9th inning with an 8-0 lead and allowed two runs. The killer for me was allowing my first homerun in Japan. In my ignorance I really thought I could go the whole season without allowing a homerun. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. To make it even a little more frustrating the pitch prior to the homerun was strike three. It wasn’t even close, the umpire missed the call and the next pitch was hit into the left field seats. That is the way baseball goes sometimes. I am convinced it was destiny for me to let up that homerun.

That probably wasn’t the worst part of the night. The thing that got me mad was the other run I let up. With 2 outs and a runner on second I allowed a single on a 1-2 pitch (that’s one ball and 2 strikes, in Japan they would call it a 2-1 pitch). I was being stubborn and really wanted to throw my change-up even though it is not a great pitch for me right now. My change-up has been a big strike out pitch for me over the past 2 seasons, especially against right handed hitters. It’s a lot sharper when I pitch more. I was just being “pig headed” (akumade) and threw the pitch even though it wasn’t the smartest one to throw. I struck out the next hitter to end the game and we won 8-2.

I do a nice job of letting up unnecessary runs. In the end I know it is better than letting up runs in important situations but it is still frustrating. What matters most was that I did not walk any hitters and I got the only lefty I faced, Fukuura, out. Getting lefties out is the number one priority in my role and I have been blessed with good results since I have been back from the minors. I almost always try to focus on the positive in any situation whenever possible, which I am learning is kind of the opposite of Japanese thinking. I was satisfied to finish the inning and we won the game. It just really annoyed me to let up that homer.

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