title:Marines vs. Hawks, April 6 2008 003-MeandBobbyandSam.jpg:Me, Bobby Valentine, and Isamu "Tokyo Sam" Maruhashi 005-MeandBobby.jpg:Me and Bobby Valentine. 006-MeandBobby.jpg:Again with Bobby (slightly color-balanced). 007-MeandLarry.jpg:Me with the Lotte Marines Mind Control Task Force, aka Larry Rocca. 015-Pitchers.jpg:Hawks pitchers taking fielding practice. 017-Shibahara.jpg:Hiroshi Freaking Shibahara 019-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada (nice sunglasses, dude). 024-CJ.jpg:CJ Nitkowski 025-KumeAndRicky.jpg:Yuuki "Eyebrows" Kume, and Rick Guttormson 030-Tamura.jpg:Hitoshi Tamura 036-Shibahara.jpg:Shibahara again. I was mostly just amused by the fact that I was close enough to zoom in on his name on his bat. 038-Naruse.jpg:Yoshihisa "The Boy that Couldn't Lose" Naruse greets Hitoshi "Most likely to die running into a wall" Tamura. 041-Oh.jpg:"Oh my GOD that's Sadaharu Oh over there." 046-MunerinNaruse.jpg:Naruse goofing around with Munenori "Munerin" Kawasaki. 048-Oh.jpg:Sadaharu Oh. 050-Shibahara.jpg:Shibahara takes aim at the batting tee. 055-Ide.jpg:"OH my GOD! That's Tatsuya Ide!"
"Who? How the hell do you know that?"
"He used to be the centerfielder for the Fighters... err..." 057-Tamura.jpg:Hitoshi Tamura. 059-Restovich.jpg:New import Michael Restovich. 063-Munerin.jpg:I'm still in "Oh my god, Munenori Kawasaki is standing right there" mode, see. 065-Matsunaka.jpg:Nobuhiko Matsunaka! 074-Matsuda.jpg:Nobuhiro Matsuda. 075-Yamazaki.jpg:Catcher Katsuki Yamazaki. ########################################################### 077-Pressseats.jpg:The special "press seats" down at field level. You can apparently buy tickets to sit here. 080-Teamplates.jpg:The plates with the team rosters - they have these for every year. 081-1974.jpg:1974 team plate. Kaneda! 082-Lineups.jpg:Game lineup (from the day before) inside the Marines sports pub. 083-Lounge.jpg:Lounge/sports pub area near the VIP boxes. 084-Lounge.jpg:The bar in the sports pub. 085-1974.jpg:Closeup of that picture of the 1974 lineup having a reunion on the field in early 2005. 087-Picnic.jpg:View from one of the VIP boxes. 088-Picnic.jpg:Wacky perspective of picnic area brought to you by VIP room. 090-VIP.jpg:The VIP room. 092-Izakaya.jpg:The "izakaya" area near the rightfield foulpole -- complete with wooden seats and a magician doing tricks. 093-Bobbymagic.jpg:Bobby wall outside the Bobby Magic Bar, part 1 094-Bobbymagic.jpg:Bobby wall, part 2 096-Ortiz.jpg:Jose Jose Jose Jose. 098-TanakaRamppen.jpg:Masahiko Tanaka and Frank Ramppen. 102-Imae.jpg:That punk, Imae. 104-Ohmatsu.jpg:Shoitsu Ohmatsu. 106-Shunsuke.jpg:"Oh my god, there's Shunsuke!" 107-Saburo.jpg:SABUROOOOO 108-Bobby.jpg:Bobby! 109-LarryBobby.jpg:Larry attacks Bobby with a marker and a bunch of baseballs. 110-GameTime.jpg:"WHAT TIME IS IT? GAME TIME!" 119-Lineup.jpg:The lineup inside the dugout, complete with lefty-righty splits for the opponents. 120-Pupo.jpg:The Minister of Information, Paul Pupo, is the reason for all of these lineups. 124-Stands.jpg:If you don't bring some wacky sign, you aren't allowed in the right field bleachers. 125-Field.jpg:What a lovely wide expanse of green. 128-Scoreboard.jpg:Scoreboard with the opening lineups. 136-Kawasaki.jpg:First batter of the game, Munenori Kawasaki. 140-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada throws on the sidelines. 142-Wada.jpg:More Wada. 153-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 154-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 157-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 158-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 159-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 175-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 174-Kidokoro.jpg:Ryuuma Kidokoro. 181-Imae.jpg:Imae. 184-Nishioka.jpg:Boy Wonder Nishioka. 