MLB: Boston wins it – NPB: Series tied

Congratulations to the city of Boston. The Red Sox swept the Rockies and won the World Series 2007. Jon Lester was the winning pitcher in Game 4 and because the Americans love those heartfelt stories about people who have to suffer some sickness or injury and then come back to win it all, Mr. Lester was at the center of attention. To me it’s something I never really had in my fan life with football teams over here. The teams I root for are usually losers who don’t win anything at all. Which is why I really like the red Sox. Their history, with all the failures, mistakes and terrible things that happend on their quest to end the 86 year old drought, is something I instantly fell in love with. And now that team wins their 2nd World Series title in 3 years. Amazing.

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MLB & NPB: One more for Boston, Darvish with a complete game

Boston’s Matsuzaka Daisuke was the main main in yesterday’s Game 3 at Coors Field in Denver when the Red Sox took another win against the Rockies. He pitched really well and he even got 2 RBI in a 6-run third inning for Boston. The other shining players for the Red Sox were Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. The media is going crazy about so much rookie power. Colorado tried to get back into the game and did so with a 3-run homerun by Matt Holliday in the 7th, but that wasn’t enough.

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AFC Champions League: German qualities bring the Reds to the final

The name Urawa Red Diamonds was introduced to the German public first when some German players transferred there in the early 1990s. The first German player to fly over to the J-League was Pierre Littbarski, a hero for his long time team 1.FC Cologne. When he announced that he will be playing for Japanese side JEF United Chiba before retiring this sparked a huge interest in Japanese football in Germany. Before the introduction of the J-League only one Japanese player was known in Germany: Okudera Yasuhiko.

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MLB World Series: Tough luck for working Europeans

So the series is going to Denver this weekend where the Rockies will try to get back on track after losing the first two games at Fenway. I guess the first two really show what Boston is about this season. They completely crushed the Rockies in Game 1, when Josh Beckett held them to just one run while the offense exploded for 13 runs, three of those coming in the first inning and another 7 in the 5th. Game 2 was the complete opposite. This time it was the Boston pitching staff winning the match with reliever Okajima Hideki getting most of the attention as the first pitcher to come onto the field in an American World Series Game. In this game Curt Shilling held Colorado to just one run and Okajima and Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon finished things off for a 2-0 lead for Boston.

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MLB: A win, that might raise questions for the future?

So the Red Sox have beaten the Indians last night 11-2 and will now play against the Colorado Rockies in the World Series starting on Wednesday. Boston won the remaining games in their series against Cleveland outscoring them 30-5. And in Game 7 even shaky Japanese starting pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke was throwing his stuff well. So everything fell into place and the Sox have their chance for a shot at the World Championship again after winning in 2004.

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A day at the record store (II)

I finally made it to my local record dealer again last week and this is what found there:

MONO Gone (A Collection Of EPs 2000-2007) 3xLP
This was the record I want to buy at my visit to the store and, boy oh boy, this is a gem. A triple LP set in a wonderful gatefold cover, really thick vinyl, brilliant artwork, this is just great. I know I won’t put this one on my turntable that often, but I really love the music. It’s a collection of some of their EP and compilation tracks, just pure MONO music. Loud, quiet, very dynamic, a great variety. I just love the way they create an atmosphere in which you can endulge and by the time ou are sucked into it it suddenly changes and they do something new and unexpected. This band really is great. On record as well as on stage.

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RWC 2007: The champions wear green

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch last night’s final, but from what one can read in the newspapers it wasn’t a beautiful game so I guess I didn’t miss much. Still I think it’s okay that South Africa won the Cup since they have been the team who have been playing most consistently over the past few weeks. True, they had their moment in the pool match against England and after that they kind of lost their momentum a little bit. But their style of Rugby looked by far more convincing than the brutal will England forced upon their opponents. With the other two southern hemisphere giants out of the tournament it was only natural that the Springboks took home the trophy.

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MLB & NPB playoffs: Sox tie it, Fighters are through to Japan Series

The Boston Red Sox came back after being down 1-3 beating Cleveland in the last two matches and therefore getting a final and decisive Game 7 at Fenway Park. Beckett and Shilling were the winning pitchers in Game 5 and 6 and J.D. Drew, the man some labeled as the biggest disappointment for the Red Sox this season turned up the offense with a grand slam homerun in the first inning of last night game.

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Campaigning for election in Japan: A documentary

I zapped into a documentary by chance last night which was shown on the German-French culture channel Arte. It was about some guy named Yamauchi Kazuhiko who was told by his party to run for a post in the local city council in Kawasaki. I don’t really know if the constituancy he was running for was named Miyabae or not, as I said, I joined the program as it was already running.

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Euro 2008 Qualifiers: Germany’s through

Because of the Rugby World Cup I didn’t really bother about Germany’s qualifiying match against Ireland. They played a rather ugly 0-0 draw, which is what I read. So with still three games to go they are the first team to qualify for the Euro 2008 which is pretty impressive. With this Germany are surely one of the top favourites for the title next year. And If one keeps in mind that they were playing without some of their regular players for the last few matches than their achievement becomes even more impressive.

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