Tadano in Great Form

You have no idea how happy I am about it. I was psyched from the minute I saw that the Fighters drafted him, wrote an ouen message to him at the Kamagaya Fighters Fan Fest, and I was even happier that I got to be at his debut, where he pitched 7 innings of one-hit ball against Rakuten at the Sapporo Dome. (If you'd told me beforehand that I'd see a matchup of Iwakuma-Tadano, and one pitcher would pitch 7 innings of one-hit ball, I sure wouldn't have bet on Tadano doing it. I think that was Iwakuma's only really bad game of the year, even.) If they'd had Tadano #16 jerseys I would have bought one on the spot, but alas, not yet.

I was a little worried about whether beaning Hirata last week would affect him (and subsequently being ejected on the kikenkyu rule), but he came back pretty well against Yakult.

Part of what I love about the Fighters is that they often look beyond the surface of these controversies and just take players who they think have talent. Now if only we could do something about all these recent injuries.

Yeah, it's good that a team a bit out of the public eye like the Figthers gave him a chance. Some of my friends in Sapporo didn't even know who he was! Despite winning two straight PL titles, the Fighters obviously don't get the media attention of, say, the Giants or Tigers, so it's worked out very well. After all, the attention was on another Fighters' rookie who can't hit or catch the ball yet, so hopefully Tadano can keep cruising to Rookie of the Year!