All-Star Series Chat?

Good suggestion. Although I don't know how good this forum is as a chat site.

Anyway, how about Bonds and Giambi? Two back to back homers so far through five innings. Bonds got a big cheer when he came up the first time in the first against Iriki, and he gave the fans what they wanted.

Matsui, who the camera turns to at every chance, like right after both of Bonds' home runs, has been a big of a disappointment so far. Too much pressure?

The first Giant hit was by Abe in the second. He is really an amazing player! A future Major Leaguer? Sure. He even had a player nailed trying to steal third, but Motoki tried to tag the runner before catching the ball (E-5).

P.S. While I'd get the Japanese names right, I can't stand hearing my own voice when I hear it on tape. I'm much better with a keyboard.

I knew Bonds was going to deliver for the crowd, but Giambi doing his part was simply amazing. I couldn't believe it when I heard it happen for the second time. I'm sure Steinbrenner is now happy that he allowed Giambi to go on the trip.

Art Howe just pulled Bonds for Pat Burrell, but I'm sure Barry has more fireworks in store before the series is over.

And if this announcer says Yahr-a-MOO-ri Giants one more time, I'm gonna scream...

After an error to get Takahahi-kun to second, down 0-8 in the bottom of the 9th, Abe (I think, I just came back from half listening while reading the kids their bedtime story) came through with a base hit to right to kill the shutout! Yea! We scored!

But that was it, the final score was MLB 8 - 1 Giants.

Barry was named the game MVP. In his interview, he says he loves Japan, and that keeps bringing him back.

I like his answer to "who's uniform would Matsui look best in?" Bonds' answer: "The San Francisco Giants."

Abe got the "Fighting Spirit Award" for his two hits.

I want the SF Giants to get Matsui. That way he could bat ahead (Bonds is the ultimate yoban hitter) of Barry, getting the fastballs he likes and remain "Mr. Giant." Anyway, too much wishful thinking.

Wow, what a hiding, eh? They put all the big names out there right from the start, didn't they? Didn't even give the Giants a chance.

You're right about the cameras showing Matsui at every chance. But then Yomiuri TV's coverage of their games is never partial at the best of times.

> P.S. Would one of you in Japan PLEASE apply to
> be the radio/Internet English language broadcaster
> for MLB.com? The guy they have is absolutely
> murdering the Japanese names.

Jeez. It's worse than watching Sumo on ESPN. I can cut the guy some slack because he doesn't speak Japanese and some of those names probably look pretty intimidating. But the site itself is awful! Ichiro wasn't at the first game because of a committment to the Little League organization in Nagoya. So far the site has called it Nogoya, Naboya, and then Seth Everett, the announcer, called it Nagoyu. What the heck?!

Since the series isn't being broadcast here in the states (thanks for nothing ESPN AND Fox!), I would like someone to review the MLB.com broadcasts and send it to me, where I will run it under the author's name for Baseball Guru.com. Unfortunately, I can't offer any compensation, but you will get a chance to offer those of us who think that subscription online baseball netcasts is a counterproductive idea and thus boycott them a chance to know if they were any good.

I hear you. I was excited when I heard that the games would be broadcast in Real - which is available for multiple platforms. And since NTV starts an hour into the game (just like the regular season), I figured I'd catch the first hour there. But I, too, balked when I saw the registry. My spam filters already get hit pretty hard (I estimate about 80% of my mail is SPAM) from advertisers who claim that I opted into their mailing lists. (My filter logs show a lot from cassinos lately. I had no plans on going to Vegas before, but now they've pretty much made the the least likely place I'll EVER find myself. Since I don't get the messages - only the Subject and a few other headers - I don't know which "partner" game them my mail address.) Therefore, I'm not ready to sign up for anything else that has corporate partners.

Besides, I was afraid that those two gaijin who did a bilingual broadcast of one of the Nippon Series games on Fuji TV would be who they got. They're two of the major reasons I don't read the English press. I'm afraid that their voices were only on my TV long enough for me to find the remo-con and switch to the main language channel, so I can't say how their pronunciation of Japanese names are.

But from the response of the MLB.com announcers so far, they seem to be worst than my original fears. I am rather sure that that duo can at least pronounce Japanese names after living here in Japan for so long. Right?

The broadcast is pretty simple. There is no color commentary. The play-by-play man is Seth Everett, who works for MLB Radio, and you can see his bio on MLB.com. He doesn't commentate much.

Basically, he just describes the action. There are no commercials in between innings. Everett seems to have a slight bias for the MLB team, but nothing really obnoxious. He kills Japanese names, which can be a bit frustrating. Last night, if I heard him right, he called Daiei first baseman Kokubo "Kokubu".

I don't know about anyone else, but I hear a ticking sound all during the broadcast. I'm not sure what the cause is, although I'm pretty sure it's not my speakers.

Basically, it's not so much a broadcast as much as it is a guy with very little knowledge of Japanese baseball describing the action in real time with crowd sounds in the background.

What I'm a little frustrated about is: where is the video? I know someone is shooting footage of this, you'd think MLB would have worked out a deal where they could put video highlights up on its page. A radio highlight is one of the silliest things I've heard...

You could do the chat via AIM or another IM device?

If you don't mind going off-site, feel free to use the chatroom at Fantasy Baseball Cafe.

Might be easier than setting up something new (and I might be able to learn a thing or two from you by following the discussion).

Certainly looks like a whale of a series!

Funny thing you say that now. I just finished installing one here. No customizations, yet, to make it fit in, but it works.

Unfortuntely, it's past time for me to go to bed, so maybe I'll catch you for tomorrow's game.

Does anyone know if there's a way to see these games on TV in North America (or more specifically Canada)? I wish one of our sport channels would pick up the feed even if it's in Japanese. I don't see why they won't. The games are all starting at around 4am over here, so they wouldn't need to worry about cutting into their regular programming, if that's what the problem is. Personally, I find this series a lot more interesting than the Major League All-Star Game, but I haven't figured out how I can watch it. I haven't seen it on TV since '98.

Is there a video or dvd available somewhere (in any language) of any of the previous series'?

Hi everybody, hope you're all enjoying what coverage you are able to get of the series. Unfortunately to this point, Japan is clowning on the MLBers. I'm hoping they wake up tonight before the day off and win one convincingly.

I asked "Westbaystars" and he gave me the OK, so here's a URL to a piece I wrote introducing the MLB-Japan series for an online magazine. Please stop by if you like... and we cover a wide range of sports so there will be other pieces you will enjoy as well.

MLBers Travel to Japan for Biennial Exhibition Series

Also stop by Jim Albright and Gary Garland's Baseball Guru for lots of great information.

Come on big leaguers, you gotta start taking the Japanese players seriously! This is turning into an old-fashioned butt whoopin'!

> Come on big leaguers, you gotta start taking the
> Japanese players seriously! This is turning into an
> old-fashioned butt whoopin'!

Actually, I think the MLB players are taking the Japanese players seriously. I'm starting to think maybe the fears about MLB's pitching staff were right. Batista, Penny, Wolf, they're good pitchers, but not the kind that kind hold down an All-Star team. MLB will get their next best chance when Colon takes the mound. Ohka may rise to the occassion playing in front of the Japanese crowds, but I fear he hasn't reached that great level yet where he can hold down an All-Star team without his best stuff.

Westbaystars,

Thanks very much. As you can see there is now a link to your site at the end of that piece as well. I'm glad we could help each other out.

And I hope Bartolo Colon shuts these guys down, because no one else seems to be able to... Ohka MIGHT come alive in front of the home crowd, but that hasn't done much for Ichiro to this point...

Hi guys.

I've chronicled my family's experience at "Game 1" of the Nichi-Bei Series (Giants). Lots of photos as well. You can see the piece at accelerationonline.com.

Glad the MLB finally took one. Nice job by Schoeneweis and Gagne to close it out.