Baseball Magazine

Japanese Baseball, Guns and Meathooks

By Gary
Japanese Baseball, Guns and Meathooks "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams."
Werner Herzog

I'm walking down the street on a main boulevard near a donut shop with two unknown, genderless children. (?) I have been here before, in my waking life. It is the type of place where, if you're not wearing absolute rags they think you have money and are a half-wit who can be taken advantage of. Suddenly, a large, heavily tattooed man grabs my arm as I pass. I swing around to confront the man when I find a gun that looks comically small in his massive, sweaty meathooks pointed directly at my face. I panic, and seemingly conscious that this is a dream, I bail out and am abruptly sucked away from this destitute reality and awaken on my bed in a darkened room.

There is a moment of pause and reflection before I stare at the time-4:30-and I'll probably toss and turn for a few hours before slumbering again. My phone tells me that the Yomiuri Giants are playing the Chunichi Dragons, and it's 1-0 in the 4th. I turn it on. These teams were playing baseball on the other side of the globe and battling for playoff position-a classic Japanese version of the Dodgers/Giants rivalry with both teams wearing the respective colors of the teams from the Golden State. Who was that tattooed man, and what does he represent? And the children? Too tired, and not in the mood for Freudian consideration, I watch for a few innings-the pace and play comforting me before finally being awarded repose once again.

This entry was posted in games, Hideki Matsui and tagged Chunichi Dragons, Coco Crisp's Afro, dreams, japanese baseball, life, Nippon League, tattoo, Werner Herzog, Yomiuri Giants on by .

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