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11/20/2002 Archived Entry: "When The Media Blows It Bad"
This is an email I've been trying to send Jim CAPLE, but his mailbox is full, so the messages have been returned. So I reprint that correspondence here. By the way, you can see the article in question at:
Jim Caple Article
First of all, I want to say that the articles you filed from Japan were excellent. At least until the one that quoted Alex Cabrera saying that he didn't get any pitches to hit the last week of the season. Did he really say that to you personally or is this something you just heard through the grapevine? The reason I ask is because the report that said that Japanese pitchers wouldn't pitch to Cabrera is 100% WRONG.
It is true that in the series against Daiei, the Hawks pitchers wouldn't throw him anything hittable. A subsequent game against Nippon Ham saw him get some pitches to hit. In fact, he went 1-3 with a walk in that game, though he was being carefully pitched to since Satoru Kanemura was hoping to win his 10th for the first time in his career. Here is how Cabrera's at bats shaped up: popout to first. Foul popout to third. Single to center. Walk (in the eighth inning). Not much to complain about there. Seibu won that game, btw, 3-0.
Now let's look at the Orix series: In the first game of that series, he went 1-4 with a walk and two strikeouts. The fact is that he got a couple of room service fastballs in that game and he missed them because, like Alfonso Soriano and Vlad Guerrero, he was overswinging (more about that later). He was muscling up to try to attain the record. The walk in the game was controversial because it took place in the ninth. Tom Evans singled and to avoid the possibility of a game ending double play that would deny Cabrera an at bat, Lions manager Haruki Ihara had Kazuhiko Miyaji sacrifice. Orix manager Hiromichi Ishige, a tough, competitive guy who has coached in the Dodgers organization, then called for Cabrera to be intentionally walked with first base open because the score was still within reach at 4-1. The fans at ORIX HOME BALLPARK, who mostly came to see Cabrera break the record, were irked and booed their own manager lustily, delaying the game for ten minutes when plastic bottles and other debris started raining down on the field for ten minutes. Cabrera had ample chance to go downtown and both his manager and the Japanese fans wanted him to do so. Btw, Ishige caught hell in the press for walking Cabrera by both the domestic and foreign media.
In the next game against Orix, Cabrera went 1-5 with two strikeouts. Takashi Aiki said after the game that he hung a breaking ball right in Cabrera's wheelhouse, but again, Alex overswung and fouled it back. His one hit was a single to left in the seventh.
After the game, Cabrera praised Orix for pitching to him (in fact, there is a quote in the respected weekly magazine AERA to that effect) and "playing like men."
Then in the final game against Lotte, where they had a big boost in attendance (32,000 vs. the usual 10-12,000) by Japanese fans hoping he would break the record, Ihara inserted Cabrera into the one hole trying to get him as many at bats during the game as possible. Alex went 1-4 with a strikeout at Chiba Marine Stadium (Japan's answer to Candlestick), the one hit a single to left. Again, he got pitches to drive, but missed them. After the game, just like with Orix, he praised Lotte for pitching him aggressively.
Therefore, this crap about Cabrera not being given a chance to break the record is a complete fiction. Alex, if he is now saying this, may be hoping that he can make enough unpleasantness to get out of his contract with Seibu (though earlier today, he admitted that the club held the option for him next season and so he will be back unless he can somehow force a release).
One more point: During the workouts for the Japan Series, Seibu's batting coach said that Cabrera's swing was so screwed up mechanically that they had to spend a lot of time with him getting him back in synch for the championship.
The article did a disservice because it isn't true. There are things about the Japanese baseball establishment that drive me nuts. But in this case, what you wrote is a downright injustice.
Sorry to be so negative, but you really blew it.
Gary Garland
Japanese Baseball Writer
http://www.BaseballGuru.com
Hot Shots....
Yokohama Bay Stars free agent closer Takashi Saito will be meeting with the Dodgers on November 23rd at 1 p.m.....Kazuo Matsui will be talking about a new one year contract with Seibu on the 25th....Barry Bonds, while on his way to the airport yesterday, said that in his present condition, Hideki Matsui will hit only about 10-15 homers. The San Francisco slugger did believe that Kazuo Matsui would be able to adapt to MLB quickly, though....Highly touted high school hurler Yuhei Takai says he may play in the industrial league with Shin-Nihon Sekiyu. Don't be an idiot, guy. He seriously ought to comtemplate MLB, too....Japan lost to Panama 5-1 in the Intercontinental Cup Tournament in Havana and are out of the running for the first time in 21 years....Asia University won the Meiji Jingu Tournament over Tohoku Fukushi earlier today 5-3.... According to Hochi Sports, Alex Cabrera has acknowledged that he is contractually obligated to return to Seibu next season....
Art Howe Meets Sadaharu Oh
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Cashman's Eyes on New Prize
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Today in Japanese Baseball History
This report is for November 18th and on that date in Japanese baseball history in 1960, the Mainichi Shimbun sold its majority control of the Daimai Orions and it went under the control of the Daiei movie studio (note that the Daiei in question was no relation to the supermarket chain that now owns the Hawks).
