Just Tsuyoshi being Tsuyoshi
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Tsuyoshi Shinjo sighting.
The former Mets outfielder and longtime Nippon Ham Fighters star threw out the first pitch at Game 2 of the Japan Series yesterday. From the Japan Times:
The roar only got louder when former Nippon Ham star Shinjo made his appearance.
With his unnaturally white teeth gleaming, hair teased and dark sunglasses perched on his face, the heavily tanned former outfield maestro looked more like a movie star than a baseball player.
Yes!
Say what you will about Shinjo’s lifetime .668 Major League OPS, the dude did it with flair. That, and huge orange wristbands.
There are far more meaningful aspects to the story linked above, most notably the return of uber-phenom Yu Darvish from shoulder fatigue. After a 42-day layoff, Darvish threw 87 pitches over six innings, allowing two runs while striking out seven and walking none.
Despite never having seen them play, I’ve long been a fan of the Nippon Ham Fighters. Until recently, I thought “Nippon” meant the place they were from (which was itself perplexing, since Nippon is Japanese name for Japan) and “Ham Fighters” was their nickname, as though they were either fighters made of ham or fighters who battled ham.
Obviously that was a bit conflicting, as I wanted to root for a group of pork-based fighters but couldn’t even consider supporting any team that was waging war on ham. But it turns out they are the Fighters that are sponsored by Nippon Ham, a Japanese company that predictably sells ham.
So I guess they are fighting on behalf of ham, and so I’m cool with that. Plus they have Darvish, who appears to be incredibly good at pitching.
I know this much: The best decision I’ve made today was searching YouTube for Tsuyoshi Shinjo. It’s a veritable goldmine of awesomeness.
