Friday, May 15, 2009

Fighters Friday Foto: In Honor of Brian Sweeney

Brian Sweeney got his first win of the season on Thursday up in Sendai, throwing 6 shutout innings of a game the Fighters would eventually win 7-0.

These are not photos from that game.

These are photos from May 6th, where Brian got to start a game and pitch almost 6 rainy innings down in Chiba. I went there mostly to see him pitch and take some photos (and because I didn't want to sit out in the rain in Kamagaya). However, the day after that game was my birthday and I had to go back to work after a week of Golden Week and had no free time, and I didn't really feel like writing about him losing the game, so I didn't. Instead, now I can post some of these out of context and be happy that he won!

So, these are for the Brian Sweeney fans, friends, and family out there.



















To make this a true Fighters Friday Foto, I should probably include some other Fighters, shouldn't I? Here's a few more from that same game...


Here's BB making some new friends.


BB waving around a Lotte flag.


Shota Ohno. I still love him.


Hichori! And that definitely is his name in Korean on the collar.


Inaba, marvelling that the rain is still continuing.


This is Minoru Nakamura, who was umpiring his 2000th game that day. He was a baseball player in high school (even hit a sayonara homerun at Koshien for Nagoya Denki HS), and was drafted by the Fighters, and never made it as an infielder, so he became a Pacific League umpire instead. (He's also umped for anything from Japan Serieses to All-Star Games to the World Baseball Classic.) I find it appropriate that this milestone came at a Fighters game. They took a minute or two after the 5th inning when the game was official to give him flowers.

But as an ex-Fighter he fits in nicely to this post :)

The Fighters need to come back to Kanto, and soon! I'm suffering withdrawal!

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