How Bad is Yokohama?

Yokohama needs all the support they can get right now.

I'm not sure how others "choose" their teams, but I like the idea of supporting the local team through thick and thin. If you want to support winners, the widely lambasted Yomiuri Giants, as well as Hanshin and Chunichi might be good choices in the Central League; with Seibu and Daiei the likely suspects in the Pacific League.

Anyway, Yokohama might be cellar dwellers now, but it wasn't so long ago that they were champions.

Yes, Yokohama is as bad as you've been reading. In fact, after yesterday's game and in relation to Yokohama's spring training theme of "tsunagi no yakyu" (connecting baseball), Yamashita-kantoku (kantoku = manager) said, "fun tsumari dasen to iu ka, benpin dasen to iu ka..." ("call it the backed-up poop batting order, or the constipation batting order..."). I was at yesterday's game, and have got to agree. Yokohama has no problem getting runners on, then just can't get them through the end.

As you can tell by my handle, I'm a BayStars' fan. But there hasn't been much prospect for hope so far this pre-season. Nothing much has changed since last season. Rookie Kohno Yuuki looks very promising, but will probably sit the bench in favor of more expensive "established" players. The veterans have earned their spots, for sure, but Kohno really deserves a shot.

Anyway, this thread has a lot of good advice.

To add to that, if winning is important to you, then I see the Chiba Lotte Marines being up there this year, and they're just located right across Tokyo Bay. The entire team attitude, with the return of Valentine-kantoku, is up. I still have a hard time saying that they'll take first place, but they'll be one of the three teams in the play-offs at the end of the season.

If you don't get a satellite or cable feed, then your only choices on TV will be the Giants (NTV for home games, TBS, Fuji, etc. for away games) or Yokohama (TVK for home games - the local UHF channel).

Hope this helps.

Actually, you can seen that the careers of the players for the BayStars are not bad for their past. But I don't know why in these past few year they have become bad and unlucky. Their big losses in the past were their catcher (who plays for Chunichi now) and Sasaki.

Actually, I think Yokohama might surprise people this year. Woods, Furuki, and Muruta all showed nice power last year, but struck out way too much. If they're starting to get guys on, I expect they'll score more runs this year. And if Kinjo has another good year, that's four solid batters.

The bullpen should be better this year, with Daimajin and Gaillard, and Yoshimi will be an effective starter if he's healthy. Pete Walker might be okay, too. That's not enough, but it's better than last year.

But, yes, even if everyone is healthy, and the young players improve, this is still probably a last place time. But I doubt they'll be quite the doormat they were for most of last year.

Just hope that they can take Yokohama to A-class this year.

Pete Walker is coming. He will save the day.

Peter Walker will save the day! They are lucky to have him.

If you really want to see baseball and still want to be part of the Yokohama scene, get on the Keihin Kyuko Line and head to Oppama. This is the home of the BayStars' farm team "The Yokosuka SeaRex." Watch the Stars of tomorrow trying to get to "The Show" and at 1/2 the cost.

Some of the best games I've see have been at this level.

I was at the SeaRex game yesterday (Sunday, March 21) and saw Kitagawa hit a sayonara double against Yakult. It was a great 0-0 game to the nineth. Yoshimi started for Yokohama and pitched two scoreless innings. Azuma threw three to close and was the shakiest of Yokohama's arms, but still got out of each jam he got into.

Yakult's Sakamoto threw 8 strong innings (I think it was), but former Lotte closer/Hanshin refugee blew it in the 9th for him.

Yes, ni-gun games are fun. Oppama Stadium being a 10-15 minute walk from home helps.