I don't feel my age.....I certainly do not act my age.....but it appears that I appear my age - unless it is the fact that I'm the only white guy around in a very Asian setting and the staff of the CPBL wants to make this a great experience for me........I think it is the latter.....
The taxi ride was not as long (or as costly) as I anticipated. I got to Taichung Stadium around 11:15am and had no problem finding the information office where news of my impending arrival had already been spread to all in the office - they literally and figuratively gave me VIP treatment, escorting me to where I was to sit as a Super Fan. There were 6 other Super Fans there - all Japanese. One wore a Chiba jersey, another wore a Nippon Ham Fighters jersey.....and when I took out my Rakuten Eagles jersey and put it on, they 'adopted' me!!!
Five of the six looked as one would expect a bunch of Japanese men scouring manga and anime in Akihabara to look. The sixth? Transgender! What a group!! Their English was even worse than my Japanese yet baseball was the common language and we had a good time together.
Italy's Bologna team lost the game in the bottom of the eighth inning when a relief pitcher came in and after walking the first batter he faced (with absolutely nothing on the ball), he threw three straight balls to the Korean batter who, based upon the prior pitches, would either walk (because the ball would be no where near home plate) or hit a home run if the ball got over the plate. He hit a 3 run homer and the game ended 5-2. The Korean team, though, the Samsung Lions, did not impress me.
At the start of the game, perhaps there were 100 people in attendance. Conclusion of the game - 2-300 people, no more - mostly school classes attending.......
I took a taxi back to the hotel and will rest for an hour prior to returning to the stadium for the 6:30pm game. Rakuten plays this one against the second place Taiwan team. Neither Andrew Jones nor Casey McGeehee of the Eagles is on the traveling squad - presumably, they've gone home after the Japan Series. But the pitching staff is intact and it will be nice to watch them play........
Food: good fried dumplings and fried squid. Tonight I will try a hot dog.....
More.....tomorrow.....and I hope to download pictures, tomorrow morning, to the photo gallery of the website.
The taxi ride was not as long (or as costly) as I anticipated. I got to Taichung Stadium around 11:15am and had no problem finding the information office where news of my impending arrival had already been spread to all in the office - they literally and figuratively gave me VIP treatment, escorting me to where I was to sit as a Super Fan. There were 6 other Super Fans there - all Japanese. One wore a Chiba jersey, another wore a Nippon Ham Fighters jersey.....and when I took out my Rakuten Eagles jersey and put it on, they 'adopted' me!!!
Five of the six looked as one would expect a bunch of Japanese men scouring manga and anime in Akihabara to look. The sixth? Transgender! What a group!! Their English was even worse than my Japanese yet baseball was the common language and we had a good time together.
Italy's Bologna team lost the game in the bottom of the eighth inning when a relief pitcher came in and after walking the first batter he faced (with absolutely nothing on the ball), he threw three straight balls to the Korean batter who, based upon the prior pitches, would either walk (because the ball would be no where near home plate) or hit a home run if the ball got over the plate. He hit a 3 run homer and the game ended 5-2. The Korean team, though, the Samsung Lions, did not impress me.
At the start of the game, perhaps there were 100 people in attendance. Conclusion of the game - 2-300 people, no more - mostly school classes attending.......
I took a taxi back to the hotel and will rest for an hour prior to returning to the stadium for the 6:30pm game. Rakuten plays this one against the second place Taiwan team. Neither Andrew Jones nor Casey McGeehee of the Eagles is on the traveling squad - presumably, they've gone home after the Japan Series. But the pitching staff is intact and it will be nice to watch them play........
Food: good fried dumplings and fried squid. Tonight I will try a hot dog.....
More.....tomorrow.....and I hope to download pictures, tomorrow morning, to the photo gallery of the website.
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