Chunichi Choke Countdown

You can not make this up! 5 runs in the final two innings (and in the 8th all 4 runs came with two out), finishing in another embarrassing loss. To quote Battletoads, "I haven't seen such a dismal failure since the last time you dismally failed!"

I am a Dragons fan - and I am the reason why Hanshin will win the CL title this year.

Dude, what are you talking about being a "cursed" Twins fan? They are leading the Wild Card race in the AL, and with Lariano declaring himself fit and Santana, I think you guys will hold down the WC spot with superb pitching. Cheer up man, your boys are still going to win the CL, too!

We fans are a paranoid bunch. Not long ago Christopher and I were solemnly pontificating over the reason why Hanshin had lost the pennant race over at another thread, and then all of a sudden Chunichi starts to choke and we start closing in on you guys. Makes us (Christopher and me) look like idiots.

It could be that Hanshin has just come out of the annual Road of Death, or perhaps it's the curse of the Twins. But I think it's got something to do with the sock- and underwear-burning ritual the Tigers went through recently.

Let's be clear here, it's a curse of Minnesota, not the Twins. The main source of that (and Minnesota's self-defeatist attitude when it comes to sports) comes from both of their American football teams, the Vikings (0-4 in Super Bowls, Gary Anderson, 41-0, yadda, yadda) and University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (haven't won a Big Ten title since 1967, longest drought out of all Big Ten teams). Very recently (over the last 3 years, I'd say) literally every single team started showing these same signs of chokability, or being just plain bad.

Gopher football? Just say the words "blocked punt" to Gopher fans and see what kind of response you get. Either that or "Leading Michigan by 21 going into the 4th quarter."

#1 rated Gopher hockey team? (Not to mention the last team to bring Minnesota a championship. It's a big deal to us, dangit!) Lost in the first round of the national tournament to something called Holy Cross.

Twins? Last season they were gaining on the White Sox/Indians, and had just come off a thrilling victory over the Sox. The next day, the Twins start Joe Mays, who had struggled all season; Mays gets shelled, and the Twins never came back. (This year, Carlos Silva is the guy we suspect to buzz kill their run in the same fashion. Thankfully he may have started his last game.)

So in short, we didn't become "Loserville USA" just because of one team. But all the blame falls on the Vikings. (The Gophers were a college football dynasty until the Vikings came.)

Now back to the Dragons; it has been about 3 weeks since the Dragons gained a game on Hanshin in the standings. That's a long time without a Dragons win/Tigers loss combo. Now while I don't think Chunichi will play this bad all the way through the rest of the season, they could still get caught with the run Hanshin is on. I've said on other threads and other boards, right now I'm cheering more for Hanshin's opponent than I am Chunichi. So as long as Hanshin keeps winning, the onus is on the Dragons to play better. The last time Chunichi was on an extended losing streak, Hiroshima and the Kyojin helped them out. I don't expect to always get that help, especially when Hanshin starts playing against these teams when they're already mathematically eliminated.

Ugh. Friday night I get back, see 7-2 Drags in the 7th or so. I'm tired, I figure the Dragons have this one in the bag so I go to the sleep. So do the Drags. I wake up, check the final score, and see 8-7 Carp in a walk off (sayonara). D'oh.

Saturday I surf over and see, oh, today's a day game, and the Drags have started out well, with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. By the time I get from the computer upstairs to the TV downstairs, it's 3-1 Carp in the bottom of the first. The Drags eventually won (with four solo home runs?), but it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

The Tigers seem to be staying focused somehow, which is odd - usually there's a distraction, an incident to throw them off track. (Partly because they're under closer media scrutiny than Chunichi.)

The Drags and Tigers face each other six more times, three in Nagoya Dome where the Tigers can't seem to win, and three at Koshien, where the Drags can't seem to win. And the Drags have five more games to play than the Tigers, so hopefully that will be a little cushion.

Right now the Drags need a quality start or two from some hungry kid (Yamai? Ogasawara? Bueller? Anybody?) in the ni-gun to give the rest of the guys a lift and time to rethink what's going wrong.

The Dragons' record at Koshien this year has been break-even at 2-2-1, so I wouldn't say they can't win at Koshien.

- Let's be clear here, it's a curse of Minnesota, not the Twins

My apologies. I didn't think a whole state would have so much bad luck.

Somewhere, there's an NPB fan from Philadelphia writing a rebuttal.

But seriously, now it's been a whole 3 weeks since the last day the Dragons' magic number went down by 2 (8/22: Chunichi over Yakult, Hiroshima over Hanshin). Hopefully the friendly confines of Hiroshima Stadium can give us Dragons fans some relief in the form of some cheap Carp HRs against Hanshin. It worked last time.

