Marines vs. Hawks, April 6 2008

Me, Bobby Valentine, and Isamu "Tokyo Sam" Maruhashi
Me and Bobby Valentine.
Again with Bobby (slightly color-balanced).
Me with the Lotte Marines Mind Control Task Force, aka Larry Rocca.

Hawks pitchers taking fielding practice.
Hiroshi Freaking Shibahara
Tsuyoshi Wada (nice sunglasses, dude).
CJ Nitkowski

Yuuki "Eyebrows" Kume, and Rick Guttormson
Hitoshi Tamura
Shibahara again. I was mostly just amused by the fact that I was close enough to zoom in on his name on his bat.
Yoshihisa "The Boy that Couldn't Lose" Naruse greets Hitoshi "Most likely to die running into a wall" Tamura.

"Oh my GOD that's Sadaharu Oh over there."
Naruse goofing around with Munenori "Munerin" Kawasaki.
Sadaharu Oh.
Shibahara takes aim at the batting tee.

"OH my GOD! That's Tatsuya Ide!"
"Who? How the hell do you know that?"
"He used to be the centerfielder for the Fighters... err..."
Hitoshi Tamura.
New import Michael Restovich.
I'm still in "Oh my god, Munenori Kawasaki is standing right there" mode, see.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka!
Nobuhiro Matsuda.
Catcher Katsuki Yamazaki.
The special "press seats" down at field level. You can apparently buy tickets to sit here.

The plates with the team rosters - they have these for every year.
1974 team plate. Kaneda!
Game lineup (from the day before) inside the Marines sports pub.
Lounge/sports pub area near the VIP boxes.

The bar in the sports pub.
Closeup of that picture of the 1974 lineup having a reunion on the field in early 2005.
View from one of the VIP boxes.
Wacky perspective of picnic area brought to you by VIP room.

The VIP room.
The "izakaya" area near the rightfield foulpole -- complete with wooden seats and a magician doing tricks.
Bobby wall outside the Bobby Magic Bar, part 1
Bobby wall, part 2

Jose Jose Jose Jose.
Masahiko Tanaka and Frank Ramppen.
That punk, Imae.
Shoitsu Ohmatsu.

"Oh my god, there's Shunsuke!"
SABUROOOOO
Bobby!
Larry attacks Bobby with a marker and a bunch of baseballs.

"WHAT TIME IS IT? GAME TIME!"
The lineup inside the dugout, complete with lefty-righty splits for the opponents.
The Minister of Information, Paul Pupo, is the reason for all of these lineups.
If you don't bring some wacky sign, you aren't allowed in the right field bleachers.

What a lovely wide expanse of green.
Scoreboard with the opening lineups.
First batter of the game, Munenori Kawasaki.
Tsuyoshi Wada throws on the sidelines.

More Wada.
Shunsuke!
Shunsuke!
Shunsuke!

Shunsuke!
Shunsuke!
Shunsuke!
Ryuuma Kidokoro.

Imae.
Boy Wonder Nishioka.
Tsuyoshi Wada.
More Wada.

More Shunsuke.
We have many high numbers.
Munerin!
Munerin spray!

Munerin at the plate!
Munerin swing!
Okay, what is UP with Ohtsuka's batting stance? Is he trying to emulate Hitoshi Taneda?
Catcher Tasuku Hashimoto catches a pop foul.

Tasuku Hashimoto.
Shunsuke!
Shunsuke!
The Hashimoto-Shibahara showdown in slow motion! 3...

2...
1... slide...
And Shibahara has scored the first run of the game. Whoosh.
Shunsuke!

Shunsuke!
Tsuyoshi Wada, still on the sidelines.
"Hey, that's Matoyama from Orix isn't it?"
"What's wrong, man?"

Wada on the mound.
It's a sign.
Nishioka smash!
Nishioka smash pop fly out!

Tomoya Satozaki makes a mighty swing.
And as usual, Satozaki can't hold onto his bat.
Tamura seemed to be kinda slow.
Koichi Hori!

"Ok, so like, if someone hits the ball, you go THAT way. Got it?"
Pay no attention to the big man at third.
Oretachi no Benny!
Benny hits a double.

Benny chats up Munerin at second base.
Tsuyoshi Wada
Tsuyoshi Wada
I can only dream of having one of these awesome lenses instead of my cheapo one someday.

Benny!
It's that Mune kid again.
Tadaatsu Nakazawa, my hero zero.
"Uh, here, take this. You'll need it."

Nobuhiro Matsuda! What a smile.
Mitsuru Honma high-fives the world after a home run.
Oh-kantoku comes out to cheer everyone on.
Yusuke Kawasaki comes out of the bullpen.

Lefty with a big blue glove? Sounds familiar...
Matsunaka practically limps off the field.
Hidenori Tanoue
I wonder if this moose is related to the Mariner Moose.

Those crazy Marines fans.
Fuusen whoosh!
"Excuse me sir, but I did not hear you call me off."
"What's that? I can get everything in shallow left field?"

Pitching change and a big ol' "CHARGE MARINES FIGHTIN'" on the Auroravision.
Takehara.
"Hello, I am SABURO, and I am going to hit a BIG SAC FLY NOW OKAY?"
Tatsuya Ide gives signals from the dugout.

Benny runs home!
Benny SLIDE!
Daisuke Hayakawa.
"Nice job, dude."

Kawasaki pitches to Kawasaki... and Kawasaki bunts.
Akihiro Yanase.
Akihiro Yanase.
Kume-kun!

Yuuki Kume.
Yuuki Kume.
Yuuki Kume.
CJ Nitkowski.

More CJ.
And another CJ.
It's the bottom of the 9th and we are ready to RUMBLE!
"No, dude, explain to them that I'm totally okay and we're gonna win."

Unlikely game hero Masahiko Tanaka.
Nishioka gets splashed after hitting home the winning run.
Celebrate, part 1.
Celebrate, part 2.

Celebrate, part 3. Knockdown!
Celebrate, part 4. Note the game hero lying on the ground.
Tanaka as game hero, final score.