Shinjo Wearing Hawks Uniform

He was born in Nagasaki and raised in Fukuoka.

Or are you talking about his big mug on the back of the uniform, that was a typical Shinjo over the top performance? I thought throwing a "gachinko" ceremonial at bat against his former understudy and good friend Hichori Morimoto was a good, entertaining stunt (though he did make sure not to go inside).

Besides, I'm sorry but the SoftBank Hawks have one of the ugliest uniforms in NPB, and no sacred history or anything there either.

Yeah, and him wearing it made it even more ugly.

He caused a stir in his final year as well by wearing a Tigers uniform during his last games at Koshien. He's just a harmless showboat who will do what it takes to shine more attention on himself.

Oh yeah, during warmups, with the number he used to wear when he first came up to the Tigers 1-gun. It was kind of a touching tribute to the organization that drafted, trained, and made him into the star he is. If I remember correctly, he got approval of the Hanshin brass to wear the uniform, and wore it, then the nearly dead men that run NPB scoffed at it.

This is another "cry me a river" moment. Shinjo isn't hurting the game or anything by wearing a Hawks uniform.

Actually I find it relieving and exciting amid the serious boring types in the NPB brass.

- I know he's just being Shinjo and all, but he should have considered the feelings of the fans (like me) and possibly the players' as well.

How are you so sure that the fans took it badly? From the clip [Youtube] I watched of the event, it looked like the fans at the stadium took it in stride as harmless, entertaining fun and a change from the seriousness of the head brass boring types who runs NPB. Also, Morimoto was one of his good friends, and from watching the clip the players seemed to also take it in stride as harmless, entertaining fun.

Some need to lighten up some and stop looking for something to always complain or whine over.

Agreed. It seemed to me that a lot of people enjoyed it (heck, I was kicking myself for not going down to Kyushu this weekend -- the Hawks are the only team in Japan I haven't seen a home game for, and I thought the Fighters would be a good excuse to go down there, and then I saw the videos from Shinjo's performance and wished I was there!) and if the players didn't like it, why would they do things like hug him on his way around the field? They could have just bowed or something, but a lot of the guys seemed honestly happy to see him.

I suppose it takes a while to sort of understand the zen of Shinjo, as it were, but I honestly believe that all he ever wanted to do was entertain fans and make them laugh, and make baseball a more interesting sport for people. I've said it here before a few times, but I think it actually takes a lot of courage to be someone like Shinjo here, and the fact that he's managed to pull off so many stunts and still remain popular in the fans' eyes is really a tribute to how well he connected with them. (I still see plenty of Fighters fans wearing Shinjo stuff.)

And to me, the fact that it was Shinjo pitching to Hichori was even all the more symbolic, because Hichori was kind of Shinjo's successor as the Crazy Guy Wearing #1 And Doing Funny Things And Playing Center Field.

I think it all depends on whether or not you believe Shinjo's statement that "Fan is my treasure!!" from the 2006 All Star game. If you see him as a self-centered attention-seeking jerk, then you won't enjoy his stunts. If you see him as basically being the class clown pulling random harmless funny pranks who is well-liked by people for making things livelier and more enjoyable, then it takes on a totally different meaning.

I guess you're right Deanna. I should just enjoy his stunts as long as it's not below the belt or something. And yes, he reminded me of Kazumi Saitoh, except that Saitoh-san has wider hips and sexier behind.