They did it! I can’t believe it. Down 3 games to 2 with two away games to go, the Lions were able to win both on the road to capture the 2008 Japanese Baseball Championship.

Hopefully they can do it again next year when I’m there.

Posted on November 9th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: baseball, tokorozawa. Comments: None

Seibu won game 6 to force a 7th and deciding game on Sunday for the Japan Series. It doesn’t get any more exciting than this baseball fans!

Each year in Japan, each team picks a new slogan (I guess you would call it). Some are in English, or more commonly Engrish, but others are in Japanese. Last year the Lions had one in Japanese as you can see above: 心を,ひとつに。力を,ひとつに。 That translates into something like “With one heart, with one power… (let’s do this thing!)” And that’s what they need to do tomorrow night!

I went to the official website of the Lions to see what their slogan or motto was for this year. It looks like they chose the classic Engrish phrase “i believe lions.” for 2008. Oh well, last year’s wasn’t bad.

While on the site I learned that they have renamed the team from simply the Seibu Lions to the Saitama Seibu Lions. Saitama is the prefecture (sort of like the state or county if you are wondering what a prefecture is) where the Lions play their home games. I wonder if this was something like what we had with the Angels in the states going from being the California Angels to the Los Angeles Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim within a few years.

Maybe they will be called the Saitama Lions of Tokorozawa next year. I used to live in Tokorozawa (near the 西所沢駅), a mere 10 minute bike ride from the stadium. Oh, the memories…

Posted on November 8th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: baseball, japan pictures, tokorozawa. Comments: None

With Thursday’s victory the Tokyo Giants have taken a 3 games to 2 lead in the Japan Series. The final two games move back to the heart of Tokyo and will be held on Saturday and Sunday. The Seibu Lions have to win both to win the series.

Let’s all hope that the Giants can lose two in a row at home and not crush the above little boy’s hopes and dreams.

Posted on November 6th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: baseball, japan pictures, tokorozawa. Comments: None

The Seibu Lions have advanced to the Japanese World Series. They are playing against the Tokyo Giants for the championship. Currently the series is even at a game a piece. If you can read a bit of Japanese then check out the latest here. Play resumes on Tuesday at Seibu Dome where the above picture was taken last year. Female cheerleaders come out and do their thing in the seventh or eighth inning in Japan. Then the fans fire off thousands of balloons. And this was for a regular old game, not the playoffs. I can’t imagine what happens when they turn things up a notch for the Japan Series.

Posted on November 3rd, 2008 under Japan. Tags: baseball, japan pictures, tokorozawa. Comments: 1

As mentioned a couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to attend a Blue Jays game in Toronto last summer. The above photo is of two former Oakland A’s players (as the A’s have been “my team” since the 70s).

Miguel Tejada and Matt Stairs are shown here in different uniforms talking about their old glory days in Oakland. Stairs had just hit a double and Tejada was playing short. Had Tejada pulled a hidden ball trick he could have tagged Stairs out!

Fast forward to this season and Matt Stairs finds himself on the Phillies. Last night he crushed a ball in Los Angeles for a two run homer to give the Phillies a 3 games to 1 lead over the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Posted on October 14th, 2008 under Other. Tags: baseball, canada. Comments: None

Despite loads of positive energy coming from the Windy City due to having two teams in the post season, the Cubs having the best record in the National League, and Obama poised for a landslide victory in next month’s election (if you don’t believe me check out intrade.com), the Chicago teams both struck out in the first round of the playoffs.

I took the above picture at the aforementioned Cubs-Mets game last August at Wrigley Field. I believe Cliff Floyd is striking out. Although it may look like I had a great seat at the game, it was actually quite horrible. I was behind a pillar way down behind the bullpen 30 or so rows back. I just got lucky on this picture as most taken at 12X zoom, without a tripod, while the subject is moving, come out quite blurry.

The 756 in the background on the guy’s t-shirt is in reference to Barry Bonds’ chase of the home run record at the time. He hit #756 later that day. I remember watching it on TV back in my hotel room.

Posted on October 7th, 2008 under Other. Tags: baseball, Chicago. Comments: None