I’m giving our loyal and friendly readers, which would be you, something to talk about on a day with no game.

I’m going to pathetically brag, in the hope that you will one up me or fill in my gaps, and we’ll have something to talk about until the next game.

Here goes:

• I’ve seen every team in NPB play at least one game, every season, since 2004.
• I’ve seen Tokyo play every team in the NPB, at least once a season, since 2006.
• I’ve seen Tokyo play in every stadium in Kanto (Jingu, Tokyo Dome, Yokohama, Chiba Marine, and Seibu Dome) at least once a season for each of the past three years.
• I’ve seen seen Tokyo play an away game against every other Central League team at least once.
• I’ve seen ten of the 12 NPB teams play regular season games at home.
• I’ve seen regular season games at 9 of the 13 regularly-used NPB stadia (I’ve seen games at the old Hiroshima Civic Stadium and have been to the badly-named Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium Hiroshima, but not seen a game there.)
• I’ve seen Tokyo play at three irregular stadia (Kure, Matsuyama, and Sagamihara.)

In MLB:

• I’ve been to only four teams’ stadia: Cubs, Indians, Marlins, and Nationals (but I’ve been to both Cleveland Municipal and Jacobs Field.)
• I’ve seen the following MLB teams play regular season games: Cubs, Indians, Marlins, White Sox, Brewers, Yankees, Red Sox, Rockies, Nationals, Orioles, Pirates, Mets, Rays, Braves, Tigers, Angels, Giants, A’s, Mariners, Rangers, and Astros. I think that’s it.

CPBL:

• I once watched most of a Brother Elephants vs. Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions game on TV in a hotel room in Taipei while drinking Taiwan Beer. (Not impressive, I know.)

Top me. Beat me. (In a nice way.) Let’s go from here, sports fans. Enjoy the off-day.

A couple of teams have apparentlyalready shown interest in the hard throwing right-handed pitcher: the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Texas Rangers.

Interestingly, the Pirates just acquired Akinori Iwamura in a straight-up trade with Tampa Bay. Iwamura was traded man-for-man with Jesse Chavez, a decent relief pitcher. The Rays apparently felt that Iwamura, just coming off a season cut short by a knee injury, was going to be too expensive to hold onto for a utility player. The Pirates, meanwhile, desperately need a second baseman (Iwamura played third for the Tokyo Swallows), and a healthy Aki Iwamura can definitely plug that gap for them.

If Igarashi ends up signing with Pittsburgh, then it would be a reunion of sorts for the two former Tokyo players. It would also be the first time that two former Tokyo Swallows players have ended up on the same MLB team.

Norichika Aoki (OF)–Aoki will possibly be playing out of position (left field) a little bit during the WBC due to the talent that is joining him from overseas, namely Kosuke Fukudome (Chicago Cubs) and Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle).
He shouldn’t have any problem handling the shift though (if one actually materializes). The 27-year-old, who bats left and throws right, is fleet of foot and has one hell of a glove.

Aoki has played a lot of international baseball these past few years, and we fear that with each additional tournament he gets just that much closer to leaving.

He led the Swallows last season with a .347, .413, .529 line, and he also managed to hit the most home runs with 14. Lord, that’s sad.

Chang-yong Lim (P)–Second year closer, Lim, is making a triumphant return to the top of the Korean professional baseball world after coming back from arm surgery last year. The Korean national team is not to be scoffed at either. They beat Japan twice in the pool stages of the innagural WBC, and let us not forget that they won gold in Beijing last summer.

Lim made 54 appearances for the Swallows in 2008 and notched 33 saves from 51 innings of work with 50 strikeouts.

Lim is the only Japan-based player on the South Korean roster. Min-han Son from the Cleveland Indians rounds out Korea’s imports this year.

Of note in Korea’s bullpen is 20-year-old starter, Kwan-hyun Kim. The lefty has a seriously ungodly slider, and he has been dubbed the “Japan-killer”. Incidentally, the one guy that Kim really worries about in the Japanese lineup is Aoki. Or at least that’s what he says. I’m sure that Ichiro causes him to lose a little sleep as well.

Akinori Iwamura (IF)–Joining Aoki on TEAM JAPAN is our beloved Iwamura. Yes, he doesn’t play for the birds anymore, it’s true, but we here at Tsubamegun like to keep an eye on him, and the WBC won’t be any different.

Iwamura was instrumental in leading the Rays to last year’s World Series where they were overtaken by the Philadelphia Phillies. He looks to feature prominently in a versatile crew of players including Ogasawara (Yomiuri), Kataoka and Nakajima (Saitama), Kawasaki (Fukuoka), and Murata (Yokohama).

Iwamura had 172 hits for Tampa Bay last year.

Akinori Iwamura

Born: 2/9th/1979 in Uwajima, Ehime
Ht.: 175.5cm Wt.: 80kg
Bats: Left Throws: Right

Career Stats

* Asterisks indicate information we just don’t have on hand at the moment or numbers that we cannot firmly vouch for due to conflicting reports from different sources or because the numbers are drawn from sources about which we have reservations due to errors that exist elsewhere in the source.

And because a lot of searches have come through for him, too, we present you with the stats for:

Christopher Pellegrini

Born: 1978 in Vermont, United States
Ht.: 182cm Wt.: 75kg
Writes: Left Orders: Right
Position: Seated sideways/Milling around the top deck

Career Stats

GA= Games Attended
Beer= # of standard beers consumed
CB= # of Chicken Baskets consumed
Pizza= # of Pizzas ordered for delivery to the stadium
TR= # of Tearful Retirements witnessed
T-S= # of T-shirts purchased
Cap= # of Caps purchased
B-B= # of Fancy Belt Buckles purchased
Tat= # of other Tat items purchased
BAC= Blood Alcohol Content, of course

Iwamura has helped lead the Rays to their first ever American League Championship

Akinori Iwamura, second baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays (and former Tokyo Swallows third baseman), went three-for-four with an RBI double in the first game of the 2008 World Series.

But it wasn’t enough as the visiting Phillies took the first game of the series, 3-2.

Iwamura beat both Hamels (P) and Howard (1B) to first base for his opening hit of the game (an Ichiroesque infield single.)

He then had another single before doubling into the gap in left-center in the bottom of the fifth. Jason Bartlett (SS) scored on the play.

With four total bases in four at-bats and 3-4 at the plate, his World Series numbers look like this: .750/.750/1.000.

And Iwamura’s postseason numbers (which include the divisional series versus the Chicago White Sox, the league championship series versus Boston, and one game versus Philadelphia in the World Series) are also impressive:

Akinori Iwamura (2B)

Hopefully Iwamura can continue his postseason hot-streak and help the Rays level the series in game two.

Since the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox to win the American League for the first time in their otherwise bleak history, we’ve gotten traffic the predictable “Iwamura” and “Iwamura Rays” and “Iwamura Japanese team” and variations thereof (but surprisingly no “Iwamura Swallows”, or anything like that, that we’ve noticed.)

Perhaps the most interesting, though, have been “japanese symbol for 10-12-08″ (I’d be interested in hearing the story behind that one) and, of course, people who seem to be looking for how to write Iwamura’s name in kanji (“Chinese characters” for those who came across this post looking for just that. Your machine will have to be able to display Japanese.) So, without further ado. . .

“Akinori Iwamura” would, of course, be “Iwamura Akinori” in Japanese, which is:

?? ??

An ambitious Rays fan could make a banner reading:

????!

or

?????!

(Which is ganbatte – possibly the most common cheer or encouragement in the language – and means, roughly, “Do your best!” But that’s an awkward translation.)

Better yet, a Rays fan could give Philly fans a taste of their own medicine and make Mr. Iwamura feel all nostalgic by going for:

???? Philly!

or

???? Philly!

Same thing.

Oh, and for that guy looking for October 12, 2008 in kanji, here it is:

??????????

The numbers alone would be 10 = ?, 12 = ??, 2008 = ???? or ???, but would most often be written either 2008? or ??20? or ?????.

(If I’m correct in interpreting “symbol”, my guess is that’s a wedding ring or a tattoo. If so, I’ll offer the perhaps hackneyed opinion that marking important events or ideas by getting them in a language you can’t read makes no sense at all. Do you keep your diary in Swahili?)

Yes, I’m procrastinating. There are better things I should be doing.

If you’ve read this far, though, and, like many of our readers, know a bit (or a lot) of Japanese (or are Japanese), what would you put on a big banner for Iwamura’s consumption, encouragement, or in-game entertainment? Let us know below.

Maybe there’ll be a prize in it for the “winner” if there are a lot of entries. I’m not a collector, but I have some baseball cards and other knick-knacks with which I’d be willing to part in exchange for inspired bursts of creativity or wit on someone else’s part.

Iwamura hit for a .207 average in the ALCS, hitting 6 times, including 2 doubles,  scoring 4 runs in the series with an OBP of .324.  He did strikeout 5 times in the series however, with 5 base on balls to go with them.

He is now hitting a respectable .277 in the postseason as a whole, with 8 singles, 3 doubles, a triple and a home run to the tune of 4 RBIs.

Since moving to the Majors in 2007 Aki has made a great transition from 3rd to 2nd in the field, and the multi-time NPB golden-glove winner is now arguably one of the best 2nd basemen in the MLB.   This on top of him transitioning well with the bat too, from the cleanup spot in NPB, to the leadoff hole with the Rays.

Well done Aki, we at Tsubamegun will be pulling for you against the Phillies in the World Series.