Year Two is in The Books
Well, that was fast. NPB Tracker has now been online for two years and a day. The anniversary slipped right by me; I only noticed this morning when I was telling an old friend that I’ve had the site for “about two years”.
Though I didn’t publish as much as I did in year one, there where definitely some highlights, listed here in no particular order:
- Getting to meet Deanna and Westbay-san in Tokyo.
- Getting the data site online, which I never planned to do when I started the site.
- Joining the FanGraphs crew, whom I’ve already learned a lot from.
- Making my print debut with Rotowire.
- Ryo Shinkawa graduating from the site and joining the Red Sox.
I’d like to say thanks to everyone who reads the site, especially those who take the time to leave comments, for making it fun for me to write. And also thank you to all the other bloggers and journalists out there, who provide inspiration and reference my work. I’m looking forward to seeing what year three brings.
17/06/2010 at 3:38 am Permalink
Any chance, Iwamura, makes a return to Japan like Johjima. It seems like he has flamed out the last two years. Has to be one NPB team that could use him.
17/06/2010 at 5:52 am Permalink
I completely forgot about my blog’s 5th-year anniversary when I passed it.
Congrats on 2 years! Maybe one of these years we will actually get to go to a game together.
17/06/2010 at 7:33 am Permalink
Deanna – that would be fun. There’s a chance I’ll be in Japan again this September/October, but it’s not settled yet. I doubt I could keep up with your ouenka-ing 🙂
John – Iwamura implied that he doesn’t want to go back to Japan under these circumstances, and is willing to play in 3A. Yakult still owns his NPB rights, but I’m sure they would take him.
17/06/2010 at 10:29 am Permalink
Congratulations. Keep up the good work. Hopefully I will get to write something about the football … pardon me, the soccer world cup during the weekend 😉
Hey, when will you know if you’ll take the trip to Japan? I’m thinking about flying to Tokyo in late September/early October…
17/06/2010 at 1:44 pm Permalink
Feel free to call it football: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_APjgPmP_12w/SZEkmZuG1CI/AAAAAAAAEc0/mZzSuIDvRR0/Handegg_thumb4.jpg
17/06/2010 at 3:22 pm Permalink
Argh. I’m likely to be moving back to the US from Japan in mid-September. But we’ll see.
If the ouendan terrifies you, we just have to go to a game with Westbay, since he refuses to sit anywhere near the crazy people with the sticks and trumpets 🙂
18/06/2010 at 8:02 am Permalink
Did I refuse to sit with those crazies? Hmmm. I simply prefer to sit where a conversation is possible.
Note: I had my fill of loud, crazy people this evening when we had Soran-bushi practice. 1.5 hours of supervising 30 kids – over half of them in K to 3rd grades. None able to sit still for very long. My mind is still feeling numb. While they were very good while actually practicing the dance, as soon as the music stopped, chaos broke out. While some of the mothers thought they needed more rest time between dance practices, those little guys and gals had more energy than they knew what to do with.
Sitting with the oendan leaves my head feeling similar. The only advantage is that I don’t have to stop kids from causing accidents at the ball park. (Oh, but didn’t you have to step in with some mis-behaving kids in the oendan before? Is nowhere safe? 😉 )
18/06/2010 at 8:08 am Permalink
I’d like to add a big Thank You to Patrick for making it so that I don’t feel so bad for writing less the past couple of seasons. The more NPB writers that start up, the less my poor writing is needed. Keep up the great work.
18/06/2010 at 10:03 am Permalink
@Patrick
haha, great picture. Say, isn’t it funny that the game is called soccer only in Northamerica and Japan (as far as I know)? 😉
18/06/2010 at 5:19 pm Permalink
Congrats, Patrick! Thanks and keep up the great work.
19/06/2010 at 8:33 am Permalink
Westbay-san/Deanna — I actually used to sit in the right stands way back when because the tickets were cheaper, especially at Kintetsu games. But I could never keep up and it’s way easier to follow the game from somewhere for me.
Jan — I think the Australians call it “soccer” too. They have Aussie rules football, which is I think something like Gaelic football. Someone might have to correct me on that though.
Ken — thanks for your comment.
John Brooks — I think Aki would rather redeem himself in MLB than return to NPB. Yakult still holds his NPB rights so he’d have to play for them unless they released him.
19/06/2010 at 9:11 am Permalink
Patrick, you’re absolutely right. The Aussies call it soccer as well. Hence the nickname of their side is “Socceroos”. Australian Rules Football is something like Gaelic Football and Rugby and way too complicated for me to watch. Personally I find it far too brutal.
Talking baseball: I missed Takahashi’s start yesterday, but he seems to be doing pretty well. Do you think he can keep it up for a whole season?