The Fall of Chunichi

I haven't seen Chunichi play this poorly in recent years. I consider them a boring team, but one that is very smart and efficient. Watching them play at Koshien recently, however, there seems to be something wrong. The fielding was awful and the timely hitting wasn't there. Perhaps it's just a hangover from finally winning it all last year. Plus, Hanshin and Chunichi have tended to alternate good years. My friend also proposes that it is karma for taking out Yamai before he could get the perfect game!

In any case, I think they will hang on for third, but that's about the best it looks like they will manage this year.

I personally would like to see both Chunichi and Yomiuri fall out (especially the Giants) and see them replaced with some "new blood" (Carp and Swallows) in the Climax Series.

Same for the PL, I would like to see the the Lions, Eagles, and Buffaloes go on to the Climax Series. Although I really like the Hawks in the PL, they are such a well balanced team. And the Fighters are so fundamentally sound it will be very difficult not to count them in.

I think the Hawks and Tigers will be in the Nippon Series. And if so, I'd like the Hawks to win. My beloved BayStars are going nowhere anytime soon, so I'll root for my second and third favorite teams (Hawks & Buffaloes). Any one but the Giants.

Agreed on all parts, especially the part about "Gomiuri" falling out of contention.

It would be nice to see Hiroshima and or the Swallows go, but I can't see that happening right now. Maybe next year, and who knows, Yokohama might even be back in the mix (mostly wishful thinking on my part).

I wouldn't write Chunichi off. I expect they'll be going to the Climax Series again this year.

Chunichi is too good to not make the playoffs, and while Hiroshima does have some good starting pitching (starting with Colby Lewis), I don't think they have enough pitching in general to clinch a spot in the CLCS.

Yakult is spotty. Sometimes they blow your doors off with an all-around game, but then they relapse into the Swallows we saw last year. To fend off Yomiuri and Chunichi, Ishikawa needs to keep up that excellent pitching he's had all year, and the rest of the starters need to help out. The bullpen is set thanks to Lim as the closer.

Well, as a part-time Dragons fan (and a full-time Morino fan) I'm going to step up and call out the following things:

1. Morino's injury left a big gaping hole in the lineup and the field for a good month and a half
2. Ibata's injury didn't help either though at least he wasn't out as long
3. Kawakami's problems also mean the team has been without a real ace this year
4. Yoshimi needs a rest or a retune or something, he's kind of regressing to the mean, as they say in stathead-talk
5. Ochiai leaves in most of his pitchers too long (especially Kenichi Nakata, it feels like)
6. Masa's resurgence kind of got stalled. I had a bet going that he'd reach 200 career wins on August 11th, and it's looking like he might not even reach that this year at all
7. Tatsunami. I love him lots and lots and lots and he is one of the greatest hitters in NPB history but he's 3-for-50 as a pinch-hitter this year and still coming in regularly. I know that this is his transition year to being a coach next year but it's really kind of sad to watch him struggle.
8. Tanishige being out for a while also had a major effect on the pitching staff, I think. I know they've got to get used to a non-Shige staff since he's pretty old, but it's tough. He's that good.
9. No ouendan must be wreaking havoc on their abilities to concentrate at the plate. I mean, when you have no trumpets and drums, how can you have anything to tune out? And how can you possibly feel appreciated?

Well, okay, the last one is not serious. But the rest are.

... and not 5 hours after I posted that, Masa went ahead and got his 197th win, aided by Morino (!!!!) hitting a home run as well as going 4-for-5 with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. Awesome.

Also, I find it odd that tomorrow night the Giants take on the Dragons in the Sapporo Dome while the Fighters take on the Eagles on the Tokyo Dome, but that's another story.

Yeah, do the Giants and Fighters still need to make Hokkaido and Tokyo "home series" trips anymore? Now that the Fighters are well established in Hokkaido, and the Giants are slowly but surely losing grasp of their national grip.

The Fighters can't erase their past, and if Yomiuri is still "Japan's Team" then they owe it to their fans nation-wide to play home games in other areas. So yes, both teams still need to make these trips. It's a part of the Japanese game that I hope never goes away.

