Power Pros Forum

I don't speak any Japanese, and I've never taken any lessons, and I can understand it fine.

But yeah! Take Japanese, I wish I could in my school...

Alright. I was just asking because, one, I can tell french is going to be pretty easy, and two, Anything that will help me with Power Pros is awesome.

Hardly anyone takes French in my school. Good luck with Japanese!

May 31, 2014

Game 4 versus the Samurais! We have to tie up the season series, this is the last game we'll be playing against them in the regular season.

Sakai Samurais (30-22-0) - 8
Kyoto Knights (35-16-1) - 3

Samurais:

Lineup:
1. Shuuji Arime – C (2-5, DP, 3B)
2. Daisuke Yagi - 1B (0-5, DP)
3. Ken Kamei - 3B (1-4, SF, HR [11], 2 RBI [42, 43])
4. Mikihiko Shimazaki – SS (3-5, 2 HR [14, 15], 3 RBI [39, 40, 41])
5. Tadahiko Fujita – LF (1-4, K)
6. Daisuke Aoyama – RF (3-4, 2B)
7. Ken Naitoh – DH (2-4, 2B, HR [4], 3 RBI [5, 6, 7])
8. Yoshitsugu Sugiya – CF (0-4)
9. Takara Okazaki - 2B (2-4, 2B)

Pitcher(s):
Riku Hirabayashi (9 IP, 3 R, 3 ER)

Knights:

Lineup:
1. Tsuyoshi Matsunaga – CF (1-4, 2B)
2. Touya Egawa – RF (1-4, 2B, DP)
3. Takuya Kanazawa – DH (2-4)
4. Masato Kurihara - 1B (1-4, 2B, 1 RBI [62])
5. Taiga Kura – SS (1-4, 2B, FC, 1 RBI [35])
6. Goro Shigeno – LF (0-4)
7. Akitaka Shimozono – C (1-4, PO)
8. Hideo Nomoto - 2B (1-4)
9. Daisuke Fukuchi - 3B (2-4, 1 RBI [15], ROE)

Pithcer(s):
Hiroshi Shima (6 1/3 IP, 6 R, 6 ER)
Makiya Sawamura (2 2/3 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 K)

MVP(s):
Riku Hirabayashi: He threw a complete game, letting up 3 runs
Mikihiko Shimazaki: His homer in the first put the Samurais on top, and they never looked back from there, also, he went 3-5 with another homerun, and 3 RBIs

WP: Riku Hirabayashi (6-2)
LP: Hiroshi Shima (6-3)
S: --

Kyoto Knightly
June 1, 2014
Knights Get Swept
– Shimazaki and Hirabayashi
– Matsunaga’s catch

Blue Stadium, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto – And the season series goes to the Samurais! They take it 3 games to 1. “They just outplayed us, we weren’t up to our normal playing level today” Manager Kensou Mori said. “It wasn’t my best performance today.” Shima said.

The game was an uphill battle from the beginning. Shimazaki hit a 2-run homer to right in the 1st inning. And rookie Aoyama got his first NPB hit, with a double to left, also in the 1st. Right after him, Ken Naitoh hit a blast, and 2 more runs scored. They scored 4 times in the 1st, which is very uncharacteristic for Shima, who has been our best pitcher so far this season. In the top of the next frame, Matsunaga made potentially the play of the year. First off, he ran to about 14 meters away from the infield, and then he made a fantastic dive, stretching his whole body, and barely coming up with the catch. Okazaki, who was on third when the hit occurred, had already touched the plate, since he thought that there was no way Matsunaga would get to it. And, I’ll agree, I would’ve thought the same way. But, he had to make a dash back to the base, he lost that race. The inning ended on an 8-5 double play. Unheard of!

Also, players of the month for May have been announced! Hoashi (of the Samurais) won pitcher of the month of May for the Central League, with an ERA of 1.62, 3 wins, and 8 saves
Kurihara won player of the month of May for the Pacific League, batting .343, with 19 homeruns, and 30 RBIs

- Takaharu Sonada

June 8, 2014

8:32

The owner was calling, I picked up my phone.
"Jack, can you come down to the office real quick?" He asked me
"Sure Matsuo, I'll be right down." I said
"Thank you."
I hung up.
He sounded oddly depressed, so I rushed down to the office.

I opened up the door to Matsuo's office, to see his head on his desk, sobbing.
"Sir! What's wrong?"
"..."
"Sir?"
"Jack... My sister... She has... She's passed away."
"WHAT?! How?!"
"She had breast cancer... Which she... Which she had been... Been fighting for... For almost a year now..."
He then started bawling his eyes out. I excused myself from the room, and came up with a plan.
I walked back in.
"Sir. I have an idea."
"...What... What is it Jack?"
"Sir. For the rest of this month, we will be wearing unique uniforms, with pink lettering, and a special hat, and 50% of the profits we make from the ticket sales will go to breast cancer research."
He looked at me.
"Jack. Thank you. I'm sure my sister will appreciate this. I'll put it into effect right now."
"No problem sir, I'll do whatever I can to help with this."
"Thank you again, Jack, you're a saint."
"No no. Don't worry about it."
I left after saying that, and called up the person who does uniforms, and told him about this.
He complied, and came up with this:
Hopefully they'll be well received. Though, no matter, it is going towards a good cause.

I then headed home, and went on thinking about who I should draft come the end of the season.

June 8, 2014

We're playing the Giants, they've always played us tough. This should be interesting! We're looking for our 40th win!

Yomiuri Giants (33-25-1) - 4
Kyoto Knights (40-18-1) – 5

Giants. 0|0|0|1|0|0|3|0|0 4|7|0
Knights 0|0|1|0|0|1|0|0|3x 5|12|1

Giants:
1. Ryota Wakiya - 2B (1-4, 2B, ROE)
2. Hayato Sakamoto – SS (1-4, DP)
3. Shinnosuke Abe – C (2-4)
- Kazunari Tsuroka – DEF REP [C] (0-0)
4. Alex Ramirez – DH (1-3, SF, HR [23], 2 RBI [53, 54])
5. Michihiro Ogasawara - 1B (1-4, HR [14], 1 RBI [43], DP)
6. Hisayoshi Chono – LF (1-3, HR [7], 1 RBI [24])
7. Yoshinobu Takahashi – RF (0-3)
- Tetsuya Matsumoto – DEF REP [RF] (0-0)
8. Yoshiyuki Kamei – CF (0-3)
9. Rusty Ryal - 3B (0-3)

Pitcher(s):
Shugo Fujii (6 IP, 2 R, 2 ER)
Micheal Nakamura (2 IP, 0 R)
Tetsuya Yamaguchi (2/3 IP, 2 R, 2 ER)
Daisuke Ochi (0 IP, 1 R, 1 ER)

Knights:

Lineup:
1. Tsuyoshi Matsunaga – CF (2-5, HR [9], 2 RBI [36, 37])
2. Touya Egawa – RF (1-4, HR [5], 1 RBI [25])
3. Takuya Kanazawa – DH (1-4)
4. Masato Kurihara - 1B (0-4)
5. Taiga Kura – SS (2-4, 2B)
6. Goro Shigeno – LF (2-4, 2B)
7. Akitaka Shimozono – C (2-4)
8. Hideo Nomoto - 2B (0-3, DP)
- Shun Tohno – PH (0-1, 1 RBI [5])
9. Daisuke Fukuchi - 3B (2-4, 2B, 1 RBI [20])

Pitcher(s):
Ataru Hiyama (6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 4 ER)
Shota Imanami (2 2/3 IP, 0 R)

MVP:
Tsuyoshi Matsunaga: He hit a wlakoff single in the 9th!

WP: Shota Imanami (2-1)
LP: Daisuke Ochi (4-3)
S: --

Kyoto Knightly
June 9, 2014
Knights Win With A Matsunaga Walkoff!
– Tsuyoshi Matsunaga

Blue Stadium, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto – It seems that the new uniforms have brought some luck to the Knights. In their debut with the pink highlights, for owner, Matsuo Kanegi’s sister, who has, sadly, passed away from her fight with breast cancer. The win was very exciting as well. The Knights went into the bottom of the 9th, down 2 runs, 4-2 (mostly in thanks to the back-to-back-to-back homeruns by Ramirez, Ogasawara, and Chono). Kurihara started off the inning with a pop out to the shortstop. Then Kura hit a double, and Shimozono followed it up with a bloop single of his own. Tohno came in to pinch-hit for Nomoto, who was 0-3 in the game. He hit a chopper back to the pitcher. But Kura came barreling down the line, and scored on the play. They had to go for the force at first. 2 outs, runner on 2nd, Fukuchi up at-bat. And he hits a bomb to deep center. It bounces off the top of the wall, and Shimozono comes across to score. The game is tied!

Next batter, the leadoff batter, Matsunaga came up; he already had a homerun in the game. On the first pitch, he hits one over the head of the center fielder! Fukuchi comes around, and the Knights win! Matusnaga has this to say after the game, “I got a good pitch to hit, and took a hack at it. I watched it go over the centerfielder’s head, and jumped. I got lucky I didn’t have to face Yamaguchi.”

- Takaharu Sonada

Nice win!

But also, "He hits one over the head of the center fielder's head?"

Their CF grew a second head, perhaps?

Or maybe Jack Merluzzi snuck in.

Maybe he did!

Actually, if my memory serves me right, Merluzzi is the announcer for the Japanese games, too.

He sounds different in these if it is indeed him...

I'm pretty sure he isn't, the Japanese announcer's words flow too well for him to be Merluzzi.

I have done a bit of research on this topic, and you may be right dish. He lives in Japan, he did the MLB games (which were produced in Japan), so yeah, there is a possibility for him to be doing to Japanese games too.

