Baseball in Japan - My First Game of 2008
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending my first baseball game of the year in Japan (or anywhere for that matter). The Chiba Lotte Marines beat the Orix Kintetsu Buffaloes by a score of 4-1. All of the scoring was the result of three home runs. Koichi Hori, and Naotaka Takehara each hit solo blasts, and Julio Zuleta cracked a two-run shot.
This was only the second game at home for the Chiba Lotte Marines this year and was a spring training game. The regular season starts next week. Game time was 1PM and it was a brisk 25 minute walk to the stadium from our apartment but we got to watch the game from a sky box which was a treat.
The stadium is located near the Kaihin Makuhari Station on the Keiyo Line which is a direct shot from Tokyo that takes about 30 minutes.
While the players all have their names on their back in romanized English the lineup on the scoreboard it written in Kanji and Katakana (for the foreigners names). This makes following the action and strategic moves of the game a bit difficult at times.
In this case the Marines line up is on the right side. I can’t tell you who was up to bat (the left fielder) but I can tell you that Benny Agbayani was batting third and playing right filed while Julio Zuletta was batting fourth and playing first base.
We had a great day at the yard and I can’t wait to go back!
on 19 March, 2008 on 11:45 pm
Yay! another Lotte fan!
I went to my first game last week too but we were beaten really, really badly on Friday… but alas, it didn’t really count for the season.
Season opener is tomorrow. Hope the guys win.
on 23 March, 2008 on 9:13 am
[...] Marines line up is on the left and the Fighters are on the right. As I said in my post on my first major league game in Japan this line-up card makes it a bit difficult to follow the game at times but with the position and [...]