192-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada. 202-Wada.jpg:More Wada. 214-Shunsuke.jpg:More Shunsuke. 220-Hawks.jpg:We have many high numbers. 224-Munerin.jpg:Munerin! 227-Munerin.jpg:Munerin spray! 231-Munerin.jpg:Munerin at the plate! 234-Munerin.jpg:Munerin swing! 249-Ohtsuka.jpg:Okay, what is UP with Ohtsuka's batting stance? Is he trying to emulate Hitoshi Taneda? 262-Hashimoto.jpg:Catcher Tasuku Hashimoto catches a pop foul. 263-Hashimoto.jpg:Tasuku Hashimoto. 265-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 273-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 281-Plate.jpg:The Hashimoto-Shibahara showdown in slow motion! 3... 282-Plate.jpg:2... 283-Plate.jpg:1... slide... 285-Plate.jpg:And Shibahara has scored the first run of the game. Whoosh. 291-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 293-Shunsuke.jpg:Shunsuke! 297-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada, still on the sidelines. 309-Matoyama.jpg:"Hey, that's Matoyama from Orix isn't it?" 313-Mound.jpg:"What's wrong, man?" 320-Wada.jpg:Wada on the mound. 331-Vamos.jpg:It's a sign. 335-Nishioka.jpg:Nishioka smash! 336-Nishioka.jpg:Nishioka smash pop fly out! 341-Satozaki.jpg:Tomoya Satozaki makes a mighty swing. 342-Batozaki.jpg:And as usual, Satozaki can't hold onto his bat. 343-Tamura.jpg:Tamura seemed to be kinda slow. 354-Hori.jpg:Koichi Hori! 356-Moriwaki.jpg:"Ok, so like, if someone hits the ball, you go THAT way. Got it?" 359-Shunsuke.jpg:Pay no attention to the big man at third. 368-Benny.jpg:Oretachi no Benny! 372-Benny.jpg:Benny hits a double. 374-Benny.jpg:Benny chats up Munerin at second base. 379-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada 381-Wada.jpg:Tsuyoshi Wada 382-Lenses.jpg:I can only dream of having one of these awesome lenses instead of my cheapo one someday. 385-Benny.jpg:Benny! 391-Munerin.jpg:It's that Mune kid again. 396-Nakazawa.jpg:Tadaatsu Nakazawa, my hero zero. 397-TanoueWada.jpg:"Uh, here, take this. You'll need it." 404-Matsuda.jpg:Nobuhiro Matsuda! What a smile. 415-Honma.jpg:Mitsuru Honma high-fives the world after a home run. 420-Oh.jpg:Oh-kantoku comes out to cheer everyone on. 426-Kawasaki.jpg:Yusuke Kawasaki comes out of the bullpen. 435-Kawasaki.jpg:Lefty with a big blue glove? Sounds familiar... 447-Matsunaka.jpg:Matsunaka practically limps off the field. #449-Tanoue.jpg: 453-Tanoue.jpg:Hidenori Tanoue 455-Moose.jpg:I wonder if this moose is related to the Mariner Moose. 456-Fans.jpg:Those crazy Marines fans. 460-Balloons.jpg:Fuusen whoosh! 469-Munerin.jpg:"Excuse me sir, but I did not hear you call me off." 473-Munerin.jpg:"What's that? I can get everything in shallow left field?" 490-Charge.jpg:Pitching change and a big ol' "CHARGE MARINES FIGHTIN'" on the Auroravision. #500-Takehara.jpg: 503-Takehara.jpg:Takehara. 508-Saburo.jpg:"Hello, I am SABURO, and I am going to hit a BIG SAC FLY NOW OKAY?" 514-Ide.jpg:Tatsuya Ide gives signals from the dugout. 520-Benny.jpg:Benny runs home! 521-Benny.jpg:Benny SLIDE! 522-Hayakawa.jpg:Daisuke Hayakawa. 525-Imae.jpg:"Nice job, dude." 535-Munerin.jpg:Kawasaki pitches to Kawasaki... and Kawasaki bunts. 539-Yanase.jpg:Akihiro Yanase. 545-Yanase.jpg:Akihiro Yanase. 570-Kume.jpg:Kume-kun! 580-Kume.jpg:Yuuki Kume. 581-Kume.jpg:Yuuki Kume. 597-Kume.jpg:Yuuki Kume. 603-CJ.jpg:CJ Nitkowski. 605-CJ.jpg:More CJ. 610-CJ.jpg:And another CJ. 626-Banner.jpg:It's the bottom of the 9th and we are ready to RUMBLE! 629-Mound.jpg:"No, dude, explain to them that I'm totally okay and we're gonna win." 631-Tanaka.jpg:Unlikely game hero Masahiko Tanaka. 640-Nishioka.jpg:Nishioka gets splashed after hitting home the winning run. 651-Gang.jpg:Celebrate, part 1. 652-Gang.jpg:Celebrate, part 2. 653-Gang.jpg:Celebrate, part 3. Knockdown! 654-Gang.jpg:Celebrate, part 4. Note the game hero lying on the ground. 656-Final.jpg:Tanaka as game hero, final score.