- This is embarrassing.
More embarrassing than anything else I've ever experienced as a fan, and I'm from Minnesota!

Try being a Detroit Tigers fan. I'm watching them blow a 10 game lead to your Twins at the moment. Maybe that's why Hanshin is closing in on the Dragons. Whatever, I'm all for it. Go Tigers! (both of 'em).

Don't worry, there's always the Wild Card, and we'll take care of the White Sox for you.

I've become a big Twins fan and I'm from New Jersey. Torii Hunter is a great player and a great person, a guy I can really root for as a fan.

NPB-wise, I'm in my fourth year of being a Dragons fan - you must know they have a former Twin, the Ochoa-constrictor (his catch against Mientkiewitz (sp?) in the 2002 playoffs must be a bitter memory for our friend from Minnesota).

I don't like the word choke, that should only apply to the 1964 Phillies and 2004 Yankees. Bill Buckner gets a reprieve because I think Mookie would have been safe at first, even if Bill fielded the ball cleanly.

Yes, I do know Ochoa was on that Angels' championship team. I don't remember much from the '02 ALCS except that the Angels' pitchers shut the Twins down pretty much all series.

Maybe in baseball, that's the only time you can use the word "choke" (oh yeah, and Schiraldi had at least 5 chances to get the last out), but for my money, no choke is bigger than the 1998-99 Vikings. 15-1, highest-scoring offense of all time, a kicker who didn't miss a field goal all season, against an unproven, mostly untested Falcons team (the only good team they had faced all season was their 3 games with the 49ers). What happens? They blow a 13-point lead, that kicker finally misses one, they decide to take their chances in overtime instead of using that high-powered offense, and you've got the 1998-99 Vikings.

Now back to the Dragons, can the Tigers please mix in a loss every once in a while? This is getting ridiculous.

As a Randall Cunningham fan, I share your pain concerning your Vikings that year. Still, football is football and baseball is baseball and each day is a new day. The Dragons have a big advantage in that loss column and should be able to "control their own destiny" by beating the teams they are "supposed" to beat.

No, this is definitely a choke. And I saw this coming before last month in Koshien, but I should have seen it coming even sooner. What makes everyone think it's over? Hanshin plays a Hiroshima team that couldn't beat them at home a couple weeks ago, and Chunichi plays a team that they've had trouble with, for some reason (Yokohama). Don't act surprised when Chunichi returns home from Koshien in 2nd place - I know I won't.

And no, this isn't intended as a reverse jinx this time.

I'm sure glad the players themselves don't pay attention to us rambling fans on these threads. Play ball, guys. Leave the panicking to us who can only watch and hope.

I am a good friend of Tyrone and Alex. It is looking tight at the moment, but I am sure that they will pull through. I have already made myself available for the Nippon Series.

BTW I grew up in Chicago. I hate the Twins and Tigers. Nah (just being a playa hater). I do hope one of the two make it. Tori Hunter is good and for the sake of Kirby Puckett, it would be nice for the "doubles" to win it all.

Now for the D-Tigers, since they had a bad year last year, it would be nice for them to also win it.

See y'all in Nagoya Dome.

I wrote this e-mail to the editor of Japan Baseball Daily on August 26, when the lead was 9 games:

Hello,

I found your site through Wikipedia. My name is _________. I am a native of Cottage Grove, MN (in the Twin Cities area), and I am currently working in Suzuka as an engineer. Since coming to Japan, I have become a fan of the Chunichi Dragons since they are the "local" team here. Remember this information when the Hanshin Tigers win the Central League pennant this year.

And now with today's meltdown, I am beyond reasoning with. The Dragons have been doomed to lose the CL title since the day I became a Dragons fan. You simply cannot convince me otherwise.

- And now with today's meltdown, I am beyond reasoning with. The Dragons have been doomed to lose the CL title since the day I became a Dragons fan. You simply cannot convince me otherwise.

Dragons 9, Giants 3 (12 innings).

Convinced or not, it's happened. The Dragons were destined to win since a vulgar Wisconsin native became a fan. And no complaining Minnesota fan could convince me otherwise.

All sarcasm aside, it's a great feeling, especially as a Milwaukee native having had to grow up with Brewers <shudder>. Feeling cursed as a Twins fan? At least you guys have had a World Series ring under your belt.

Tyrone Woods gets a grand slam in the 12th, with Fukudome and Narahara adding an RBI each just because. How sweet is that? My respect goes out to the Tigers for making the Dragons put up a fight to get the pennant, as well as the Giants for ... just being there.

Now to watch the Pacific League playoffs and see who Chunichi's opponent will be. Should be fun. I haven't been this excited about baseball since elementary school!

