If Mr. Suzuki looks at a called third strike, he will let you know.

On May 6, the man who is supposed to be the leader of the Chunichi Dragons, Senichi Hoshino, leads the charge as his team attacks umpire Atsushi Kittaka. Kittaka had just called infielder Kazuyoshi Tatsunami out on strikes in the seventh inning of a game against the Yokohama BayStars, and when Tatsunami took exception with the call and pushed the ump, Kittaka had no choice but to throw the offender out of the game. With that, Tatsunami got more angry, and manager Hoshino, instead of coming out to be a peacemaker and pull away his irate player, came running out full tilt and slammed into Kittaka with a two-fisted body check. With that, naturally Hoshino had to be tossed, too, but as the field boss didn’t calm down, his troops continued to pummel the helpless ump. Worst of all was a cheap-shot kick from behind by reserve outfielder Takayuki Onishi which caught Kittaka in his ribs and fractured two of them.

This melee is reminiscent of the one on June 5, 1997, when then-Chunichi power-hitter Yasuaki Taihoh hit American umpire Mike DiMuro across the chest with a forearm after DiMuro had ejected Taihoh for questioning a called third strike. In that case, too, Hoshino did not act as a peacemaker, but added fuel to the fire by berating and even pushing DiMuro several times, until DiMuro was rescued from the frenzied Chunichi players by the two Dragons gaijin players, Alonzo Powell and Leo Gomez.

Until now, the worst case of violence against umpires in Japan was the vicious beating of Isao Okada, who was hit and kicked by Hanshin Tigers coaches Ikuo Shimano and Takeshi Shibata until Okada collapsed on the ground. [all caught on tv] The date was Aug. 31, 1982, and initially it was announced by commissioner Takeso Shimoda that Shimano and Shibata were suspended for life, but in an it-can-only-happen-in-Japan scenario, both coaches were back in uniform the following season after saying “gomen nasai.”

the pitch looks well off the plate. Is PitchFx that inaccurate, or does this prove how deceptive the center field camera angle is?

… saying one of her favorite things is to watch Ichiro walk off the field after a strike out, his body language saying YOU did not strike me out, I struck myself out by my own choice