| March 11th
This pre-season road trip is crazy. Our day began with a team breakfast at the hotel at 7:30 a.m., and then I had to pack and be on the bus by 9 to travel to a distant stadium. The first three games of this seven-game, seven-city road trip are not being played at our opponents’ major league stadium. We play them at what are called “local” stadiums.
This particular game was an hour away in a town called Onomichi. They do this to stir up regional interest for the home team, which today is Hiroshima Toyo Carp. As you might imagine, local stadiums do not quite have the amenities of the major-league stadiums.
The locker room looked like it belonged in a college, or maybe even a high school. There really weren’t any lockers we could use. Guys just found a place to sit and used their equipment bag as a locker. It is unusual to see players making $4 million do this, but that is the way things go in Japan. And there was no complaining. I admire a lot of these guys for not bitching about the situation. I don’t think American major leaguers would have had the same attitude. Of course it is quite possible everyone was complaining and I just couldn't understand them. But I seriously doubt it.
It was literally freezing in Onomichi. As we began our stretch some snow flurries fell from the sky. I don’t like to wear long sleeves when I pitch because I’m not comfortable wearing them, so I got a lot of interesting looks and questions from teammates about only wearing a short-sleeve shirt under my uniform.
I entered the game in the eighth inning with a 6-3 lead – still wearing the same short sleeves. When I got back in the dugout after a 1-2-3 inning, Teppei, our head translator, said Mr. Oh wanted to know if I forgot my long sleeves. Teppei said he asked five different people during my outing. I assured Mr. Oh and Sugimoto San my short sleeves were intentional; that I do own a long sleeve undershirt but chose not to wear it.
Right after the game we were told we were taking an earlier train to our next stop, Nagoya. That meant we had only 30 minutes to shower, get dressed, pack our bags and get on the bus. I was in the middle of icing my arm and back, so I was really under the gun. There were only five showers for about 45 of us, so there was a long wait to get in.
I made a bad decision to shave before my shower. In a rush I cut myself pretty good on the left side of my neck. I didn’t have a lot of time to attend to my wound, so needless to say this is probably the last time I am going to wear this dress shirt. It was a team-issued freebie, so I don’t mind making it look like the inside of O.J.’s Bronco.
I won’t be pitching tomorrow so I treated myself to a cigar in Nagoya. Cuban cigars are widely available here, but I have grown accustomed to the Dominican cigars I get back home. I had my wife purchase me a box of A. Fuente’s before she flew to Japan.
After we got to the hotel the Americans took a cab to eat at, of all places, Outback Steakhouse. Nagoya has a population just under 2.5 million, about twice the size as Fukuoka, so there are a few more Western options here. After Outback, where I had the Alice Springs Chicken, we thought about taking the subway back to the hotel. But it was complete confusion in the station, so we played it safe and jumped in a taxi. When we arrived I enjoyed my cigar, and it was well worth the wait.
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March 12th
Nagoya seems like a nice city but I didn’t spend enough time there to confirm it. We were in and out again. I am looking forward to Tokyo, where we are stay in the Tokyo Dome Hotel for six consecutive nights. That’s a good thing, considering we will have been on the road for three full days before I actually get to unpack my suitcase.
We only come back to Nagoya once during the regular season. It is the home of the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League. The Hawks are in the Pacific League and we only come to teams out of our league once per season for only a two-game series.
When I woke up this morning I was really glad I wasn’t pitching today. There was a steady stream of flurries making its way horizontally through Nagoya. It wasn’t shaping up to be a good day for baseball.
The game was played about 45 minutes out of Nagoya and when we arrived at the local stadium the temperature was 41-degrees. But the wind chill made it feel more like 35. Let me say once again, I was real happy I did not have to pitch today.
The local stadium wasn’t as nice as the last one but the fans were equally as enthusiastic. I have to give credit to the Japan faithful. They really seem to support their teams regardless of circumstances. Horns were blaring and flags were flying. But I stayed inside as much as possible because it was just too cold to watch a baseball game.
After the game we went back to the hotel, showered and caught another bullet train to Shizuoka. We are here for one day to play the Rakuten Eagles. Shizuoka is not the hometown of the Eagles. This game is basically a being played at a remote site.
I am staying in what has to be the smallest hotel room I have ever seen, so I am glad this will only be a one-night stay. What makes the room even better is there is no Internet access and the TV doesn’t work, unless it is just me, which is possible. So tonight's agenda is writing a blog entry and watching The Breakfast Club on DVD, a movie I originally saw in the theater back in 1985. One of the pitchers on our team was born in 1986.
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March 14th
Yesterday was our final game at a local stadium and it couldn’t have ended fast enough. I am all for promoting the game, but I have to be honest: those games just weren’t fun. It was cold and windy again and the field conditions weren’t great. That made for a bad combination and I was glad when we recorded the final out.
I pitched and didn’t feel that great. I was having a hard time getting comfortable and walked the leadoff hitter, my first walk of the spring. I threw more side arm pitches to try to get comfortable. I struck the next hitter out but then drilled a guy square in the back. I felt terrible. That four seam fastball couldn’t have felt very good in this cold weather. I got the next two hitters out and the inning concluded without any further damage.
After the inning Sugimoto San asked me about my side-arm pitches. I told him I didn’t feel too good and did what I could to get comfortable. He asked me not to throw side arm anymore. He feels I am more consistent when I use my normal over-the-top motion.
I am a little torn by that because I received a lot of positive feedback from others. One of the translators told me how good my side-arm pitches looked in the bullpen. One of the American players from the opposing team told me the hitter I walked said he was having a hard time picking up the ball out of my hand. Plus the hitter I struck out was on a side-arm fastball. I understand I have to follow the orders of my coaches, but I think I can do some good things from the side arm angle. Hopefully we will talk about it some more.
