The Red Sox just beat the Hanshin Tigers 6-5, and I have learned a few things about myself, the Red Sox, and Japanese baseball.
1) I Don't Speak Japanese - The MLB.tv broadcast was the Japanese broadcast, so I couldn't understand the announcers at all. This lead to some fun in trying to figure out what they might be saying, especially about David Ortiz who they seem to be in love with - it's not surprising considering the awesomeness that is the picture here. They are extremely expressive and excitable though and are certainly better than McCarver or Morgan. Honestly, it wouldn't even have been an issue except...
2) Japanese Baseball Doesn't Like Graphics - Apparently, there were in fact balls and strikes indicators and pitch speed and on-base indicators for the first, like, two innings (which I missed thanks to work), but after that they vanished. No graphics at ALL except for the occasional crossing Sox and Tigers flags as a wipe. No way of knowing the count if you had gone to the bathroom; hell, no way of knowing the SCORE except when they cut to the actual in-the-park scoreboard between innings. Not what I'd have expected at all.
3) 18 Hour Plane Flights Make You Tired - Seriously, after the first few innings the whole team seemed to be playing like they were in the 18th inning of a normal game. There were errors, booted balls, and terrible swings aplenty. The real showcase of this phenomenon was a Wild Pitch by Snyder that was the most horrendous thing I've ever seen. It was in the opposite batter's box and well in front of the plate. To top it off, Tek did a piss poor job of blocking it. Let's hope we get it right before we face Oakland.
4) Papelbon Doesn't Need Sleep - With the exception of a single walk - which immediately resulted in a caught stealing - Paps looked like his usual unstoppable self. He made the Tigers batters just look amateurish. I'm not surprised, I suspect he doesn't sleep much anyway and when he does its at odd times and in odd positions.
5) The Japanese Think We're Crazy - They played Sweet Caroline over the PA as per Fenway, and of course you had Sox fans up and dancing and singing along, making fools of themselves and generally having a blast. Pretty standard fare, right? Not to the Japanese fans who stared at them like they were nuts.
6) I Speak Japanese! - At one point, while Paps was pitching to the final batter of the game, the announcer said "two strike, two ball!" and I UNDERSTOOD him! Clearly, I speak Japanese now! Awesome!*
7) THEY HAVE FIGHT SONGS!!! - Seriously. Whenever the Tigers were at bat, their fans started up this actual fight song complete with drums! They sang it NON-STOP until the last batter made an out at which point they immediately stop. This was the single most important revelation that can possibly come out of this trip. Ladies and gentlemen, we NEED to get this concept to the States? Can you imagine the Fenway Faithful belting out a fight song? There'd be seismic tremors! There's not limit to how awesome that could be! Nation, MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
* I'm sorry. I had to make this joke. I really had no choice and I feel awful for it. Please accept my condolences.
1) I Don't Speak Japanese - The MLB.tv broadcast was the Japanese broadcast, so I couldn't understand the announcers at all. This lead to some fun in trying to figure out what they might be saying, especially about David Ortiz who they seem to be in love with - it's not surprising considering the awesomeness that is the picture here. They are extremely expressive and excitable though and are certainly better than McCarver or Morgan. Honestly, it wouldn't even have been an issue except...
2) Japanese Baseball Doesn't Like Graphics - Apparently, there were in fact balls and strikes indicators and pitch speed and on-base indicators for the first, like, two innings (which I missed thanks to work), but after that they vanished. No graphics at ALL except for the occasional crossing Sox and Tigers flags as a wipe. No way of knowing the count if you had gone to the bathroom; hell, no way of knowing the SCORE except when they cut to the actual in-the-park scoreboard between innings. Not what I'd have expected at all.
3) 18 Hour Plane Flights Make You Tired - Seriously, after the first few innings the whole team seemed to be playing like they were in the 18th inning of a normal game. There were errors, booted balls, and terrible swings aplenty. The real showcase of this phenomenon was a Wild Pitch by Snyder that was the most horrendous thing I've ever seen. It was in the opposite batter's box and well in front of the plate. To top it off, Tek did a piss poor job of blocking it. Let's hope we get it right before we face Oakland.
4) Papelbon Doesn't Need Sleep - With the exception of a single walk - which immediately resulted in a caught stealing - Paps looked like his usual unstoppable self. He made the Tigers batters just look amateurish. I'm not surprised, I suspect he doesn't sleep much anyway and when he does its at odd times and in odd positions.
5) The Japanese Think We're Crazy - They played Sweet Caroline over the PA as per Fenway, and of course you had Sox fans up and dancing and singing along, making fools of themselves and generally having a blast. Pretty standard fare, right? Not to the Japanese fans who stared at them like they were nuts.
6) I Speak Japanese! - At one point, while Paps was pitching to the final batter of the game, the announcer said "two strike, two ball!" and I UNDERSTOOD him! Clearly, I speak Japanese now! Awesome!*
7) THEY HAVE FIGHT SONGS!!! - Seriously. Whenever the Tigers were at bat, their fans started up this actual fight song complete with drums! They sang it NON-STOP until the last batter made an out at which point they immediately stop. This was the single most important revelation that can possibly come out of this trip. Ladies and gentlemen, we NEED to get this concept to the States? Can you imagine the Fenway Faithful belting out a fight song? There'd be seismic tremors! There's not limit to how awesome that could be! Nation, MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
* I'm sorry. I had to make this joke. I really had no choice and I feel awful for it. Please accept my condolences.
1 comments:
That was a really nice post!
I was listening to MLB GameDay Audio, so it was in English, but I could hear random bits of Japanese from fans in the background.
How awesome was it that they played "Sweet Caroline" and "Dirty Water"? When I started to hear the beginning of SC in the background, I thought I was just imagining it, but then I heard a few people shout "So Good!" and I realized it was real.
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"I suspect he doesn't sleep much anyway and when he does its at odd times and in odd positions." Ha Ha!
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"Can you imagine the Fenway Faithful belting out a fight song?"
I tried, but all I saw/heard was complete craziness.
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