Ichiro and Cosplay

[Bucky]

The annual Japan Night at Safeco Field this year is drawing interest from the cosplay crowd. This notice was found circulating on cosplay.com. Woohoo!:nihonjin:

Make your plans now.

Sakura-Con at Japan Night!

FOLLOW TICKETING INSTRUCTIONS TO SIT WITH FELLOW SAKURA_CON MEMBERS! IF WE HAVE ENOUGH [B]COSPLAYERS[/B] YOU KNOW WE WILL MAKE IT ON TV!!! Let's show them our Sakura-Con Spirit!

Orioles vs. Mariners
Monday, July 6, 2009 – 7:10 p.m.

Enjoy Seattle Mariners Baseball on Japan Night at Safeco Field on Monday, July 6! Round up your friends and family members and soak in a fun-filled night of Japanese culture. The first 15,000 fans through the gates will receive a special Salute to Japanese Baseball Night cap so be sure to arrive early!

DEADLINE TO PURCHASE: Thursday, July 2 at 12:00 p.m.
Game Date:
* Monday, July 6 vs. Baltimore Orioles – 7:10 pm

Pricing:
* $8 View Reserved[B] (normally $20! special price for Sakura-Con Members!)[/B]
To Order Up To 25 Tickets:

Mariners Japan Night hat from a previous year
cosplay

[Behan]

Looking forward to pics of this, Bucky.

I wonder if Uehara will be back and healthy by then. If he were pitching it would be even more of a Japanese day.

[Bucky]

Pregame entertainment at Japan Nite at Safeco Field last night.

The M's beat the O's 5-0 on a one-hitter by Jarrod Washburn. He faced only one batter over the minimum.

The scoreboard system malfunctioned last night so it was like old fashioned baseball with only the hand-operated scoreboard working. Finally about the 4th inning they jerry-rigged the video screen to show balls, strikes, outs and the score.

There was a sizable crowd from the Japanese community. Most of the folks who bought 100 level seats were down the first base line right next to Ichiro. I kinda thought he might at least acknowledge the Japan Nite crowd, but he did not. It was also interesting that Johjima did not catch the game -- given that it was Japan Nite.

Afterward, all of the talk-radio experts were attributing much the credit for the one-hitter to Rob Johnson who was catching instead of Johjima.

[Greji]

It was also interesting that Johjima did not catch the game -- given that it was Japan Nite.

Johjima doesn't catch even when he's behind the plate....

[Behan]

Nice, one Greji.

Has Johjima lost his starting position to some degree?

[Greji]

Nice, one Greji.

Has Johjima lost his starting position to some degree?

He hasn't had it for some time. As I have posted here and other threads, the baseball team was interested in getting rid of him (trade, or otherwise). The problem was not only has he not been hitting, but his catching skills were lacking. He apparently was having trouble remembering the hitters and had to get the pitch signals from the bench (at least at one point in his career with Seattle). A lot of pitchers apparently did not care for this, because it slows down the time between pitches while he gets the signals and them relays them to the pitcher. This is exacerbated when runners on on base and the catcher and pitcher have to use several sets of signals.

But, back to the trade situation. Apparently the team was working on something when the home office President of Nintendo in Japan arbitrarily opted to give him a three year contract for somewhere over 30 million large ones and now Seattle is stuck with him as no other team will pick-up that large of a price tag for a part-time catcher, so essentially, he's not tradeable.

What made it worse was the Nintendo guy was not in the management line of the part of their company that handles the baseball team and soon after forcing through this contract, retired.

But, if you want to see him get a hit, you need to watch J-TV, 'cause they provide multi, multi-replays of any hit he gets. If you watch in person, it's actually a long way between hits. He is currently hitting about .255 with 4 dingers...

[Behan]

I guess he must be happy to ride the pines when he's getting $30 million for it.

[Greji]

I guess he must be happy to ride the pines when he's getting $30 million for it.

Plus, since he had a reasonable WBC and gets selected NHK Sports coverage of his MLB action, he still receives baseball superstar treatment in Japan.

[Bucky]

Johjima was having a great time on the bench last night. He and Junior had some on-going conversation about Johjima's hair and the TV coverage spent quite a bit of time with the camera trained on the two of them. Junior was DH'ing last night so he had plenty o' time on his hands. And Johjima was just enjoying doing nothing and earning his big paycheck.

Of course no mention was made of the huge loss last night and whether the catcher (Johnson, again) might have had anything to do with that. Johnson had received tons of credit for his game calling the night before in the one-hitter.

Hey Gilliagan, your O's are quite dead yet, I guess.

Latest thoughts on Johjima:

Given that Rob Johnson seems to be the preferred catcher by some M's starters, Kenji Johjima could adequately replace Sweeney (as DH) on some nights. Check out the numbers:
Sweeney: .250 batting average, .295 on-base, .383 slugging percentage.
Johjima: .255 batting average, .287 on-base, .373 slugging.

[wuchan]

The problem with Johjima is the way MLB plays vs the way Japan plays. Here the team takes direction from the coaches and manager on almost every play. In the majors, the bench staff relies on the catcher and pitcher to make decisions on their own and only step in when they see a opportunity or a fuck up. Johjima was fucked from the start. Look where Matsuzaka (the hero of nippon) is right now, he is on the DL for "weakness" but has "zero structural issues" according to doctors. The catcher is the only person who can see the entire field, if he can't lead, he is useless. If the catcher can't run the game, the pitcher has to.

[Bucky]

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