Actually, I think it's great that the Fighters still have home games in Tokyo (that's where I first saw them, and there's still an entire set of ouenka and traditions that are done only at Fighters games in the Tokyo Dome). I just wish they could have them on a weekend sometimes! (insert sad-face here)

But what I'm not sure is why the Giants still need to go to Hokkaido to play "home" games, now that there is inter-league (so the Giants play against the Fighters at the Sapporo Dome) and Hokkaido has its own team (so there are baseball games in Hokkaido). The Fighters already barnstorm around Hokkaido and can play in the cities like Obihiro, Asahikawa, Hakodate, etc., so I'm not sure why the Giants need to do that; I have to wonder if there is some other location that could use some barnstorming games that isn't getting them.

- No ouendan must be wreaking havoc on their abilities to concentrate at the plate. I mean, when you have no trumpets and drums, how can you have anything to tune out? And how can you possibly feel appreciated?

To Deanna.

You said that this was a joke but I am not in Japan so please fill me in. Are you saying Chunichi does not have any ouendan and no trumpeting? I know that there is no trumpeting at Rakuten's home games.

I always had the impression that Chunichi fans were a lively bunch. Whenever I went and watched them, mostly in Jingu and Tokyo Dome, the left bleachers used to be pretty packed. I also remember Ochiai's wife. She would be wearing a Chunichi happi coat and banging on her plastic bats behind home plate.

Right before the season started, a couple of Dragons ouendan groups got banned for supposed Yakuza ties (see Simon Currie's translation of the article here). I'm not sure the exact status now. Last I heard, the two banned groups were suing the NPB.

Anyway, the upshot was the other non-banned ouendan groups, as a measure of solidarity, also decided they weren't going to lead cheers as a result of the decision. So basically, there were no trumpets or drums or leaders for Dragons cheers for the first 3 months of the season, and usually cheers were led in a really bizarre, haphazard manner (like, one guy with a whistle and a small flag), with the hope that the fans would just keep their own act together, I suppose. (And they made up lyrics to some of the fanfare songs like Nerai Uchi.)

But, I think that I've been hearing trumpets in the background of games recently, so maybe some decision was made. I just haven't had the time to dig up the current scoop on the situation. Maybe someone else can chime in with it.

The Chunichi ouendan thing is not like at Miyagi Stadium where trumpets are prohibited. They actually got their trumpets and stuff taken away because it had something to do with the Yakuza funding them (at least that's the impression I got from one of my friends). So like after every game, you have people with petitions trying to get people to sign them so they can get funding.

And yes, Chunichi fans are very loyal to their team. Plus, they have really cool ouenka, too.

Deanna, if you know the actual reason as to why they have no trumpets this year, please enlighten me, too, as I am a little off with my Japanese sometimes.

Intersting. And thanks for that link.

Maybe this should be a new thread, however I will just carry on on this thread. I also noticed that in Jingu Stadium when Furuta took over Yakult the semi-ouendan/shisetsu ouendan, who used to be above the gate, used to wave the Japanese flag, and had their own "suits" were gone. I wonder if that had anything to do with them having Yakuza ties, too. Some of the banners and their style did resemble the "uyoku."

For Hanshin in Kansai it was the people who were wearing black happi coats. They were from the same "organizations." Where ever in Japan when Hanshin was playing there would be a group wearing black happi coats, and you would know that they were from the same group, be it at Koshien or Tokyo Dome. Those people had yakuza ties, too, and were banned from entering stadiums or were taken away the right to trumpet and drum and to wear their "uniforms." [Japanese Wikipedia]

The year Tokyo Dome opened there was a group who wore black happi coats and were semi/shisetsu ouendan called the Tokyo Okda Kai. They used to be in the front row in the left field bleachers. The stadium would be packed and they would be taking all these seats. There would be 3 guys in a row when it had place for maybe 20 and they would not let other people sit where they were sitting. They were gangsters. They were trouble makers. Trying to pick a fight and probably had yakuza ties, too. They'd take the first 10 rows and all the other people had to sit on the aisle or stand in the back. They would steal the speakers away from the guards and hurl abuse at the security guards with the electric speaker they took from them. This was before the left field had reserve seats. They would keep throwing things onto the field, stopping the game and keep coming with verbal abuse to the opposing players and to other Hanshin fans and Giants fans. In the end they ended up getting banned from Tokyo Dome.