New L.A. Dodgers Spring Training Caps get the Dragons some U.S. Pub

Above is the new cap the Los Angeles Dodgers will be wearing for this year's Spring Training in Arizona.  From what I've read the Dodgers have never worn a script "D" like this ever before. 
There is though another team that has, that team being your Chunichi Dragons.  Since it was announced several American blogs (Uni-Watch & True Blue L.A.) have picked up on the fact that it has been worn before, mainly though from the Hollywood movie that we all know and love "Mr. Baseball."

This photo has been tied to it showing Tom Selleck's approval:

Here's a baseball card showing Chunichi's version:

The Chunichi version can be purchased from New Era Japan.
The L.A. version should be available very soon.

Game 1 of the Suzuki All-Star Series

The 1974 Dragons, Giant Killers!

I recently watched a short NHK documentary on the final weeks of the 1974 season and how the Dragons held off Yomiuri to win the Central and break the Giants stranglehold on the CL of 9 straight league titles.  The documentary featured interviews with then-pitcher Senichi Hoshino, 2nd baseman Morimichi Takagi and catcher Tatsuhiko Kimata. 

The account begins with the Dragons having a substantial lead over Yomiuri, but with the pressure mounting Chunichi's bats go cold and Yomiuri closes in.  With seven games to play Chunichi's magic number is 4.  The remaining schedule includes three games against Yakult in Tokyo, followed by a doubleheader against Taiyo and two final road games against the Giants.  Chunichi's players desperately want to clinch the league title prior to the series against Yomiuri.  The Giants at that time were seen as unbeatable and for the most part were unbeatable, they were coming off of not only the nine straight league titles but 9 straight Japan Series Championships as well, and other teams had crumbled facing the same pressure that Chunichi was facing as recently as the previous year. 

The Yakult series started off poorly for Chunichi as they lost the first two games in low-scoring contests.  Fortunately, Yomiuri lost one of their games during that stretch to bring Chunichi's magic number to 3.  Going into the following game confidence in the Dragons' dugout was getting low and sank even further as Yakult jumped out to an early lead.  In the 5th inning with Chunichi still trailing Kimata, hitting seventh in the order, stepped to the plate with runners on base.  As Kimata stood in the batters box the Yakult catcher notified him that his knees were shaking.  Kimata realized at that point just how nervous he was, but stepped back into the box and slapped a game-tying single through the right side.  Later on Yakult added a run and took a 3-2 lead into the top of the 9th.  In the ninth Kimata again came to the plate and again he succeeded, hitting a one-out double to left.  Kimata advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, bringing Takagi to the plate with two outs.  Takagi swung at the first pitch sending a hard grounder past the third baseman and sending Kimata home with the tying run.

Going to the bottom of the inning there was some dissagrement with the Dragons' coaches over who should pitch the final frame.  Hoshino, the Dragons' ace starter who was due to pitch the next day, as well as their main reliever were in the bullpen.  The manager decided to go with Hoshino, who said that he was feeling the pressure as well, but was surprised at the quality of his warmup pitches in the bullpen.  He took the hill for the ninth, and in his words pitched the best inning of his career, striking out two batters and inducing a weak groundout to preserve the tie.

With the magic number now at two the pressure seemed to fade away and the team's confidence returned.  They felt that they would win both games against Taiyo the next day and wrap up the title, which is exactly what happened.  The Dragons won both games easily with Hoshino pitching eight innings in one of them. 

When the Dragons returned to Nagoya a huge parade was held, reportedly attended by what amounted to half of the population of Nagoya.  Chunichi lost to Lotte in the Japan Series that year in six games, but control in the Central League had shifted and Yomiuri's reign of dominance came to an end.  Yomiuri appeared in only 5 of the next 15 Japan Series with only one Japan Series Championship over that period.  Prior to that they had appeared in 19 of the first 24 Japan Series with 15 championships.

You can see the video here.

Spring Training on USTREAM

The Dragons official USTREAM page (see link on the right) has been showing a ton of video from Chunichi's spring practices in Okinawa.  They are also broadcasting the preseason games!  I watched a portion of yesterday's game against Hanshin.  Chunichi lost 15-11, in a game where none of their regulars played.  Shuhei Takahashi and Ryosuke Hirata were the big names in the lineup and the Dragons' young pitchers were hit hard.  The Dragons fought back late to make what was a 13-4 game 13-11 going into the 9th, but Hanshin was able to get two more in the top of the 9th and closed out the Dragons in the bottom of the inning.  Yakyubaka has some more notes on the game.

Here's a portion of the schedule for preseason games:

2/16 vs. Hanshin (Replay is available on USTREAM)
2/17 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/22 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/23 13:00 (JST) vs. Lotte
2/24 13:00 (JST) vs. Orix
The rest of the schedule is here on the Dragons website.