We got some bad news after the game. They are sending Adam to the minor leagues. There is still a chance he could start the season in the majors. But they want to see him hit for more power and feel he will get more at-bats in minor-league spring training. It was tough news for a lot of reasons. Selfishly I want Adam here because he is a strong Christian and I need someone to stay accountable to and he was perfect for that. He has a good track record and, Lord willing, he gets back on the major league roster very soon.
It was nice to arrive in Tokyo, where we will spend the next six days. The Tokyo Dome Hotel is very nice, but more importantly I finally unpacked my suitcase after three quick stops in three different cities over three days.
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March 15th
Our first day in Tokyo was an off day, giving us ample time to check out this city of more than 12 million. Rick, Buck, Monna (translator) and I started our day around noon with a traditional Japanese lunch at … Subway. I had the foot-long turkey on honey oat.
After lunch at Subway we took the real subway to what I am told is the biggest electronics store in the world, at least according to Monna. Yodobashi was nine floors of wall-to-wall electronics and it was absolute chaos. It seemed as if they had 400 workers. I saw an aisle that had only computer mouses (or is it mice?) on both sides. There must have been about a thousand, uh, mice.
But what they didn’t have is the electronic dictionary for English speakers that I have been after. There were many electronic dictionaries, just not one specifically for English speakers. I figure if they don’t carry it here, I’m just going to have to order it from home and have it shipped here. But the trip to this electronics haven was not a loss. I bought a set of high quality earbud headphones. I already have the Bose Noise Reduction headphones which sound great, but they are a real pain to lug around during travel. These smalller ones are much easier to manage on train and airplane rides.
We went from the electronics store to a barbershop that Rick brought us to. He played in the Tokyo area last year so he knows where to go. I am not particularly fussy about my hair, but I have been a little concerned about finding a place to get it cut here in Japan.
Japanese hairstyles are a little different than what I’m used to. I don’t want their version of the mullet, which seems to be the style of choice for most guys. And I don’t want the crazy-all-over-the-place, super-mousse-spiked style either. Rick brought us to Toni & Guy, a popular franchise back home. I’m just glad Monna was there to translate. It took a long time but I was satisfied with the result. After I was done Buck told me that Miss Universe came and that I just missed her. We didn't get to me, she must have been really disappointed.
I am a low-cost haircut kind of guy so ¥7700 ($65) was a bit much for me. I know you ladies can do a lot more damage than that (I’ve seen the credit card statements), but that’s just not for me. That total did include tip, I should say. I know they don’t tip here but I just couldn’t help it. I would have felt too weird not leaving a tip after a hair cut.
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March 17th
We’re at that point in spring training where time is starting to fly by. We are only a week away from Opening Day. I really thought a 52-day camp would drag, but it really has not.
Tokyo has been great, not to mention that it’s nice to finally get back into a major-league stadium after a few days in those local parks. This road trip has really helped me appreciate what we have in Fukuoka, and back home. Generally speaking the stadiums and amenities in Japan are a step below what I am used to in the States. The clubhouses aren’t quite as nice, especially the visiting sides, which I am seeing right now.
The weather has been pretty chilly as well. I pitched today at the Yakult Swallows stadium and it was brisk for baseball. Having a controlled weather atmosphere in the Dome in Fukuoka is going to be nice. I have pitched fine on the road but I have a feeling I’m really going to like pitching at home. It might be because we have the biggest field in the league. That always makes a pitcher feel warm and cozy inside.
Yesterday was an off day. Well, sort of. We didn’t have a game but we practiced. We took a bus 45 minutes to the Chiba Lotte Marines minor-league facility and worked out as a team there. But it really wasn’t much of a workout. We used their indoor facility, so it was cramped. I basically stretched, played catch, lifted weights and ran. I waited around another hour and took the bus back to the Tokyo Dome Hotel.
It would have been nice if our day ended there, but it didn’t. We had meetings in the evening, a pitchers meeting and a position-players meeting. We went over all of the new hitters in our division. You would expect there would be a lot of new hitters in a six-team division, but there were only nine. Yes, that’s right – nine new hitters on the five other teams. You won’t be able to find a division in major-league baseball with only nine new hitters from the previous year. That just goes to show you how little turnover there is in Japan. Two of the teams didn’t even have any new hitters.
Our pitchers meeting lasted about an hour and a half. I commend the Japanese for being so thorough but sometimes it’s OK to keep it simple. We were covering one hitter and the scouting report began, “This player is a very good defensive catcher but a terrible hitter.” When I hear those words, that tells me to just pitch my game and I should not have any problems with him. Well, 15 minutes later we were still talking about how to get this “terrible hitter” out. It had a watching-paint-dry feel to it. There was video, too.
We have our last day off tomorrow, so I decided to take advantage and go out for the night. I am not much of a “go out” type of guy, but I want to see what Japan is like from as many different angles as I can.
We went to an area in Tokyo called Roppongi, which is pretty famous for its nightclub scene and a gathering place for Westerners after work. Interestingly, I found that Chinese and African business owners run many of the Roppongi-based bars and restaurants.
We caught up with a handful of other foreign players who were in the Tokyo area for spring training. Westerners dominated the bar we were at. Easily less than half the people there were Japanese, which seemed odd. I wouldn’t have known I was in Tokyo had it not been for the Japanese-speaking bartenders. This place basically was like any other bar at home from my youth. There were no pretty girls so I left early and was in bed sleeping by midnight. (That’s just in case my wife reads this. There were tons of hot chicks).
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