勝った！
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.
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Posts tagged seibu lions
It all comes down to this
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…
3 cheers for the Seibu Lions
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.
Alex Cabrera カブレラ アレックス
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.