Cleveland Sports Forum

Albert Pujols took the time to chat with the DPL Elite Travel Team during their trip to the Arizona desert.

During our stay in Phoenix, AZ Albert Pujols took the time to chat with the DPL Elite Travel
Team . He gave the club an empowering message of hope after their worst showing on the trip and a lost to the Canadian- Langley Blaze. The focus of conversation to the club was concerning how fortunate they were to be in the US and the opportunity they had to show the baseball circle how special they really are.

He referred to his personal professional signing process; The road he took to the
Major Leagues after being rejected by MLB organizations in Dominican Republic as a teen, therefore finding his way to College in the U.S. with mental focus on his preparation to excel in the classroom and on the Diamond. The chat lasted about an hour and the DPL players were excited just to be in his presence, he added points on discipline, respect for the game, focus, training regimen, religion and consistency.

(Pictures were unavailable. The article was in PDF format.)

All flash, no pop / Seattle superstar Ichiro 1-for-4 in one-sided loss to Tigers

John E. Gibson / Daily Sportswriter


Ichiro Suzuki played the role of homecoming king, but it was a familiar song and dance for the Seattle Mariners on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.

Tomoaki Kanemoto homered and Minoru Iwata kept the Mariners scoreless over five innings as the Hanshin Tigers humbled Seattle 5-1 in front of a packed house on hand for the first warmup for the two-game Major League Baseball Opening Series starting Wednesday.

The Mariners, who struggled mightily scoring runs last season, only managed a solo blast in the ninth inning on the last of their eight hits to avoid a shutout.

Hanshin's Craig Brazell had two doubles and a single, and Iwata scattered six hits and a walk with five strikeouts for the victory.

But the rock star red carpet was mostly for Suzuki.

When the popular M's outfielder dug in for his first at-bat, a multitude of flashbulbs popped throughout the stadium. Suzuki lived up to the moment, poking a single down the line in left in his first game and at-bat at Tokyo Dome with Seattle.

His presence as a fan favorite trumped the homecoming for former Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks infielder Munenori Kawasaki, who doubled in his only at-bat after coming on for the second half of the game, and former Tohoku Rakuten Eagles starter Hisashi Iwakuma, who is scheduled to start today's game against the Yomiuri Giants.

"It's great for all these guys--Kuma, Mune, Ichi--all of them have an opportunity to come back and play where they played for so long...and were so popular," said Seattle skipper Eric Wedge.

"Obviously, Ichiro's been on another level for a lot of years. I think it was evident when all those guys were introduced today that it was special for the fans, and it was special for them [the players], too."

Particularly Suzuki.

"When you saw all those flashbulbs firing when he came up to home plate, I think says it all right there," the skipper said.

Iwata said he was aware of the flashes--and the fact that the stadium was quiet with no horns and drums playing when the Mariners were at-bat--but he was able to maintain his poise.

"When Ichiro was batting, there were so many flashes going off, and while I could see that, I just wanted to enjoy facing Ichiro," said Iwata, who allowed Suzuki's single in the first inning, but got him to line out in the fourth.

The heart of the order helped the Tigers put together a rally in the bottom of the second inning off M's starter Hector Noesi, acquired from the New York Yankees along with Jesus Montero in the offseason deal for pitcher Michael Pineda.

Takahiro Arai led off with a hard single to right and Craig Brazell split the gap in left center for a double to put runners at second and third.

Former Mariner Kenji Jojima hit a smash to third to drive in a run and 43-year-old Tomoaki Kanemoto showed he could still get around on a fastball, ripping his first longball of the spring deep into the seats in right for a 3-0 Hanshin lead.

"I hadn't hit a homer all spring, and although I wasn't concerned about that, it's better to have hit one out than to not have any, so I'm glad about it," said Kanemoto, who has 470 career homers and entered the game batting .192 in the preseason.

He said he did notice a difference between the MLB balls, which the Mariners' pitchers threw, and the low-impact balls from Nippon Professional Baseball used by the Hanshin pitchers.

"Today, after hitting the ball I hit for a home run, I felt the ball really carries well," Kanemoto said.

The Tigers padded their lead in the seventh inning as Hayata Ito singled and scored when Kohei Shibata cracked a double to right center. Shibata came home when Takashi Toritani sliced a single to left to make it 5-0.

The Mariners avoided a shutout when Casper Wells took Kyuji Fujikawa deep to left center to open the ninth inning. Fujikawa retired the next three to close it out.

(Mar. 26, 2012)

Making a difference / Mariners, A's to visit disaster-struck area before season-opening series

Jim Allen / Daily Sportswriter


The Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners have arrived in Japan to do more than just play some ball and wave the flag for their clubs and Major League Baseball.

While most of the players are focused on preparing for their first two games of the 2012 season, there is another agenda on the table, Mariners chief executive officer Howard Lincoln said.

"One of the things that I hope this opening series will bring is some small measure of help to all of the victims of the great earthquake and tsunami of last year," Lincoln said.

"Let's hope that all of the people who are still suffering get some small measure of joy from these games."

The Athletics will take on the Hanshin Tigers in Sunday's first exhibition at noon, with the Mariners and Yomiuri Giants to follow at 7 p.m. The Mariners, with a trio from Japan's World Baseball Classic-winning team in Ichiro Suzuki, Hisashi Iwakuma and Munenori Kawasaki, will play the Tigers at noon on Monday, while the A's play the Giants in the final exhibition later that evening.

On Tuesday, players from both major league clubs will travel to Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, to conduct a baseball clinic before playing their season-opening games on Wednesday and Thursday.

"I'm honored to be here," said Mariners ace "King" Felix Hernandez, the 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner.

"I'm just looking forward to pitching on Opening Day."

Although Suzuki is an established star in entering his 12th major league season and Iwakuma came to camp with a major- league contract, infielder Kawasaki signed a minor-league deal over the winter and needed to stand out in the spring to get this far, and he has done just that.

"Kawasaki had a great camp and made a great impression on all of us with his attitude and his ability," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. "Obviously he had to come to spring training and make the ball club. He's still with us here and he's part of our club right now.

"I think it's exciting for him as well as for Kuma to have a chance to come back to Japan and play in their homeland with their new teammates.

"We're excited to have both of them."

Iwakuma, who as a member of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles had a closer view than many of the devastation wrought by last year's Great East Japan Earthquake, is keen on making a difference.

"Because I was playing baseball in that area, I really want to give something back to the local community," said the right-hander. "To do that, I thought I'd need to make the [25-man] roster and play there and perhaps give courage to people in the disaster area."

It is the second trip to Japan for Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp, who played against the A's in 2008 as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

"In 2008, it was like a dream come true," Crisp said. "When I was growing up, I always thought I wanted to play out here--and here I am again."

A's general manager Billy Beane said the advantages of opening the season in Japan outweighed the difficulties involved in the schedule and travel.

"Coming here the first time gave us a template for how to prepare," Beane said.

"The baseball is great, but for me as the general manager it's about the growth of the game and spreading the game and I think this is a real part of that.

"It would be great if we saw more and more of these games. Is it a little bit of an inconvenience? It's different, but I don't think it's something that would ever put us in a position where we wouldn't want to come back again and again."

(Mar. 25, 2012)

MLB OPENING GAMES SPECIAL / A game worth waiting for

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Major League Baseball is staging its season-opening games, the 2012 gloops MLB Opening Series Japan, on March 28 and 29 at Tokyo Dome. The first MLB games in Japan in four years will pit the Seattle Mariners, of Ichiro Suzuki, Hisashi Iwakuma and Munenori Kawasaki, against the Oakland Athletics, a team popularized by the movie "MoneyBall."

The series will be a battle between teams brimming with young prospects. But it will also be the start of Ichiro's final season under contract. Fans will be wondering what Ichiro will bring as the Mariners' new No. 3 hitter, so there will be plenty of things to look for.

Before the opening games begin, the two teams will play preseason games against the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers.

===

Ichiro poised for 12th-year relaunch

When his name is finally announced and he approaches the left-handed batter's box, Tokyo Dome will greet the Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki with the flashes of innumerable cameras.

That's the image that awaits his first at-bat.

"It [the camera flashes] must be hard on the fielders," he said with a smile. "But I don't dislike it. Because at that instant, the feeling is, 'Wow!'"

Since he moved to the major leagues, Japan has experienced that kind of Ichiro moment in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) and in Major League Baseball's All-Star tours of Japan, but it will be a first with him playing for the Mariners.

Ichiro's third major league season, in 2003, was scheduled to start in Japan between the same two teams who will open here this season.

"I wanted to open a season at least once in my home country," he said of his feelings at the time.

Unfortunately, that opening series was canceled as tensions grew over the Iraq situation. As a result, his emotions about this opening series have been building.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I want to treat it specially," he said.

Opening Day is not just one game out of 162, it's a special game. With the game taking place in Japan, its weight will be increased that much more.

"Had this [series] taken place in my third year, I don't think people in Japan would be all that well informed about myself and about the team," Ichiro said. "But now so many people know about the past 11 years, so one would think its going to be much bigger."

This is also the final year of his current deal with the Mariners. How well one does on Opening Day can predict success or failure for the rest of the season, and Ichiro himself feels the weight of expectations upon him.

In addition, he will need to cope with the time difference. There is a 16-hour difference between Arizona, where the Mariners' spring camp is located, and Japan.

"Even now, I cannot get used to the three-hour difference [when we travel between the east and west coasts of North America]," Ichiro said.

"Even for American people, who consider time differences a part of their lives, it [the 16-hour difference] is really tough."

Last season, Ichiro saw his 10-year streaks of getting 200 hits, batting .300, playing in the All-Star Game and winning a Gold Glove, all came to a halt.

Facing his 12th year in the big leagues, the man who wears No. 51 is ready for a relaunch season, and it's starting in Japan.

===

Hope powers Iwakuma's major quest

When Hisashi Iwakuma signed with the Seattle Mariners, the plan for the team to open its season in Japan was already a done deal.

It was only natural that Iwakuma would do his utmost to take the mound in those games.

"I was very happy [about opening in Japan]," he said. "I wanted to make the most of the opportunity."

That the event will support reconstruction after last year's Great East Japan Earthquake, made Iwakuma all the more eager.

After the 2010 season, when he was with Tohoku Rakuten, Iwakuma tried to move to the majors via the posting system, but his dream failed to become a reality and he remained in Japan. He was getting ready for the start of last season, determined to regroup and move forward as a member of the Eagles, when the earthquake struck on March 11.

"There were painful experiences, but overcoming them one by one enabled me to get where I am today," Iwakuma said. "I think it was a good thing that I played in Japan last year."

He has the characters for the word "hope" stitched on his glove. It is a message with meaning both for himself, as he takes on the challenge of playing in a new environment, and for the people of the disaster-stricken areas.

"I am very determined to fight from the start of my first year and cling to my hope of raising my game," Iwakuma said.

"[It would be great] if I could be a source of hope to everyone..."

Last season Sendai native Takashi Saito (now with the Diamondbacks) made an impression with his efforts for the Milwaukee Brewers.

"I felt a kind of sensation watching him fight for all he was worth," Iwakuma said, referring to how Saito's play inspired his own efforts in Japan.

Now that he has a chance, Iwakuma has a strong desire this year to show his home country something.

"I want to be able to battle game after game," he said. "To do that, I'll prepare well and keep my spirits up."

===

The man behind 'Moneyball'

Despite being underfunded, the Oakland Athletics won four American League Western Division titles from 2000-06 under general manager Billy Beane.

Beane, who was handed the job in 1997, has been credited with much of that success. He and his methods achieved fame after being the subject of last year's movie "Moneyball."

This year, Beane has traded away two of his key starting pitchers, but outmaneuvered the Florida Marlins to sign power-hitting Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, moves that made the team younger.

This year's Major League openers will be Beane's second after he came with the Athletics in 2008, when the exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers left quite an impression on him, due to the Japanese teams' attention to fundamentals within a single play.

When he was here last time along with his daughter Casey, they energetically pursued activities unrelated to baseball, including making a brief visit to Mt. Fuji.

Last time, Beane failed to get to Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, but he made up for that at the first opportunity this time.

"I went there this morning," he said Saturday. "It was great.

"The value we get out of this--not just baseball but the cultural exchange--is just incredibly unique."

===

Catcher Suzuki back for more

Catcher Kurt Suzuki, a third-generation Japanese American with relatives in Fukushima Prefecture, is making his second season-opening trip to Japan, after participating in the 2008 series between the A's and the Boston Red Sox.

"It's a cool experience as a player," said Suzuki. "Not everyone gets the chance to do that. I grew up eating Japanese food and I love to eat."

Suzuki's best memory of the trip was "experiencing the whole atmsophere of playing in Japan."

With Suzuki behind the plate as the club's principle catcher last season, the Athletics posted the AL's best ERA. And though his primary duty is defensive, he has reached double digits in home runs in each of the past three seasons and is sometimes asked to bat in the middle of the order.

Because the A's are beginning a youth movement, the makeup of the batting order is going to change, but Suzuki said it will have no impact on how he plays.

"I...just do what I can do. I'm not trying to be anybody else but be the hitter I know I can be," he said.

(Mar. 25, 2012)

Monday, March 26, 2012

Suzuki ignites A's in victory over Giants

By JASON COSKREY

Staff writer

The Oakland Athletics won one for MLB.

Time to shine: Oakland A's veteran Kurt Suzuki (right) is congratulated by teammate Josh Reddick after blasting a two-run homer in the seventh inning against the Yomiuri Giants on Sunday at Tokyo Dome. The A's beat the Giants 5-0. KYODO


After watching the Seattle Mariners go down earlier in the day, the A's got a big assist from a two-run homer by Kurt Suzuki in a 5-0 win over the Yomiuri Giants on Sunday night at Tokyo Dome.

"We've been really good all spring offensively," said A's manager Bob Melvin. "Once we scored the first run and 'Zuk' (Suzuki) hits a home run, I think everybody relaxed a little bit and felt a little more comfortable here."

The result made it one win each for NPB and MLB during the two exhibition games held at the Big Egg Sunday. The Hanshin Tigers defeated the Mariners 5-1 earlier in the day.

The A's were ahead by just one run — courtesy of an RBI single by Jemile Weeks in the second inning — entering the seventh.

Oakland outfielder Josh Reddick singled to start the inning, and Suzuki followed with his two-run homer that made the score 3-0. Weeks made it 4-0 with an RBI single and Giants reliever Junpei Ono walked in a run later in the inning.

A's starter Tom Milone gave up two hits and struck out seven in five scoreless innings on the mound. Giants pitcher Ryosuke Miyaguni pitched well in defeat, allowing one run on three hits and striking out nine over five innings.

"I was nervous at the beginning, but I was more concerned about getting a good result out of today's performance," Miyaguni said.

Yomiuri reliever Levi Romero's outing wasn't nearly as productive. Romero failed to record an out and was charged with four runs on four hits in the seventh.

The A's will try to make it two-for-two against NPB teams on Monday when they face Hanshin.

Yomiuri will face Ichiro Suzuki and the Mariners later Monday night. In addition to the hoopla surrounding Ichiro's return to Japan, Hisashi Iwakuma will get the start for Seattle. D.J. Houlton will toe the rubber for the Giants.

Houlton said there was no special significance in facing a MLB team.

"It's not really that big of a deal," Houlton said. "I just want to throw well, throw how I've been throwing over here. I'm just kind of curious to see how it works against them."

Facing the Mariners comes with a special challenge. During Ichiro's at-bats against Hanshin, flashbulbs were going off all across Tokyo Dome. Another difference is the near total silence in the Big Egg when the Mariners were at the plate, a far cry from the usual chanting of the ouendan during NPB games.

"During Ichiro's at-bats, I saw an enormous amount of camera flashes out there," said Tigers pitcher Minoru Iwata, who started the early game Sunday. "I was saying to myself that I shouldn't be bothered by that, and I try to concentrate on my pitches and enjoy facing Ichiro."

Houlton isn't worried about any possible distractions.

"Once out out there, I don't think I'm really going to notice stuff like that," Houlton said. "I pitched against some big guys back home too. I don't think that should really bother me at this point in my life. It'll be nice to see the atmosphere tomorrow night in that game."

MLB shows support to tsunami-damaged area

A's, Mariners team up for Little League clinic in Northeast Japan

By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 03/27/12 6:32 AM ET

SHINOMAKI, Japan --

The first thing you notice is the smell.

The windows are open in the bus and the odor rushes in with the wind. It's acrid, nauseating and all-encompassing. It's the smell of death, and it's still here, a year later.

It's all there in front of you -- everything you read about beginning on March 11, 2011, everything you saw on television and in small pictures on computer monitors that might have given you pause during a work day or at night before you drifted off to sleep but dissolved into the inevitable next day's news cycle of a complicated world.

Piles of debris from collapsed houses, twisted rebar, tires, lumber, and who knows what else heaped as high as apartment buildings. A shoreline stacked and lined with the shells of rusted-out, mangled cars and trucks. Blown-out windows and barely standing foundations of the homes that weren't swallowed whole by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that took more than 15,000 lives up and down 150 miles of a once-thriving coastline -- about 5,000 of them right here in a city that once totaled more than 164,000 residents.

And more:

an empty two-acre corner dirt lot in the shadow of a paper mill where a factory once churned into the night. A 40-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide decorative red logo can boasting the wares of a seaside fish-packing plant, now dented and lying on its side by the road, almost 1,000 feet from where it once stood with blue-collar pride.

And even more:

a subdivisions recognizable only by their earliest zoning markers, makeshift graveyards dotting the barren remains of street corners where elementary schools were swept away into the angry waters.

On Tuesday afternoon, the traveling party from Major League Baseball, the Oakland A's, the Seattle Mariners and American and Japanese media members ventured into this hallowed ground on the way to the local baseball stadium, where they were to meet with local Little Leaguers, put on a clinic, enjoy a hot lunch, present a $500,000 check to aid in stadium refurbishment, and maybe conjure up a smile or two before heading back to Tokyo to prepare for Wednesday's Opening Day festivities.

As the buses rolled through the tsunami zone, the only sounds were the clicking of cameras and the rush to huddle by windows and observe the horrifying images that would never be forgotten. Soon enough, however, the vehicles took a turn.

The sun was warming a crisp spring day when the ballpark appeared, flanked by hundreds of children and families waiting in a line. The kids, plucked from the local Little Leagues, were well prepared to greet their heroes. They beamed in their spotless uniforms. Appropriately, it seemed that half wore A's caps and half donned hats bedecked by the Seattle "S."

The players and officials exited the buses to cheers, high fives and cat calls for autographs. Pitchers Tyson Ross, Tommy Milone and Evan Scribner represented the A's, along with their special adviser, Phil Garner, their president, Michael Crowley, and their elephant mascot, Stomper. The Mariners brought along pitchers Hector Noesi and Japanese native Hisashi Iwakuma, third baseman Alex Liddi, their manager, Eric Wedge, and their mascot, the Mariner Moose.

Suddenly the landscape brightened from smiles. The children huddled around Stomper and the Moose, hugging the larger-than-life animal characters and laughing. They posed for pictures. They shouted out the English they'd been learning: "How's it going?" and "Thank you very much."

MLB senior vice president of international business operations Paul Archey and Jim Small, the vice president of MLB Asia, handed the check to local officials and the players went off with the kids to play catch, talk a little baseball and do some drills. Their parents and families, the ones who survived last year's horrors but surely had tragic stories to tell, sat in the stands or roamed the grounds, joyful and content, if just for a day.

"I think, first of all, we're honored to be part of something like this," Archey said while standing near first base of the dirt infield. "And humbled. When you go through the city to get here, it really makes it personal.

"I've heard the Commissioner say many times that baseball is a social institution and a global institution, and that's never more evident than today and what you see going on here."

For each of the players, Tuesday represented something different. Milone, the A's young left-hander, said he was grateful to be here, thankful that he was given the opportunity to make children smile.

"We can't be in their shoes, we can't feel what they felt a year ago when the tsunami hit, but you can kind of get a feeling for the kind of people that they are," Milone said.

"They come out here and they're still smiling, even though something devastating like that happens. You feel like they're strong and they're going to be able to go on with their lives."

Having baseball around helps.

Shoshin Kometani, a local official, helps oversee the Little Leagues. He explained that many of the children from this area went to an elementary school that was leveled by the tsunami. Many have been forced out of their prefecture into other districts. Many are still living in temporary homes. Many receive their baseball instruction at home.

But Tuesday represented a small look into a better future. MLB and the MLB Players Association and partners are working together to refurbish the earthquake-damaged ballpark. A new drainage system will be put in, along with synthetic turf.

"You see their faces," Kometani said through an interpreter. "As you can see, the kids are smiling and happy, and living around here is not happy, so that is really good after this devastation."

The players and coaches and MLB officials were smiling, too, through the clinic and the ensuing lunch, when the players served Tonjiru, a traditional Japanese meal of steaming hearty pork stew, to the children and families who still struggle every day to piece their lives back together.

"It's pure devastation," Wedge said. "But the fact that we can help this baseball field and give these kids and these parents somewhere to go and play and have some sense of enjoyment from time to time as they're rebuilding everything, hopefully that's a start to something and a new beginning."

Like many of Tuesday's visitors, Wedge couldn't help but keep looking around, speechless at times and amazed at the unfettered elation he was witnessing from people whose worlds literally disappeared right in front of them only a year ago.

"Give them hope," he said. "Let these kids get back on track. It lets them know that they're not alone in this thing."

Wedge then pointed to a gaggle of Little Leaguers mugging for a video camera, raising the No. 1 finger or the peace sign, pumped beyond belief to be hobnobbing with real Major Leaguers.

"That," he said, "is the way they should look all the time."

Ackley, Ichiro unstoppable in Mariners' win

By Greg Johns / MLB.com | 3/28/2012 9:15 AM ET

TOKYO --
Ichiro Suzuki racked up four hits -- including an RBI single in the 11th inning -- as the Mariners right fielder had a homecoming to remember in a 3-1 victory for the Mariners in the first game of the Japan Opening Series with the A's on Wednesday.

Second baseman Dustin Ackley drove in Seattle's other two runs with a home run in the fourth and the go-ahead single in the 11th, while Felix Hernandez pitched eight innings of one-run ball.

The Mariners received much of the crowd support despite the A's playing as the "home team" in this two-game set thanks in large part to Ichiro's presence.

Reliever Tom Wilhelmsen pitched two scoreless frames in relief of Hernandez and closer Brandon League slammed the door in the 11th.

The Mariners have now won six straight Opening Day games, the longest streak in the Majors. The D-backs and Pirates have won five straight heading into their openers next week.

It was the Mariners' fifth extra-inning affair on Opening Day and first since 1996, with their record now 4-1 in those games.

The two teams square off again Thursday in the Tokyo Dome at 2:04 a.m. PT, then return home to the United States after a week in Japan. The Mariners will return to Cactus League action for five games before facing the A's again to resume the regular season in Oakland on April 6.

Ichiro delighted the crowd of 44,227 with his 4-for-5 day as he tied Ken Griffey Jr's team record for Opening Day hits, set in 1990. The 38-year-old, now hitting third in the Mariners lineup, moved past Griffey for the franchise lead for most career Opening Day hits with 17, three more than Griffey.

Fittingly it was Ichiro recording the first hit in the Majors in 2012 with his infield single in the top of the first. He added another infield single in the fourth and then laced a sharp base hit to center in the sixth.

Hernandez gave up five hits and one run in his fifth Opening Day start and is now 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA (seven earned runs in 39 2/3 innings) in season openers. The 25-year-old threw a complete-game victory on Opening Day against the A's in Oakland last year, giving up five hits and two runs in a 6-2 win, and was equally dominant in this one.

But the Mariners managed just one run off A's starter Brandon McCarthy, who went seven innings and allowed six hits.

Seattle got a leadoff single from Michael Saunders in the third and the center fielder then stole second. But Saunders went to third on a ground ball in front of him to the shortstop by Brendan Ryan and was thrown out, with Ryan caught stealing moments later to kill that rally.

Hernandez gave up a run in the bottom of the fourth on a pair of doubles by Pennington and Kurt Suzuki, but otherwise shut down the A's on just three other hits in his eight innings of duty. He gave up a leadoff double to Yoenis Cespedes in the seventh, but stranded him there.

Alfredo Despaigne running out of season in his quest to break the Cuban homerun record. He's stuck on 31 for over a week needing 33 to tie and 34 to break with about two weeks to go.

Tsunami relief heroes honored at opener

By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 03/28/12 10:12 AM ET

TOKYO --

Andy Anderson had a pink cell phone with frilly straps poking out of his pants pocket as he threw a ceremonial first pitch before the first Major League Baseball game played during the 2012 season in the Tokyo Dome.

Anderson didn't know if he could summon the strength to get the ball to home plate, so he looked down at that pink phone.

"I had Taylor's cell phone and her straps ... because they remind me of her, and when I think about her, I feel stronger, so I was able to get the ball in there," Anderson said. "That's what I thought about: Taylor."

Taylor Anderson was a 24-year-old English teacher living in the city of Ishinomaki, about 200 miles north of Tokyo on the Japanese coast. On March 11, 2011, she had ridden her bicycle to her school, Mangokuura Elementary. When the 9.0 earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m., Anderson helped her students by ushering them onto a playground from where their parents could pick them up. Once she felt they were safe, she began to ride her bike home. She was caught up in the ensuing tsunami, and her body was found 10 days later.

Since that time, her parents, Andy and Jean, have helped start the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund, which has donated money to help rebuild the Tohoku region, which was devastated by the disaster, and the loved ones of the more than 15,000 people who perished.

On Wednesday night, the Andersons were joined by two other heroes who have dedicated their lives to helping in the recovery as MLB presented a touching video presentation and honored these representatives of the cause prior to the first pitch.

"We felt that we had an opportunity to really remind people about the amount of work that needs to be done in Tohoku in the coming months and years to get it back to where it needs to be, so we looked at over 200 different stories, and we felt that the people that you see up here tonight best exemplified the volunteerism that took place in Tohoku in both the days and the subsequent year after March 11," MLB Asia vice president Jim Small said during an in-game news conference at the stadium.

"By honoring them, we would be inspiring others."

The other two heroes had similar stories of courage under pressure and grace toward their fellow human beings.

One was Shinji Takai, a man who gave up a lucrative career as a computer programmer to work with the land in his town of Kesennuma as a strawberry farmer. Takai and his wife and son survived the tsunami, but his farm and his home did not. During the recovery, Takai pitched in to clean up his wrecked village and discovered countless family photographs among the rubble. He collected thousands upon thousands of images, all damaged by the receding waters and fraying caused by piles of debris, and he resolved to have them restored. So far, he has succeeded, but he has a long way to go.

Takai said Wednesday night that being acknowledged for his deeds only reminded him of three goals: to be a better father, to continue his photo project and to get his farm back up and running as soon as possible.

"Tonight I came up with a new determination for this," he said through an interpreter. "So I want to thank everyone for making me feel this way tonight."

The third hero was Naho Hozumi, who was at lunch with a friend in Tokyo when the tsunami hit. Unable to turn off the TV, she called up a local community organization, Hands On Tokyo, and within days was packing trucks with supplies. Soon enough, she was the Hands On Tokyo disaster relief program manager, a far cry from her previous existence as a stay-at-home mother and PTA member who played a lot of tennis and hung out with her husband, son and two dogs. She continues to work for Hands On Tokyo to this day and said she was hopeful that Wednesday's publicity would encourage more people to get involved in a cause that still needs a massive amount of help.

"It's been over a year, and right now, there are more than 1,000 volunteers and many more sponsors who are trying to meet the needs of the disaster area," she said through an interpreter. "After a year of volunteering, the amount of volunteers is not as high as it used to be a year back, but with this big event, we feel that the importance of volunteering has been restored.

"So we would like to continue our progress as much as possible and we'd like to expand it to meet more needs of those who are suffering."

As the heroes stood on the field for the national anthems, the flags of the United States and Japan were in clear view and the word "Tomodachi" -- or "friendship" -- appeared on the big screen at the end of the video that featured narration by Derek Jeter, Bobby Valentine and Cal Ripken Jr.

After the first inning, the news conference contained heartwarming and heartbreaking stories, including those of the Andersons and three Little Leaguers from Ishinomaki, who appeared in their uniforms and smiled broadly as they were presented real big league baseballs by Small.

"If it weren't for this opportunity, I wouldn't be inside the Tokyo Dome, so I'm thankful for this opportunity," said Sho Chiba, an 11-year-old from Inai Elementary School. "It was very sad. Our team manager passed away because of the disaster, so I decided that I would honor his memory and keep playing baseball the way he taught us."

Haruka Kumagai, 11, of Okaido Elementary School said he lost his home in the tsunami and ended up moving to two different temporary shelters.

"From there," he said, "I had to go a long way to baseball practice every Saturday and Sunday, and those trips were very hard."

And then there was 11-year-old Ryuto Abe of Kaihoku Elementary, whose mother perished in the tsunami but couldn't help but beam any time he interacted with a Major Leaguer on Tuesday during the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners' visit to the stadium in Ishinomaki or on Wednesday on the field before the game.

"I lost my mother in the tsunami, but I'm quite sure that she was watching me being with the players from up there," Abe said. "So I'm really thankful."

And despite all their loss and grief, so were the Andersons.

"My message to the people of Tohoku is that Jean and I have had a loss, as many of the people of Tohoku have, and what we think about is remembering Taylor and how we think she would have acted, and honoring her by acting in that way," Andy Anderson said.

"So I hope what the people in Tohoku can do is think the same. I just think that we all have to heal, and the way to heal is to look forward and hope. I think remembering our loved ones and how they acted gives us a lot of hope. And I think that helps you get up every day and have the courage to change your life, because people have to change their lives after what happened."

Alfredo Despaigne dispara cuadrangulares #32 y #33

Despaigne needs just one more homer to break the Cuban homerun mark. The Cuban schedule calls for 90 games. 79 games are in the books. This year, they've added 6 extra games (I think its 6). To avoid an asterisk next to his name, he has 11 games left to break the record in a standard 90 game season.

The 33 homers in 79 games is roughly equivalent to hitting 60+ homers in a 162 major league baseball season if my math is correct.

Eduardo Perez will manage the Licey Tigers

Written by Enrique Rojas ESPNdeportesLosAngeles.com

ORLANDO, Florida. -

Eduardo Perez, hitting coach of the Miami Marlins, will be appointed in coming days as manager of the Licey Tigers of winter baseball from the Dominican Republic, said several sources.

Fernando Ravelo, general manager of Licey, did not confirm the imminent appointment of Perez, but stressed the qualities of the coach. "Eduardo impressed us in an interview that we had last week, but equally there are other names on the list," said Ravelo.

"Basically we have two great candidates and deciding who will be the manager will be made by the board in the coming days," he said.

"It's an honor to be interviewed by Licey, the Yankees of the Caribbean", said Perez. "I am positive, looking forward and hoping to join the blue machinery," he added.

"I grew up and live in Loiza Street in Santurce and follow the Licey Tigers as strong as when I lived in the Dominican. I do know of the passion of Licey fans," Perez said .

Perez, 42, played 13 seasons in the majors leagues between 1993 and 2006, was the Manager of the Year in the League of Puerto Rico in 2008, when he led the Ponce Lions to the championship, and led the Puerto Rican national team between 2008 and 2010.

After spending five years working as a baseball analyst for ESPN, Perez was named hitting coach of the Marlins in June last year. He was retained by the new overseer of the Marlins, Ozzie Guillen.

Perez is the son of Tony Perez, the former Cuban member data baseman Hall of Fame. Despite his Cuban roots, Eduardo Perez, who was born in Cincinnati, is also considered Puerto Rican.

Licey, the most popular team in the Dominican Republic, was crowned champion last in the 2009-10 season and is tied with Cibao Eagles, with 20 championship.

However, five seasons have passed since the last time a leader completed a season for the Cats.

Hakuhodo gets rights for MLB's Japanese site

Deal could bring more than 2,500 games to fans in Japan

By Paul Casella / MLB.com | 03/28/12 7:15 PM ET

On the same day that Major League Baseball opened its 2012 season in Japan, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with MLB Advanced Media that grants Hakuhodo exclusive rights to run MLB's Japanese language website.

Along with powering the official Japanese website, MLB.JP, the agreement also allows Hakuhodo to distribute live streaming of select MLB games within Japan. The new deal, which runs from 2012 through Dec. 2014, has the potential to bring more than 2,500 games, including postseason contents, to Japanese fans.

The website, which officially launched on Tuesday, will give MLB.TV subscribers access to every MLB game, as well as access to past games, on their computers. Along with access to live footage, the website, in collaboration with GyaO!, will also distribute one free "Game of the Day," while also providing video highlights of game results and top plays from popular Japanese players in the Major Leagues to all fans. The video footage will also be available on smartphones, as part of the MLB.JP Mobile site.

Opening Day also brought another innovation for Major League fans in Japan, as Gloops, the title sponsor of the Japan Opening Series, announced that it has launched an officially-licensed Major League Baseball social game. Gloops, a Japanese company that develops and operates social applications for mobile phones, introduced Major League Card, a game available free of cost on mobile devices in Japan which allows users to manage their teams with more than 700 active Major League players from each of the 30 clubs.

"We're pleased to be working with Gloops and look forward to offering a solid product for baseball fans and fans-to-be in Japan," said Mike Amin, category director, interactive media, MLB Players Association. "We hope those who play the mobile game will discover the breadth of amazing players in Major League Baseball and enjoy all the action associated with building and managing a professional baseball team."

HOMERUN #32

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkRWkNf-vjg

HOMERUN #33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-WEEY3K ... ure=relmfu