I Need My Baseball Fix ...

... and I can't seem to get it in Japan this time of the year. It is sad, but true.

Today has been the most frustrating of days I have encountered in watching Japanese baseball. So frustrating that I am no longer willing to even call it baseball. Screw it. Japanese Professional Yakyu. The game here does not deserve to be called baseball.

My wife and I headed over to Yokohama tonight to catch the BayStars and Swallows game. I had been in Akita on business for a while and needed a dosage of baseball to make me feel better. We got to the stadium at 3:15 so we could buy tickets, and then go get a bite to eat in Chinatown. The ticket office was supposed to open at 3:20. It eventually opened at 4:15. The reason for the delay was because there were a few clouds in the sky and the powers-that-be decided to keep the office closed just in case it rained. Once again, only in Japan does this happen. God forbid that they would ever use something called a rain delay. This is something that I have had to endure in the past, so it did not suprise me much.

This next part I should have thought through before I decided to go to the game. The two teams played last night in Hiratsuka. I should have realized that they were probably on a bus and did not get back to Yokohama until late last night. The teams were probably ordered to the ballpark around 11 or 12 today for the notoriously stupid all day practices. These guys played like they had about 2 hours of sleep and were forced to run a marathon. They scattered something like 7 hits combined through 8 innings. Of course, most of the leadoff hits and walks were wasted with sacrafice bunts. These guys stunk up the place all night.

The strangest thing happened in the bottom of the eighth. Yakult's starting pitcher, Fujii, walked of the mound after retiring the first batter. The stadium announcer said that he left to change into a different pair of spikes. Apparently, the spikes he had been wearing all night and helping him shut out Yokohama up to that point were no longer usefull to him. I could not believe he was allowed to leave the field for this reason. Four minutes later, when he returned to the mound, he was allowed to warm up off the mound for a second time. No one objected to any of this. I could understand allowing him to leave the field if his spikes malfunctioned for some reason. The umps never checked his spikes and allowed him to hold up the game. Well, the new spikes did not help him much. He went on to give up two runs and the lead after he changed the shoes. Weird.

Sasaki then went on to blow the save in the top of the ninth. Everything he threw looked terrible. Both managers made substitutions that baffled most baseball knowledgable people. It was like they were actually playing for a tie. It did not work. Yakult went on to win in the tenth.

At no time did this game look like a professional baseball game. Calling it high school ball is even stretching it. Sometimes I think that baseball in Japan would be better off if the current professional leagues did collapse so that it could be reformed by those who actually know something about the game.

Sorry for the frustrated rant.