In an effort to jack No. 56 out of the park, Rhodes started swinging at every pitch within spitting distance, and Fukuoka pitchers furthered his frustration by testing how far Rhodes could spit.
The scenario, with a few modifications, was replayed last weekend in the Seibu Lions' Alex Cabrera's hunt for Homer 56.
The fans would like to see nothing better than to have the pitchers challenge the record challengers with their best stuff.
That's what the Orix BlueWave did Wednesday night in Kobe. Starter Hidetaka Kawagoe and reliever Rui Makino went to the mound with the clear intent of getting Cabrera out.
"Cabrera's bringing all he's got," said the right-hander on Tuesday, "but so am I."
After seeing few strikes from the Fighters on Sunday and even fewer from the Hawks on Saturday, the BlueWave contest was a welcome relief for the fans.
Cabrera was upset with the pitches when he swung and missed at three borderline high pitches from Fukuoka Daiei reliever Katsunori Okamoto on Saturday
"They weren't strikes," said Cabrera, sounding as if it was the pitcher's duty to give him better pitches to hit.
Ideally, the pitchers will try to get him out any way they can. Okamoto, and the BlueWave hurlers did just that. Case closed.
You can't expect pitchers to serve up pitches that are very likely to end up in the seats. But in the same way, pitchers shouldn't make the game situation worse by abandoning every attempt to get Cabrera out, but that's what Hawks starter Kenichi Wakatabe did on Saturday.
Not even Barry Bonds will get a hit against mediocre pitching every time. That's why walking him indiscriminately is stupid. He will make outs and sometimes you have to make the effort, because the slight chance of a home run is outweighed by the most likely result: an out.
After the Hawks went out of their way to keep Rhodes from breaking the record a year ago, there has been talk that a second straight year of such behavior against a foreign hitter would raise a stink.
In response, Sadaharu Oh, Daiei Hawks manager and the first man to drive 55 round trippers, told The Hot Corner on Saturday that one's passport is not the issue.
"If you look around, no one is thinking this is a foreigner or this a Japanese," he said. "I don't think it's happening. It's a shame, but it's really a matter that Japanese players aren't challenging to break these numbers.
"It's rude to Japanese to say that they are not going after batters because they are foreigners."
In reality it's not an issue of Japanese vs foreigners. After all, Oh is a citizen of Taiwan although he was born and raised in Japan and his pitchers are clearly the worst offenders. Orix manager Hiromichi Ishige had no problem with his pitchers throwing aggressively to Cabrera.
Oh said his pitchers would avoid Cabrera only if the game situation called for it. But it soon became clear that the Hawks' definition of what situations called for avoiding Cabrera are ludicrously broad.
Wakatabe twice walked Cabrera with first base occupied.
In the sixth inning, the right-hander threw four pitches well beyond the fringe of the zone to Cabrera in order to move the tying run into scoring position, where a single could tie the game, while putting the go-ahead run on base.
It's a stupid play if you are trying to win, because you are gambling that neither of the next two left-handed hitters would get a hit, about a 63 percent probability, while there was about an 86 percent liklihood that Cabrera would not hit for extra bases.
The Hawks won the game only because the Lions' Nos 5 and 6 hitters turned to jelly. It was not a good bet, but it was one Wakatabe took to keep his manager from being surpassed in the record book.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .