The Yakult Swallows are this year's chief culprits in the Central League, while the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes have to shoulder the blame for making the Pacific League race as exciting as it is.
The Swallows recent slide began harmlessly enough with a 12-inning scoreless tie against the Yokohama BayStars last Thursday. It was a game the Swallows should have lost. A poor call by umpire Hitoshi Watarida kept the BayStars from scoring the only run of the game and led to the ejection of Yokohama skipper Masaaki Mori, who held up play for 28 minutes and seemed prepared to talk until dawn.
At the time the game appeared noteworthy only because 1) the Swallows failed to win for the first time in four games, and 2) Mori's ejection was his first in a long career as a player, coach and manager.
But that was the beginning of an offensive slump for the Swallows. There was little the umps could do last weekend to prevent the Chunichi Dragons from kicking serious bird butt for three nights at Nagoya Dome.
To their credit, the Giants seized the opportunity by dining on Carp while in Hiroshima, slashing the Swallows' once formidable 7 1/2-game lead by three before play resumed again on Tuesday.
For the only people who should matter in baseball, the fans, it's hard to beat a good pennant race but this year's CL contest has become a double-edged sword.
With the Giants still a danger to win, TV and radio announcers continue to shout ³miracle again!²--Giants skipper Shigeo Nagashima¹s latest assault on the English language.
As charming a guy as Nagashima is, one just wishes he would stop it of his own accord before whatever U.N. commission it is that monitors human rights abuses tries to intercede and prevent more mass verbal torture.
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The BayStars have so far been the jokers in the CL deck. When reporters recently asked Giants southpaw Darrell May how he got the red-hot BayStars' hitters out, he--like a lot of people--had no idea the BayStars where luke warm, let alone red hot.
"I looked at the paper the next day and couldn't believe it," said May. "Where'd they come from?"
According to former Yokohama manager Akihiko Oya, the Baysters' climb was the result of first-year manager Mori and the players finally coming to terms with each other.
"At the beginning, no one knew what to expect and there was some confusion," said Oya, who managed the 'Stars in 1996 and 1997. "The manager had these expectations and he's adjusted them to match the team, while the players moved more toward what the manager wanted them to do."
Now if only Mori, who received a strict warning from the CL for his extended version of "Stay" by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs a week ago, could come to terms with the umpires.
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In the Pacific League, the Seibu Lions have finally awoken from their first-half slumbers and decided to take part in the pennant hunt after all.
Kazuo Matsui, who set a target of 30 homers this season, now appears to have an outside chance of reaching that mark. The switch-hitter hit a pair on Monday and one on Tuesday, leaving the Nippon Ham's Fighters searching the visitors' dugout for a towel to throw in and end the bloodletting.
That being said, the Lions' surge into the thick of the race has been a team effort, with nearly everyone on the roster chipping in.
Still if the Lions carry on--and carry off their first pennant in three seasons--they should be gracious enough to thank the Hawks and Buffaloes for making it all possible.
Those two teams have shown every desire in the world to reach the top
spot only to have no idea what to do once they reach the summit. It's as
if they climbed Mount Everest only to forget why they bothered in the first
place.
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In the Lions' win on Monday Daisuke Matsuzaka threw six impressive innings and was taken out despite having allowed just two hits. Even odder than that was his pitch count: Matsuzaka was allowed to leave the mound with only 82 pitches to his name. Heck, he might have thrown that many in one brief All-Star appearance last month.
Manager Osamu Higashio has left Matsuzaka and veteran Fumiya Nishiguchi in games to rack up some exceedingly large and worrying pitch counts the past few years. But all of a sudden, Higashio acts like a rational manager instead of his usual persona as the pitching coach from hell.
This surreal turn of events might have led some viewers to think the NHK broadcast was in fact a new Japanese baseball version of "The Twilight Zone."
After the game, however, analyst Takehiko Kobayakawa restored our faith in the proper order of the baseball world.
"He's their ace pitcher, isn't he? He's got to stay in there and finish the game," said Kobayakawa, criticizing the Lions for pulling Matsuzaka three innings before the final out.
That's the spirit. Just what Japanese baseball needs in its time of crisis is a bunch of star pitchers whose arms are ruined in the cause of paying homage to a worn-out doctrine.
If it weren't for the fact that Kobayakawa's tired view is an old and
common one among the game's former players, one might think its part of
a larger conspiracy to deny productive major league careers to Japan's
best pitchers--by leaving their elbows and shoulders in tatters from overwork.
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One pitcher who is looking to get out while the getting is good is left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii.
BayStars hurler Shane Bowers had the misfortune of squaring off against the Swallows' ace last week at Jingu when Ishii was on his game--meaning the 'Stars were fortunate to have only been shutout.
"When he's healthy, he's as good as anyone," Bowers said of the Yakult southpaw, who is being shadowed at every turn by major league scouts trying to put a value on his wild left arm.
Despite the focus on Ishii, Bowers likes the major league chances of Shigeki Noguchi. The Dragons lefty only throws a slider and a fastball, but they are almost impossible to tell apart until it's too late for a batter to make any serious adjustments.
"I'm a pitcher," said Bowers, "but when I faced him I was sure one pitch was going to keep coming straight and just at the end it broke.
"If you have just two pitches, you can be successful as a set-up man
or a closer. Sure, if you can really bring it you can get by with just
two pitches, but most people in the majors want a starter to have at least
three. But he would be pretty good."
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .