I went to the game between the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles vs. the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at Tokyo Dome today. It was the first time I’ve seen NPB Basebaall. I’m glad to say it was a pretty good game. The Pacific League is the Japanese equivilent of the American League, as it uses the Designated Hitter. Though I really can’t talk a lot about the pitching and hitting, as my seats were far down the third base line and obstructed by a protective net (more on that later), I’ll talk about the game experience.

Kanemura Satoru started for the Fighters, while the Eagles started Iwakuma Hisashi. Though both seemed to do well, as they both pitched complete games, neither pitcher broke 90 miles an hour on their fastballs. Iwanuma’s mechanics was particularily interesting with a pause and double kick on the way to the plate. I’m guessing it would be a balk in the Bigs. Kanemura’s was much more compact and didn’t really even have a leg kick.

Shinjo Tsuyoshi, the former New York Mets and San Franscisco Giants center fielder who now goes by SHINJO, was a notable member of the Fighters. He now hits leadoff and was apparently hit in the crotch with a line drive the other day. Other than that, he didn’t do much more than that.

Fighters third baseman Ogasawara Michihiro was another interesting guy. He hit two home runs in consecutive at bats and also had a very interesting left handed stance, similar to a person getting to ready attack with a sword. He also showed off some nice defense, with good range to his left. It turns out he’s an All-Star/HOF type of player with a career line of .327/.411/.560 over eight NPB seasons. That’s like Mike Schmidt territory.

I really didn’t see many impressive Eagles players, as most of the order was very weak and impatient. Being an expansion team, this wasn’t very surprising. The aforementioned Iwanuma was probably the best they had.

I couldn’t really concentrate and pay attention a lot to the game, but it was pretty fun to watch. I was especially happy that the Fighters didn’t bunt that much. The Eagles opened up with a run in the first inning, but Ogasawara tied it in the bottom. The Eagles scored a run in each of the following two innings, but the Fighters came charging back with Ogasawara’s second homer for the game in the forth and an 1B Oda Tomoyuki solo home run in the sixth. The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth, where Iwakuma simply tired out. Kanemura, who was probably tired too, struggled in the top of the ninth but was able to seal the deal for the complete game. It was probably the first time I’ve seen both pitchers throw complete games in any baseball league. I also enjoyed booing the Eagles because theybunted a bunch and came through only once. There were definitely a lot of cool batters and the pitching was pretty good too. Ogasawara’s jacks were big flies too. The Fighters won 5-3. I didn’t keep score or anything, so I think I’ll stop around here for the game itself.

The game experience is a whole seperate dimension. This game was the first time I watched a game in a dome park with turf since the Kingdome in 1997. And I certainly don’t miss it. Tokyo Dome really showed me how much I love SAFECO Field and natural turf. Tokyo Dome only has two primary seating decks, along with luxury seats underneath the second deck. Although I can’t really complain about the seats, the worst part was the net fences that lined the grounds all around the infield and all the way to the outfield walls. I guess they’re trying to keep foul balls from hitting unattentive fans or something, but it’s really irritating and stupid. They added some seats in front of the fences, but they should just take the damn fences down. Just watch the games folks, stop reading the damn newspaper. The playing field is also very generic in shape and design, making the game itself generic as well.

The stands are all seggregated by team allegience. The entire right field stands are reserved for the home team, while the entire left field is for the away team. These stands are loaded with team groupies that cheer, play music, wave flags and do other random stuff whenever their team is batting. The cheer groups essentially switch every half an inning. This makes for very boring cheering, as no one is cheering for the home team when the pitcher is working his ass off. The rest of the stadium sort of idly waits for either team to do something. And no one cheers when the stadium PA is playing music or other things, which for some reason was heavy with 80s music and some vintage 2000 Baja Men. It’s also annoying as hell when they warn you to duck foul balls, AFTER EVERY SINGLE BALL THAT REACHES THE SEATS.

Baseball is also accompanied by cheerleaders that come in and entertain before the game and in the middle of the fifth inning. No seventh inning stretch here.

Like in America, the food and booze come to you, but it’s a lot more prettier here. If the cheerleaders aren’t enough, EVERY SINGLE VENDOR is a girl too. And hot ones for sure. Not a male in site. The girls backpack kegs of beer, carry boxes of hot dogs and drinks, and sell sake and some good ol’ whisky, while being decked out in hot neon shorts n’ shirts. The hot dog and concession stands are manned with men and women, but it’s all girls inside the park. I wonder if they make more money than the American counterpart?

Oh, still not enough girls? No bat boys either. Just bat girls who run around in helmets and bright yellow clothing, picking up the bats and giving the baseballs to the ump.

Though the game is good and there are nice girls everywhere, leaving the stadium is pretty fun too. The stadium is kept pressurized to keep the stadium roof from deflating. As a result, the doors are all revolving doors to minimize the change in pressure when people enter and exit. But they open the regular doors when the game ends to allow for quicker exit, and this is helped by the pressurization. You are literally ejected from the stadium by the air that rushes out of the stadium.

I’m going to another game tomorrow, but with reserved infield seats. It should be fun again. I want some baseball goods too.