BlueWave Win First Sunday in 336 Days

Leon-kantoku and new BlueWave pitcher Jason Phillips, in his Japan debut, managed to defeat the Nippon Ham Fighters by a score of 9-4 on Sunday, July 6. This is the first Sunday victory for Orix since defeating Lotte 5-0 on August 4, 2002. Nikkan Sports listed how Orix has done over this 336 day losing streak by day of the week between August 11, 2002 and June 29, 2003:

Day Games Wins Losses Ties  W%
--- ----- ---- ------ ---- ----
Sun   24    0     23    1  .000
Mon   20   11      9    0  .550
Tue   19    6     12    1  .333
Wed   17    5     12    0  .294
Thu    2    1      1    0  .500
Fri   13    4      9    0  .308
Sat   22    8     13    1  .381
     ===   ==     ==    =  ====
     117   35     79    3  .307

As many of you know, Thursday is the Pacific League's day off for the most part, thus only 2 games played. Even then, they won half of them, which is well better than average.

Nikkan further notes that Orix's batting average for Sunday games during that streatch was .225 while their ERA was 5.19.

Sure, Ichiro's loss hurt attendance for Orix, but all of these losses on Sundays, a big draw day more most teams, doesn't leave a very good feeling with those who come out. What kind of effect does that have on attendance? Do fans want to keep returning to the park on Sundays with so many losses?

Well, let's hope the Leon can turn this thing around and put 24 Sunday wins together in a row. That should help get the family crowd interested in coming out to the ball park for Sunday afternoon games again.