Tsutsumi had insisted all along that the last thing Sapporo needed was a baseball team to call its own--unless, of course, that team was the Lions, who were planning to play up to a third of their home games at Sapporo Dome.
You can't fault Tsutsumi for repeating this patently ridiculous but self-serving argument. After all, that's what most people would do in his shoes. The funniest part about the whole fight was the Lions' insistence that Sapporo wasn't really interested in changing the status quo.
It's been said that a lot of successful people are good listeners. Tsutsumi must be the exception. The Lions met several times with the powers that be in Sapporo, and after every meeting, the Lions announced that the city was not that interested in having its own team.
But then the city officials would completely contradict what the Lions were saying. The message was unmistakable. Sapporo clearly wants its own team.
Perhaps Tsutsumi's lieutenants were too frightened to tell the boss what the people in Sapporo were actually saying.
It took time, but Tsutsumi finally got the message. Sure, he added a dig at Sapporo by reiterating his idiotic theory that the city was abandoning its free-wheeling frontier heritage, but no one believed that slice of bologna in the first place.
Actually, the Fighters' move opens up a new alternative for the Lions: home games at Tokyo Dome. Although that will need the permission of the Tokyo-based Giants and Swallows, especially the former, whose Field Turf they would be using, the Tokyo Dome would be a great weeknight venue for the Lions to showcase their exciting team.
Now the burden is on Nippon Ham, to prove that it can turn its team of baseballists into something more than base ballast.
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Actually the Fighters are a good team--the club's inability to build a fan base not withstanding.
Last Sunday, they took on the Orix BlueWave in what could easily have been a yawner but turned out to be a great game.
Carlos Mirabal is having a super season in the Fighters starting rotation and was only beaten by some tremendous hustle on the part of BlueWave catcher Takeshi Hidaka.
Mirabal, in perhaps his first game this season where he hasn't been whacked by a line drive, helped his cause with several fielding gems from the mound.
Hidaka did him in with a liner to the gap in left center. After cruising into first base, Hidaka turned and saw left fielder D.T. Cromer just getting to the ball. The catcher turned on the jets and beat a high arcing throw to second.
On the next play, Hidaka was off in a flash on a looper into center by Kazuhiko Shiotani. By going all out from the start, he forced a wild throw to the plate. Shiotani took second on the throw home, then hustled to third.
He would have been safe there and ready to add an insurance run were it not for Mirabal, who backed up the play smartly and made Shiotani pay for his aggression by throwing him out at third.
Hidaka then helped to protect the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh. After his battery mate Masahiko Kaneda gave up a pair of singles to lead off the inning, Hidaka promptly picked the lead runner off second base to dampen the Fighters' rally. Third baseman Scott Sheldon made a nice stab on a screamer hit to his left to end the inning and led off the ninth with a homer to give his teammates some breathing room.
It was just a couple of plays. But on the whole, it was a speedy, well-played game spiced with hustle and quick thinking. It's the kind of entertaining play you hope to see every time you go to the ballpark.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .