Oh the joys of watching Japanese pro baseball

[Art_from_Ark]

I was watching the Toyko Giants- Yakult Swallows game on TV earlier today. It was quite an interesting game-- the lead went back and forth, with Yakult having a 5-run lead at one time. Then the Giants battled back, and by the end of the 7th inning, they had taken an 11-7 lead. But then it was Yakult's turn to battle back, and in the top of the 8th they had whittled the Giants' lead to 11-10. Then the Giants went down without a run in the 8th.

After the obligatory commercial break, they showed the Tokyo pitcher taking the mound in the top of the 9th, and then suddenly, that was it. They ended the broadcast with the game still in progress-- apparently, they didn't want to pre-empt some 5-minute mini-news program.

So how did the game end? On the midnight sports program, they reported that it ended in a tie! Final score-- 11 to 11.

[leftofthedial]

1. Did you ever watch _Major League_?

Some interesting culture clash with a baseball theme in that movie.

[trof]

2. I "lived" Major League

but in aviation, not sports.
Worked for a Japanese cargo airline for 10 years.
I could write a book.

[Cush]

6. do you mean Mr Baseball?

that was the one where Tom Selleck gets sold to the Japanese team.

Major League is the one about the Indians.

[leftofthedial]

7. Well, duh!

I've only watched both of them about a hundred times.

It is Mr. Baseball I was reffrering to.

:dunce:

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I watched Mr. Baseball on Japanese TV once

It was a real trip

[trof]

11. correction:

I "lived" Mister Baseball.
;-)

[trof]

3. My favorite team name:

The Nippon Ham Fighters

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Ah, the Nippon Ham Fighters

always in competition with the Lotte Marines (formerly Orions) for last place in the Pacific League!

And speaking of Fighters and Orions, the only time I ever came close to watching a Japanese major league game in person was the year they opened the Tokyo Dome. Since the Dome was a novelty at the time, it was always filled, even when the perennial cellar-dwelling Nippon Ham Fighters were the home team. Anyway, I arrived during the beginning of the 6th inning in early August and found to my dismay that the two worst teams in the Pacific League were playing-- the Fighters and the Orions. But the game was still sold out! It was Standing Room Only (tachimi), but the price of admission was still the same as general admission-- 1400 yen, or 11 bucks at the time. So I said sayonara to Tokyo Dome. But who knows-- maybe some day I'll make it to a game there.

[Sick of Bullshit]

5. Ending the broadcast before the game is over

I know about that-- "We interrupt this ball game to show you our regularly scheduled shoestring-budget program featuring orange-haired girls yakking about nothing of particular interest or importance."

Japanese TV is in a league of its own.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. You're right about Japanese TV

Right now, I'm watching a program on a regular commercial channel featuring young women talking about their bra sizes!

Of the 12 cable channels, 3 are currently running infomercials from the USA-- and another channel is QVC! Argh!

[Ivory_Tower]

10. I still preferred watching Sumo wrestling over there

Baseball was interesting to watch, but to me, nothing beats sumo! Just wish I could have gone to a match in person -- not sure when I'll get back there...sigh...

Where in Japan are you located?

[Art_from_Ark]

12. I used to watch sumo wrestling,

all 6 bashos each year when Konishiki and Akebono were trying to become yokozunas. I don't have the chance to watch now.

By the way, I'm in the Tokyo area about an hour's commute from central Tokyo.

[Ivory_Tower]

13. Only spent a couple of days in Tokyo as a tourist

I worked for a couple of months in Tanegashima. The beaches were beautiful, but I was struck with a stomach bug for about three days and spent the whole time sitting in my hotel room watching sumo. Also got to watch grade-school and high-school sumo on the island, too. After watching it on TV I was hooked. I had an amazingly cool sumo calendar that I bought while I was in Tokyo, and I've been desperately trying to find another one. Still scouring the web for a good one...

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Tanegashima-- Japan's Cape Canaveral

Sounds like an interesting assignment

[GOPisEvil]

14. My mom subscribes to NHK.

Their Sumo coverage (in English, if you choose) is awesome. I learned a lot by watching it.

My favorite Japanese television was from the time we lived in Hawaii. Hawaiian TV showed the humorous Samurai movies (of course the name flew right off the tip of my tongue). I still laugh at those - they're great!

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Is that Japanese Howard Cosell guy still doing the English

commentary for the NHK sumo broadcasts? I heard him when I was still living in the USA-- he was a trip.

By the way, when a yokozuna retires and opens his sumo school, it's called a "stable" in English. I have no idea how they got that translation from the Japanese word "heya".

[GOPisEvil]

17. Not the last time I watched...

...it was a male/female team. Both very sedate for the most part - almost like a lecture.