March 21, 2020
Game 2: versus the Hanshin Tigers
I indicated that I would not write about every game but I just had to check in after having my mind blown away by my pitching staff, specifically 23-year old Noboru Shimizu.
He faced 21 batters and struck out 12 of them. This coming on the heels of Ogawa's 10 Ks yesterday. What's more, the bullpen, including McGough, struck out 7 Tigers en route to preserving the win for Shimizu.
What's up with all these strikeouts? Well, a few things: I've learnt that the strike zone is bigger in the ***, and Shimizu's spin rate approaches MLB levels.
Also, what's up with the facial hair? If you scroll up to the team picture, you'll see lots of guys with a variety of facial hair. I thought facial hair on Japanese-born players was not permitted. Apparently, in this universe we can implement the 4-man limit on foreign-born players on active rosters (and yes, you can change this in the settings), but not the one typically imposed on a man's facial hair in the ***.
Internet search upon internet search did not find a definitive source for any kind of de facto league-wide facial hair policy in the ***. (Meanwhile, it's quite easy to find the exact words for the NY Yankee's facial hair policy.) I scanned a whole bunch of photos of Swallows players and the only ones that had any kind of facial hair were foreign-born. I'm looking at you David Buchanan of the 2014-15 Philadelphia Phillies.
I did learn a lot about the cultural significance of facial hair in Japan. You can trace this back to the Samurai of the Edo period (1603-1868) and earlier. A samurai had to have facial hair. It represented his fighting spirit. Fast forward to the shift to a civilian government, and having facial hair (even the famous "top knot" of a samurai) came to be seen as an intent to rebel, or at least, being a person of bad influence. The history gets complicated moving into and beyond the Meiji-era. It sounds like I can spout these important time periods of Japan but I lost about an hour on the internet looking up all this stuff, and more.
So I'll stop here and get back to playing. Oh, and here's Noboru Shimizu:
Quote:
All of our pitchers threw 100-150 pitches every day. Because they threw so many different kinds of pitches - curves, sliders, fork balls, 'shooto' balls, and whatnot - management said that constant practice was necessary to perfect their form and have sharp control. The pitchers were good. You had to grant them that. They could snap off that breaking pitch on the outside corner on a 3-2 count every time. A lot of major leaguers couldn't do that.
But any American coach or sports physician would say that so much pitching is bad for the arm. The arm needs rest, they'd tell you. Every time you throw you tear muscles, and if you pitch a nine-inning game, three or four days are required for the muscles to heal and the tissue to regenerate. The Japanese either did not believe that, or if they did, they did not care. Everything was 'samurai' guts and spirit. If you had enough of that, then you could throw all day.
Pitching coach Horiuchi once explained the Japanese philosophy to a BBC television interviewer: 'You can overcome fatigue by willpower,' he said, 'If your mental attitude is right, you can make your body work. They's why we emphasize mental training."'
...
It was a praiseworthy attitude, but it also explained why you seldom saw successful pitchers in Japan over the age of 30 - and why so many pitchers on our team had arm trouble." - Cromartie, pg 49-50 (1992)
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It should be noted that there are two pitchers on my staff who are 40: reliever Ryoto Igarashi and fifth starter Masanori Shikawa. Things have changed since Cromartie's time in the East. And Cromartie refers to the "Shuuto." That pitch has its own
Wikipedia entry.