Seibu's 2000 Goal: Not Dreams, Not Glory... But Runs

"Hit! Foot! Get!" will once again be the battle cry for a team that
firmly believes it has been the best in Japan over the last several seasons,
yet has no Japan Series title to show for it.

Could the problem be the motto?

While Seibu is not about to pin its failures on a string of words --
especially one that make such little sense -- the team has tinkered some
with the annual sub-heading that follows the now ripe catch-phrase.

When "Hit! Foot! Get!" first burst upon the media, the sub-heading was:
"To your Dreams!" That version propelled the team into the 1997 Japan Series,
but not past the Yakult Swallows.

The next year the motto read, "Hit! Foot! Get! To Glory!" Once again
the team got the glory of getting into the Japan Series, but Yokohama got
the title.

Last year Seibu repeated the same exact wording and ended up ceding
the Pacific League championship to the Daiei Hawks -- who won everything.

So this season the Lions have decided to drop such esoteric sub-themes
as dreams and glory and touch their pain where it hurts the most. The complete
motto for 2000?

"Hit! Foot! Get! More Runs!"

Not as poetic perhaps, but much more practical. For it was clearly lack
of runs that cost the Lions the pennant last year. Home run production
in particular dipped dramatically, leaving Japan's best pitching staff
far too often just one score shy of victory.

The exact same pitchers return, led by super phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka,
and joined by Taiwan national ace Shu Minchei. The exact same regulars
return as well, with none of the team's draft choices expected to make
the parent club by April, let alone crack the line-up.

So... where will all the added runs come from?

Hopefully from the Major Leagues. For the Lions are counting heavily
on two proven US batsmen to once again set the long ball flying at Seibu
Dome.

Joining the club is designated hitter Reggie Jefferson from Boston,
a platoon player with a lifetime .300 average and plenty of power in his
six-foot four frame, and former all-star Tony Fernandez from Toronto, who
not only owns over 2,000 career Major League hits, but also flirted with
.400 last year before finally settling in at a cozy .328.

Both are switch hitters. Team thinking is that Fernandez will bump 3rd
sacker Ken Suzuki over to first, with All-Star first basemen Taisei Takagi
trying his hand in left field. If either foreigner fails, the Lions still
have outfielder Cory Paul, who showed clout, if not contact over the last
three months of 1999.

If they can hit, Jefferson and Fernandez will surely make a difference.
But can they? Seibu need look no farther back than last year's highly touted
Archi Cianfrocco to understand Big League credentials do not always carry
across the ocean.

 Jefferson, in particular, is the kind of long striding power horse
that Japanese junk pitchers eat alive. Somebody had better tell him he's
not going to see many fastballs.

While no one doubts the smaller Fernandez' bat control, he is also 37.
On top of the pressure of adjusting to different pitchers, and a different
style of play, can he -- at that age -- also adjust to a different culture?
A lot of other veteran Major Leaguers could not.

But the Lions are betting he can. And that Jefferson will hammer awake
echoes of Orestes Destrade and Domingo Martinez, feared Seibu sluggers
of yesteryear.

If so, the Lions will get their runs. And with them -- perhaps, at long
last -- their much desired dreams and glory as well.