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Playin' Baseball
Entry 22 of 74 | show all | print this entry |
Sakurai Field #3,Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
For the past two Sundays, I've played recreational baseball with The Japan Times' team vs. an outfit called Radio Press.
The teams play in a B Division of a city league. Not sure what the league is called yet. The A Division, which The Japan Times belonged to in recent years, also plays games on weekends.
JT, which is what appears on the ol' uniforms (some veterans have the classic pinstripes uniforms), won the 1st game, 21-12 and Sunday's contest, 8-2.
I was able to fill in both weeks for JT sports scribe Stephen Ellsesser, who had work conflicts both days. Only nine are allowed to show up for each game - no backups.
Glad I could play, meet teammates named Mano-san, Sakamoto-san, Ariya-san (the pitcher who wears No. 73) and several other friendly guys.
I was asked to play right field. Batted seventh last week, sixth the other day.
In the first game, I struck out twice. Didn't even come close to making contact. Then I slapped a single up the middle and ripped a nice double to left-center. My teammates cheered. This made me and my teammates happy. I knocked in a run and scored in my final at-bat, and received some high-fives and bows.
There wasn't much to do in the field, other than to look alert out there in right. Only one ball was hit that way last week, a blooper that I had no chance to catch. The other day, no balls were hit to me.
Instead, I saved my energy for the basepaths, and sprinted back and forth to right.
The game began with each starting nine standing in a line facing each other near home. Players took off their hats and bowed, as is a customary gesture of courtesy for Japanese ball.
After the games, we did it again, and then each team got into a small circle near its dugout. I don't know all the words, but a small chant is said for the other team, and JT blurts out, "Radio Press, Radio Press," and then RP says something to congratulate Japan Times.
A few other things:
The league provides 3 umpires (instead of 4 like MLB) for these games.
There's no outfield fence.
There is a time limit, I think, of 100 minutes. At least that's what I saw printed for the 2nd game.
***
Murakami writes this in a later passage:
"The world of the grotesque is the darkness within us. ... Until Edison invented the electric light, most of the world was covered in darkness. The physical darkness of the outside and the inner darkness of the soul were mixed together, with no boundary separating the two. They were directly linked."
***
Bid-rigging appears to be Japan's favorite form of corruption -- for politicians and companies, that is.
It's rare to go a day week without a story that reports on another bid-rigging scandal.
Take Monday's Daily Yomiuri, for example.
"Loans tied to bid-rigging case," states the bold-faced headline on Page 2.
The subhead adds, "Major bidder ordered subcontractor to pay firm of ex-gov.'s brother
This story, like several I've seen in recent days, details the behind-the-scenes dealings of the Fukushima Prefecture governor's brother and several others.
The concise recap of this is, well, old-fashioned bribery to make big profits.
Follow the money:
According to what prosecutors have been told, Mizutani Kensetsu Co., a financing company, provided a 100 million yen loan to Koriyama Santo Suits, which the gov.'s brother was in charge of. This money, though, was funneled through Maeda Corp., a public works contractor.
Both the governor (Eisaku Sato, who has resigned) and his brother, Yuji Sato, were arrested.
The newspaper stated: "Mizutani reportedly told the prosecutors: 'Maeda asked our company to buy the land, so it could get the 400 million (yen) in loans back from the clothing company. The 100 million (yen) loan to the clothing company was also made at Maeda's request.'
"The former chairman also admitted the money was provided to the clothing company in return for making Mizutani Kensetsu the winner of the project as a subcontractor."
If this sounds dirty to you, it should. After all, it's a sewer project!
In conclusion, the article finishes with this explanation of the messy ordeal:
"The former department official's firm came up with its bidding price based on the leaked construction price and then informed the other companies of its price.
"The other firms then took part in the bidding with higher prices, resulting in the former department official's firm successfully winning the bid."
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