Welcome to Japan

Welcome to Japan. Where baseball is king. Or is it?

Last night, my baseball team, the "Bombers" (in Japanese [katakana] our name is actually "Bonbaazu" and according to our jerseys we are the "Bombs") had a farewell party for the five members of the team who are being traded ... err ... transferred. (Four of the five hardly ever played, so our talent pool isn't exactly being depleted. But in amateur baseball, every body [and everybody] counts, so we'll have to hope that most of the new teachers can at least stand somewhere on a baseball field and blend in to some degree.)

The party included a short awards "ceremony," if you will. And all of the players were given a four-page summary of last year's season, including box scores from our tournament games and pitching and batting statistics. (For whatever reason, I was the only player not included in the stats.)

While I sat in the restaurant, I couldn't help but think how strange it was that we didn't give out the awards and review the season at a party at the end of the season. We played our last game in October, but waited until March 25, five months later, to pass out awards and review the season? That's weird.

But here's the craziest thing (or, as they say in German, der Hammer) about our gathering: Even though the party started at 7:00 p.m., no one turned on the TV that was in our little party room. "Why should anyone turn on the TV?" you ask? Two words: Opening Day. (Or, if you prefer: Daisuke Matsuzaka.)

Yes, last night, at 7:00 p.m., just as our baseball(!) party was getting started, the first game of the MLB season (Red Sox vs. A's) was also getting under way, just up the street in a place called Tokyo, and no one bothered to turn on the TV! What a bummer!

Now, I do have to admit that I didn't notice the TV until around 9:00 p.m. or so. And even then, I kept silent. But around 9:45, when we were getting ready to leave, when I saw the restaurant's main TV on but not tuned to baseball (even though the owner is a baseball fan, go figure!), I finally had to say something. So in my broken Japanese I asked the owner to please switch to the game.

When the game finally appeared on the screen, the left fielder was catching the last out of the top of the ninth inning. We just missed the tying home run by a couple of minutes. The score was now 4-4 and the A's were coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth. At least we didn't miss all of the excitement.

I figured the game must be on cable, so I'd have to stay at the restaurant if I wanted to watch the rest of it. But one of the players told me that the game was being broadcast on NHK, so I could watch the game at home. Cool.

I got a ride home and switched on the TV right away. Game still tied. Still bottom of the ninth. Runner on first. Buck hits a fly ball to deepest center field, two outs. Ellis grounds out, three outs. We're headed to extras.

The Red Sox come up to bat. Lugo reaches on an infield single/error. Pedroia bunts him to second, one out. Youkilis comes up to hit. First pitch: Strike, looking. Second pitch: Ball one. Third pitch: Fouled off for strike two. The next pitch? The next pitch? The next pitch?

I never did get to see the next pitch. And neither did anyone else watching the game on the same channel. Because just like that, at 10:22 p.m., with a 1-2 count (2-1 over here) on Youkilis, of the Boston Red Sox, that is of the Dice-K/Okajima/"World" Champion Boston Red Sox, for crying out loud(!), on Opening Day, live from the Tokyo Dome, in our very own back yard, the network switched to ... drum roll please ... commercials. A ton of commercials. And when the commercials were finally over, a program that wasn't baseball came on.

So I was forced to follow the rest of the game on ESPN's Gamecast. So I missed one of the highlights of the game, i.e., "Manny being Manny" as #24 stood at home plate admiring his home run that wasn't a home run.

And I thought to myself how appropriate it was that Youkilis was the batter when NHK switched away from the game. Why? Well, think about it.

1) What do the fans yell when Youkilis comes up? That's right: "Youuuuuuuuuuuk." Which rhymes with "booooooooooo." Which is exactly what I wanted to scream at the TV.

And ...

2) Mofidy (misspeak?) Youkilis' name a bit and what do you get? Right again: You kill us! Yes, NHK, you kill us!

True story.

Welcome to Japan.