Go Fighters!

(Japanese baseball starts early. It's weird to think of regular-season games going on before the first day of spring).

Oh, Chiyo...How could such a cute little girl like such a big evil team?

You forget that Chiyo wants to be big, just as Sakaki wishes she were "cute" rather than beautiful.*

*Not that Sakaki sees herself as beautiful, nor realizes she holds the Guinness World Record for "tallest documented moe character."

Are weather concerns the only reason why almost all pro Japanese baseball is played in dome stadiums? Does is really rain that much?

Makes sense Osaka would be a Hanshin fan. She and Chiyo must have some wonderful discussions during the season.

Anybody know what team Yomi is representing?

>>206568

It's the complacency of the bourgeois.

>>206564

Chiyo's face makes her look like she has a touch of Cushing's Syndrome.

>>Anybody know what team Yomi is representing?

Wikipedia tells me there are 6 teams in the Central League, so by elimination it would have to be the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Also, their main colour is dark blue.

Cool art piece, by the way, not the first baseball themed one done by Mori, seems he's a fan.

>>206585

That would make sense, given her voice actress.

Probably not the best place to ask, but does anyone know if the Japanese have any equivalent to sabermetrics?

>>206590
It seems to me that the sabermetric virtues of OBP and the 3-run-homer are denigrated in Japan, where the emphasis is on smallball and "intangibles." So my guess would be no, sabermetrics doesn't get much notice over there.

>>206592
From what little I've seen of Japanese baseball, that certainly seems like how the game is played. And plenty of MLB teams emphasize the same things, of course.

Still, Japan has plenty of baseball fans and plenty of nerds--I'd think some of that crossover might be interested in statistical analysis in the same way that US baseball nerds are.

So what's a fun NPB team to root for?

>>206593
Maybe, but like anything else it's the small things.
Have you ever seen fans at a Japanese baseball stadium? It's pretty interesting how they go wild one moment, then they're more-or-less dead silent when their team is either up to bat or on the field.

>>206594

The Hanshin Tigers have the most rabid fanbase. Take that as you will.

Root for the Yomiyuri Giants. Then half of Japan will hate you.

>>206593

I doubt that any Japanese baseball teams have sabermetricians on staff, as the A's, Red Sox, etc., do. And I don't think America's "Moneyball" movement made much of a splash in Japan.

>>206602
Didn't they throw a statue or something off a bridge when their team won or something?

>>206603

Yep, the infamous "Curse of the Colonel."

The Tigers won the 1985 Japan Series, the first time they had won since their founding in 1936. Some drunken revelers in Osaka made a game; name off the Hanshin roster, find someone in the crowd who looks like that guy, and throw them in the filthy Dotonbori River.

Everthing was going smoothly until they got to the American Randy Bass (who, incidentally, still holds the record for the highest batting average in Japanese baseball). No one in the drunken crowd looked like him, but hey! There's a statue of Colonel Sanders in front of that KFC! He's a roundeye, let's throw him in the river!

The Tigers haven't won a Japan series since, and have been plagued with bad luck and crappy seasons. Colonel Sanders cursed them.

Anyway, the story is, if they can find the Colonel's statue and restore it, the curse will be lifted. They've actually found a large section of him recently. I think only the feet are missing.

>>206605
Haha, I saw this picture recently and was wondering what the story was.

>Anyway, the story is, if they can find the Colonel's statue and restore it, the curse will be lifted.

Finding it is the easy part. Getting it away from its current owner may be difficult.

>>206607
I just started reading that.
Shit is bananas (even though I believe the most revealing events were spoiled for me).

>>206585
Tokyo Yakult Swallows?

>Koyomi Mizuhara
>Voiced by Rie Tanaka
>Sugintou from Rozen Maiden
>Also voiced by Rie Tanaka
>Commonly associated with Yakult for whatever reason.

It's funny how these things tend to work themselves out, eh?

>>206615

Word on the street is that she enjoys the stuff and improvised the line in Rozen Maiden that associated Suigintou with it.

Feeling VC: sheaspish for knowing all this crap.

>>206605

And the 48 years prior were ... radio waves?

There is only one team to rule them all.
Miura wills it so.

>>206622
I saw an article awhile back about the thoughts that went into redesigning the Nippon Ham Fighters logo, and I think it said that MLB merchandise is really popular in Japan. Does anyone know what teams are the most popular?

>>206623
Mariners, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox

AD High School Girls' Squad:
Sakaki - P
Yomi - C
Kaorin - 1B
Chihiro - 2B
Rachel - 3B
Kagura - SS
Osaka - RF
Tomo - CF
Chiyo - LF
(Just hope the ball doesn't go to the corner outfield)

Azumanga All-Star Team:
Sakaki - P
Jumbo - C
Yomi - 1B
Kagura - 2B
Koiwai - 3B
Nyamo - SS
Yanda - RF
Chiyo's Dad - CF
Fuuka - LF

>>206628

• Mr. Tadakichi as the team's lovable mascot!

>>206628
Osaka in right? With her arm? I'd be running on her all day.

>>206649

I imagine Rachel would have to back her up a lot.

>>206649
We're counting on Tomo to cover a lot of ground.

Favorite Nipponese team if only for the (former) mascot.

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