MIA

Where is Peachy Carnehan?

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A Walk Off Isn't Always a Walk Off...

...When it is a sayonara (さよなら） home run. While the Yankees seem to have righted the ship, rattling off a 10 game winning streak, their counterparts in the NPL continue to struggle mightily.

五月二十日東京(May 20th Tokyo) The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants entered play on　Friday（金曜日) with a 17-23-1 record, good for last in the Central League and 5 1/2 behind the first place Dragons. Tonight the fans at the Big Egg did not go home disappointed, as Tuffy Rhodes hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th for a 3-2 victory over the Nippon Ham. What we would call a walk off home run is called a sayonara home run in Japanese. Sayonara is Japanese for goodbye. While walk off does create a nice mental picture, sayonara sounds cool too. Goodbye!

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Baseball is baseball, right?

On the face of it, baseball in Japan is no different than in the States. Three strikes and your out, 90 feet to first base, 9 innings and so on. Just don't judge this book by its cover.

Baseball's role in Japan's culture is said to be almost spiritual. Players train for hours each day to be perfectly prepared, mirroring the cultural view of working long, hard days. It is this training that leads to the perfection you might observe from イチロー or Hideki Matsui, not flashy, but perfect mechanics.

Visiting team fans, left field please. Since the majority of the teams are in and around Tokyo or Osaka, seeing your team play home games or road games isn't an issue. Because of this, left field is reserved for the fans of the visiting teams. While the outfield does not lack safety like the Bronx Zoo, it is hardly the place to sit back and enjoy the game. It is here that the members of the Oendan おうえんだん　reside. The entire section is lead by one or more leaders that will guide the crowd through each players chant, the teams many songs, and scripted cheers. It is three hours of yelling with large flags being waved, or as some describe the fans, very similar to soccer. While you are in the outfield, finding the hotdog might be a challenge, but no worries, as you can enjoy takoyaki.

Teams are allowed up to four foreign players at any time, though many teams do not have the maximum. In addition to the limit of 4, they must be a mix of both pitchers and fielders.

As amazing as it sounds, there is no uniform ball, rather each team is allowed to have their own official ball. Talk about home field advantage, some teams use a smaller ball, others have might have one with an extra tight cover, yet with teams left to their own discretion, no problems have arisen.

Just like the MLB, one league has the DH - Pacific and one doesn't - Central. Every team plays the other five times in their division 27 times for a 135 game schedule. You may recall that most of the teams are around the two major cities. To bring the pastime to the rest of the country, teams play 10-15 home games in other cities. It's a pretty cool thought to imagine the M's hosting a game vs the Yankees in Billings or Boise. Some of the stadiums out in the country may not have field lights or fully functioning scoreboards, but it sure unifies the nation and it's national pastime.

In case three hours of constant yelling, cheering and flag waving aren't enough, games can and do end it a tie. Why? Just like little league, their is a time/inning limit. Either 4 hours or 15 innings, whichever comes first.

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