On March 6 and 7, Kyocera Dome Osaka hosted the CarNext Samurai Japan Series, which featured a team of Japanese delegates squaring off against Team Europe. JapanBall helped us obtain media passes, which allowed us to take in the games from the press section. The games themselves were special in that a lot of young Japanese talent was on display, but the experience for we JapanBall writers was an unforgettable one that we reflected on in audio format (which can be listened to on Trevor’s Patreon). Yuri also created this thorough video that covers both the games and our media experience.
Instead of repeating much of what is in the video, I (Trevor) will go over some of my own thoughts as the games and media experience unfolded. I highly recommend you take 18 minutes to watch Yuri’s account of the event, which is outstanding.
The games started at 7 pm, but I arrived at the stadium around 4 pm. My first job was to find the media entrance to the park, where my pass would be waiting for me. It took a couple of points in the right direction from stadium staff, but I got to where I needed to be in due time. As I wandered around in search of the right door, I noticed that the lineup for pictures with cardboard cutouts of Samurai Japan players was probably 30 meters long.
As Yuri said in the video, we were unfortunately not given field or clubhouse access, or the right to take photos for our publications. That said, we took pics as fans, because obviously, we both wanted to remember this special experience! We were not always quick enough to take out our phones and snap photos when opportunities came up, as we soon found out. While waiting for the elevator to head to the press area, right before our eyes walked NPB legends Kazuhiro Sasaki (Baystars, Seattle Mariners) and Seiichi Uchikawa (Baystars, Hawks, etc.). Larger than life!
We also talked to (and tried to help) two journalists who were mainly covering Team Europe: Leif Skodnick is editor in chief of the World Baseball Network, and Roberto Angotti is an ambassador for the Fullerton Sister City Association. Both were wonderful conversation partners as we took in the action.
I talked to a Japanese staffer for Team Europe and was curious about the team’s awareness of Japanese baseball and its players. He amusingly told me that some of the players want to ultimately play in Japan, but that most do not have much knowledge of the star players. Some tried to swap jerseys with Munetaka Murakami, though.
After the second game (a combined perfect game, including an immaculate inning from Chihiro Sumida), Yuri and I took in the team press conferences. First, Team Europe manager Marco Mazzieri and starter Markus Solbach (Germany) reflected on the game.
Mazzieri on the overall pitching: Our pitchers were very good, and I am proud of the way they threw the ball. But Japan’s pitchers were better… we thought last night we faced great pitching, but tonight’s was even better. It doesn’t matter that they were university students. The way they threw the ball today, they could have shut down any offense.
Solbach on the Japanese perfect game: Today, we witnessed something amazing. Perfect games so seldom happen. They threw so many strikes, every pitcher has a splitter – that might be a pitch I need to learn because it seems so unhittable. It was exciting to watch them pitch, and I think I can learn a lot from that. Hopefully, one day I can play here again.
Then, Samurai Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata sat down with star outfielder Misho Nishikawa (Aoyama Gakuin University).
Ibata on the perfect game: Our pitchers attacked the zone and got ahead in counts. The guys exceeded my expectations tonight.
On the perfect game-preserving catch: When the ball left the bat I thought for sure it would drop. But Nishikawa used to play short and he showed his instincts by taking that first step quickly and going all out to make the play.
Nishikawa on his catch: To be honest, I wasn’t aware of the perfect game at that point. I just knew that we needed to get the leadoff hitter out. I don’t consider myself a very speedy player but I try to get a quick first step to make up for it. Now in retrospect, I guess it was a pretty big play as far as the perfect game went.
At this point, I tried to drum up the courage to raise my hand to ask a question, but perhaps I was too gun-shy as a first-time “journalist” and so I yielded to the more experienced Japanese writers instead.
Perhaps our first-time experience among veteran media members parallels that of Team Europe. Allow me to borrow words from Mr. Mazzieri: “Everybody was very excited before coming here, but I think they are now even more excited that they came. This is an experience that they will never forget because playing at this level against Team Japan, I am sure they appreciate the opportunity and it is something that will push them to get even better.”
Thanks once again to Shane for setting this up for Yuri and me.
