This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
I'm doing a pennant with the Giants right now in Pro Yakyu Spirits 2. Rhodes, Kiyohara, Abe, and Kokubo are starting to bring their numbers up. Takahashi has been hitting doubles, and his batting average is the second best on the team(behind Abe). The only problem is that his power numbers and RBIs are lacking. He has 0 HRs and 2 RBIs by 4/18/05. To fix this and get him batting guys in, I've moved Kiyohara to #5 and Takahashi to #4. This move immediately pays off, as Takahashi goes 3-4 with a solo homerun in his first game at #4.
We had a game against Hanshin that was really frustrating. Jamie Brown shut us down for 7 innings. He gave up the solo shot to Takahashi, and an RBI single to Nioka before he was taken out. Makino pitched a perfect 8th inning to keep the game at 2-5.
Kubota then comes in to finish the game in the 9th. Takahashi is the lead off man and hits a double to start things off. Next batter is Kiyohara, and he flies out to center. Motoki replaced Kokubo in the 6th inning, and he comes in to bat. His batting with runners in scoring position has been amazing so far this year. Kubota goes inside and Motoki pulls it. Takahashi comes home on an RBI single. Suzuki comes in to pinch run for Motoki. Abe steps into the box. In the last 5 games, he's been hitting around .450 with 3 homeruns. Kubota strikes him out looking. It all comes down to Nioka. He's just recently started playing regularly, after the 21 year old Nagata was given a chance to play for the first half of April. Nioka rips one to left field, and it bounces off the wall. Suzuki blazes all the way home from first, and Nioka trots into second. Etoh is chosen to pinch hit for Brian Sikorski. His condition is terrible lately, and the other two pinch hitting options, Murata and Kuroda, are in way better condition right now. Kubota throws a couple strikes that Etoh watches. Ball...Ball...Kubota throws a change up inside. Etoh times it perfectly! ITTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! DAIDA GYAKUTEN SAYONARA HOOOOOOOOMERUN!!!
Kyojin win by a score of 6-5.