Comments on: State of the Tsubamegun at Season's End

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:50:09 +0000

I noticed a couple of Hanshin fans in the Fan Club line this season (with their gear partially concealed), which is smart if they’re going to ctach their boys a few times a year at Jingu. I myself have been toying with the idea of seeing what the Fan Club deals are for the Giants and BayStars, as I went to the Tokyo Dome four or five times this year and caught three or four Yokohama home games. If it’s a similar deal, I suppose it would be wise to overcome my principles, sign up, and just pitch the inevitable Dark Side mail when it comes.

The only other Fan Club whose details I’ve seen was the Lions’ and it really didn’t look like an appealing deal at all. The shirt was nice (if you’re a Lions fan), but the ticket incentive was designed for people who don’t usually go to games: two pairs of seats somewhere in the infield (the mid-priced ones), if I recall correctly.

When I was down in Matsuyama, I noticed that the Swallows Fan Club card was also valid at home-away-from-home games, which I wish I’d known before I bought a ticket in advance from Pia.

By: David Watkins

David Watkins — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:32:28 +0000

I assume the Y1000 tickets are for the outfield?

Yep, either side.

By: Deanna

Deanna — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:34:52 +0000

Wow, that is actually a really good deal. I assume the Y1000 tickets are for the outfield? I’m pretty sure I went to at least 5 games at Jingu this year… could easily do that next year if I continue to stay pissed off at Yokohama…

Thanks for the shoutout, sorry I’m slow to read things this week. Argh.

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:30:50 +0000

Thanks, Simon. Yes, do get a fan club pass – if you go to a mere four Swallows home games, it’s worth it, even if you don’t want the T-shirt, jacket, cap, or whatever that they give you.

For those who might be interested, a regular Tokyo Yakult Swallows Fan Club membership costs ?5,000 and gives you five free tickets, ?1,000 tickets to any game after that, attendance incentives (little enamel pins every fifth game and a free ticket every 20th game), some kind of apparel, the fan club magazine (not that impressive), free admission to all preseason games, and an invitation to a preseason meet and greet with a few players. If you go to four games, you’ve paid less than regular price for your tickets and gotten some free stuff to boot. The easiest way to sign up is in front of the Fan Club window at Jingu.

On another note, two of the three days since this post was published were our busiest ever, with October 15th seeing nearly double our daily average number of visitors.

By: simoncurrie

simoncurrie — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:22:48 +0000

Yeah, keep up the great work, I should join the fan club next season so I can sit in the bleachers with you guys for a nominal fee.

Anyways, Aoki continues to be awesome, Hatakeyama’s coming along, Fukuchi proved to be dependable. On the pitching side the bullpen was pretty good even though Lim was more hittable in the 2nd half of the season, Matsuoka was awesome, and Ishikawa had a breakout season.

The Swallows actually featured similar positive run differential as the 2nd place Hanshin, unlike the Dragons and Carp who both finished the season with negative run differentials. So, the potential is definitely there for postseason play in 2009! (And I’m also hoping that a healthy Aaron Guile will be back, there are rumours.)

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:14:28 +0000

Thanks, Flick. It may take us some time to get around to it, but we’ll crunch the stats we’re still compiling, updating, and publishing and put up a few comparisons. We’ll definitely do an analysis of Takada’s performance.

By: flick

flick — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:03:56 +0000

I usually just lurk and don’t write on people’s blogs, but I just wanted to send my thanks for this wonderful site.
Keep up the good work, and it would be great if you could do an article, where you rate the player’s and manager’s performance for the 2008 season.
The Swallows this year gave me massive headaches, but there were few bright spots like Yoshinori and Muranaka to an extent. Also, Hiroyasu at the beginning of the season “was” awesome. Hopefully the young Swallows will mature and we have a better season next year.

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:58:37 +0000

Tomnish, thanks for writing such an insightful blog and for commenting here and giving us good information. Posts on why we’re Swallows fans are in order, I think. I think we’ll open it up to our readers as well, get many people’s stories.

Bec, we’re glad to hear you’ve enjoyed the blog. We hope you’ll stick around and that we’ll have more good news to report next season.

By: Bec

Bec — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:22:07 +0000

Cheers for your ongoing posts. I’ve been enjoying following along with the Swallows’ fortunes (even if they weren’t very good ^^;) in your blog ^_^

By: Tomnish

Tomnish — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:43:34 +0000

Last night, I was surprised to see your site had brought several people to my blog.
It’s nice of you to introduce it like this!

I’m looking forward to your update(including what has made you Swallows fans, perhaps?) during the off-season as well.