If you are a U.S. baseball fan the name Alex Cabrera probably doesn’t ring any bells. Or maybe the first you heard of him was when his name was included in the Mitchell Report late in 2007. (Note that Cabrera has never tested positive for steriods and denies ever having used them.) Most probably don’t know that he could have had the record for most home runs in a season in Japan had he been pitched to in 2002. He hit 154 home runs between 2001 and 2003. Baseball seasons are shorter in Japan so to hit 154 home runs in under 400 games is practically unheard of. That’s Barry Bonds territory.

But because he didn’t play in the states, and he is originally from Venezuela instead of the states, virtually no one in the U.S. knows about him. That isn’t the case in Tokorozawa, Japan.

I wrote a bit about a Seibu Lions game we went to here. I thought I’d also share a video I made of the fans cheering for Cabrera.

Each player had a different cheer (or two). Since it was early in the season (this was only the second home game of the year), the words to the cheer were written on the cards male cheerleaders are holding up in the above video. It didn’t seem like anyone needed the cue cards though.

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Posted on June 7th, 2008 under Japan • Tags: baseball, Japan, seibu lions, tokorozawa, video. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback