Opening Day: Rakuten vs. Lotte Live in English

Well, I had two people join me live on opening day. A modest beginning, but it's nice to know that someone was listening.

In the middle of the first inning I checked the stream and heard music. I thought I had done something wrong and stopped the stream and restarted it, but it turned out I was listening to the wrong stream - so I did get the entire game. It's just broken into two files, part 1 (4.1MB) and part 2 (62.7MB). If anyone wants to pass them on via Bit Torrent or other peer-to-peer network, please feel free.

I'm working on merging the two files, or maybe breaking them up into innings for shorter downloads and/or streams. But my poor little five year old machine at home doesn't have enough memory to load it all in, making the editing a very slow process.

I'm still in the experimental stage with audio processing, so please don't expect anything resembling a professional package. Listening to my own announcing, I hear myself trip over words and such, so I need work there, too. But it should come with more practice. Any other constructive critism is welcome.

I hope more of you will join in live on the Central League kaimaku (opening day) game that I plan to do at the end of this week. See you then.

[Links removed on Mar 27, 2005 10:06 PM JST. See post below for new link.]

Well, the historical third broadcast! Understandable that you are still getting used to the format after years of typing the games up, so I can forgive you for "tripping over words" etc.

One problem point was the fact that it was not obvious how to tune into the broadcast - no clearly marked link - so I missed the first hour or so before I contacted you and you added the link. I wonder how many potential listeners just gave up?

Anyway. I enjoyed what I did hear and will be tuning in for the next broadcast. Fans of Pro Yakyu - tune in and support Michael's pioneering work!

Regards,

Simon A. Timms

I have merged the two audio files together and reduced its size to 22MB (from over 65MB combined) for downloading and listening here. Please feel free to make copies and redistribute this to your heart's contents on peer-to-peer networks. This is a legitimate use of peer-to-peer networks like Bit Torrent as I'm the "artist" giving permission to do so, making it available to a larger audience.

One thing I should point out, there is a little over a minute of silence at the beginning. That isn't a problem with your system.

As an alternative to downloading the entire game, you may listen to the continuously repeating stream of the game here for about a week. I haven't heard from anyone if they like the continuous streams or not, so a week seems good for repeating them there, with the option still available to download the files from the audio archive.

Hey, not bad, Westbaystars-san! It took me a minute to get used to sports commentary without some kind of crowd noise in the background, but anyway I thought it was good. Keep it up.

In response to where the best place to post upcoming broadcasts, I vote for here, under news. It is always the first place I go when I visit the forum.

Bill

Michael,

Great job. Please post in the main forum for upcoming broadcasts! This is my first baseball season back in the US after the last 7 years on Okinawa. I miss Pro Yakyu! I will listen every chance I get!

Keep up the great work.

Jim Gribbins

Go Tigers and Fighters!

I've always wanted to see Japanese games on actual television. Fox Sports Net had the Carribean World Series with Mazatlan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. With so many players playing in the U.S., it would be cool to watch - especially in March while waiting for MLB to start.