June 21, 2014

We're playing the Buffaloes today. Interleague play has just ended, we went 16-11-1. This is our first time meeting up with the huge power hitter, Roy Leon! Should be interesting!

Kyoto Knights (47-19-1) - 9
ORIX Buffaloes (36-31-3) – 8

Knights… 0|0|2|1|3|1|0|1|1 9|16|0
Buffaloes 0|1|0|0|6|1|0|0|0 8|14|1

Knights:

Lineup:
1. Tsuyoshi Matsunaga – CF (2-5, SB)
2. Touya Egawa – RF (1-5, HR [7], 1 RBI [28])
3. Takuya Kanazawa – DH (1-5, ROE, 1 RBI [59])
4. Masato Kurihara - 1B (3-4, BB, 2 HR [35, 36], 3 RBI [70, 71, 72])
5. Taiga Kura – SS (1-5, 2B)
6. Goro Shigeno – LF (3-5, 2B, 2 RBI [42, 43])
7. Akitaka Shimozono – C (1-5, 2B)
8. Hideo Nomoto - 2B (2-5)
9. Daisuke Fukuchi - 3B (2-4, SF, HR [5], 2 RBI [26, 27])

Pitcher(s):
Kiyoshi Atori (4 2/3 IP, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 K)
Shota Imanami (2 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER)
Yoshio Fujii (1 IP, 0 R, 1 K)
Sakutarou Makida (1 IP, 0 R)

Buffaloes:

Lineup:
1. Tomotaka Sakaguchi – CF (1-5, 2B)
2. Makoto Moriyama – RF (1-5, K)
3. Takahiro Okada – DH (2-5, 2 K, HR [22], 1 RBI [54])
4. Roy Leon - 3B (1-5, K, HR [14], 2 RBI [24, 25])
5. Aarom Baldiris - 2B (3-4, 2 2B, HR [4], 1 RBI [23])
6. Hirotoshi Kitagawa - 1B (1-4, K, 2B)
7. Shunta Gotoh – SS (2-4)
8. Takeshi Hidaka – C (3-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI [25, 26, 27, 28])
9. Franicisco Caraballo – LF (0-4, K)

Pitcher(s):
Yuki Nishi (4 1/3 IP, 6 R, 6 ER, BB)
Shuichi Furukawa (2 2/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER)
Satoshi Komatsu (1 IP, 2 R, 2 ER)
Takashi Kamoshida (1 IP, 0 R)

MVP:
Masato Kurihara: His 9th inning homerun proved to be the winning run for the Knights

WP: Yoshio Fujii (3-0)
LP: Satoshi Komatsu (1-2)
S: Sakutaou Makida (18)

Kyoto Knightly
June 22, 2014
Kurihara – Thank God

– Masato Kurihara

Osaka Dome, Osaka – Yesterday’s game, quite simply, was tense. The Knights and the Buffaloes went back and forth throughout the game. The Knights had a comfortable 5 run lead, that is, until the 5th inning. The Buffaloes scored 6 runs. SIX RUNS. It started with a 2 run homer by the rookie, power hitting, 3rd baseman, Leon. Then Baldiris hit one of his own right after. Making the score 6-4. Kitagawa and Gotoh then got back-to-back hits of their own, and Hidaka clears the bases with a come-from-behind-3-run-homerun to put the Buffaloes on top, 7-6. Atori was then pulled from the game. They wouldn’t keep that lead for long though, as Kanazawa got an RBI single (making it so everyone in the starting lineup got at least one hit), driving in Matsunaga. This single was only possible by the steal of 2nd by Matsunaga, and then him getting to 3rd on a fly out to center by Egawa.

Then, in the next frame, the Buffaloes would take back to lead, on a homerun by Okada, his 22nd of the season. The game almost got worse in the bottom half of the 7th. Imanami’s drop curve dropped a bit too much and got past Shimozono. With Baldiris on third. He starts for home, but Shimozono gathers the ball quickly, and throws to Imanami to get the out at the plate. This would prove to be the most important play of the game, since it kept the score at 8-7.

In the top of the 8th, Fukuchi (batting a meager .218) came up, and on a 3-1 count he hits a bomb and it lands in the 3rd deck! Tying the game at 8! And in the top of the 9th, the big kid, Kurihara comes up to the plate. First pitch, a blast to left… And he hits a triple deck homerun of his own, putting the Knights on top, 9-8! Makida came in in the bottom half, and shut them down, 1-2-3, gaining his 18th save of the season.

In the top of the 3rd, Kurihara hit a 2-run homerun, his 35th of the season. In doing so, he also got RBI number 70, and 71. Making him the first to reach 70 RBIs in the NPB! He’s continuing his streak of being the first to reach everything in the NPB. He commented on this, “It feels great! Leading in both homeruns, and RBI. I just have to bring up my average a bit, but whatever. I suppose .330 isn’t awful.” Kurihara is ahead in the RBI race by 13, Kanazawa is in second. Pretty impressive.

- Takaharu Sonada