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 Found
something in this web site that ticked you off? Want to
respond to the thoughts below? In either case, send a
note to me (Dan Latham) and your comments will be posted
below.
I really enjoyed your article on
Hiroshima (August 18 News). It brought back some pleasant
memories. Let me share a story with you that happen to my
wife Sharian and I in January 1962.
My Navy Squadron had deployed to
MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, (on Honshu). Sharian (three months
pregnant with Brent, #2 son), had join me in Japan. We
lived in a small Japanese home in Iwakuni. Brian (my #1
son), was 2 years old. We left Brian with our Mama-san.
We traveled by train to Hiroshima. We too wanted to visit
the Peace Park. At the railway station we caught a cab.
We told the driver that we wanted
to go to the Peace Park. He obviously didn't understand
me, and I spoke only a little Japanese. We wandered
around town for about 30 minutes. It was dreary and
rainy. He finally took us to a Bar, where the girls spoke
English. After some words with them the cab driver took
us to the Peace Park. He stopped 2 blocks short and would
not go any nearer.
We paid him and we walked to the
park. We too were very subdued by ground zero and the
reality of the museum. We spent a somber and sobering
train ride back to Iwakuni. Your article brought back
some memories that I had long forgotten.
We had a hotsi bath in our house
(the large steel vat type) - I remember that I went
outside in the winter to start a fire to heat the water.
I was joined by Mama-san, who scolded me "Domi Domi,
boysan" and some other phrases. I realized that I
wasn't suppose to heat the water. That was her
responsibility. Never did I venture out again, without
asking Mama-san to light our fire. Thank you for letting
me remember some very precious moments in our early
married life -
Our best to you and Yuka -
Bob and Sharian Burroughs
Cypress, California
August 25, 1998
I'm fairly new to the Internet and
my project for this evening was to wander through
Baseball Links' international baseball sites--did you
know there is a Croatian League?
Anyway, I've always been interested
in getting to know more about Japanese baseball, and your
idea of picking one team as a basis for that is a good
one. Why not the Swallows? I couldn't go for the
Giants--I became an American League team (Tigers) fan in
1955, and vol. I of my autobiography is entitled Ten
Years Under the Yoke of the Accursed Yankee Oppressors.
Besides, I spent many years in the losing fight to save
Tiger Stadium and I don't think I could root for a team
that played its games indoors.
A friend of mine says that the
worst baseball situation he can image is a night game,
played indoors, on artificial turf, using the DH rule,
with wild card implications. So the Giants are out.
The Detroit Tigers have some sort
of relationship with Hanshin, and while I'm stuck being a
Detroit Tigers fan, my loathing for the greedy and lying
ownership deters me from getting into bed with anyone who
gets into bed with them. So they're out.
Anyway, enroll me spiritually as a
Swallows fan. I enjoyed your site generally, will go back
to the cheers to try to learn the victory song, like a
good Swallows fan, and will try to figure out what's
going on next season from the beginning. I can't see
spending forty bucks to be an official fan at this
distance (Detroit), but I'm there in spirit.
Good site. Thanks again. Screw the Yankees...oops, force
of habit...screw the Giants!
Best,
Alex Bensky
August 25, 1998
Dear Dan:
Just found your
baseball page -- its great! I'm a 27 year old Japanese
Chunichi Dragons fan who has lived in London for the last
seventeen years. I only get to see Japanese baseball on
the TV whenever I'm in Japan (about once every two years)
so it's great that I can now keep up with what's going
on.
My parents (retired
and living in Japan) are both Giants fans but, as you
say, they don't think much of Shigeo Nagashima as a
manager or Kazuhiro Kiyohara as a player. My mum likes
Yoshinobu Takahashi (probably because of his baby face
but she says its because he is always polite to
journalists and commentators) and "Godzilla"
Hideki Matsui.
Anyway, the last
time I saw baseball at a stadium was in 1980, at Jingu
Stadium -- a Dragons and Swallows game. Dragons lost. I
use to live in a fifteenth-floor apartment in Shibuya and
it was possible to see Jingu (the floodlights anyway)
from the top floor. It always annoys me that Giants are
always on the tele, but it makes it easier for me to
choose who to support (much to my parents annoyance).
Thanks for your
hand work.
Atsuhiro Takeda
London, England
August 11, 1998
Hey Dan:
Great sight. I checked out the
Fukuoka Dome and "your dome", not bad! I was in
the military stationed in Yokosuka from 1985-93. Met my
wife there who is a major "Yomiuri Giants" fan
and had the pleasure of visiting the Tokyo Dome on many
occasions. Since that was my first visit to a
"domed" baseball stadium, I thoroughly enjoyed
it and thought it was impressive.
Since I left Japan in 1993, I have
heard from my wife that domes are popping up all over
Japan. The baseball purist in me likes the open air
stadiums, my family is from Colorado so I have visited
Coors Field on many occasions and love it. Since I am
currently in Phoenix, Arizona, we recently enjoyed the
grand opening of "Bank One Ballpark", with
natural grass and a retractable roof, it's a very
beautiful ballpark. I have heard that Japanese engineers
have been in town to tour the facility. I really wonder
if this type of ballpark will be built in Japan.
If you have seen Bank One Ballpark
on TV, they are having a hard time maintaining the grass.
With our 115 degree temps lately, they have to keep the
roof closed so that when the ballgame starts, people will
not die of the heat, the local newspapers have been
complaining that inside the ballpark that it's been too
hot, I knew this would be a major issue.
The swimming pool in the Bank One
Ballpark outfield bleachers is a joke! Just owners'
greed! It costs $5,000 per game... who can afford that?
They could have added another 500 bleacher seats, but
only the rich can afford the pool.
By the way, I bought front row
tickets from a couple of scalpers ("Yakuza")
for my first Yomiuri Giants game, and they cost me 12,000
yen each! Fortunately, we were in the first row behind
the visitors dugout, and that was ten years ago! Can only
imagine how much people are paying scalpers now.
Tony Beason
Phoenix, Arizona
August 11, 1998
Have you have seen
anything in print about
Japan's umpires. (Following last year's mess with Mike
DiMuro.) In MLB you often hear this umpire is a hitter's
umpire, that umpire doesn't give low-ball strikes and so
on -- comments about how umpires and the way they call
pitches differ. I don't think I have ever seen anything
on this in yakyu, and I am curious if you have come
across anything.
"I ask because I am a Dragons
fan, and Yamamoto Masa got pounded on opening day when he
couldn't get low pitches called strikes. Since that game
I've started watching umpire's zones to see which umps
let pitchers get away with what. It's hardly scientific,
but it gives me something else to do while I'm ignoring
the latest Takahashi Wonder Child PR Blitz from the
Giants.
Rob Magee
Tama City, Japan
April 20
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