2003 All Star Game 2

Hanshin's Arias just added a run for the Central League in the top of the sixth with a solo home run to left-center against Daiei's Shinohara. This is Arias' third hit of the evening, giving him a modasho.

The Central League now leads 4-1.

Oh, and speaking of Shinohara, he is replacing Seibu's Matsuzaka who hurt himself in less than an inning of work last Sunday (June 13) against Daiei. Because Matsuzaka was selected for and has withdrawn from the All Star series, he must go on the disabled list for a minimum of 10 games starting after the All Star break. This is the second year in a row that Matsuzaka backed out just before the All Star Series.

Nippon Ham's Ogawasawa led off the bottom of the sixth by bringing the Pacific League back to within two with a lead off home run against Kisanuki, who's still in there.

After Rhodes struck out with a full swing, Cabrera made this a one run ball game with his second jack off of Kisanuki, this one to straight away center.

The Pacific League now trails 3-4.

Seibu's Mori has taken over on the mound for the top of the seventh. And while he managed to get the elusive Kanemoto to strike out with Yakult's Miyamoto on second, Miyamoto's team mate Ramirez followed with an RBI double. This lifts the Central League to a two run lead once again.

With Ramirez stranded at second, we go to the Pacific League's Lucky Seven with the Central League winning 5-3.

Irabu pitched three scoreless innings this evening on his old home mound, but it was a bit of a let down from his last All Star game in 1996. At Tokyo Dome in 1996 Irabu shut down the All Central team in order for three innings. Yes, nine up, nine down - perfect.

That perfect streak was stopped, however, on his second pitch of the game to Daiei's Muramatsu who grounded a base hit up the middle.

For the eighth inning, Seibu's Toyoda came in and struck out the Central League in order. Just when I thought that that would be a hard performance to follow, Yakult's Igarashi came in and challenged Rhodes with all straight pitches, going up from 151 kph, 153 kph, and striking him out swinging at a 155 kph pitch down the middle. Wow!

Then, with Cabrera at the plate, Cabu ripped a 157 kph pitch through the left side with the crowd giving out a big cheer. It turns out the crowd was cheering the 157 mark on the score board rather than the hit. Either way, it gave them a thrill. That was the highest mark, but Igarashi kept it over 150 kph the rest of the inning inducing a fly out to right and ground out to short. Igarashi did a pretty good follow up.

Yakult's Takatsu, selected by fans as the closer, came in and closed the game for the Central League. After ending in a tie for Game 1, the Central League takes Game 2 by the score of 5-3.

That brings the All Star Series to an over all 61 wins for the Central League to 71 wins for the Pacific League (8 ties).

Hanshin's Kanemoto, who hit a pair of home runs and drove in three of the Central's five runs, gets the Game 2 MVP award.

Thank you in advance for your posts. It sounds strange to me that All Central, with a lot of former super-stars from Giants, has been down with a 61-71 record. Could you have a hint as to why?

I suspect the Giants' very dominance is part of the problem in that other teams in the CL may have felt they couldn't compete, so they didn't try very hard. Certainly the poor early showings of the Whales, Swallows/Atoms, and Carp indicate that other than Masaichi Kaneda, they weren't flush with players. I know the PL had its lousy teams, but off the top of my head, I don't think they had quite as many.

Jim Albright

I did a little checking. Since 1998, the CL is 10-3-2 (unless there were ties in 2002). Others in this forum would be more qualified to opine on why this trend has emerged. Before that, the PL was consistently a little better, except for the period of 1965-1974, when the PL was 20-8-2. Interestingly, this period neatly conincides with the V-9 Giants. Perhaps this is just coincidence, perhaps not. Maybe other members of the forum have some explanations for these facts.

Jim Albright

One factor for the 1965-1974 PL dominance has to be that Oh's average in his 58 All-Star games was a paltry .213. His homers were OK (13, which would be about 30 for a 130 game season). Given the quality of pitching in an All-Star game, you'd expect him to be off a little, like in the non batting average categories, but not to where he's hitting only .213. I don't have a breakdown of how he did in each year's games to pinpoint his performance in that 10 year stretch, but it seems clear his game was off in these contests. Oh's performance can't support all the blame for the CL getting whipped like that, though.

Another poster's comment about Giant pitchers being over-represented does provoke a few thoughts. I don't know how many Tiger pitchers made it to the All-Star game, but their stats (except wins, losses, and saves) seem to have benefitted a significant degree due to their home park. I also don't know how the CL pitching staffs were composed -- were ERAs or wins the key factors in who was selected. If it was the former, the possibility of undeserving Tiger pitchers being part of the problem is significant because of the aforementioned effect of their home park. If it was wins, undeserving Giant pitchers could be part of the problem because they were pitching for the winningest team with a powerful offense (especially in the key era of 1965-1974), which would naturally help their win totals.

Certainly, this question could be a grounds for research, though I won't be doing it, because the sources are tough for me to come by, researching it right would take a lot of effort, and we're talking about two or three games a year which don't count toward a championship.

Jim Albright

There's a saying for the difference, but I can't think of it right now. I'm sure you're familiar with the saying, "Oh wa kiroku, Nagashima wa kioku" ("Oh is records, Nagashima is memory"). There's a saying that is very similar describing the Central and Pacific Leagues. Some like "Pa wa gijutsu, Se wa ninki" ("Pacific is technical, Central is popular"). Argh, that doesn't sound right. Can someone please give us correct the quote?

As a Hanshin Tiger fan, I suppose that too many former Giants, who were not good enough, play in All Star games instead of real good players from the other teams. The Pacific League staff was more fair to everyone.