They aren't currently listing which games will be broadcasted, but I imagine at least the games at their home stadium will be.

Dragons Official USTREAM

I just added a new link in the "Where to Watch NPB Games" section to the right.  The Dragons have their own USTREAM page, you can find it here.  USTREAM looks to be an equivalent to Justin.tv, a place where anyone can show live video or keep stored, previously recorded videos.  The Dragons' page contains a significant amount of highlights and also shows a few games live.  The next live game they will be showing is this week, June 26th, against the Hanshin Tigers.  That appears to be the last live game they will show for a while, but it's still a good place to check out game highlights.

Tom Selleck's Dragons Batting Helmet Still Exists

Was reading uni-watch.com yesterday and saw a brief note regarding the Dragons.  Apparently a reader of uni-watch that works on the set of the American TV show Modern Family found the batting helmet Tom Selleck (Jack Elliot) wore in the movie Mr. Baseball.  They took a quick photo of the helmet and sent it to the blogger.  A link to the photo can be found in the "Uni Watch News Ticker" at the bottom of this page.  The helmet has Jack Elliot's number 54 on the brim and appears to be the same helmet seen on the left.  From the photo it looks like the helmet has been hanging out in a closet or box with a bunch of other props from other sports-related shows or movies.  Something like that clearly deserves a more dignified storage place, like in a display somewhere.  At least it still exists and hopefully this discovery will lead to it being placed somewhere where it can be preserved.  Somehow I doubt that will happen.

More on "Where to Watch NPB Games"

Here are some details about the links I have on the right of the screen regarding watching games.

Justin.tv is a site I read about on other blogs, mainly npbtracker.com, and the first place I was able to watch a NPB game online.  It was my go-to last year for the NPB playoffs and the Japan Series.  Justin.tv is a site that allows people to post live video feeds.  Often people who put on the live video also save these videos so that they can be accessed later.  Games can be watched as full-screen on this site and generally have good picture quality.

Keyhole TV requires you to download a viewer.  Once you have done the download, it allows you to watch live Japanese TV or listen to live Japanese radio.  I believe the channels, like Justin.tv, are provided by individuals.  But instead of showing whatever the individual wants to show, Keyhole TV shows the same channel or station 24/7, so you can watch NHK or Fuji TV for example anytime you want to.  The main negative of Keyhole TV (as you could guess from the name) is that the screen is only about 4" x 4" in size and the picture quality in often not that good.  Another negative is that it shows the main network broadcasts of games, which are normally scheduled over a two hour window, starting in the second or third inning and ending somewhere between the seventh and the end of the game depending on the speed of play.  It's nice to know that Keyhole TV is there if you just want to tune in for a couple innings on a random weekend, but Justin.TV is a better option for playoff games that you know someone will be showing on there.

Last year on TBS's (the Japanese TV station that at that time owned the BayStars) website they had a page that had recordings of BayStar home games.  It is a great page that allows you to watch a recording of any game from their season by top or bottom of each inning.  You can either hide the score and be in suspense or turn the scores on and watch only the scoring innings.  The quality is good and any game is on demand, the only negative is that every game features the last-place BayStars  It provided a good place to see the Dragons when they went to Yokohama and I could watch on my terms the day after.  The site is still active in spite of the BayStars' ownership change.  It would be great if they were to continue this site for 2012, but that seems very unlikely. 

There are many other places out there I'm sure and I hope to find some more for the upcoming year.  Yahoo.jp shows Pacific League games for a fee, but I don't know that it can be viewed outside of Japan.  If anyone out there knows of some other good places to watch, please don't be afraid to share.

Dream Match 2012: Tunnels Sports King is Me

There was an entertaining show on the other night hosted by two Japanese comedians, one was Takaaki Ishibashi (of the movies Major League II & III).  It is an annual show that is now part of the New Year's programing in Japan.  On the show the two comedians challenge pro athletes to various competitions within their sports, but add (often hilarious) twists to level the playing field.  The sports included were golf, soccer, tennis and baseball.  The baseball portion came last and featured the comedians' team, with a couple former players, facing off against a team that included the former-Dragon Kosuke Fukudome, Hiroyuki Nakajima, Takeya Nakamura and Hisayoshi Chono.
For the competition the Tokyo Dome playing surface was transformed into a full-sized "baseball pinball" machine, with portions of the field designated as hits or outs based loosely on the original pinball game.
Batters faced a pitching machine that threw multiple pitches and at varying speeds.  The opposing team was allowed to choose which pitch was to be thrown.  The game was originally scheduled for five innings, but the heated contest continued beyond that.  Here is a link if you would like to watch: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzM5MDY3NzI4.html baseball starts at about the 187 minute mark.
Also Kosuke broke one of his bats during the challenge, it is now signed and available for purchase somewhere, there were phone numbers flashed during the show.