Vegalta Sendai 2 at Omiya Ardija 1 (aet) - Emperor's Cup 3rd Round - October 31, 2009

Back in August, I went to a ballgame in Omiya Stadium. Next door lies NACK5 Stadium, home of the J League's Omiya Ardija. From the outside, it looked like a nice cozy soccer venue worth visiting sometime. So when I saw that Ardija had an Emperor's Cup tie against J2 powerhouse Vegalta Sendai, I thought it would be a nice way to spend Hallowe'en afternoon. So off to Omiya I went.The Emperor's CupMuch like the FA Cup in England, the Emperor's Cup can...

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It's a four sport weekend in Philly

Despite living in Japan, I'm always looking for cool roadtrip ideas, even if I can't make them. With the MLB season extending into November, it's the first time in history when regularly scheduled games in all 4 sports are taking place on the same day. In the past, baseball was finished before the NBA started their season. Of course, there's always exhibition games, but those don't count for road trips.So with the Phillies in the World Series this weekend, I thought it'd be interesting to see if the other Philadelphia teams are at home too. Sure...

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Baseball playoffs are not as exciting as you might think

Here in Japan, the misnamed Climax Series' are finished, with both home teams winning in just 4 games (the home team is given a 1-game advantage in the best-of-7 series). Both the Giants and Fighters only lost once before achieving their 3rd victory, and they will now meet in the Nihon Series starting next Saturday. It should be a good series, and I'll be watching occasionally hoping to see the Giants lose. The midweek games are in the nearby Tokyo Dome and amazingly, ticket prices are reasonable. It's only 3,000 yen for a seat in the second deck....

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Japan Top League Rugby Doubleheader - October 24, 2009

While watching the Junior Rugby World Championship a few months back, I picked up a schedule for Japan's rugby league, known as the Top League. There are 14 teams in this league, and they often play doubleheaders when two local teams are at home at the same time. Two games are always better than one, so I made note of a Saturday in October when Chichibunomiya Rugby Ground would host back-to-back matches and patiently waited for the day to arrive.It...

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Tokyo Big 6 Baseball - October 17, 2009

I wrote about university baseball a couple of weeks ago when I saw a couple of Tohto University League games. Yesterday I went to watch the much more famous league: the Tokyo Big 6 University League. There are six large, famous schools in the Tokyo area: Hosei, Keio, Meiji, Rikkyo, Tokyo, and Waseda; and they've competed in this league since 1925. There are two seasons annually, one in the spring and one in the fall. Each team plays a best-of-3 series...

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Playoff thoughts here and there

It’s been a busy two weeks for me with the new job, friends visiting, and playing in a one-day ball hockey tournament. I haven’t had much time to watch the games on TV never mind go to one live. Fortunately things are settling back into a routine now, so I should be able to get to some upcoming college ball games and Top League Rugby. Meanwhile, the regular season has finally ended here in Japan. I say finally because the NPB continues to play games long after the original schedule finishes. This is due to the large number of rainouts during the...

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Dragons defeat Giants to win the Farm League Championship

Yesterday saw the one-game playoff between Eastern League champs Yomiuri Giants and Western League winners Chunichi Dragons take place in Toyama. In front of 14,150 fans, the Dragons held the Giants to 2 hits and won 2-0. The Giants used Yuya Kubo as their starter in what I can only guess was a cynical bid to win the game. Kubo seems to have good numbers with the big club over the past 6 seasons, and he was sent down most recently on September 28th after the baby Giants had finished their season. So I suspect he was sent down just to pitch in this...

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Kawasaki knocked out of the AFC Champions League

With a 2-1 victory at home in the first leg, Kawasaki Frontale travelled to Nagoya needing only a draw to advance to the semifinals in AFC Champions League action. Unfortunately, they weren't up to the task, giving up 2 first-half goals to fall behind 3-2 in the aggregate. Chong Tese got one back before the end of the half.With no goals for most of the second half, it looked like extra time would decide things, but Joshua Kennedy scored a late marker to give Grampus a 3-1 victory and the 4-3 aggregate to send them on to the next round. They will...

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