Champions

After a short wait the Tigers have done it again. For all of you outside Japan, I'm talking about the Hanshin Tigers, who yesterday won the Central League Pennant and are now off to the Japan Series.

I always like to compare the Tigers to the Mets because they are kindred spirits in many ways. The Tigers were a team that lived in their former glory for 18 years until the 2002 season when their, at the time, new manager Senichi Hoshino took over and excitement filled the fans.

The fans, though, were forced to wait another year until 2003 when the Tigers returned to the Japan Series to face the Softbank (then Daiei) Hawks. While Hoshino, and his uncanny popularity, did wonders for the team, he retired due to health issues at the end of the post-season and the Tiger lost the series 4-1. In 2004 the current manager, Akinobu Okada, took over and lead them to a terrible year, finishing 5^th out 6 and reminding fans of the years they waited for a revival.

Fortunately again they didn't have to wait long, for after a great season, on Thursday night the Tigers clinched the Central League Pennant and paved their way to the 2005 Japan Series to meet either the Hawks again, the Seibu Lions or the Chiba Lotte Marines.

The Tigers are well known as the Osaka team, even though Osaka has had a team, the Osaka Buffaloes, for a long time. A time honored tradition of fans was to jump in the heavily polluted Dotonbori Canal after successful important games. This caused some safety issues and the death of one man in 2003, thus access to the water has been cut off and the Osaka police, who are usually known for doing fuck-all and impounding bicycles, deployed 2,500 men to the bridge to control the situation.

The Japan Series is coming up from October 22^nd - 30^th.

Wisdom of the Day: Keep an eye on the underdogs