Battery wins championships
Firstly, I just want to post a few pictures of the brownie cake thing we made for Keeeenya. I wrote on it. In front of him.
It says, "I <3 Kenya. From Zaizen." But as Kazu-san will tell you, my English handwriting sucks.
You know you love it, Kenya.
Now, the reason I gave this entry the title I did is because Japan repeated as the WBC champion last night, and apparently Korea's manager (Kim In-Sik) believes it was due to battery miscues and miscommunications. See, apparently here's what went down concerning Ichiro's at-bat in the 10th (the eventual game-winner that kind of seemed like it was out of a movie):
It seemed only fitting that for Japan, it would come down to Ichiro at the end. The first and most successful Japanese position to player to come to the U.S.
Darvish became the winner, because Ichiro just wouldn't give in during his climatic at-bat. There was apparently some confusion between the Korean bench, catcher Min-ho Kang and Lim, who was told to pitch carefully to Ichiro before giving up the single, but apparently missed the sign. Kang, 23 years old, had just come into the game an inning earlier.
"They did not convey signals well," Korean manager In-Sik Kim said. "The catcher understood the signs, but the pitcher didn't understand it very well. It was not to try to walk him, but to throw him a ball. If it did not work, then we would walk him. That was the strategy. So the pitcher and catcher did not communicate well. That hurt us in the end."
Kazu-san pointed out to me today that Lim Chang-Yong is the current closer for Yakoooolt and has held that post since late '07. Without a Furuta figure there, he probably hasn't had too much battery stability (Yakoooolt has been having Furuta succession issues and they only just signed Aikawa Ryoji this off-season, so Lim's been without a solid catcher for a while now). What happened here seems like much of the same - not enough of a connection between him and Kang to really finish off the game right. There's an old adage about how pitching wins championships and all that, but I'm fairly sure we pitchers are only as good as our better halves. So in actuality, battery wins championships, but since most people seem to be under the impression that catchers don't exist they just focus on the pitching half. Which is a crying shame, you know.
You think people would get the point by now, right?
It says, "I <3 Kenya. From Zaizen." But as Kazu-san will tell you, my English handwriting sucks.
You know you love it, Kenya.
Now, the reason I gave this entry the title I did is because Japan repeated as the WBC champion last night, and apparently Korea's manager (Kim In-Sik) believes it was due to battery miscues and miscommunications. See, apparently here's what went down concerning Ichiro's at-bat in the 10th (the eventual game-winner that kind of seemed like it was out of a movie):
It seemed only fitting that for Japan, it would come down to Ichiro at the end. The first and most successful Japanese position to player to come to the U.S.
Darvish became the winner, because Ichiro just wouldn't give in during his climatic at-bat. There was apparently some confusion between the Korean bench, catcher Min-ho Kang and Lim, who was told to pitch carefully to Ichiro before giving up the single, but apparently missed the sign. Kang, 23 years old, had just come into the game an inning earlier.
"They did not convey signals well," Korean manager In-Sik Kim said. "The catcher understood the signs, but the pitcher didn't understand it very well. It was not to try to walk him, but to throw him a ball. If it did not work, then we would walk him. That was the strategy. So the pitcher and catcher did not communicate well. That hurt us in the end."
Kazu-san pointed out to me today that Lim Chang-Yong is the current closer for Yakoooolt and has held that post since late '07. Without a Furuta figure there, he probably hasn't had too much battery stability (Yakoooolt has been having Furuta succession issues and they only just signed Aikawa Ryoji this off-season, so Lim's been without a solid catcher for a while now). What happened here seems like much of the same - not enough of a connection between him and Kang to really finish off the game right. There's an old adage about how pitching wins championships and all that, but I'm fairly sure we pitchers are only as good as our better halves. So in actuality, battery wins championships, but since most people seem to be under the impression that catchers don't exist they just focus on the pitching half. Which is a crying shame, you know.
You think people would get the point by now, right?