On the ways to Chiba I stopped by the Imperial Palace, just to say hi, but it's pretty closed up and all you can really do is walk around the park out front. So after I did that, I strolled over to the capital building and it was closed up too, so I just headed to Chiba. The only ticket I could get was the bleachers, or so I thought. Anyway, I didn't have a reserved seat, and the last time I did that I showed up half an hour early and had to stand, so I wanted to get there really early anyway.
The Lotte Marines are owned by a gum company. Not that that means much, but it's a little different than all the newspaper and railroad teams. First stop when I got to Marine Stadium was the Lotte Marines Museum. It was mostly a bunch of displays showing how high the fence is, how the turf feels, stuff like that. They also had a bunch of pictures of former player, like Julio Franco.
I tracked down the mascot for a picture. Apparently, Sunday is Hawaiian shirt day at the office.
When I went into the stadium, 2 hours early to get a seat, I went straight to the concession stand for a coke, some fries, and an "American Dog". Turns out that's a corn dog. A tiny corn dog is somehow American.I took my snack to the bleachers but found out that wasn't where my ticket was. I followed the guys pointing to the upper deck, where I found someone else to point me in the back the other way to the tiny, crappy section that my ticket was good for. Unlike the Yokohama game, nobody showed up early. I had the section to myself for an hour before game time.
While I waited, I saw the coolest players I ever saw. They must have had an extra bushel of balls that they told them to give away or something. First there was just one guy sitting on a chair with basket in front of him, signing balls and tossing them into the stands. Then one guy after another took a turn tossing balls to the crowd until the basket was empty. They must have tossed at least 150 balls out. My camera doesn't zoom much.
The Marines have 2 people I've heard of from the Majors. There's Benny Agbayani, who they just call "Beh-ni" on the scoreboard and in the cheers. And then there's the face of the Marines, Bobby Valentine. I was lucky enough to come on Bobby Valentine global warming day. They moved some potted trees onto the field so he could pose with some people who were apparently greener than the rest of us.
They love Bobby Valentine in Chiba. He's on every poster, his face is 9 feet tall on the walls of the stadium, and he's selling just about everything. He really seems to like these sandals. I may have to get some if they make you this happy.
The weather was pretty crappy, on and off rain, so I only stayed for 5 innings, but that was enough. I got to see the genius of Bobby Valentine. First, I think since the best players were off losing to the US at the Olympics, they called some people up. They started a 19 year old pitcher. He got the first 2 out, then hit a guy, walked Tuffy Rhodes, and hit another guy before getting out of it. Bobby Valentine had faith in the kid.
He got into trouble in the 3rd and loaded the bases, then got pulled for a more experienced pitcher. Bobby Valentine yanked out the 19 year old and put in 42 year old pitcher, who promptly got the next batter to hit him a slow hopper, which he then muffed and they scored 2 runs before he got out of it. Lotte came back (Benny had a 2 run double) and after they scored 4, Bobby called a suicide squeeze. The Marines led 5-4 when I decided that it was a long ride home and it was raining, so I took off. Turns out they won 9-4.
