There’s magic in the final seconds of a game…

…or in the final outs, for that matter. Boy oh boy, what a night. The Tampa Bay Rays took the final American league playoff berth in a fascinating way. Now I have witnessed quite a few last minute comebacks in football, but this was simply ridiculous.

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Another Summer Koushien in the books

Another Koushien tournameent ended last weekend and all I got to watch was one first round game on a Sunday morning. Ever since my company abandoned the nightshift there is simply no way I am able to get a look at the games from Japan. I might get a chance to watch a NPB game every now and then when I am on the late shift, buut apart from that it is just impossible. Luckily there are some people who always kept me posted on what was going on. So as I congratulate Nichidai-san for their victory here are a few links for your pleasure.

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Koushien kicks off: Narashino vs Shizuoka

So I finally got to watch a game of this year`s Koushien summer tournament and it was a pleasure to discuss the action on the field with the people at the japanesebaseball.com chatroom. because of my work I won`t be able to watch any game at all, I believed, but last night everything fell into place and I was able to enjoy a feirly interesting game, albeit just until the later innings.

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Summer Koshien just around the corner

As Summer gets hotter and August inches closer and closer everybody knows it won’t be long until the high school boys of Japan will play on the sacred dirt of Koshien again. I hope I will be able to catch at least a few games which might be difficult because of my work. But at least there are some articles which are a nice read, especially this series in the New York Times (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). And, by the way, as if you needed to know, but be sure to bookmark the great blog “Koukou Yakyuu” which will provide you with a live blog for almost every game. Edwin’s doing a great job there (and he’s on Twitter, by the way), just as Westbay-san is with japanesebaseball.com, which will hopefully have its chatroom up and running for the tournament again. I’m really looking forward to this tournament, especially because it will be a very emotional event because of what happened on March 11th. Hopefully the kids can bring some joy to the people in the devastated areas. 皆、頑張って下さい！！

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Spring Koushien 2011 Opening Ceremony

I came across a few videos on youtube which show the whole opening ceremony for this year’s high school baseball spring tournament at the Koshien stadium. While there isn’t happening that much, the warm welcome Tohoku’s representative recieved and especially the speech by Soushi Gakuen’s captain Shinsuke Noyama on behalf of all the players were very moving. The overall military touch was a bit strange to me, but then again I’m german and I have a slightly different stance on all things military.

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New York Day 4 – “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”

Sunday was reserved for baseball and everybody had been warning me beforehand that the game I was about to watch (New York Mets vs Washington Nationals) was probably one the most meaningless ever played. When we were at McSorley’s on Friday another customer had noticed the Mets hat of my friend and pointed out that it was going to be like a funeral.

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Statistics and Football: (I) An introduction

The World Cup ended just a few days ago in thrilling fashion and now order has been restored in my life. No more mid-afternoon matches on TV, no more lazing in front of the screen on the evenings and – most importantly of all – no more honking cars full of Germany supporters on the streets celebrating their team’s victory. Okay, the last one stopped before the World Cup was oficially over. But with the competition over I want to turn my attention to what became apparent during the coverage of the World Cup on German television and that is the use of statistics in football. German TV always pointed their viewers to a website on which yu could follow the statistics to a match. Well, here’s my point: over all statistics are of no use in football. I will try and break this down to a few specific statistics in different blog posts, but I will start with an introduction.

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82nd Spring Koshien: A pitching duel, Chiben Wakayama is out, Chuukyoudai keeps on rolling

I didn’t have a chance to watch the whole game, but the first few innings of the Kouryo vs Miyazaki Kougyou game were pretty exciting. The first thing that struck me were the unusual mechanics both pitchers had when they were throwing to home plate. During the first inning Kouryo’s starter Arihara (I hope I got the name right) looked almost untouchable, looking like he was going to strike out two batters on six pitches. The way he carried on seems to have been fantastic as he was pitching a perfect game until the 5th inning. His counterpart wasn’t bad either as both were exchanging zeros until the 9th inning when things started to fall apart.

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The songs of Koushien

Alright, so I’m a freak for cheering sections and the songs they sing and play. Which is one reason why I really like to watch the Koushien games. The way the brass band is playing there is simply astonishing. Not only do some schools have a song for each and every player on the team (at least it seems that way to me), but they also have a special song they play each time the team gets a hit or scores a run. And they instantly switch from the player’s song to the score or hit song. Pretty disciplined band(s) if you ask me. So while surfing around the youtube-universe I came across some samples from what bands might play ad I thought I’d share them. Some I never heard before, some even I recognized.

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First baseball post of the season: Spring Koshien and spring training

I have to admit that the more I get into baseball the more anxious I am for the season to begin. I was following the off season moves very closely thanks to the great mlbtraderumors.com crew who write their postings so even newbies like me can understand what’s happening around the league.

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