Because of the Giants' record against the Tigers, and the Dragons' record against the Giants, I referred to them all season as the Dragons' "best friends." And they came through for Chunichi in the last 3 days.

And no thanks to KFAN for wet blanketing the Dragons' victory. The Dragons won the pennant mere minutes ago, and they had to lead off the PA and Dubay show with the top 10 Gopher football choke jobs of the Glen Mason era (9 years). And if you heard the list, you wouldn't believe a single one of them. But we do. Because it's Minnesota. (Again, the curse is not with the Twins, it's the whole state, but if you think about it, it probably only applies to football.)

Well, you can stop now, Chunichi has clinched.

Right! Now that it's over and my blood pressure is settling back to normal, I can thank the Tigers for making the year so exciting, and I can admit how impressed I have been at their domination of the rest of the league. And I can try to console Tigers fans with the thought that maybe the Tigers and Drags just have an every-other-year thing going, so next year y'all will get the pennant.

Somebody needs to stop posting during games. ^_^;

But okay, I'm all calmed down now. Very very glad with today's win. I think it's sweep or die now for Hanshin. IMO the Dragons can win 7 of their last 11, so that would bring the magic number down to zero with a win at Koshien no matter what the Tigers do. (And doesn't it look like they'll go undefeated?) So I think the Dragons can get away with 1 of 3 this weekend, but just to be sure, let's take two.

While I take 5.

I have got the broom ready for the clean sweep. Hanshin pitching is on fire. Who are these guys? Even Igawa now is dominating.

I gave up on the Tigers after the last Dragons series. I am shocked now at nine straight. I am shocked the Dragons, such a fine team, are playing to lose now.

Anyway, it all makes for fine Fall baseball if you are a Tigers fan. Not so good if you are a Dragons fan.

Unreal! Sugoi! Who would have thunk those striped kitties could run off 9 straight? This is baseball the way it always ought'a be.

Across the Pacific there's a legion of us Torakichis watching the net and manning the phone lines 24/7 to Osaka. The next five days should be pretty death-defying.

Tora Tora Tora!

They're certainly giving them a run for their money.

I'm amused when I re-read Jim Allen's article of a couple of weeks ago:

Heading into this week's three-game showdown at Koshien, it was apparent all the pressure would be on the Tigers. The Dragons could sit back and let the final pieces of their pennant puzzle fall into place.

"The attitude here is the same while we are losing all those games," Dragons first baseman Tyrone Woods said Tuesday. "Before the game, people are laughing joking, during the game, after we lose. Everyone is talking, laughing.

"We win, we lose, they don't care. Even the coaches, they don't care."

Maybe they're starting to care just a smidgen now perhaps. You just can't simply cruise to a pennant when you're up against the Hanshin Tigers.

First-time poster, occasional lurker.

As a Dragons fan who has come to counter the hordes of Tigers fans here, I will agree that coasting to a CL pennant victory isn't going to work. I found that out last year watching Chunichi blow a pennant chance in September.

That being said, today's score from Koshien:

Dragons 7, Tigers 1

That puts the Magic Number at 7 for the Dragons. I agree with other sentiments here that this pennant is the Dragons' to lose, but at the same time, I have my doubts that it'll happen this year. Especially with another Chunichi victory tomorrow.

My condolences to our Minnesota friend, regarding his Twins. The Dragons still control their destiny as the games dwindle down.

In case the Ochoa-constrictor is reading this, get well soon. The Tyrone-a-saurus needs some protection hitting behind him. Go, Dragons.

Another day, another late-inning Chunichi meltdown. You should always believe a Minnesotan when they say their team is going to collapse - they're always right.

The prospect of seeing both Tigers playing post season baseball is almost too much to comprehend.

Go Tigers!

I'm going to keep making angry posts during games, this is good luck.

But whew. Thankfully, the Dragons pulled out a game after blowing a lead and losing last night, blowing a lead today, the Gopher football team missing an extra point in overtime and losing, the Gopher hockey team laying an egg in their season opener (actually, slow starts are the norm there), and the Twins doing what they did in the Oakland series.

By the way, what do the pitching match ups look like this coming week? I'm sure Kawakami will either pitch tomorrow or Tuesday (more likely Tuesday); does that mean Nakata goes tomorrow? Or maybe Satoh? Either way, I hope Yamamoto is pitching vs. Hanshin.

Try some positive thinking, dear friend. Things can always look better - look at what Detroit did, after having struggled and slumped. All of us were hoping for The Evil Empire to fall, weren't we? Yankee Elimination Day is right up there with Christmas when it comes to joyful occasions.