Randy Bass, an incumbent Oklahoma state senate-senator, is one of the greatest foreign players in Japanese professional baseball (NPB) and left many legends behind him. In my impression, he hit another home run while an echo of last home run still remained. In spite of so many times passed, I even now have never seen such a dominant hitter except for Barry Bonds' prime.
Going back in time to 1985, a road to victory of Hanshin Tigers started with three consecutive home runs diving into the batter's eye screen, and it was he who hit the first one. That was beginning of Randy Bass' legend. In this article, I want to write about some anecdotes around him.
Home run scene begins from 0.25, and this is the legendary three consecutive batter's eye home run. (Center fielder is Warren Cromartie, a former Montreal Expos' position player.)
Episode1: Bus Explosion?
When writing his name in Japanese, its spell is the same as "bus", and this was a problem for the owner or executives of Hanshin Tigers because Hanshin Electric Railway Also has managed public bus transit system.
Hanshin Bus
Then, managements decided to stretch between "Ba" and "SS", and as a result, pronounce of his name became closer to "birth". That was a birthday of Randy Bass as a "Sukett (foreign legion)" player.
Episode2: Curse of the Colonel Sanders
In 1985, Tigers became the Japan Champion with their so-called 'dynamite batting order', famed as one of the strongest batting orders in all time history of Japanese baseball, and that dynamite batting order was led by three guys of the three consecutive batter's-eye home run. Tigers fun, or I should say people living in Osaka, the home town of Tigers, exited with joy because that victory was for the first time in twenty-one years of dark age like Cleveland indians in a film 'Major League'. Then a customary ceremony style of diving into the river of Doutonbori was born of itself.
In the vortex of the Doutonbori diving, someone brought a figure of Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken Doutonbori-branch, for the white man figure conjured him an image of Randy Bass. And many Tigers funs also used it to resemble Randy Bass just because it was a white man figure. It was, so to speak, an icon of Randy Bass, and for those days of Tigers funs, he deserved to be put his icon on a pedestal. Then, in the natural course of those event, Colonel Sanders was thrown into the Doutonbori river, receiving loudly cheering.
Colonel Sanders was lost in the river, and Tigers came to suffer from more terrible slump since ensuing year to next victory of 2013, getting a tail-ender indeed ten times. This is the Curse of Colonel Sanders. After that, Colonel Sanders was found out from bottom of the river in 2009, and it has been exhibited at home stadium of Hanshin Tigers still now.
Episode3: Chasing Sadaharu Oh
Randy Bass notched 54 home runs in 1985 season even though he couldn't reach the record of 55 home runs, a Japanese record established by Sadaharu Oh. In that season, last two games was against Giants which was led by manager Sadaharu Oh. Although he didn't order any command such as to give intentional walk, coaching stuffs order their pitching stuff a command to give intentional walk. As a result, Randy Buss couldn't break that record. But it might good for him because in many case, people who broke big record such as home run record have involved some kind of trouble as if they suffered a curse of the pharaohs. Maybe that also is one of curses associated with baseball. In fact, and on the contrary, he became an senator in his country. Incidentally, in Japanese, 'Oh' means 'king'. ( Sadaharu Oh is a name that is like Jeff King. ) He, so to speak, didn't violate the realm of king, and that's why he has succeeded after his retirement.
Episode4: Rivals
1) Suguru Egawa
He was a fireman having blazing fastball. And he also stuck to throw the fastball against Randy Bass. This is his fastball. Since he was a closer, he could enjoy to throw his fastball against Randy Bass as he wanted to do. But unfortunately, he died of brain tumor in 1991, and became one of baseball's legends. In the passage of time, people came to call him as 'brazing closer' out of their condolence.
He was a team mate and 18-year veteran of Tigers. Although he didn't oppose Randy Bass through the baseball, they fiercely battled in Shogi, a Japanese chess-like game, which he taught Randy Bass, using mixed language of English and Japanese. In spite of Randy Bass was hardly able to speak Japanese, he learned the Shogi and became proficient in it enough to have a game against professional Shogi player Naoko Hayashiba.
Afterword
After his retirement, so many foreign players came to Japan and two players-Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes- tied with 55 home run record, and in just last year, 2013, one player-Vladimir Balentien-broke that record, hitting 60 home runs.
Starting left, Vladimir Balentien, Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes.
However, and even now, Randy Bass' 54 home runs are still valuable, because in those days, none of Japanese pitchers had joined in big league differently from now. And above all, he did it in the champion team. Indeed, those were brilliant days for Japanese professional baseball.
FINIS.
Going back in time to 1985, a road to victory of Hanshin Tigers started with three consecutive home runs diving into the batter's eye screen, and it was he who hit the first one. That was beginning of Randy Bass' legend. In this article, I want to write about some anecdotes around him.
Home run scene begins from 0.25, and this is the legendary three consecutive batter's eye home run. (Center fielder is Warren Cromartie, a former Montreal Expos' position player.)
Episode1: Bus Explosion?
When writing his name in Japanese, its spell is the same as "bus", and this was a problem for the owner or executives of Hanshin Tigers because Hanshin Electric Railway Also has managed public bus transit system.
Hanshin Bus
So they were anxious that if he felt into slump, newspapers might put a title like "Hanshin Bus in Trouble", conversely, if he hit a big home run or came into a groove, newspapers might put a title like "Hanshin Bus Explosion". In either case, it would turn out to be annoying matter for them. Incidentally, the "newspaper" referred here means tabloid sold at station stall, in short, tabloids are always trying to come up with something eye-catching title for attracting passersby walking in hurry.
Episode2: Curse of the Colonel Sanders
In 1985, Tigers became the Japan Champion with their so-called 'dynamite batting order', famed as one of the strongest batting orders in all time history of Japanese baseball, and that dynamite batting order was led by three guys of the three consecutive batter's-eye home run. Tigers fun, or I should say people living in Osaka, the home town of Tigers, exited with joy because that victory was for the first time in twenty-one years of dark age like Cleveland indians in a film 'Major League'. Then a customary ceremony style of diving into the river of Doutonbori was born of itself.
In the vortex of the Doutonbori diving, someone brought a figure of Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken Doutonbori-branch, for the white man figure conjured him an image of Randy Bass. And many Tigers funs also used it to resemble Randy Bass just because it was a white man figure. It was, so to speak, an icon of Randy Bass, and for those days of Tigers funs, he deserved to be put his icon on a pedestal. Then, in the natural course of those event, Colonel Sanders was thrown into the Doutonbori river, receiving loudly cheering.
Colonel Sanders was lost in the river, and Tigers came to suffer from more terrible slump since ensuing year to next victory of 2013, getting a tail-ender indeed ten times. This is the Curse of Colonel Sanders. After that, Colonel Sanders was found out from bottom of the river in 2009, and it has been exhibited at home stadium of Hanshin Tigers still now.
Episode3: Chasing Sadaharu Oh
Randy Bass notched 54 home runs in 1985 season even though he couldn't reach the record of 55 home runs, a Japanese record established by Sadaharu Oh. In that season, last two games was against Giants which was led by manager Sadaharu Oh. Although he didn't order any command such as to give intentional walk, coaching stuffs order their pitching stuff a command to give intentional walk. As a result, Randy Buss couldn't break that record. But it might good for him because in many case, people who broke big record such as home run record have involved some kind of trouble as if they suffered a curse of the pharaohs. Maybe that also is one of curses associated with baseball. In fact, and on the contrary, he became an senator in his country. Incidentally, in Japanese, 'Oh' means 'king'. ( Sadaharu Oh is a name that is like Jeff King. ) He, so to speak, didn't violate the realm of king, and that's why he has succeeded after his retirement.
Episode4: Rivals
1) Suguru Egawa
He was one of ace pitchers of Giants. As mentioned above, in the last two games of 1985 season, Giants' pitching stuff were ordered giving intentional walk to Randy Bass, but he ignored it. Because he had confidence with his fastball and somewhat individualistic personality. So he stuck to throw the fastball against Randy Bass, and it was Sadaharu Oh who designated him as a starting pitcher of that game. And in the next year, he allowed Randy Bass to tie with 7 consecutive game home run record established Sadaharu Oh, giving up the 7th (of 7 consecutive) home run. This is the scene of it. Randy Bass reportedly said "He is the best pitcher in Japanese baseball and will be able to hold good even in the big league."
2) Tsunemi Tsuda
He was a fireman having blazing fastball. And he also stuck to throw the fastball against Randy Bass. This is his fastball. Since he was a closer, he could enjoy to throw his fastball against Randy Bass as he wanted to do. But unfortunately, he died of brain tumor in 1991, and became one of baseball's legends. In the passage of time, people came to call him as 'brazing closer' out of their condolence.
3) Kozo Kawato
He was a team mate and 18-year veteran of Tigers. Although he didn't oppose Randy Bass through the baseball, they fiercely battled in Shogi, a Japanese chess-like game, which he taught Randy Bass, using mixed language of English and Japanese. In spite of Randy Bass was hardly able to speak Japanese, he learned the Shogi and became proficient in it enough to have a game against professional Shogi player Naoko Hayashiba.
Afterword
After his retirement, so many foreign players came to Japan and two players-Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes- tied with 55 home run record, and in just last year, 2013, one player-Vladimir Balentien-broke that record, hitting 60 home runs.
Starting left, Vladimir Balentien, Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes.
Vladimir Balentien's Record Breaking Home Run
FINIS.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