Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.521

 When we hear the news from USA-baseball players as Uehara or Darvish doing very well in Major League Baseball, we feel so happy and honored. It is so encouraging to hear them play in such great teams.

Here in Japan, Tohoku Rakuten won first Japanese Professional Baseball series yesterday.

Tohoku Rakuten is based at Tohoku area - the team is a quite new team born in 2005. They stayed in bottom  since -they were considered to be a typical `jakusyo kyuden' small and loser team.

That team won the championship-you cannot imagine how much they have given to people in Tohoku area. They have given the big sensation all over Japan.  The final game was held in a stadium in Miyagi(Tohoku). The whole stadium was filled with rejoice.

Here is the last minute of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiiGoAQkx8w

The key person who contributed this winning is the pitcher of Tohoku Rakuten, he was called Ma-kun, Masahiro Tanaka. His record was 24 wins to 0 defeat (and one save).  There is no defeat! 

He is a flamethrower (he throws with more than 150km)but the speed is not the only thing it counts. 

He is loved by team mate-when he is on the mound, the team mate feels they want to make him a winning pitcher. They cheer him up and do fine plays. Somhow he seems to have a luck, and with his lovable character, the manager said `Ma-kun, Kaminoko, fushiginako'(Ma-kun, God's child, Miracle boy). 

There is no doubt he is the best pitcher in Japan professional baseball teams, and people are watching him- whether he remains in  Japanese team or leave for Major League Baseball. We all have complicated feelings- we want to see his play in Japan but also want to see him play in one of the Major League teams, if that is his dream. If he goes to Major League, we believe he will do very good as Uehara or Darvish. We feel quite sure.

He had many fans since he was a high school baseball player. He looked as a typical country boy, but he was like a raw stone. If he decides to go to Major League and play, we will keep watching him. We hope he is loved and can do his best if his dream comes true!