Season So Far?

I guess now's a good time for a quick review of the first few weeks of the season.

You can get the current standings here, where you will notice Chunichi has edged out Hanshin in the past couple of days (as of this writing). Your Tigers currently have the best team ERA in the Central League at 3.71 - the only Central League team below 4.00. Their team .289 batting average is second only to Yakult's amazing .292 for all 12 teams.

Two promising rookies that come to mind are Daiei's Wada and Yokohama's Murata.

Wada struck out 11 Marines last night in a 2-0 shutout to lower his ERA over three games to 0.42.

Murata hit his 6th home run of the season in Yokohama's gyakuten marui home run loss to Chunichi last night (we really miss Sasaki). That ties him with four others for the home run lead in the Central League.

According to data I've been tracking, the average game time in both the Central and Pacific Leagues is 192 minutes or 3 hours 12 minutes. The averages are close to the average last season to within half a minute. (Note: This average includes games both longer and shorter than 9 innings.)

I have seen quite a few balks called lately. Not sure why that is. Anyone? Oh, and it hit me why Shimoyanagi was called for a balk last week. He faked first then third - bad, whereas faking third then first is OK. Just as the rules quoted by Torakichi-san plainly stated.

With the Giants, while Takahashi is doing just fine with his added responsibilities, he's pretty much in the shadows with, as you guessed, injuries to other key players (like Motoki's crash the other day) and the First Base saga. Peta-chan is taking a lot of heat for his throwing (in)ability in right field, and many think he belongs at first base. But changing the manager didn't change the status quo, so first base is Kiyohara's job - when he isn't in rehab for his gradually failing legs. Petagine is smart enough to know that, so he refused to take the first base position - even in Kiyo's absence. And Peta-chan's bat has kept the complaints to a minimum.

Well, that's all the time I have for right now. Is there anyone else who can fill in all the teams that I missed?

Hope you have a good return to Japan.

- Two promising rookies that come to mind are Daiei's Wada and Yokohama's Murata.

Forgive me, I can't remember but wasn't Wada "highly" touted"? Or in others words, given the choice over another pitcher, he's the obvious choice? Anyone you see and frantically search to find out who he is?

- [...] First Base saga.

So who is on first? Etoh?

Has anyone declared this is their final season?

Any geezers playing surprisingly well?

Has Hiyama finally got the hang of playing firstbase?

- Any geezers playing surprisingly well?

Ken Suzuki is tearing up the Central League (.400 BA, 16 RBI) after dropping off some for Seibu the last few years. That's been a bit surprising to me.

--on to Hanshin--

Hideki Irabu has pitched well in all three starts he's made this year, allowing 5 runs in 21 innings.

Hanshin shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto is batting .351, which I wasn't expecting. He's not a geezer though.

- Has Hiyama finally got the hang of playing firstbase?

Unfortunately, no. He's made some kind of blunder in each one of the games I've been able to watch (though I haven't watched as many as I would like). It seems like he's okay at fielding ground balls, but he's been having trouble covering the base on bunt plays and grounders between first and the pitcher.

Still, the rest of the team is playing steady defense, the whole team is hitting, and the starting pitching is going well too. If we can just get the bullpen sorted out, it should be an exciting summer!

Out of the many sukketo players, any bets on who will be the first to start a ranto scene?

- So who is on first? Etoh?

Actually, Etoh was 0 for his first 17 at bats (7 games) and was sent down to ni-gun a little over a week ago. He just returned to ichi-gun and went 2 for 4 with a single and grand slammer in the Giants 9-3 trouncing of the Jingu Bird. He's very releaved to have gotten that first hit, the bases loaded home run was a bonus.

Unfortunately, we no longer see major ranto scenes in Japanese baseball anymore. Before they implemented that stupid rule that states that any pitcher who hits a batter in the head will automatically be ejected from a game, we used to see at least one or two good fights a season. Just like clockwork, a foreigner would always charge the mound sometime during the season and it would make the year-end ko-chin (best and worst) play highlights.

Don't get me wrong, however. Head-hunting should not be condoned, but the umpires here follow that ejection rule too literally. I remember seeing a pitcher ejected for plunking a batter in the head when all the pitcher did was throw a curveball that got away and the batter ducked and it hit the batter in the coconut because he had ducked. That to me is ridiculous.

I don't have a problem with fight scenes in baseball because they don't really fight anyway. It's kind of like pro wrestling without the choreography. I remember a player (I can't remember who) in the majors who once said something like, "No one really throws any punches. There's just a lot of pushing and shoving." It's just macho posturing, so I think it's fun to watch once in awhile.

The best fight scene was when Kiyohara threw his bat at Hiranuma from Lotte back in '89, I think, and they charged each other, only to have Kiyohara knee Hiranuma and knock him on his butt. That wasn't the best part however. The best part was when Mike Diaz (nicknamed "Rambo" and winner of the MLB arm-wrestling competition that they used to have) came flying out of the dugout to put a massive headlock on Kiyohara and take him down and suffocate him. That was classic!

There have been a few other good ones, like the Giants-Swallows fights they used to have all the time in the early '90s. The Swallows were a tough team back then. Their enforcer was Jack Howell. He was always in the middle of things.

Glenn Braggs always seemed to want to fight the Dragons. The BayStars and Dragons used to go at it pretty good.

Those were the good old days. Now the only good fights are in MLB.