WBC: China vs. Japan Open Game Thread

by Wilder. on Mar 4, 2009 11:16 PM PST Comment 46 comments

For those of you staying up for the game, I decided to open a thread. This is the opening game of the World Baseball Classic and first pitch is scheduled at 4:30 a.m. ET. Yu Darvish, who is likely the next big name pitcher coming over from Japan, is starting for team Japan. Darvish is half Iranian and half Japanese. Here is some video on the 22-year old phenom:

Enjoy the game. I am going to try and stay up and watch as much as I can.

0 recs | Comment 46 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

We get to see just how bad Ichiro's slump really is!

by Wilder. on Mar 4, 2009 11:18 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

It's not televised is it?

by Double06 on Mar 4, 2009 11:20 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Oh, whoops!

It’s going to be on ESPN 2.

by Wilder. on Mar 4, 2009 11:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll be sure to record it.

I don’t know how late I can stay up.

by Double06 on Mar 4, 2009 11:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll stay up for some of it.

Go Ichiro!

You can't hide from the omnipresent eye.

by Goose on Mar 4, 2009 11:30 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

My eyes are already droopy.

I hope I make it. I would like to catch the first few innings to see Darvish, Ichiro, and Johjima.

by Wilder. on Mar 4, 2009 11:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Is Dice-K on the team?

by Fin on Mar 4, 2009 11:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yep.

by Wilder. on Mar 5, 2009 12:02 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Darvish?

That’s a Japanese name

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Mar 5, 2009 12:00 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I should have read the fanpost

Half Iranian

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Mar 5, 2009 12:03 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

If I had cable

I would stay up and watch it. God knows I don’t go to sleep early enough anyway.

Darvish’s wind-up is interesting, very mechanical-looking how he cocks his left leg before bending his right.

by appleshampoo on Mar 5, 2009 12:25 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Delayed: Ceremony

17 minutes after scheduled start. Grb.

by appleshampoo on Mar 5, 2009 1:48 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Hey, I'm not the only one watching this!

by mark sobba on Mar 5, 2009 1:57 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Ichiro makes an out

Going to sleep.

by appleshampoo on Mar 5, 2009 1:57 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I think I can make it to his 2nd PA.

by mark sobba on Mar 5, 2009 2:00 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Oh cool.

Darvish has a personal catcher.

by ThundaPC on Mar 5, 2009 2:10 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Classic Johjima GIDP.

by ThundaPC on Mar 5, 2009 2:23 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Poor China

Poor poor China.

by wobbly wobbly on Mar 5, 2009 2:55 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Does anyone really think

that Darvish will stay in Japan ’til he gets 200 wins? I think some team will come a calling with an offer too good to pass up.

by wobbly wobbly on Mar 5, 2009 3:06 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Kicking butt.

Hoorah.

Favor the Bold

by IcebreakerX on Mar 5, 2009 3:34 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Murata sucks donkey balls.

Fat turd couldn’t even hold up Beltre’s garbage.

Favor the Bold

by IcebreakerX on Mar 5, 2009 3:54 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Deanna was one of the first I recall talking about Darvish

“For those who don’t follow the NPB, Darvish is the best Iranian-Japanese pitcher in the history of baseball, and the ace pitcher for the Nippon Ham Fighters.”

by msb on Mar 5, 2009 7:48 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

How many Iranian-Japanese pitchers have there been?

"Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated."

by Thingray on Mar 5, 2009 10:55 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That was the joke

by Jeff on Mar 5, 2009 11:01 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I know, but I'm just curious if there has actually ever been another Iranian-Japanese pitcher.

Or person for that matter. Seems like an odd clash of cultures.

"Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated."

by Thingray on Mar 5, 2009 11:16 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

No he is actually the only Iranian-Japanese individual in history

by Jeff on Mar 5, 2009 2:16 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

But oddly there have been several Japanese-Iranians

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Mar 5, 2009 2:27 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

I call bullshit

by Robert on Mar 5, 2009 3:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Major leaguers

going a combined 0-12 today

Don't believe the lies Bill!!!! look at the sparkly ERA!!! Sparkly, Sparkly!!! - McCovey Chronicles

by Trenchtown on Mar 5, 2009 9:00 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Fukudome with 4 walks though.

by appleshampoo on Mar 5, 2009 3:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm a fucking idiot.

I turn on the recorded game after getting up, and then get curious as to who exactly is on the WBC roster. So I go to the WBC home page and see in bold letters: Japan Shuts Out China.

Fuck my life.

by Double06 on Mar 5, 2009 9:35 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Look at the bright side; saved you a lot of time.

by Omerta on Mar 5, 2009 10:55 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I watched it anyways.

It just would have been a lot more entertaining if I had some coffee first.

by Double06 on Mar 5, 2009 12:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I watched the game on FFWD this morning

aside from Ichiro’s at bats.

Ichiro looked about the same as last year, there were pitches where in the past it seems like he would’ve hit a liner and instead hit a hard ground ball or a chopper. Although really I think his timing, and most of team Japan’s timing was off.

Even on that Murata homer his legs were way out in front, he just happened to keep his hands back long enough to get around.

I don’t know how fast pitchers throw on average in the NPB but the team China guys were throwing slop. The top dudes were hitting maybe 86 MPH.

Yu Darvish’s sinker was pretty impressive but he didn’t seem to have great control of his breaking ball today.

You know what? Fuck you Sports Gods, fuck you.

by bluemax on Mar 5, 2009 11:13 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I really hope we get to see his forkball.

I don’t think we got to see it because he says he couldn’t get a good feel for it.

by Double06 on Mar 5, 2009 12:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The game is re-airing on ESPN2 right now.

Manager Terry Collins for China has his whole name on his back. That’s interesting.

by Two Rs and Two Ls on Mar 5, 2009 11:14 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I think all the China players do as well.

You know what? Fuck you Sports Gods, fuck you.

by bluemax on Mar 5, 2009 11:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I just checked uniwatch to see if they'd have a mention

but nothing is up yet about it, so we’ll see. It did look like the players had Full NOB though.

by Two Rs and Two Ls on Mar 5, 2009 11:24 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The team China starter is

Li Chenhao and he had his full name on his back.

You know what? Fuck you Sports Gods, fuck you.

by bluemax on Mar 5, 2009 11:39 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I saw that too. Interesting choice.

by Two Rs and Two Ls on Mar 5, 2009 12:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Uniforms in NPB

Why don’t Japanese leagues use Kanji for the text on their uniforms? Too hard to embroider? English is pervasive enough? I am ignorant about something?

by appleshampoo on Mar 5, 2009 3:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

An interesting question

I think a lot of it is just tradition – the club names were always in Roman characters (except during WWII), and when they went to add in names, it made sense to align them.

Other guesses:
1) Kanji for names are often…weird. Announcers/scorekeepers wouldn’t know with certainty how to say a few names if they just saw the kanji.
2) It’s cheaper. Fewer characters, lower cost? The ‘too hard to embroider’ hypothesis.
3) English is pervasive enough.
4) Given that so much about the uniforms are modeled after specific MLB examples, maybe they wanted to just continue to make their uniforms look similar. I don’t know.

by marc w on Mar 5, 2009 4:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs