Lambin Kai going away party

Me and the members of Lambin Kai. ("Team Lambin" Support Group)

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil (September 13th)

The night before our day off, Bobby called me and said for us to meet him at
the train station in the morning.   He said to pack a bag because we would
be staying overnight.   "Ummm.ok."  He also invited Lenny (our minor league
manager), his wife Shane, and Gary.  I had no idea where we were going or
what he had planned (much to Sara's chagrin.  She had no idea what to pack).
I just knew that any day with Bobby would definitely be an adventure.   

The next morning Sara and I wake up at 7 a.m. to meet Bobby and the gang at
Kahim-Makuhari train station.  We were met by Bobby's old interpreter,
Jimi-san, from when Bobby managed the Marines for one year in 1996.  He put
this whole thing together when he heard that Bobby had never seen a famous
part of Japan called Nikko.  It is said that if you visit Japan and don't
see Nikko, then you never really saw Japan.  Jimi contacted a couple friends
to take care of us and show us around. Bobby was nice enough to invite us to
tag along.  You're not gonna believe what all we got to do.  

We rode into Tokyo and met Jimi-san's good friend, Takubo-san.  He bought
everybody Shinkonsen tickets (the bullet train) and we were off, heading
north of Tokyo, up into the mountains.   After about an hour ride, we arrive
at our destination.  We go outside the station and are met by Takubo-san's
good friend Suzuki-san.  He is super nice. Suszuki escorts us to our PRIVATE
tour bus.  It looked like something our baseball team would travel around
in.  This is when we realized this would be a first class operation.  

We board the bus and drive about 45 minutes up into the mountains until we
arrive at Nikko.  Nikko is a beautiful area on the side of a mountain,
sporting numerous shrines, temples, pagodas, and beautifully manicured
landscaping.  The Toshogu Shrine is the main attraction.  It is where the
original Shogunate lived back in the early 1600's.  (The title of Shogun was
reserved for the most powerful ruler in Japan, who was protected by special
warriors called samurais.)  

We pull up to park at the shrines headquarters and guess who is outside the
bus? Samurais! (They were dressed up for a movie being filmed).  We stop for
a quick photo op, and keep moving inside where we are met by the head priest
of The Toshogu Buddhist Temple and Shrine, Inaba-san.   This is a very
special honor, because the priest usually only meets with heads of state and
dignitaries.  The last person to dine with him was the Prime Minister of New
Zealand!  We are led up stairs to his private dining room.  A long table
with exquisite place settings and wall to wall windows over looking some of
the property's famous 600 year old cedar trees that dot the landscape.  The
trees are considered national treasures and cannot be touched, but if they
were to be sold, each tree would go for $700,000 each.   We sit down and the
priest thanks us for coming, raises his wine glass and "kompei's" us.  How
Cool!  The food was phenomenal!  Traditional Japanese cuisine, including
seafood dumplings, tempura vegetables, beef tenderloin, tofu and greens
salad, pickled veggies, soba noodles, sushi, bread, and more.  We dine and
drink while the priest teaches us about the history of the temple.  He has
lived on the property for 48 years.  Aside from being the residence of the
first Shogun, the shrine is most famous for being the original location
where the phrase, "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil", comes from.
The samurais were taught to never disclose any information they heard or
saw, to protect the Shogun and his land.  Carved into one of the shrines is
three monkeys covering there eyes, ears, and mouth.   Ha!   I feel like I'm
in some sort of movie.  Sara and I can't stop giggling because we can't
believe how lucky we are.  We savor the food, wine, and beer and it's time
for our guided tour.  Inaba-san's son guided our tour (who was educated at
UC Santa Barbara), taking us thru all the
temples, shrines, pagodas, explaining as he went.  We take pics and marvel
at the details carved into the shrines and temples.  It took some 15,000
artisans over 2 years to construct and build it.  

We eventually make it to one of the buildings of worship.  The guide has us
take off our shoes and enter the sacred building for a private prayer
service to bring us good luck and fortune.  I notice we are the only ones
that get this privilege.  Come to find out, VERY few people get to do this.
We sit down and a Buddhist priest starts banging on a big "gong" and
chanting in some unrecognizable tongues.  He stands and waves flags and
shakes bells, all while half chanting, half singing.  We sit quietly,
wondering what the heck is going on.  He holds a script in his hand and
starts asking the gods for good health and good fortune.  I hear him say
"Lotte Marines", Bobby Valentine, and then I hear mine and Sara's name.  Ha!
I'm mesmerized by the whole thing.  Then of course he has to call us up in
front of the "altar" to do a ceremonial offering to the Buddhist gods.  (I
hope my god wasn't pissed)  Anyways, Gary and Bobby go first.  The priest
hands them a branch from what looks like a fig tree.  You are to bow, place
the branch on the alter, clap twice, bow twice, clap once,  then bow once,
and head back to your seat with the next two people repeating the same
routine.  Sounds easy right?  Well Gary, half drunk from the wine at lunch,
takes the branch and accidentally DROPS it on the floor!  (In Japan, it is
not proper to put things on the floor).  Inaba-san quickly grabs a new
branch for Gary before the Buddhist gods unleashed their fury on us.  Way to
go Gary.  Sara and I perform the ritual with no problem and the ceremony
ended shortly there after.  We bow deeply to the priest and exit the temple.
Its not every day you get to do that!

We keep walking up the path, checking out a couple more buildings, the
Shoguns' gravesite and then its time to head back down.  By now the entire
place has realized Bobby is in their presence.  There are hordes of people
following us around trying to touch and talk to Bobby.  After a couple more
photo ops, we are escorted thru the private grounds and back to our tour
bus.  We meet again with the head priest for coffee and dessert.  We are
presented with personalized, hand painted wooden plates with the three
monkeys on one side, and Japanese writing on the other side, wishing us luck
and good fortune.  How cool!   We thank him again, take pics, and hop back
on the bus.  

Our bus takes off up the mountain side, twisting and turning, meandering for
about 45 minutes until we are damn near in the clouds.  The views back down
the mountain are breathtaking.  We get to the top of the mountain and there
is a beautiful lake with mountains surrounding every side.  We drive by the
lake, gasping at its beauty.  We head away from the lake and park.  We hop
out, not knowing what we were doing, but I hear water falling.  We walk down
this trail and we are overlooking a gorgeous water fall.  The river from the
lake splits in two just above the waterfall, making two waterfalls side by
side.  The green trees billow over the rocks in unison with the water.  We
take a couple pics, admire its beauty and hop back on the bus.  

Just when I thought I couldn't handle any more mind blowing nature, we pull
into another parking lot, get off the bus, buy a couple tickets and hop in
an elevator.  We take the elevator DOWN thirty stories, get out, walk thru
an underground tunnel and get spit out at the base of a 350 foot
waterfall!!!   I've seen a lot of waterfalls in my day, but none (besides
Niagara) have compared to this.   The observation deck was at the base of
the canyon which made for a really cool angle for viewing the waterfall.  We
take some more pics and marvel once again at one of Gods gorgeous creations.
The power, the sound, the beauty, I just shake my head and thank my lucky
stars that I get to see things like this.  

We head back down the mountain, enjoying the views, and telling stories.
Bobby's stories are classic.  He told the story of when he played for Tommy
Lasorda when he was 19 in AAA and made 54 errors as their Shortstop!
Anyways, by now it's around 6:30 p.m. and we pull into the hotel we will be
staying in for the night.  WOW!!  It's a luxury Japanese style hotel,
sporting numerous "onsens" (hot baths), pool tables, karaoke, dining, and
more.  We are greeted by the hostess who personally guides us to our room.
It's a quant little room with two "yukatas" for us to put on.  "Yukatas" are
light weight kimonos (robes if you don't know what a kimono is).  Our
hostess helps us put them on.  They have to be worn a certain way.of course.
She ties Sara's sash in a beautiful knot around her waist, and helps me do
the same.  We looked like true Japanese.  (Well Sara did, my blonde hair and
red beard gave me away.)  The men headed straight for the "onsen" to relax
before we had to meet for dinner.  (The "onsen" was pretty over rated.  It's
pretty much a big indoor hot-tub that you share with a bunch of other naked
dudes).  Anyways, after soaking for about 30 minutes, we got out, put our
Yukatas back on and headed to meet the women for our 7:30 dinner.  

We are greeted outside the restaurant by three real life geishas! (Geishas
are traditional hostesses who serve and entertain you)  The geishas lead us
to our private dining room.  We take off our slippers and sit down on the
floor in front of an exquisitely decorated table with our first course
already on the table.  The geishas ask what we will have to drink.  Sara and
I both chose beer.  They fill our glasses and would continue to fill them
before they would even get half empty.  Mine and Sara's personal geisha
knelt in front of us, staring, anticipating any way she could assist us.
Talk about service!!!  The courses started coming and didn't stop for 2
hours!  We had sashimi sushi, a whole trout, miso soup, salad, scallops,
pork Shabu-Shabu (pork and veggies cooked in hot water right at your table),
and much more.  During our meal, the geishas would periodically get up and
entertain us.  They would sing and do dances that have been passed down
for hundreds of years.  Each move made with perfect precision from years of
practice.  The singing was tough on the ears, but I guess samurais and
Shoguns liked it that way.  We clap and cheer them on.  After they finished
dancing, they told us we had to play a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with
them.  But the loser had to remove a piece of clothing!  Strip Row-Sham-bow!
Jimi-san went first, but had added a couple garments, obviously experienced
and not wanting to get naked.  I went next.  The game consisted of doing a
little dance involving swinging an imaginary bat, throwing, catching,
running the bases and then "throwing"  down your sign at the end of the
dance.  I lose and remove my sash.  We do the dance again and I throw down
and lose again!  I remove my Yukata, leaving me with only my underwear on.
We play one more time and I lose AGAIN!  Not knowing if this is for real, I
start to drop trow when Bobby and Sara holler for me to stop. 
I put my clothes back on and Gary does the same thing, losing every throw
down.  He too gets down to his underwear and calls it quits.  These Geishas
are masters at Rock, Paper, Scissors!  

We wrap up dinner after God knows how many glasses of beer and Sake', and
head to the Karaoke parlor!  We are feeling no pain and are darn near
fighting for the mike.  Sara is picking songs for me to sing and keeps
picking the hardest songs ever.  The Temptations, Ray Charles, and Michael
Jackson!  Thanks Sara.  I butcher all the songs, but no one really cares.
We are all singing, dancing, and drinking in full Yukatas and slippers.  Who
does that?  At around 11 p.m. Cinderella (Sara) is starting to turn into a
pumpkin.  We sing one last song and call it a night.  We say goodnight to
everyone and head to our room to crash.  What a Day!!!

We get up early the next morning, eat the complimentary buffet breakfast,
and get back on our tour bus.  We get to the train station and say our
goodbyes and thank you's to Suzuki-san, Takubo-san, and Jimi-san.  Me, Gary
and Lenny go on to Urawa for practice, while the women and Bobby head back
to Chiba.  

What an amazing experience.  Playing baseball in Japan can be extremely
stressful and frustrating, but days like this put things in perspective and
completely make up for the trying times.  Life is about enjoying the
journey, and I am so lucky to have people like my wife, Bobby, and Gary that
embrace life's adventures and live life to the fullest.  I am so blessed to
be able to see and do these things.  I will treasure these memories for a
lifetime. 

See ya on down the road,
Chase

A Day in the Minors (Late August)

A Day in the Minors

The alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. ARGGGHHH!! I slowly make my way to the bathroom to brush, shower, and shave. I get dressed and sit down to eat the yummy breakfast Sara has made me. I check my email, chat with Sara for a bit, hork my food, and then its time to get goin to catch the 7:01 Musashino line train out to Urawa (where our minor league complex is). I give Sara a kiss and leave the apartment at exactly 6:45 a.m., get on my bike, ride to the station, and step on the train a couple seconds before it leaves. I sit in the same seat every day. I either read or sleep (depending on how interesting the book I’m reading is). It’s a 59 minute ride out to Urawa. I guess I’m not the only one who likes to sit in the same seat, because I see the same exact people in the same exact seats every single day on the train. No one ever says a word. Hundreds of people, and all you can hear is the metal train wheels skidding over the tracks. I lookaround and wonder how many of these people have been doing this same routine and for how long. There are probably men who have ridden the same train together for 20 years, every day, and never said a single word to each other. (Btw…its an $18 train fare each day…luckily we get reimbursed.)I thought I was good at sleeping anywhere, well these people have me beat. I see people sleeping while standing up! The train gets gradually fuller until I have some guys crotch about a foot in front of my face. I’m just happy I get a seat. I cant stretch out my legs because of all the people, but at least I’m sitting down. Anyways, at 8:02a.m. we arrive at the Musashi Urawa station, I hop out and start walkin thru the station, dodging the hoards of people running for the trains. I make my way out to the street and keep walkin towards the complex. While walking I cant help but notice that I pass the same EXACT people at the same EXACT spot on the sidewalk every single day. Its quit entertaining. The only thing different from one day to the next is the clothes we are wearing. I keep walking for about 15 minutes along side the train tracks, eventually taking a right down a little narrow road that leads to our field. I call it a field andnot a stadium because that’s what it is. Its your average high school field, but with an all dirt infield. As with every other day , I pass the same ten or so super fans who are already loitering outside our clubhouse. I smile and say good morning, and they get excited…just like they did the day before, and the day before that. The really are dedicated. What fans arrive 3 hours before BP? The crazy thing is, these super fans go to the big league game after our game is over, which makes for 14 or 15 hours of baseball everyday. WOW. At 8:25 I walk into the clubhouse, take off my shoes, grab my clean laundry from the day before, say good morning to every person I see, put on my uniform, and head to the training room so they can take my temperature. (They insist on taking every players temperature EVERY DAY. I just say Ok and follow the rules.) I then grab my batting gloves and bat and head to our indoor facility. It sounds fancy, but trust me, its not. Picture a warehouse with a bunch of nets hanging from the ceiling. Anyways, I set up the tee and do my routine of hitting drills by myself to get my blood going and work on my swing. It is now 8:50 a.m. I then walk over to our weight room (picture a large closet with a couple multi-machines, and some physioballs). I do a 20 or 30 minute workout and head back inside to get the rest of my equipment I will be needing for BP. Stretch for BP stats at 9:30 a.m. (but you must be there 10 minutes early). We have a quick meeting and then start doing our stretching and active warm-up. We jog, stretch, twirl, skip, bounce, and sprint for the next 30 minutes. The stretch and warm up is exactly the same everyday, further blending one day to the next. I am thoroughly loose after the first 10 minutes, but I keep my mouth shut and follow the protocol. At 10:00 a.m. we change into our cleats, play catch, and break into our pre determined hitting groups that are posted on the dry erase board. I am usually in group two, which means I start out hitting soft toss behind the batting cage, and bunting off of the “Iron Mike” pitching machine. After I take 30 or 40 swings and bunt 15 or 20 balls, it is time to rotate. We then hit live on the field. Each round has a different purpose, whether it be hitting the ball the other way, up the middle, moving runners, getting runners infrom third, hit and runs, etc. After our time is up, you hustle over to first base to do your base running while group three hits. I do a couple breaks on the pitcher, a couple secondary leads, and then move to second and do the same thing. Then on to third base to work on my breaks off of third. After base running I grab my glove and head to the position I will be playing that day. If its second base, I take about 20 groundballs where I feed the SS for double plays, and then I take about 20 where I throw to first. After I’m done with my ground balls, I rake my position and head out to the outfield to shag some balls off the bat. After a couple minutes of this, BP ends and we all chip in to help pick up the balls and get the field ready for the other team to take BP. By now its 11:15. I change my shoes and head for the clubhouse, where I change shirts and go the food room. (A little free standing trailer that serves us our meals). The selection is pretty slim in the minors. Its usually a salad, a vegetable, and a some sort of pork, chicken, or beef dish that is served over rice. And noodles are always available…soba, udon, ramen, whatever you like. Sara usually packs a PB&J, to help get me some more food I like. I relax and eat my food, even though I’m usually still sweating from BP. I have about 30 minutes before I have to get back to the clubhouse to change into my uniform for infield. The visiting team ends there BP around noon, and we clear the field of all the nets, cages, balls, machines, etc. We play a quick catch and take the field for infield. (We take infield EVERY single day, as apposed to the states where we may take it 5 or 6 times the entire season!) I’ll save you the details of our infield, but its various cut-offs, throws to the plate, double plays, more throws, and LOTS of sweating, which is just what I wanna do after I’ve eatin a full meal. Infield ends around 12:20. I’m covered in sweat and head for the end of the bench where I grab a big sponge out of the ice water buckets we have set up in the dugout and squeeze the icy water over my head. I sit and relax and talk baseball with Lenny while the other guys go hang out in the clubhouse. We talk about his playing days, coaching, hitting, fielding, etc. Just when I’m about to stop sweating, its time for the pregame warm-up (12:50). I do a couple sprints,some stretches, some swings, and its time to rock. By now, there are about 72 people sitting in the make shift stands we have set up. (The field doesn’t charge admission. The atmosphere is about as electric as a game of Bingo.) First pitch is at 1:00 p.m., right at the hottest part of the day, and not a puff of a wind. Sweating becomes so normal, you feel uncomfortable dry. The game is pretty much the only part of the day that is different from the day before. The game usually consists of me getting gradually more and more frustrated and pissed, because I have a tough time hitting like I always have for some reason. But we win a lot, which makes my shortcoming easier to bear. My teammates are really cool, and play hard to win every day, which is refreshing. Our game lasts anywhere between 3 and 4 hours. After the game, it is time for conditioning! Yay! (Just what I wanna do after playing 9 innings on the surface of the sun…. runsprints.) I grit my teeth and run the sprints, squeezing out the last few drops of sweat I have left in my body. We finish the day around 4:30. After signing autographs for all 72 people in attendance, I head for the clubhouse to get undressed. I get out of my sweaty clothes and hit the showers. I get dressed, make a protein shake, and start making the 15 minute walk to the train station, I am instantly covered in sweat. As I’m leaving, I see all the guys heading for the indoor facility to get more work in!!! (Most of the younger guys live in a dorm down the street, they don’t have an hour and a half commute like me.) I usually catch either the 5:06 or 5:26 train back to Kahim-Makuhari. After sweating my butt off on the walk over, I settle into my seat and read, trying not to notice all the Marines fans heading to Marine stadium to watch the big league game. They tend to recognize me, and I can see there wheels turning trying to figure out why I’m on the train with them. I arrive at my station at around 6:30 p.m., walk to my bike, and pedal my ass home….still sweating by the way. I walk thru my front door at 6:45 and am greeted by the most wonderful aromas of food cooking. I give Sara a big hug and kiss and check out what smells so good. I plop down on the couch and try to stop sweating. I finally cool off just in time to set the table, turn off the TV, and sit down to an always delicious meal prepared by my wonderful wife. We eat and talk about our day. We finish up dinner, clean the table and dishes and get back on the couch to cuddle up and watch either the big league game or “Queer Eye for a Straight Guy.” (Queer Eye usually wins.) At around 9:00 p.m. I make coffee and dessert. We enjoy our treats, snuggle some more, and then its time for bed. I hit the sack around 10:15 or 10:30 p.m., dead tired.The next day, I repeat the SAME EXACT thing. It’s a grind, and makes for some long days, but there’s nothing I’d rather be doing (except maybe hunting). It’s “Ground Hogs Day“ everyday, and I love every minute of it.

See ya on down the road,Chase

The Folks visit Japan!! Written by Wanda Lambin

Dear Adventurer,

What a way to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of these travel letters, a trip to our farthest destination yet to see Chase play in the Japanese Major Leagues.  He’s been gone six months and we’re off on our 13,000     mile adventure of a lifetime.

SATURDAY, JULY 25^TH:

Leaving the deep-fried weather of Texas’s worst summer ever, we’re on the road at 8am and within minutes encounter a Japanese attendant at the toll booth (Karma per Bruce).  Continental plane tickets courtesy of Chase and Sara, check in our four bags (no charge in international travel), quickly through security check, buy American magazines and to Continental President’s Club to wait for our 10:50 flight.  Beautiful, relaxing area, free breakfast at the airport is always a good thing.

Finally on the 777 jumbo jet, high headroom, not much legroom, touch screen TV’s with movies, games, flight tracker, and experienced crew hands out menus, pillows, blankets.  Drink lots of water to reduce jet lag, love watching the flight tracker (we’re at Alaska at 5:30pm).  The flight attendants rotate 3 hour naps to get thru the 13-1/2 hour flight.  With the entertainment system, three meals, and good books, before you know it we’re landing at Narita airport.  It’s midnight Saturday in Texas, 2pm Sunday in Japan.  I’ll never understand this International Date Line thingy, but it’s time to change days.

SUNDAY, JULY 26^th:

Customs, currency exchange (100 yen is about a dollar), and find the driver Chase sent for us. It’s about a 30 minute drive on the wrong side of the road to Makuhari on a modern freeway through green rice fields and tree covered hills. Arrive at the New Otani Hotel, a gorgeous five star hotel near the ballpark.  Bruce tried to tip the valet and we learn there’s no tipping in Japan.  Our room has a great view of Tokyo Bay and Chiba Lotte Marines stadium.  It’s supplied with robes, house shoes, razor, toothbrushes, toiletries, broom, and picture buttons on the toto (toilet).  Rooms have doorbells and a button to push for Make-Up Room.  We start laughing when we can’t find the light switch for main room, finally found the button on panel between the beds.  

After practice, Chase and Sara knock on our door at 6pm.  Huge hugs and smiles, they’ve been married six months and we’re finally together again.  They brought us a bag of snacks, apples, and 2 six-packs of Budweiser, yee ha!  Head out walking to get familiar with the area.  To the Chiba Marines “ball” at the train station, a huge plant with flowers that looks like a baseball and becomes our regular meeting spot.  Fans are recognizing Chase and asking for autographs.  Then into Plena mall and the Marines Sports Bar, then we explore huge Carrefour (French Walmart/Target/Foleys), and finally to Ishibi for Korean barbeque (fire grill in the middle of the table and beef that is meltingly tender).  Take shoes off, head to private room, sit on floor, but the area under the table is a hole where you can put your legs.  Chase had to call Mr. Kobayashi to find out which meats to order and Sara got us forks (no frettin).  Sweet potatoes in Japan are almost white.  Manager brings complimentary beef, ice cream, and 8x10 canvas for Chase to autograph for window display.  Fabulous repast, but we’re sinking fast and finally to bed at 9:30 (7:30 am Texas time).

MONDAY, JULY 27^TH:

     Restless night, mostly a series of naps, room won’t cool and firm beds have only a down comforter, no top sheets.  Off to breakfast buffet (regularly $26 each, but we have certificates for every day, probably thanks to Bobby Valentine who arranged our reservations, team rate is $200/night).   Lots of stuff we don’t recognize, but plenty of American foods for great breakfasts.  Complain about our hot room and maintenance comes to check.  We learn 78 degrees is the norm, but at least they brought us a vertical fan that saved us the rest of the week.  

Go to meet the kids at the “ball” for Adventure Day.  We manage to head the wrong way out of the hotel, walk walk, lost lost, finally get to the station with only a minute to catch the train to Tokyo.  Bru’s ticket is eaten by the machine, but we run on thru as Chase is blocking the train door from closing!  Grab hand straps and we’re sweatily on our way.  Most of the Japanese are napping, they do that whenever they can, but I wonder how da hell they don’t miss their stop.  In Tokyo in about 20 minutes, learn you stand on the left on escalators. We walk over to the Imperial Palace gardens, Samurai statue, strange trees, beautiful parks with more people napping, moats, all surrounded by modern skyscrapers.  Public toilets are everywhere, most are holes in the floor but all have at least one western style toto.  Sara has to tell me how to flush ‘em. There are never any hand towels or soap. Tokyo is much more new modern and not as crowded as I expected.  To the Ginza district (like Fifth Avenue) and a great French bistro.  Bruce gets his favorite, confit de canard (duck) and we sit at the window people watching.  And then we walk some more.  It’s not as hot as home, but we are soaked in sweat in this humidity. We’ve gone from the Texas skillet to the Japan steamer. Chase:  “You’re fine as long as you don’t move, then you sweat.”  And don’t even think about having a good hair day.

The kids amaze me with how much they’ve learned about the culture and the transportation systems.  We next take the subway to the Senso-Ji-Temple, built in 645.  Pagodas, lines of booths like a bazaar, then fortune boxes and incense cauldron, “spread the smoke for good luck”.  The outside of the temple is under renovation, but the inside is arresting, with murals and a monk playing some odd instrument while Buddhists kneel to worship.  Walk, subway, train, and we’re back in Makuhari at 4pm.  Check out pictures of the Marines displayed at the station, then sweaty walk on tired feets straight to hotel for shower and change of clothes.

Hotel loans umbrellas when raining and we meet the kids again at 6pm for sunset drinks on the top floor of the APA Hotel.  Gorgeous view of Chase’s office (Marines Stadium) and the sunset breaks through after the rain.  Finally get to meet Gary Barham and his fiancé, Rachel Levine.  Visit a bit before leaving by taxi for dinner at the Big Dipper, one of Chase and Sara’s favorite restaurants in their neighborhood of Baytown.  Enjoy another excellent meal of onion soup, wings, ribs, nachos, seafood pasta.  Stroll back to New Otani and pass out at 9pm. We figure we walked over ten miles today.

TUESDAY, JULY 28^TH

Slept 10 hours and we go explore our huge hotel, shell pool ($25 for hotel guests, $80 for non), banquet halls, wedding chapel.  Every elevator is unique, different carpets and rugs throughout the buildings, cool glass elevator, gorgeous chandeliers, and amazing fresh flower arrangements, like a Vegas hotel. Lazy, recovery day.  Raining at lunch, we walk to McDonalds figuring that’s one place we could easily place our order.  Secret sauce on Big Mac is slightly different, dill pickles instead of sweet? ($6 combo).  

Bru heads to batting practice (BP) at 3 and meets Bobby Valentine and the other coaches.  It’s really neat, VIP’s and the press can come down on the field in a roped off area during BP.  After Bru gets back, I put on my Marines jersey with Lambin on the back and we head to the field for 6:30 game.  It’s cooler, but we’re still sweatin (Chase:  “It’s a conundrum”).  It’s Beer Night (like Two-Fer-Tuesday back home) with no reserved seats.  Chase is signing autographs and when the fans notice us, they go crazy.  “Lambean Poppa”, “Lambean Momma”, and we are asked to autograph balls, gloves, jerseys, hats and shake a ton of hands and receive applause.  Never seen anything like it, the fans over here are rabid and love learning everything they can about their players.  I freeze as I notice I’m on the jumbotron, next shot is of Chase and Bobby cracking up laughing.

Chase is starting at third base, get to see him on the giant jumbotron, but the lineup is in Japanese characters (“I’ll never learn his teammates”).  Running digital messages and pictures circle the stadium like at Minute Maid, we’re finally in the Big Leagues!  Chase goes 0 for 1 with a walk and we finally get to hear “Here We Go Chaser Lambin” live and in person.  The right field bleacher fans are so loud with horns, drums, constantly singing, chanting, jumping, and waving huge flags.  The rest of the stadium follows their lead, over 25,000 fans but you never hear an individual shout out “rock and fire” or “get you a good one”, they do only the organized cheers and never razz the umpires.   Relief pitchers are brought out in convertibles, young girls carry mini kegs of beer on their backs, and they don’t stop selling beer after the 7^th inning (Woo Hoo).  Course, no one has to drive here, so they don’t cut off the spigots.  The fans never give up or stop cheering and every game is like a playoff game, down to the wire every day. The atmosphere is like a UT/OU football game.

Marines lose by one run and we head to the player’s area.  Take pics with Chase and he changes fast and then we’re out the door and he’s immediately surrounded by fans.  “LAMBEAN”, more autographs, as he and Sara walk their bikes with us.  I can’t quit smiling, talking, and sweatin.  Up comes Bobby Valentine on a bike.  Of all places for me to meet this legend! I’m sure I managed to embarrass Chase.  “I have a picture of you in my den”, that’s what I come up with?  Back at hotel at 11pm, one of the most incredible, unbelievable, memorable nights of my life.  As Chase has said over and over, it’s indescribable.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29^th

Meet the kids for lunch at an Italian restaurant in Plena mall.  I have never seen so many restaurants in all my life, there will be 20 in one building and even more in others, all with pictures of dishes offered.  All their food is organic and anything not sold in the markets or restaurants is thrown out daily.  Almost every restaurant has pasta dishes.  We have fabulous salads, crab pasta, pizza, sweet tater tart and more, all for $66 with leftovers for Chase.  Prices are very reasonable everywhere except at our hotel.

Then to the Japanese dollar store, what fun.  I got a dressing bottle, 18” extension cord (for hotel fan), lei and fan and we try to figure out what other stuff even is.  Head to ballpark at 3pm, our player passes aren’t ready and lady tries to tell me to come back later.  “Chase is hitting in 10 minutes!” Thankfully, the security guard lets us in the player area.  Through the dugout and on the field to watch drills and BP.  Bobby takes Bruce across the ropes right to the BP cages and talks to him the rest of the practice.  I meet Deanna (Marinerds blog) and Bobby’s interpreter also comes over to meet me.  Newspaper guy takes our pics and wants our names, I heard we made the Japanese papers, but never saw it.  Then assistant coaches Frank Ramppen and Paul Pippo come over, talk about fun guys!  We talked about Japan, flights, Cash, college coaches, Ragin Cajuns, ZZ Top, and Parrotheads. I never saw Chase hit, I was having too much fun.  Frank finally had to stop to pick up balls at end of practice at 4:15.  Took pictures with Bobby and decide to stay at the ballpark rather than walking back to the hotel.  Crowds arrive hours early and there are stage performances for kids and food stands everywhere.  It’s more like a fair than a ballgame.  Japanese children are so cute, I wanna take ‘em home.  Incredible place to people watch.

Stroll inside the stadium, more food courts and the large team store is doing amazing business.  Almost every fan is wearing a Marines jersey and they go for $115 in the store!  We meet a fan wearing t-shirt with Chase’s heel slap silhouette. On the jumbotron are neat highlight videos of each player in the starting lineup. Chase is starting at third base again and he gets a knock, a frozen rope single, YEE HA!  He goes 1 for 3 with a sac bunt and run scored.  Bruce goes to bleachers with the coaches’ wives and sits with the band and meets two guys who’ve made a Bobby V documentary.  We’re finally ahead by 2 runs with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9^th inning, but we lose when they score 3 runs, argh.  Chase brings me his baseball “the first major league hit we saw” and we stroll back to the hotel.  So much quality time with our boy, such a priceless adventure.

THURSDAY, JULY 30^TH

Wondering if I have enough clothes left, washed some blouses in the sink and hope they dry in this humidity.  It’s a hot, hot day and we walk to Chase and Sara’s apartment in Baytown.  However, markings on my map were not to the spot where we were to meet Chase.  A very nice Japanese lady noticed and goes several blocks out of her way to help us find Valentine Way (street where the apartment is) and finally Chase rides up on his bike.  Loved seeing where our chirren live, a cute two bedroom apartment.  Chase showed us some videos and we read last year’s travel letter (it’s a tradition).  I see his two large Hero of the Day seagulls, gotta get ‘em home (I packed one in a sports bag and carried that other sucker all the way back to Texas).

Went to their fresh produce market and got a large, perfect $2 peach.  Chase wanted to rest some before going to the ballpark, he’s fighting an infection he got in Sapporo.  Bruce and I walk back to the hotel and head for lunch at the Sky Barbeque grill on the 24^th floor.  Very Japanese, like a Benehana but the chef doesn’t flip his knives.  The chef told us where to put the grated radish (into sauce) and the green onions (into rice), but we didn’t know how to eat the Miso soup since there were no spoons.  You’re supposed to just drink it, but I didn’t want to offend anyboby if we guessed wrong.  Thin strips of Australian sirloin with grilled veggies, $29/person.

Then just rest on such a hot day.  Bruce back to BP and more time with Bobby V, those two love to talk baseball.  Another game vs. Nippon Ham Fighters, Chase starting at third base again and hits a line drive off the wall for a double and scores a run.  Marines were up by 6 at one point, but lost again by one run.

Japanese games are long, about 4 hours.  They do fireworks in the fifth inning every night.  In the seventh inning, the fans release large balloons shaped like Casper the ghost and it’s an amazing sight (four balloons for $2, that’s about $5,000 a night).  A fan gave me one and I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to tie it, which cracked everyone up.  Gary’s finance, Rachel, asked me if I noticed the men’s room – you can see right into it, no doors!  I learned to look straight ahead.  Other than no hot dogs, ballpark food was dang good.  We tried shrimp burgers and Bobby burgers (with pineapple) and great ranch fries.

FRIDAY, JULY 31^ST

Nice cool front came in, perfect overcast day to go see the Japanese Gardens near our hotel.  Best deal in Japan – 100 yen to see the perfect depiction of my view of Japan.  Stone walkways, ponds full of koi, bridges, tea house, bonsai trees, unknown gorgeous plants, bamboo, and meticulously cared for grounds.  We walked every trail and enjoyed every minute.

Meet Chase and Sara for Spanish tapas lunch – shimmering shrimp, paella, and more great foods.  Cannot believe our epicurean experiences in Japan.  We’ve had French, Italtian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese,  American, and no sushi, thank heavens.  They have very small, waxy napkins that don’t do much good, but the service and presentation is always excellent.

Walk over to BP at 3pm and Bobby explains bat and ball physics to me.  Then two more hours of people watching, we’re again recognized by the fans.  One fan gave us pictures of us giving autographs earlier in the week, how neat!  Japanese love anything western, their T-shirts are in English but don’t make much sense.  One says “After All Important”.  We decide to get some food from one of the outdoor booths and it becomes our favorite dish of the week, jumbo Tempura Shrimp (5 inches long, over sticky rice with an incredible soy based sauce) for only $7!  A sweet lady helps us order and in broken English said she loves Chase, “he sign more autograph”.  Then we meet Todd Linden’s family in from Seattle, he’s an LSU ex who plays for the Rakuman Eagles based in Sendei (and he hits a homerun tonight).

Chase not starting, but Gary is at first base.  Bru and I head to the crazy outfield bleachers in the 8^th inning.  We’re sitting in the horn section when Gary smashes a homerun to tie the game!  Marines go ahead and we finally get a win.  Gary is a Hero of the Day and we’re in right field to experience it, just like we’ve seen in Chase’s videos.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1^ST

Take a taxi to Baytown Patio 17 (Chase’s apartment building) for lunch with the kids in a neat French restaurant across the street.  Crab terrines, cold peach soup, beef, and mango sorbet, yum.  Bru and I walk back and run into Paul Pippo on his bike (has a small motor, “great for us 60 year olds”).  I head to the mall for souvenirs and  my Marines Christmas ornament, and I’m again sweatin like a pig.

At BP, Bobby gives Bruce two Bobby Valentine baseball gloves!  It’s our last game and we get to sit with the Kobayashis (family Chase met last fall) and Hank Sogabe (another Japanese friend who works for Canon).  Each of them bring wrapped gifts to Bruce and I – beautiful fans, green tea and Japanese honey, such gracious, friendly people.  Chase not playing, but Gary is at first again and gets a double and Marines get another W.

We all go to Outback after the game with our Japanese friends and Gary and Rachel.  We had a great time laughing, eating American food, and singing “You’ve Lost that Lovin Feelin”.    Finally leave so Hank can catch the last train to Tokyo at midnight and the Kobayashis walk us all the way back to our hotel.  I’m so glad we got to meet Chase’s friends, what nice people!

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2^ND

Up early for pack, packin.  Our final Japanese breakfast, did I tell you they have pasta dishes and garden salads on the buffet everyday? Our kids come to say goodbye, get my big hugs and I’m trying not to cry, but failing miserably.  On the airport bus and I’m talking about getting home and washing and cooking and Bruce says “I may just get in my car with a diet coke and drive all day listening to sports radio”.

Long lines at check in, our flight leaves at 4pm, but we land in Houston at 2pm, we’re 2 hours younger!  We stroll the airport mall and notice there are no bars in this airport.  End up having to show our passports about six times before we are finally at the gate for 12 hour flight home.  A Japanese lady recognizes us and even has a picture of Chase signing autographs after the game with Bruce in the photo.  She has lived in the Memorial area of Houston for 2 years and was thrilled when I gave her one of Chase’s baseball cards.

When we land, it’s 4am Tokyo time.  We’re tired, but thrilled to finally be in a car with the air conditioning on full blast.  It’s good to be home, but already missing the kids after the trip of a lifetime, a priceless adventure to the Major Leagues in the land of Zen.

See ya on down the road,

                                                                 Wanda

Dancin in Sapporo (Early July)

We recently went on a nine day road trip. Sara came for the first three
games in Sendai.  We had a great time, winning two out of three and doing
lots of exploring.  She also got to hang with some players' wives from the
Sendai team, which was fun for her.  Oh, and Richard Gere threw out a first
pitch, so I got to meet him.  Sara headed back to Chiba after the series
while me and the team flew to Sapporo.  It is the northern most team in the
country (way up by Russia).  We stayed in a beautiful hotel right in the
middle of downtown.  We had a day game on Saturday, so after eating dinner
on Saturday night, I was left twiddling my thumbs in my hotel room.  I
decided to go for a walk since it was nice and cool outside and it seemed to
be a lot of people walking around the downtown area.  I asked Gary, but he
was locked into a movie.  I started walking down the main street by myself.
It was a cross between Bourbon street (not as dirty), 6th street (not as
crazy), and Fifth Avenue.  Some shopping, some bars, some restaurants, a
little bit of everything.  Tons of people out and about, which made for good
people watching.  I walked and walked, just looking for a little bar to have
a beer.  I found a little Irish pub, had a beer and talked with the owner,
who happened to speak great English.  I say I play for the Marines and he
gives me the beer on the house and has me sign some stuff for him.  I finish
my beer and keep walkin.  I walk for about another hour and decide to head
home.  I'm just about to get back to the hotel when I hear some American
music pumpin out of this little bar.  I haven't heard American music in
months, so it made my ears perk up.  I walk in to check out the joint and
immediately notice that half of the bar is filled with the right field
bleacher Marines fans!!!  "Oh Shit"   50 people dripping in Marines gear,
drinking beer and havin a good time.   (They flew all the way to Sapporo to
cheer on their team.)  They instantly recognize me.creating a mob scene.  I
smile and start high fiving them as they break into the "Here We Go Chase
Lambin" song.  I'm too busy high fiving people to realize that the other
half of the bar is English looking people staring at me, wondering who the
heck I am.  Come to find out, they were all in town with "Disney on Ice".
Lots of skaters and crew from all over the world, but most of them spoke
English (one guy was from Texas and actually went to Grayson Junior
College!.  What a small world).  One "flamboyant" male skater comes up to me
and says "Ummm.like.who are you?"  I just laugh and tell him I'm nobody,
just a baseball player, while a line of people starts forming to take a
picture with me.  I consider myself a pretty cool guy, but I had officially
reached the pinnacle of my coolness.  I'm in a bar in Sapporo Japan, with
every person in the bar staring at me, wanting to take their picture with
me.  Kinda surreal.  

So, as I'm basking in my coolness, taking pictures, and chatting with the
fans and other patrons.guess who walks in?  You guessed it.Bobby Valentine.
I am immediately pushed to the side and damn near trampled as people clammer
to go see Bobby.  I am left standing in a corner, alone, drinking my beer.
Completely stripped of my coolness.   Bobby scans the bar and sees me.  "Hey
Chase".  "Hey Bobby, thanks for stealing my thunder."  We both have a good
laugh as we grab a beer and continue posing for pictures.  The bar is really
rockin now, with people dancing on the bar and dancing on the tables.  Good
ole American rap and rock blasting from the speakers.  I was perched on the
bar just sippin a beer and enjoying the night when another "flamboyant" male
skater says, "honey.your sexy little butt needs to get on the table and
dance."  I laugh and tell him that there is no chance in hell I'm getting on
any table.  Well our assistant coach, Frank (who came with Bobby), overhears
this.  He is a bit of a jokester and likes to instigate things, he says to
the guy, "Chase has his own song and his own dance that is famous here in
Japan."   I instantly know what he's up to.  "Oh Shit." I say.  Frank starts
eggin the fans on to sing my song.  They get all riled up..whistling,
clapping, yelling and rallying the troops.. I try to say no, but it is past
the point of no return.  If I don't get on the table and dance, there would
prolly be a riot of some sort.  I give in and sheepishly climb on top of the
table.   They burst into the first few notes of my song and I'm off for the
races.  I dance, sing along, and do a couple foot slaps while the bar
erupts.  Everyone screaming, clapping, and banging on the tables and bar.  I
go all out untill the song ends.   I dismount from the table, give a quick
wave and bow, and head back to the bar for my beer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYVgBzsuqk   Bobby and Frank are
dying laughing.  

The fans are so fired up that they break into the "We Love Bobby" song.
Bobby lifts his beer and  "cheers" the adoring throng of fans.  The "Disney
on Ice" people are wide-eyed with amazement.  They don't know what to think.
They prolly have never seen anything like it.but who has?   I'm smiling from
ear to ear as I try and wrap my head around what's going on.  I'm in a bar
in Japan with a baseball legend, dancing on a table, and posing for pictures
like I'm Tom Cruise.  Who does that?  The three of us finish our beers and
decide to call it a night since we had a day game the next day.  We say our
goodbyes to all the wonderful fans.  They are so genuine, respectful, and
passionate.  I hope they understand how much we as players and coaches
appreciate them.  As I'm leaving the bar, they sing one last Chase Lambin
song as I give a heel slap while walking down
the sidewalk.  What a night.  To be Continued..See you on down the road.

Chase

In case yall dont believe me...here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYVgBzsuqk

Looong Game

The final game of our series in Seibu was one to remember. The Seibu Lions are just ahead of us in the standings. We had split the first two games of the series, so the third and final game was pretty important. I wasn’t starting, but came into the game in the 7th as a defensive replacement. We had the lead 3 different times during the game and let them either tie or take the lead every time. (I’ll save you all the details, mainly because I cant remember them, but it was an impressive display of neither team giving up.) After 9 innings the game was knotted at 7, pushing the game into extra innings. (In Japan, we only play 12 innings, no matter what, if its tied after 12, then it’s a tie.) Neither team scored in the 10th, (although both team loaded the bases) and the 11th, was another zero. By now we are about 4.5 hours into this game and we are all wondering how long this might go. I was leading off the 12th, so I knew it was now or never.I drew a walk to start off the inning. After a couple hits, I end up coming around to score. We add an insurance run to take a somewhat comfortable lead going into the final half inning. 9-7. Game over right? Not so fast. To Seibu’s credit, they kept fighting back. They got hit after hit. I’m in center field screamin my head off, cheering for our pitcher. I DID NOT want to lose this game after all we had been thru. They get the bases loaded with one out and Bobby calls in a relief pitcher who had just been called up from the minor leagues and had made one previous appearance. YIKES! Its now 9-8 with one out, the bases loaded, and they have one of there best hitters up! I’m a nervous wreck in center, swearing nothing is going to touch the outfield ground. I was going to jump thru a brick wall if I had to. I see Sara standing in the isle, bouncing up and down in the stands. She wanted us to win as bad as we did. Sara, “My butt hasno feeling and it feels better to be jumping up and down!” We are now 5.5 hours into this game and most of the stadium had emptied because the last train of the night had left at 11:15 p.m. I guess all the trumpet players and drummers had to catch the train, because both cheering sections(what were left) were singin in a cappella. Our young righty gets ahead of the hitter, but the batter works the count to full. After a couple foul balls with the count full, the pressure builds to an unbearable level. A ball ties the game, a hit wins it, a strikeout gives us life. Its an obvious fastball count if there ever was one, but then again, we are in Japan, where any pitch will be thrown at any time. Out pitcher goes into his windup and delivers the pitch…..he snaps off a nasty SPLIT-FINGER (with the bases loaded) and the guy chases it for strike three!! I yell and pump my fist in the air. Talk about some balls. Now I’m really pacing around theoutfield. One more out and we can end this marathon victorious. Its almost midnight, and the game started at 6 p.m.! The next hitter, in less climactic fashion, grounds out to second to end the game!! YAY! The scoreboard flashes (so I’m told since it was in Japanese) that we had just completed the longest game in Pacific League history. Five hours and 45 minutes!!! I run off the field and high five all my teammates. What a great win! I run into the clubhouse and remember that I am scheduled to do an interview on XM radio at midnight (11 a.m. US time). I also find out that since the last train had left, we would be taxiing home to Chiba, which is over 2 hours away!!!! I take a quick shower and keep looking at my phone, waiting for it to ring. I get dressed and head outside where Sara, Bobby, Gary, Rachel, Sikorski, Frank etc. are all waiting for our taxis. The radio show finally calls at 12:30 and I explain to them what had just transpired. Luckily the taxi’s took awhile, so I had time to do the interview on foot as apposed to sitting in a taxi. The interview went great. I hang up and realize everybody is pissed because the taxi’s are taking so long. By now its after one in the morning. Luckily my darling wife had thought ahead and bought some food for me, so I at least had something in my belly. But for everyone else, they hadn’t eating since before the game, 8 hoursago! The taxi’s finally arrive at about 1:30 a.m.! Me, Sara, Gary and Rachel all pile into one taxi and the taxi driver doesn’t know how to get to Chiba! Great! We wait another 15 minutes while he fiddles with his navigation system. Gary was about to eat his hand, so we have the driver stop at McDonalds as soon as we left the stadium. Ha. I have trouble keeping my knee bent for more then 2 minutes (knee tendonitis), so I have my leg stretched out across the girls laps in the back seat the whole ride home. Sorry. The girls fall asleep while me and Gary tell riddles for 2 hours. (We have lots of experience killing time from all the long minor league bus rides). We finally make it home at around 3:30 a.m. and pay the driver 320 bucks! (we got reimbursed by the team) Sara and I crash immediately. I wake up a couple hours later and head to the park for another game. Just a day in the life! See ya on down the road,Chase

Birthday Homerun

After my homerun in Koshien, I went into a bit of a slump.  I went 0-fer in
Hiroshima against some tough pitchers, and then had a string of pinch hits
against some of the toughest closers in the league.  Anyway, going into the
series against the Yokohoma Bay Stars, I was kinda stressing about not
getting a hit for 10 or 12 at-bats.  The day before the series started, our
starting center fielder fouled a ball off his ankle and couldn't play the
next few days, which opened a spot for me to play center field.  The
Yokohoma Bay Stars is a team from the other league (we are playing
inter-league right now) that is right outside of Tokyo, so we had a very
large contingent of Marines fans.  Well, as soon as I stepped on the field
for BP, I start noticing signs with my name on it saying Happy Birthday!  I
was kinda confused at first because my birthday isn't for another month.  I
then remembered that all my official documents say my birthday is June 7th. 
(the nurse in the hospital the day I was born made a typo and wrote June
instead of July).  I wasn't about to try and explain this to a couple
thousand fans who don't speak my language, so I just rolled with it and
accepted all the Birthday accolades.  While stretching before the game, the
Marines fans all sang happy birthday and held up a huge sign saying "Happy
Birthday Rusty".  I tipped my hat and gave them a big smile.  

That day, we were facing an American pitcher by the name of  Ryan Glynn, he
has been here for 4 or 5 years and has pretty good stuff.   Well in the
first inning, he was having some control problems and got in a bit of a jam.
I was batting 7th and came to the plate with the bases loaded after he just
walked in a run.  He quickly got behind 2 and 0.  After missing a couple
pitches and taking a close curve ball, the count ran to full.  I fouled off
another inside fastball.  The crowd noise grew with each pitch of the
at-bat.  I knew he didn't want to walk in another run, so I was in a good
spot to get a fastball I could handle.  He went into his delivery and the
next thing I remember is the ball sailing towards the right field foul pole,
it had the distance if it would just stay fair.  The ball landed deep into
the right field bleachers as I looked at the umpire down the first base
line. He emphatically motioned that it was fair.  A rush of adrenalin and
emotions filled my body from head to toe.  I raised my fist and gave a
couple pumps as I rounded first base.  I glance at the fans in left as I
rounded second and it looked like a dang mosh pit!  After touching home and
high-fiving all my teammates, I step out of the dugout (as customary) and
tip my cap at the fans as they chant my name.  I sit back down and take a
deep breath and hear my name STILL being chanted!  I was kinda confused,
then I realized I was getting a dang curtain call! After a few moments, I
step out AGAIN and wave to the fans.  It was my first grand slam of my
professional career!   (2600 at-bats and I finally ran into one with the
bases loaded.)    After the inning, I run out to play centerfield, and as
customary when you drive in a run, the fans start chanting my name.  I wave
again and give a deep bow.  Well that wasn't it, after that they bust out in
a full version of "Happy Birthday To You"!  Ha!  Who gets "Happy Birthday"
sung to them by about ten thousand people during a baseball game on the
road???!!!    I turn a light shade of  red, wave and bow again.  Later in
the game, the Bay Stars had climbed back into it and were only down by 2
runs and had a rally brewing.  They had the leadoff runner on and their big
lefthanded hitter up.  He hit a ball into the left center field gap and I
take off after it like a golden retriever.  The ball is slicing away from me
as I lay out for it, snagging it before it heads in to the gap.  The crowd
goes bonkers and I wave at them again.  

We went on to win the game and, as I was heading for the locker room, our
media relations guy informs me that I have to give an interview.  "OK."
Well come to find out, it's the "Hero's Interview!"  I had no idea they did
that on the road too.  I head out to the field with my interpreter Go, and
answer some questions about the game, what pitch I hit,  how I made the
catch, etc. etc.  I answer them as best I can and then head towards the left
field stands.  I take a few pics holding the #26 jersey (26 represents the
fans as the 26th member of our team).  And then its time to dance.  I give
the Hulk Hogan "Lemme hear ya" sign and that cues them to start the first
few notes of the Chase Lambin song.  I do my little dance and give the
infamous heel slap as the crowd bounces up and down screaming their lungs
out.  I high five all the fans on the railing and head into the clubhouse.
What an experience!  That's about it for now.  More to come
later.

See ya on down the road,
Chase

Koshien (Late May 2009)

Koshien

After the home stand, we traveled to Osaka to play the Hanshin Tigers. They play their home games in the most famous stadium in all of Japan. (Koshien Stadium) It is 100 years old, holds 50,000 fans and had tons of tradition, history, and character. They are also known for having the wildest, most devoted fans. They are sold out nearly every game. The fans dress up like tigers, and scream there heads off the entire game. I wasn’t starting, but was havin fun just takin in the atmosphere. The first game ended up getting rained out after 4 innings, which means we had to start the game over the next day. After the game was called, our good friend Hank Sogabe (friend of a friend who we met thru Sara’s coworker at Tiffany. He lives in the Osaka area) invited us to his house for dinner. Me and Sara were really excited to see what a traditional Japanese home was like, not to mention eat a home-cooked meal. His house was super cool. Not too big, not too small, with tons of sports memories from when he and his family lived in the United States. His wife went ALL OUT. They filled an entire table with tons of amazing food. It was a mix of American, Italian and Japanese food. Eggplant Parmesan, Sushi rolls, Salmon Salad, Chicken Wings, Roast Beef, Yakiniku, the works! All accompanied with cold beer, delicious red wine, and champagne (which Sara enjoyed to the fullest). Hank also invited his good friend from the US (A woman of Japanese decent) who married a Japanese man and now lives in Japan. She grew up in Virginia and they have three adorable little kids aging 4, 3, and 2 months. Sara was in heaven. I drew pictures for the little boy, while Sara put lip-gloss on the little girl. It was so much fun to relax and not think about baseball for a couple hours. When it was time to leave, they had to rip the newborn from Sara’s grasps. It was an amazing night with wonderful people.

The next day we replayed the rained out game. I came into the game in the 6th on a double switch when Bobby pulled our starting pitcher. Bobby asked “Are you loose?“ “Umm….yeah!“, (I think 50,000 people screaming would make George Burns loose) I went into left and was batting second in the top of the 7th. We were down 4 to 2 when I came up. One of there American relievers, Scott Atchison, was pitching. He got behind 3 and 1. I looked for a fastball out over the plate and got it! I smashed a line shot to center that carried all the way over the fence!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-e0ClMAE-8) Nothin like shutting up 50,000 people in a couple seconds. I barely remember jogging around the bases. I point to Sara as I’m headin for the dugout. I’m so glad we decided to have her come on this trip. I come to plate again in the 9th down 4 to 3, and facing the WBC closer, Fujikawa. He is one of the hardest throwers in the league with a nasty split finger. The stadium was literally bouncing! I get THREE fastball out over the plate and fouled each one of them straight back to the backstop. ARGHHH! (I hate missing fastballs, I don’t care how hard they are.) I work the count to full, and the SOB throws a perfect split finger down and away that I swing thru for strike three. Dangit! We get a couple runners on, but our rally fizzles as Iguchi popped out to end the game. Bummer.

The next day, Sara and I decide to go check out the “Tram Ride” right next to the hotel that takes you to the top of the mountain overlooking the city of Kobe. What an adventure! The tram in itself is worth the price of admission (which was only 6 bucks). The entire city of Kobe and its coastline is visible from the tram, all while floating over waterfalls, ravines, gorges, lakes, temples, and the plushest green mountain sides you have ever seen. Once you get to the top, there is an herb garden that cost 2 bucks to walk thru. Beautifully landscaped garden perched on the side of a mountain with every herb, rose, berry, and cherry you can think off. We were eatin strawberries right off the vine! We take the tram back down and notice little trails and walkways along side the streams and waterfalls leading all the way back down to the Hotel. Chase “I wanna do that!” Since we were running low on time, we decided to do that adventure the next day.

After breakfast the next day, we take the tram up again and get off to walk down the mountain. There are trails goin all thru the mountain side, but we decide to stay on the main trail. The walk was AMAZING. It was the perfect little trail, not too touristy, crowded, or over traveled. We felt like we were the only people on the mountain. Picturesque lakes, streams, and waterfalls. We stop and take pics in front of the waterfalls and cool bridges crisscrossing back and forth over the ravine. Every couple hundred yards there were these little shrines, with little Buda statues, burning incense, and nick knacks surrounding the statue. Kinda creepy. We have no clue who or what they were for. Anyway, as we are walkin, I see a cool little trail headin off the beatin path that I couldn’t resist. I tell Sara to stay there as I take off jogging down the trail. I get about 50 yards away from Sara and hear her scream bloody murder! “Oh Shit!“ I race back down the trail to see what the problem was. Sara had tried to follow me and came across a snake!! I must have ran right by it. I assure her she is alright and spend the next 30 minutes trying to calm her down. Just what we needed, a Japanese Jungle snake to get the blood flowin. Sara eventually calms down and we continue our walk down to the bottom of the mountain where the trail spit us out right at the front door of our hotel.

We play that night and I strikeout pinch hitting in the eighth. We leave the following day for Hiroshima, as Sara heads back to Chiba. What a great trip! To be continued…

See ya on down the road,
Chase

Dancin, Mickey, and the "Lambin Leap" (May 2009)

Our team has been playing much better lately. We have won 8 of ten games. We lost a tough game in Fukuoka where we gave up 2 homers in the bottom of the ninth to lose the game. But since we have been back home on a six game home stand, we have been winning pretty consistently. The Seibu Lions came in town and spanked us 18-0 on Friday night. So we wanted to get a little payback on Saturday. Our starter pitched a gritty game to keep us in it till the later innings. We were down 5-4 going into the bottom of the eighth. After a couple walks and a hit, we had the bases loaded, 2 outs, and me up!! They had brought in a tough side arming lefty. I worked the count to 2-1 and got a slider that I crushed off the top of the leftfield wall. Two runs scored, making it 6-5! We got the three outs in the ninth to preserve the win. After the game I was named the hero of the game for the second time in less then a week! I had to do the Hero’s Interview and do the whole song and dance(literally) again. I do the interview, toss the balls in the stands and head out to the right field stands to take my bow. After the pics and bow, the fans are screaming bloody murder for me to DANCE. I think I created a monster. Well they bust out the first few notes to the “Here Go Chase Lambin” song and I give them another little dance, capped off by my “now famous” heel slap. The crowd goes nuts as I head for the first base line to high five all the waiting fans. I get back to the dugout and Gary is waiting again with another huge smile. I didn’t think much of the dance until the next day, when FIVE! Newspapers had pictures of me dancing!! I also had 2 paper interviews, and one TV interview regarding my dancing. Ha. I started a dance fad here in Japan. It doesn’t stop there. The next day I am stretching before the game and a fan in right field raises a 10 foot by 10 foot poster, and its a silhouette of me dancing! Ha! Little kids stop me when I’m leaving the park and do my dance. Its freakin nuts.

A few days later we have an off-day. Sara has been itchin to go to Disneyland since the day she got here. We ride the train towards Tokyo for a couple stops and here we are. The Hotel, the Castle, Space Mountain and all the Disney characters. Sara is in heaven. She is more excited then all the little kids. We pay for our tickets ($58 each), grab a map and take off. The place is huge. Its split up into 6 different sections. I.e. Adventure Land, Western Land, Toontown, Tomorrow Land, etc. etc. We walk and walk. The park was pretty crowded (I guess kids don’t go to school on Mondays). The lines where too long for us, so we didn’t get to ride some of the bigger attractions. We just had fun walkin around, watchin people, and seein all the sites and sounds. We rode the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride, “It’s a Small World” ride, the “Honey I shrunk the kids” ride, the “Star Wars” ride, the carousel, and a couple other little rides. We get pooped out by 6 pm and take it on home. We plan on comin back again sometime during the summer. Disney Sea is right next door, so there is still lots for us to see and do at Tokyo Disney.

A couple days later, the Chinichi Dragons come into town and I am starting in RF. I had struggled my first 3 at-bats in the game. I was 0 for 3 and popped up my third at bat with a runner at third and one out. I was bumming, but played good D, and we were still in the game after 8 innings. The game was tied at 2 going into the bottom of the ninth, and I was leading off. I of course get behind 0 and 2, but work the count back to 2-2. I get a tough forkball down and away that I reach for and hit over the first baseman’s head down the right field line! I bust it out of the box and am headin for second. Since the game had been so frustrating, I got pumped and started my “superman” dive into second about 20 feet from the bag. (I have made this slide a couple times before and the crowd goes bonkers when I do it. It has been named the “Lambin Leap”.) I wasn’t aware quit how high I jumped until I saw pics and videos after the game. Yikes. Anyways, the place erupts as I clap my hands in excitement. Since I am the winning run, Bobby pinch runs for me with our super fast little pinch runner. I jog off the field to a standing ovation and my name being chanted. I of course cant wipe the smile off my face. The next batter bunts the runner over, and 2 batters later, Ohmatsu, drives in the winning run with a sharp single to left! Marines Win!

That’s about it for now. To be continued….

See ya on down the road,
Chase

Minors, Hits, Homeruns, and Heroes (May 2009)

So after starting the season in the big leagues and playing in three games, I was informed that they needed my roster spot for a pitcher, meaning I had to go down to the minor leagues. I was kinda bummed, but its part of the game. It was an opportunity to play everyday and get a bunch of at bats, which is always a good thing. You must be down for at least ten days, so I took it as a chance to work on some things and embrace the challenge. Other then the hour and a half commute to the park!, I really enjoyed it. Waking up at 6a.m. to catch the 7a.m. train sucks, but at least I was home every night for Sara’s yummy cookin. We have an American manager in the minors by the name of Len Sakata (10 year major league veteran), which makes a huge difference because you know what’s goin on and what to do. I struggled at first, but ended up turning it on after a couple of days, playing good D, and hittin the ball really well. It was kinda hard watching the big league game every night on T.V., seeing Gary and the other guys playin without me, and me not knowing when I would be back with the team. I just stayed positive and after ten days, Bobby called me and said I would be starting in centerfield the next day! WooHoo! I had yet to get my first big league hit (0 for 3), so I was pumped to get the ball rollin. I started the next night and in my third at bat I got a first pitch fastball out over the plate and drove a sharp line drive into centerfield for my first big league hit!! It was a huge weight off my shoulders, because everyday is an opportunity and your never sure when you will get another one.

We left for a road trip the next day to Fukuoka to play the SoftBank Hawks. I was in the lineup again since our second basemen (Tadahito Iguchi) had injured his quad. We were playin in the Yahoo Dome, a super cool, ultra modern dome in downtown Fukuoka. We were facing a tough lefty and my first at bat was with runners on first and second and 2 outs. I got a changeup out over the plate a drove another sharp single up the middle for my first RBI!! Yay! I added a double my next at bat for my first extra base hit!

Two days later I was in the starting lineup again. We were facing one of the top left-handed pitchers in Japan(Sugiuchi). He led the league in strikeouts last year and was one of the aces for the world champion WBC team. After my first two at bats, I realized why he is so successful. He has great command, a nasty changeup, a very sharp slider, and he pounds the inner half of the plate. He shattered my bat my first at-bat, and then struck me out after a ten pitch battle my second at-bat. By my third at-bat, our team had 3 hits and he was in complete control. I was leading off, and the third basemen was playing WAY back. I decided that trying to bunt off this guy wasn’t too bad of an idea. I squared around to bunt, but he threw a ball. I then changed my mind, I wanted to hit. He threw a nasty back door slider that made me change my mind back into bunting. I squared to bunt the 1-1 pitch, but it was a ball too. Now I don’t know what to do, the third basemen is playin in left field, but I also have a good hitters count. I say “F--- It”, and get ready to swing. The next pitch was a slider intended for the inside corner, that hung just enough out over the plate and BANG! I clicked it just right and the ball exploded off my bat down the left field line. The only question was whether it would stay fair. With a little body language, I got it to stay true, splashing down about 15 rows deep. My first HOMERUN!!! I floated around the bases.

We returned home a day later for a six game home stand. I continued to play pretty much every day since Iguchi’s leg was still hurting him. I mixed in some hits during the home stand, but kinda cooled off going into the final game. The last game was on Mothers Day. A Sunday day game with a sold out crowd. (30,000 crazy fans and blue skies, it don’t get no better). While stretching before the game I look up in the right field bleachers and see a HUGE picture of MY face with “We Love Lambin” written above it! Ha. There was also a big sign with “Area 43”, and another one sayin “Big Bangin Rusty!…43!“ (How they got my nickname is beyond me). I never imagined in a million years I would have banners with my face and name on it. What a crazy feeling!!! I just bowed and waved my hat in appreciation. The fans really are unbelievable.

We were facing an American pitcher by the name of Darrell Rasner (he was in the starting rotation the entire season for the New York Yankees last year). I faced him during Spring Training and knew that he had a nasty cutter and a really good changeup. In my first at bat, I took a fastball for ball one. I got another fastball the next pitch, right down the middle, and put every inch off my body into it. I hit it perfect, a majestic blast that sailed deep into the right field bleachers! The place erupted! I once again floated around the bases. This really got my juices flowin, I was a ball of energy the rest of the game. My next at-bat I worked the count to 2-2 and got another fastball out over the plate and smashed it off the right field wall. The ball bounced straight to the right fielder so I knew I had to get on my horse to get into second. My knee has been kinda hurtin and it really hurts to stop once I’m running, or to slide feet first, so I decided a head first, Pete Rose/Superman dive into second would be the least painful. Well I jump about 6 feet in the air and belly flop in ball of dust into second and the crowd goes bonkers. (They love any kind of flare or theatrics in this country, they eat it up.) It still hurt my knee, but at least I earned some points with the fans. So now I’m really pumped. Anybody who has played with me knows that I am easily excitable, so a homerun and a double has me rockin and rollin. I take the field to play defense and our young phenom pitcher (Karakawa) is dealing, and has a shutout goin. The first batter of the inning laces a liner to my left, I take one step and vault myself, completely outstretched, and I feel the ball rip into the pocket of my glove. I hear the crowd roar before I even hit the ground. (When you make a great play, they chant your name until you acknowledge the crowd. I of course give them a deep bow and a huge grin.) The next hitter pops up to me and the crowd roars again. I cant stop smiling. I’m having so much damn fun, it doesn’t make sense. Just when I think it cant get any more fun, the next batter smashes a ground ball to my left, between me and the first baseman. I have to take a deep angle to get to it. I field the ball in shallow right field, spin to my left and fire as hard as I can at our first basemen who was late getting to the bag because he went for the ball too. It’s a bang bang play and the umpire punches him OUT! The stadium COMPLETELY erupts!!! I throw up my fist up and let out a Braveheart yell as I sprint full speed off the field yelling at the crowd and pumping my fist! HA…How fun is that?

We went on to win the game as our young stud threw a complete game shutout. After the game they named me and him co-MVP’s of the game. What this means is, you have to go up on this little stage in the middle of the field and do a “Hero’s Interview”. I have my interpreter repeat my answers. I thank all the moms, say I love my mom, and tell the fans that they are the best in the world. They cheer at all my answers and I cant wipe the smile off my face. After the interview, you have to sign a couple balls and throw them into the crowd. One of the balls has to be thrown in the right field stands, so I run out there and for some reason I turn into a WWF wrestler. I’m doin the Hulk Hogan, “let me here ya”, motion with my hand to my ear, getting the crowd roaring and begin for me to throw the ball in there direction. I get the crowd all riled up and fire my ball at the guys with the huge Chase Lambin pictures and banners. Well after I toss the ball, they start singing my song. I have completely lost my mind by now, caught up in all the emotion, and start dancing right in the middle of the field! I finish with a Blake McGinley heel slap dance move and raise the roof like I was Arsenio Hall! The crowd is goin bonkers. Who knew I was such a ham? After that, we had to run down the right field line and high five all the fans on the railing. Well the people where stacked 3 and 4 deep on top of each other (Picture Cal Ripken), all tryin to just touch my hand. This is all goin on while my name is being bellowed by the entire stadium…. which was still full 20 minutes after the game ended!!! My head is spinning as I finally make it back to the dugout. Gary is there waiting for me with a huge smile from ear to ear. He was dying laughing at all my antics. We figure we might as well live it up while we are here. (I cant wait to see him win MVP, the stadium might fall down!) Right before I duck into the clubhouse I find Sara in the stands(looking absolutely gorgeous by the way) and give her a huge smile and wave. We have been thru so much together. I am so thankful she is here to share these moments with me. I wouldn’t be acting like a WWF wrestler if it wasn’t for her! HA!

The craziness didn’t stop there. Me and Sara had to have a security escort to leave the stadium! Since we ride our bikes, we have to leave along side all the fans. Pandemonium broke out as we were makin our way thru the crowd. You woulda thought we were David and Posh Beckham! They all just wanted to touch us! They love jewelry, so they were all tryin to touch Sara’s ring!…how funny. We finally make it thru the crowd and back to our cozy little apartment. What a day. I still shake my head when I think about it. I just hope there will be many more just like it. I will keep you posted.

See Ya on Down the Road,
Chase

Road Trip!!! (April 2009)

Four games into the season, we play the Nippon Ham Fighters (yes, that is there real name) at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome is the Japanese equivalent to Yankee Stadium. It is the home field of the Tokyo Giants who have won dozens of Championships. Anyway, our starting Short Stop had tweaked his hamstring the day before, so I got the nod to start at Short Stop! I was pumped! We were facing a pretty good pitcher, so I just tried to relax and play my game, but I was WAY to fired up. To say I was a little anxious would be an understatement. I think I saw nine pitches the entire game, and swung at eight of them! Resulting in two strikeouts and a groundout. Bummer! Oh well, it felt good to get my feet wet, and get the first game jitters out of the way. I played good D, but we ended up losing the game. Bummer again.

After playing in the Tokyo Dome. We went on the road to play the Orix Buffalo (Ichiro‘s old team). They have two stadiums, a dome in Osaka (third largest city in the country), and an outdoor stadium in Kobe (sister city to Osaka). Why they have two stadiums I don’t know. Anyway, I decided Sara should come on the road with us to see more of the country. We ended up having a blast. She got to ride with the team on the Shinkonsen (bullet train that goes 160 mph). We sorta jumped into this trip without really figuring out all the details. For example, we hadn’t thought out the logistics of getting Sara to and from the stadiums each day from the hotel. We of course have a team bus, but she was left to fend for herself. The other wives just take taxi’s, but they were 40 bucks each way! These cheap newlyweds weren’t goin for that! So I left for the park, gave her a pat on the ass, wished her luck and she braved the Japanese train system. She somehow figured out when to take the hotel shuttle to the station, how to buy a ticket, what train to get on, when to get on it, and where to get off, all by herself. She is braver then I am. I was worried sick she would end up in Okinawa or something. Well once she safely got to the Dome, we had failed to ask where the dang “will call” is for her to get her ticket to enter the game. I guess no one understands “will call”, “Family tickets“, or “pass list” in Japan, because she ended up walking around the dome for an hour, and finally got so frustrated, she tried to just buy a dang ticket! Luckily someone finally understood her and said, “invitation!”, Sara “Yes!, invitation, whatever that is, give me one!”

The two games in Osaka were pretty uneventful, I only came in for three innings as a defensive replacement in centerfield (yes, you heard that right). I didn’t have any plays, but still had fun. After the two games in Osaka, we went straight from the Dome to a different hotel in Kobe, once again leaving Sara to fend for herself and get her butt to Kobe (which was no easy feat) . She had to take a subway train from the Dome to the station with the Shinkonsen, take the Shinkonsen to another subway station, then another subway train to a station by the hotel in Kobe. How she pulled it off, I have no idea. I was worried sick AGAIN, wondering if I’d ever see my wife again. Sara, “Yay!, I made it!!“ We celebrated with a beer($8) in our hotel room on the 24th floor while the sun set behind the mountains! She is such a trooper, she makes me so damn proud.

Another problem we had on the road trip was finding affordable food for us to eat. The team provides the players with buffet style meals in the banquet halls of the hotel, but that is for the players only. So I tried to take Sara to breakfast one morning, but the hotels we stay in are so nice, the prices are out of control. Our breakfast was $50!! (Two eggs-$7, oatmeal-$8, one coffee-$8!!! ) We decided I would eat the team meals, and she would eat at the hotel restaurants, which sucked because we would have liked to eat together, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do. To her credit, she brought her own coffee from the room to breakfast the next two days! Ha. That’s my girl!

That’s about it for now….To be continued…

Chase

Sara writes about her first few weeks in Japan (April 2009)

An update from Japan! Hope all is fabulous with everyone! SO I am getting used to our neighborhood, where the stores are etc. Everything is pretty close there are great restaurants and shopping all within a mile. We ride our bikes all over the place! It is still a bit cold here...around 50 each day usually with sunny skies. The train station is close too and I actually went to Toyko last Saturday and Sunday to see Chase play in the Tokyo Dome (that is like Japan's Yankee Stadium). It was quite an experience to walk through the busiest train station in the world on the way there! Our friends Mr. and Mrs. Kobayashi took me to the game the first day and the next day I braved the subway on my own! The Dome was packed for these spring training games and the fans are LOUD the entire game. They sit in cheering sections together and sing an individual song for each player! Talk about loyal fans! So after the game on Saturday night Chase and I went to the Ritz Carlton and had a drink at the 45th floor lobby bar. The Ritz was beautiful as you would imagine and the service was impeccable! The prices were outrageous though...there was an $18,000 martini, and a $140 hamburger! Chase's manager Bobby dropped us off there (we would have never been able to find this on our own!) Out of the panoramic windows we could see for miles it seemed like, and after the sun set all of the outstanding architecture sparkled with lights...we could even see the Imperial palace grounds! It was pretty amazing. We actually met two New Yorkers who work on Wall St. that were in Japan on business, it was great to hear the accents! We decided to walk around the city and find a place for dinner, and everything was so intriguing that before we knew it was almost 9 PM still hadn't had dinner, and still had to navigate the subway home (about 45 minutes away). We got to see the neat modern neighborhoods named Roppongi Hills, and Ginza- they have all the shopping like Tiffany & Co, Prada, and a Louis Vuitton the size of Texas! The trees were all beautifully decorated with white lights, and there was even a two story robot in the courtyard of the mall that breathed fire...we saw the robot, but only saw the flames in the brochure! Eventually we find the a place that looks great but find out from the super nice waitress that one of the main courses on the prix fixe menu is carvallos...um "what is that?" I ask...um horse...OKAY! Chase says I made a funny face but I don't recall that. We politely said sayonara and off to the chinese place that was recommended to us earlier! I haven't eaten chinese food since 1988 so there was a good chance this wasn't going to work out either! The place must have great food because it was packed! We waited 40 minutes for a table and then we finally got to sit down I realized I was suffocating! It was about 110 degrees in there (if I think it was hot...you know it was!) and smoky! There was another group of young hipsters just sitting at our table with out asking too! Grrrrr...I have the best husband in the world because he knew this was not going to work for me! So even after all the struggle just to get a table and he is BEYOND hungry at this point he smiles and says lets go find a better place! We walked around the corner found a little mozzarella bar, Obika and waited again for a table (can you say Tokyo Saturday night 9 PM!) and finally ate a decent little meal. The host graciously explained to us what subway and train to take home and we couldn't wait to get back to our little apartment! Tokyo was a blast! We hope to go back again!

On Monday Chase's team asked us and Chase's teammate Gary to do a little bit of public relations. We visited the Kanda University of International Studies and the senior English majors gave us a tour of the town. They taught us some Japanese, we ate lunch together, helped me try to find earrings (the guys were happy about that!) and we all walked to the Japanese gardens where we live in Makuhari. If you read on below there is an email from the leader of their club and a picture that he sent. They were all over the moon to meet Chase and Gary! At lunch their advisor asked them to introduce themselves and tell a bit about themselves. This is how it went- My name is so and so, and I LOVE BASEBALL, my Dad loves baseball and my whole family loves the Marines! Baseball is a way of life for people here and it meant the world to them to spend an afternoon with two Marine's players. We ended the day off with a toast to the end of spring training on the 50th floor of the APA hotel here in Makuhari. You can see Mt. Fuji, Tokyo (if it's clear) and it looks directly down on the ocean and Chiba Marines Stadium. We watched the sun set and it was a gorgeous view! Chase says he wishes all of our family and friends could see this too...we really have to get a camera! We promise to very soon! Here is the website that has a nice picture on the home page. http://www.tokyobay-makuhari.com/english/index.html I am having the time of my life here with Chase- I keep telling him I feel like it's Christmas!!! I love Japan and I love being newlyweds! I am the luckiest!

More later!
BIG LOVE,Saraxoxo

Finally Home: Livin in Chiba with Sara (April 2009)

I know it has been a while since I have written. But I have been extremely busy. Adding a wife to a full time baseball schedule doesnt leave much time for writing. Ha. Sara is here and we are loving life. She is takin to Japan like a duck to water. Everyday is new adventures and obstacles to overcome. We got her a brand new shiny silver bike right when she got here. Unfortunatley I underestimated the crime level here and told her she didn’t have to lock it….well within 2 days of getting her bike, it got stolen! Dangit! Luckily, Paul Pupo (our american statistic analyst) had a couple extra bikes and gave us one to use. We love taking our bikes for a ride and enjoying all the sites and sounds of a foreign country. Even trips to Costco make for a pretty entertaining adventure. Like for instance, the time me , Sara, and Gary went to load up on all the essentials of life. We shopped for 2 hours, filling up two HUGE grocery carts with goodies that would feed a small Army. Well, after we checked out and the cashier gave us the total, Gary handed her a credit and to our surprise….they take cash ONLY! “What?“ The total was over $500 and I had only brought a couple hundred to cover mine and Sara’s. “No problem,” I said, “I will just go pull some money out of the ATM.” Surprise again, the machine doesn’t take U.S. Debit cards. Damnit! Feeling dejected, we head back to our carts and Gary, straight out of a scene from “The Jerk”, starts grabbin random items to add to our cart. He grabbed 2 jars of jelley, a box of pasta, a case of tuna, and a bag of English Muffins. HA! And left the rest of the cart. We now make sure and bring cash to Costco.

Sara loves out neigborhood. We walk to the convenient store and the produce store. The owner of the fresh produce stand recognized me when we went in there and saw Sara admiring the strawberries. He asked for my autograph and gave Sara a big container of Strawberries! Yay! He now gives her strawberries every time she goes in there!

After two long months of spring training, I was told with about a week left that I (and Gary) had made the major league team! I ended up batting .310 during spring training. Gary batted over .450!!! Bobby told me in front of Sara, which was a treat for us to hear that together at the same time. (Bobby is so good to Sara. He treats her like a family member. He always makes sure she is taken care off, and that she has everything she needs. He even drove her an hour out to one the minor league games I played in in Yokohama. He is such an amazing person.) Anyway, I felt relieved that I made the team, because it was not a sure thing. We are very deep in talent and have a lot of guys who are entrenched in the big leagues, (not leaving much room for me and Gary).

Opening day was absolutely amazing! We opened at home and it was out of control. We had about an hours worth of pregame festivities. The stadium was packed to the gills and ROCKIN! We were introduced one by one. It felt really good to wear a big league uniform and be introduced to 35,000 adoring fans. It was topped off by the right field stands stretching a banner across the entire right field bleachers saying “MARINES IS MY LIFE!” Once they lowered the banner, they revealed a dozen or so banners and posters of Bobby, accompanied by ten minutes of Bobby songs and tributes. (The fans DO NOT want Bobby’s contract to end, and they are taking it upon themselves to let the front office know they aren’t happy.) After all the highlight videos, dances, banners and songs, it was almost time to play. But right before the game, the stands were buzzing with excitement. I walked out to sign some autographs and to my surprise, the fans break out in the loudest “Chase Lambin” song of all time. The entire stadium was singing and bouncing up and down singing my song! I didn’t know what to do. One of our coaches told me to go out on the field and acknowledge the fans. I walked out and tipped my cap. I have never felt like that on a baseball field in all my years. I had a tear in my eye, goose bumps on my skin, and my parents on my mind. I really wish they could have been there to see it. This is nothing short of the Big Leagues, and they would have been on cloud nine hearing that song.

I wasn’t starting, but still had a blast just cheerin my head off and soaking in the wild atmosphere. It was a good game, but we just couldn’t muster up enough runs. We ended up losing 5-2. After the game, my beautiful bride was waiting for me so that we could ride our bikes home together. Well, as soon as we started making our way thru the crowd, a fan recognized me and all hell broke loose. The fans all started runnin towards me, damn near knocking Sara over. It was kinda cold, and I was concerned about Sara, but she assured me to take my time and sign as many autographs as I wanted. I stood there on my bike, signing and posing for pics for about 30 minutes. The stadium security guard even came over and asked Sara if we would like an escort out of the area. “No thanks”. Sara finally got to see how passionate these fans are and how much they adore there ball players. There were people running down the street after us! On our way home, we stopped in at our favorite little neighborhood restaurant right down the street from us, The Big Dipper. We notice right when we walk in that the entire restaurant is wearing Marine jerseys. We take our seat and someone of course recognizes the blonde foreigner and the ENTIRE restaurant has to come over to our table. I couldn’t even order, and forget having a conversation with my wife. I signed jerseys in between bites and shook more hands then I can count. I am by no means complaining, it was actually pretty cool, but I can now see why it is frustrating for famous people to go out to eat. The most frustrating part about getting recognized in the train station, restaurant, or the grocery store, is the awkward silence, because neither of us know what to say. It usually goes something like this. A fan runs up with a huge smile and there eyes lit up and says, “Lam-bean!, Lam-bean!” I smile and say “Konichiwa”. And then we stand there, smiling and staring at each other as crickets chirp in the background. I usually just say, “nice to meet you”, in Japanese and awkwardly walk away as they continue to stare at me. I wish I could talk to them more, but I think even thru the language gap, we both understand the appreciation we have for each other.

There are times when me and Gary cant help but laugh at the attention we get. We like to use the analogy of being zoo animals. We feel like freakin Orangutans, because people just stare at us and get really excited when we show any kind of reaction to them. Chase, “Please don’t tap the glass!“, or “please don’t feed the animals”. If we wave or smile at them, they light up and start bouncing up and down. For example, when we get on the team bus after the games, there are hundreds of people just lining the sides of the bus staring in at us. Gary decided to have a little fun one day and started waving at them and of course they start waving back and bouncing up and down. Well he says, “I’m not gonna let them beat me, I’m gonna keep waving and see who gives in first.“ Well fifteen minutes later, Gary’s arm is starting to get tired. Finally our bus pulled away, ending the game, saving Gary’s arm. Ha! Oh yeah! Sara actually signed her first autograph the other day! A fan came up with our program and said “Mrs. Rambin, sign please!” She got a kick out of that.

Rules (March 2009)

Since being in Japan, Gary and I have learned that the Japanese way of doing things are A LOT different then what we are used to. The Japanese have a system of living life called “shikata”, it is a foundation of rules and behaviors that have been passed down for hundreds of years. They are programmed from day one to abide the “Japanese way of doing things.” It is one reason the Japanese are so successful. But for two good ole boys from the U.S., it gets a little complicated. Here are just a few of the rules we have learned while being here.

Everyday Rules

1. You MUST say “good morning”(Ohayou-gozaimas), and respond with “good morning“, to EVERY person you see, EVERY morning. I ran the numbers, say 25 guys get on a bus in the morning, that’s 1250 “good mornings” within 5 minutes. This also applies after games or practices. You must say “thank you for your effort today”, (Ohscoti-ohsamadesta) to every person as you leave.

2. After about 2 weeks of me and Gary blabbing on the bus everyday, we realized we were the ONLY people talking. The players consider the bus ride a time for relaxation and reflection. No talking…just whispering. Oops.

3. The Japanese are very “rank” oriented by age. Age determines your seniority and rank. You MUST let older players and coaches off the elevator first, thru doors first, in the food room first, etc. This is no problem IF you know how old each guy is.

4. The Japanese keep “indoors” and “outdoors” completely separate. Therefore, the shoes pose a big problem. You MUST take off your shoes whenever entering most restaurants, and you MUST bring “indoor” shoes to the gym. This has prevented me and Gary from working out, which is extremely frustrating. At the park we have shoes for stretching, shoes for BP, shoes for the locker room, shoes for the weight room, and shoes for the shower and food room. If you wear your “indoor” shoes “outdoors”, you can no longer use those “indoors!” You can imagine the planning ahead you have to do to stay on top of this!

5. There are assigned seats EVERYWHERE! (But they don’t have names and you have no clue which one is suppose to be yours.) The bus is the same seating every time. There are assigned lockers at home (standard) and at every stadium we play at on the road (no nameplates). There are assigned seats in the DUGOUT at home AND at each one of the stadiums we play at. Me and Gary kept getting dirty looks because our “stuff” was in someone else’s “spot“. Each player sits in “his” seat with “his” equipment in front of him. So and me and Gary stand there until everyone has seated and then find an empty seat.

Rules at the Park

1. The clubhouse is organized chaos. Everything has its place, and you must know where everything goes. First of all, you cant have ANY of your uniforms in your locker. They must be in the “uniform cubicle” at the front of the clubhouse. This seems pretty easy…but we have 18!!!! Uniforms!!! We have 3 different kinds(home, away, and auxiliary), but 6 versions of each uniform. Some have advertising patches, some have 40th anniversary patches, some have both, and some have neither!! And you MUST be wearing the right one! Not to mention the 10 hats, two helmets, 2 fleeces, 4 wind breakers, 2 hooded sweat shirts, 4 BP tops, 4 auxiliary BP tops, 4 pairs of shorts, and 4 cold weather coats. And that’s just the team stuff. There’s the personals on top of that (sliders, socks, jocks, undershirts, sleeves, gloves, wristbands, batting gloves, bats, cleats, etc. etc.) My locker is out of control. What happened to the good ole days of 2 uni’s, a bat, and a glove?

2. Your locker MUST be clean! You get a yellow card in your locker if it isn’t. After 2 yellow cards, the third offense is a red card which means you must go in front a board/panel and receive your monetary punishment.


3. Batting practice is very structured, but we are somewhat used to that. It is all on the clock with various stations set up. Once you are done hitting your round of BP, you MUST fix the holes that you made in the dirt while hitting. Once you take your last groundball during BP, you MUST end with a fly ball, and then rake your position (if it’s a dirt field, which is rare). And if you are starting at a certain position, you MUST work on your defense the entire BP at that position (come on…I play 6 positions!).

4. Once the game starts, if you are not in the lineup, you MUST put your equipment in the “swing room” (little room behind the dugout). So as not to have your stuff get in the way of anybody else.

5. Also, If you are not starting, you MUST go down the right field line(or left field depending), and stretch during the 3rd, 5th, and 7th innings.

6. You MUST say “BACK” from the dugout when there is a pick-off move on one of the base runner. (you get fined if you don’t)

7. You MUST high five (or pat on the butt), every person that does ANYTHING good during the game. (Hit, walk, score, HR, drive in a run, make a good play, throw a scoreless inning, strike someone out etc.)

8. You MUST be on the bench when a teammate returns to the dugout after hitting a homerun. No exceptions. I’ve seen guys running from the bathroom thru the clubhouse to the dugout with there pants around there knees!

9. You MUST acknowledge the fans after a hit, RBI, good play, etc. They will chant your name until you wave at them. (I have yet to do this because I just learned this yesterday. I just thought the fans were being nice. They prolly hate me because I have been ignoring them.)

At the Apartment

1. You MUST park your bike in the assigned parking spot, with the assigned sticker on the handlebars. If you don’t, you are shot on site. We learned that you cant just park your bike anywhere. Within 24 hours of purchasing our bikes, we both got “parking” tickets for parking in a paid parking lot! Ooops.

2. Japan is a VERY clean country. I often wonder how they do it. I found out it is a very serious offense if you get caught littering. They don’t have room in this country for vast landfills like we do in the states. So recycling is very important. Every public trashcan has multiple holes to put various waste. I made the mistake of asking where I put my trash from my apartment. After an hour tour with our landlord, my head was spinning! We have 15 different garbage deposits!!! There is a pile for the combustible, non combustible, the plastic bottles(with out top), green glass bottle, brown glass bottles, clear glass bottles, newspapers, magazines, aerosol spray cans, batteries, cardboard, metals, and on and on! “Are you suppose to have 15 trashcans in your apartment?” The landlord said if we didn’t know where an item went, to just put it in the cardboard box in the corner of the room. Gary, “Can I just put it ALL right there?“ The guy DID NOT laugh.

I’m sure there are many more to learn, but this is all I can think of for now….

To be continued…

Chase

Barnstorming Tour (Early March)

Well we wrapped up camp in Ishigaki and Bobby thought it would be a good idea for me, Gary, and a couple other players to fly to our minor league camp in Sendai Kagoshima so that we could get some extra at-bats. Sounded like a good plan to me. Well it ended up bein about 10 hours of travel for 5 at bats! We flew into Kagoshima, which is the southern most part of the mainland, its absolutely beautiful. To make a long story short, we were with the minor league team for about 48 hours, got 5 at bats one day (I went 2 for 5) and got rained out the next. We then hopped on another plane and flew BACK to the Okinawa islands to meet the team in Naha, which is on the main island of Okinawa. It too was beautiful. We play one game there which I started and went 1 for 2. We fly out after the game to Nagasaki, a city in the mainland. This is of course where the U.S. A-bombed after the Japanese didn't surrender following our fist A-bomb on Hiroshima. Its a really cool city built between two mountain sides on a canal.(this is the reason why the bomb was so destructive, the blast shot down the valley and obliterated everything in its path) You definitely get looked at kinda funny while walking around the city. But its pretty impressive how the city flourishes now, just 60 years later. Our hotel was right on the water and the view was spectacular. (Our hotels are as big league as it gets, I'm definitely spoiled.) Well the next day is an off-day, so we have a meal ticket to the restaurant in the hotel that is worth 60 bucks. Gary and I head down and find the restaurant has a damn POOL right in the middle of it with all kinds of fish swimmin around!!! Me and Gary cant believe it, in stead of a bar, its a dang pool. So the menu is pretty tough to read. I had one of our trainers help me order, but I still had no idea what I ended up ordering. It was a 50 dollar meal, so I figured it had to be good. As we wait for our food, this guy kept takin this huge net and pullin fish out of the tank right in front of us! Chase, "I guess my meal is gonna be fresh!" Well plates start comin and they didn't stop for about two hours! I guess I ordered a 6 course meal. Miso soup, salad, Sashimi, noodles, and then the main dish was a WHOLE fish!...teeth, eyes, tail and all! (I think it was a Sea Bream). I don't know where to start so I just start pokin it with my chopsticks and the meat just starts fallin off the fish! And come to find out...it tastes GREAT! I'm eatin meat straight off the fishes face and I'm lovin it! I start tellin Gary how I was the kid who ate 3 things in the world growin up (chicken nuggets, pizza, and grilled cheese.) I end up crushin this fish and the only thing left is the bones, the tail, and eyeballs!!! More food keeps comin and I am about to pop when it it finally stops. Ha...what a meal!!! Like I said, the next day was an off-day and we decided to walk around the city. Its got some really interesting history. Nagasaki was the only port in all of Japan that was aloud to import and export things during the 17th and 18th century, and they where only aloud 1 shipment a year! So it was the only place in Japan that got any kind of foreign influence. A Dutch guy landed there first and was forced to stay when they shut off the borders of Japan. Well because of this, the cities history is very European! The have Catholic churches, normal looking houses, German pubs, all kinds of non-Japanese stuff. Anyway, we walk around and end up in a dang mall of all things and find a book store. We ask if they had an English section and they did. But come to find out, all the books are about Japan!...geez thanks! All in all, it was a pretty uneventful off day compared to some of my previous ones. The next day we have a game, and I am starting at third base again. I go 0 for 2 after fouling a cutter from Daryl Rasner right off my knee cap...OUCH! The park is super cool though. Tons of fans and to my surprise, the cheering section from our home stadium travels with us. They make all kinds of noise threw out the entire game! They have a song for each player and they beat drums and blow horns continuously! They keep singin for about an hour after the game! Its SOOO cool. The next day is another game and I am again starting and playing right field. I go 1 for 3. After the game we jump on ANOTHER plane bound for a city called Nagoya. We get there and we are in ANOTHER immaculate hotel over looking the Nagoya Castle!!! Its a thousand year old Japanese castle that the Samurai's who protected the village lived in. We have an off day the next day and of course me and Gary go check out the castle. It was REALLY cool. It has a huge moat surrounding the entire castle and there were deer down in the dry part of the moat! Chase, "I wish I had my bow!" We read about the history, check out all the exhibits, snap a couple pics and head back to the hotel. Gary, "Am I really getting paid to see samurai castles and play baseball?" I'm so lucky to have Gary with me. He is just as appreciative of this adventure as me. We are like two kids in Disney Land! The next day was a game and its in the home stadium of the Chinichi Dragons, which is a Dome! Its freakin awsome. Its a big league dome. I didn't start and was on deck when our first baseman ran thrue a stop sign at third and got thrown out at home to end the game when were down by four! OUCH! Oh Well....Gary hit a bases loaded double. That's it for now. We have a couple more stops on this barnstorming tour before we get back to our home stadium in Chiba. I will try and keep y'all updated. To be continued.....

Chase

Pearls and Bulls (Feb. 25th 2009)

So its time for another off day in Ishigaki (every fifth day we have a day off, its great!) Benny Agbayani and Brian Sikorski (our two American veterans) invite me and Gary out for dinner the night before the off-day. They take us to a really nice Yakiniku restaurant. (Its the type where you cook the food on the little grill in front of you.) Its freakin awsome as always. Tons of beef of all kinds, salad, miso soup, beer, the works. We have a great time and get to bed at a reasonable hour since we would be having a full day tomorrow. Wake up around 9 and eat breakfast outside on the beach with Bobby. No big deal. ha. Just normal stuff here in the "Gaki". We discuss politics, hitting, food, etc. I still cant believe I'm on a tropical island getting paid to play baseball and learn from Bobby Valentine. Anyway, we were asked a couple days ago by our public relations guy if we would like to go visit Kabira Bay on our off-day. (Kabira Bay is on the North side of the island and is the top tourist attraction spot on the island. Its one of the few places in the world that grows black pearls! Not to mention its absolutely gorgeous!) Me and Gary say "Hell Ya" and jump in the van not knowing what the heck we were getting into...as always. We get there and we are greeted by ALL the media. There must have been 15 camera totin reporters to document our trip to Kabira Bay. Gary, "Thanks for the heads-up Go." (Go likes to keep me and Gary in the dark at all times) We of course don't mind the attention. We are escorted into the Jewelry store that sells the black the pearls. We are greeted with two HUGE bouquets of flowers! (These people are so nice it doesn't make sense.) We are then shuffled into a back room where we are sat down in a classroom type setup. I still have no clue whats goin on. I just smile and nod my head. At my desk is a fake clam in a vice with tools spread out across the desk. Gary, "Dude, are we gonna make pearls?" The next thing you know, the instructor is giving a seminar on how to cultivate a pearl. (its pretty much artificially inseminating a clam) You have to cut a little hole in the membrane and slide this little BB lookin thing into the same hole along with another little red thing that I still don't know what does. Once cultivated, they sit in the bay for two years before they are opened up again to reveal the shiny pearl! So we watch the videos and practice a couple times on the fake clam and then its time for the real deal! Chase, "Oh shit, we are doin it on real clam?" "I thought this was all just for posterity". Gary goes first and starts cultivating while flash bulbs are lighting up the room. You woulda thought he was cultivating Jennifer Aniston with the way the media was actin. He does it successfully and then its my turn. I jump in the chair and start cuttin and pokin. I get the BB in with no problem, add the little red thing and I'm done. I think I made the best pearl of all time. We are given a little card with the serial number of OUR clam, so we can call in a year or two and check on it! ha. Chase, "Don't think I wont call!" On our way out of the Jewelry store we pose for pics with the staff and the owner presents us with a gift. Its black pearl cuff-links!! How cool! We thank him profusely and get on our way to actually go SEE the bay. Once outside we finally get to see how beautiful the Bay is. The most turquoise, green, and blue water I have ever seen. With little islands sprinkled across the bay, and a backdrop of towering plush green mountains. What a site!! The paparazzi escorts us up to the viewing deck and whips out two pieces of paper and a box of colored pencils! They say, "Draw!" What? (Since Gary is a very talented artist, the media has kept asking him to draw pictures kinda like the press keeps askin me about Sara and toilets. They get a bit of info and run with it!) We laugh and oblige. I start sketchin what I see and feelin kinda pressured since these people seem to think we can just whip out a masterpiece in 5 minutes. We do　do our best considering we only had about 15 minutes. They start snappin pics in a frenzy! They then have us walk down to the beach for the interview. We stand there holding our pictures answering a ton of questions. In the mean time, since this is the number one tourist attraction, the tourists start gatherin around to see what all the fuss is about. Before you know it, there are 60 people gathered around us takin pics and pointing at us like we are some kinda zoo animals! Its a freaking mob scene. We smile and answer the questions to the best of our ability and the interview ends after about 30 minutes. We snap a couple pics for ourselves and head back to the van. What a day! But it gets better! The day before, we got invited to go to the local "Bull Fight". Ummm...OK! We decided it sounded like an adventure and we wouldn't miss it for the world. We jump on the team bus after dinner not having a clue what we were getting into...of course. About 15 or 20 of the players decided to partake. We arrive at the venue and its this little dirt circle arena with stands circling "the pit". We are greeted with a hero's welcome as the live band starts playing the Chiba Lotte Marines song as we walk to our reserved section. Everyone is waving and taking pictures of us. The announcer starts announcing our names, so we stand up one at a time and wave to the rabid fans. Me and Gary decide to ham it up and milk this experience for all its worth. They say our name and we wave and bow. The atmosphere is electric. You can hear the bulls groanin and snortin outside the arena, and the band was jammin! Gary and I sit on the front row, grab a beer, and wait for the fight to start. The next thing you know, this HUGE black bull is lead into the ring, and he is PISSED!! He starts snortin, groanin, and pawin the ground! Me and Gary are geekin out. The next bull is lead in and he is even BIGGER! The two trainer lead the bulls to each other and once they see each other its on!! They put there massive heads together and start pushin. (Its kinda like Sumo wrestling, but with bulls. Once one bull refuses to fight anymore or gets pinned against the railing, its over.) Me and Gary are cheerin our heads off as these two beasts push, until one bull gets bent to the side and loses his footing. The other bull plows him into the railing and its over. The losing bull is shot on the spot! Just kidding. He is lead out while the winning bull gets a cape put on his back and makes a victory lap around the ring. A couple minutes later another bull is brought in and does the same song and dance. The opponent is lead in and this fight lasts about 2 seconds because the one bull wants no part of the other. The one bull chases the other in circles around the ring and the winning bull is caped and its on to the next fight. This continues on kinda like a boxing event, with a fight card, each fight gettin steadily bigger, with the bulls getting bigger and more pissed! Another cool thing is the trainers, or coaches, that motivate the bulls during the fight. There job is to fire up the bulls and they take it serious. They stomp and yell at the bulls until they are blue in the face. They scream so much they have be lifted for pinch screamers! Another guy will run in and take his place tryin to fire the bull up! If he gets them goin, he stays, and if he doesn't the tag team partner comes back in and gives it another shot! Its fascinating! Well after about the fifth fight, me and Gary are in a tizzy. Right after this one bulls beat the shit out of another, the trainer in the ring looks dead at me and waves for me to come into the ring!!! "Uhhh...me?" As I point to myself. I don't know what the heck to do. So I say fuck it and hop the railing into the pit! Why not trust this complete stranger with my life? (I figure if I die in a bull ring on Ishigaki Island it would be a bad-ass ending to bad-ass life.) So the trainer is trying to tell me do something, but there is an obvious communication gap. From what I can decipher, he wants me to jump on the winning bulls back! "Are you shittin me!!" I'm already in this deep, so I say fuck it again and hop right on the 2000 lb animals back! The crowd goes nuts as I wave and clap and try not to think about the bulls horns ripping my face off! Luckily the bull didn't snap and he politely let me sit on him for a good 20 seconds as I circled the ring. I hop off at my section and run for the railing. The crowd loves the crazy American. My heart is pounding out of my chest as me and Gary die laughing. A couple fights later the same guy points at Gary and waves him into the ring. Gary jumps in and hops on the winners back. He too gets circled around the ring and hops off safely and runs for the railing. Ha. What a hoot! A couple times between fights these little kids (under ten) go into the middle of the ring and do a Japanese dance. Its damn cute, until some guy wraps a yellow towel around my head and points for me to go dance! He does the same to Gary, and the next thing you know, we are dancing our asses off in this pit with these kids in front of a couple hundred screaming fans!! Nuts! Well the night leads to the finale. The two biggest and baddest bulls on the island go head to head. One has a huge Marines "M" painted on his side. We of course are pulling for him. They fight for a good ten minutes until finally the Marine bull plows the other one into the rails as the fans erupt for the Marine bull. The band starts playin, and they wave there local hero down into the pit. He is one of our young pitchers, he was drafted in the first round last year, and he is from Ishigaki Island! His name is Ohmine. He runs down and they wave for me to join him!!! We jump into the ring and BOTH hop on the grand Champion bull! The crownd satnds and cheers there local hero and the Crazy American! We get off safely and the night is over. We fliter through the crowd back to our bus. On the way, we get stopped every couple feet just to shake peoples hands! They are so excited to meet a baseball player! It is so crazy to think that these people REALLY adore us. Im just Chase from Houston, but in there eyes, I am much much more. I am so completely thankful and greatful that I get this opportunity. All I can do is shake my head, smile, and enjoy the ride....and I hope I never wake up. To be continued....

Chase

Intersquads, Karaoke Bars, and Mountain Bikes (Feb. 21st 2009)

Everything has been goin great in Ishigaki. We started playing intersquad games against each other a couple of days ago. Its good to get the competitive juices goin and have real at-bats in game situations. The first game I am batting seventh and playing Center Field!!(just stinkin go catch it). I actually made a really good play running straight back and catching a ball over my shoulder on a dead run right before the warning track. I really feel comfortable in center for some strange reason, considering Ive played there once in my life! The first two at-bats I strike out. One on a nasty slider and the other on a bad call by the umpire. The third at bat I finally get a good pitch over the plate and drive a line drive straight at the right fielder...for an out...dangit! The next day I am penciled in to play CF again. My first at-bat I popped to right, and then popped up again my second at bat. But my third at bat I hit a 2 strike inside fastball straight
down the first base line for a double. My first Japanese hit!! I get back to the dugout and Bobby is asking if I want the ball(jokingly of course. Practice game hits dont count) I respond with a "hell ya I want it, and I want you to write on it!" I return from the next half inning and there is a ball in my helmet with, "First NPB hit", the date, and the pitcher. We get a good laugh out of it.

The next day was just a normal practice session and then the next day was an off day. My previous off-day I spent reading because I was feeling under the weather. (It seems I ate somethin my tummy didnt like and had a tough time making solid waste for about a week!) The night before the off day, one of our American coaches asks me and Gary to go out for some beers. OK! Well the bars in Japan are NOTHING like the U.S. They are mostly Karaoke bars! Thats it. Its a bunch of individual rooms you rent by the hour and sing karaoke. So we rent a little room and there is a little touch screen remote control that you can request songs on. We sang and drank beer and laughed our asses off the whole night. Well since I was feeling better for the off-day, me and Gary jump on the team mountain bikes and take off on an adventure. We ride through town lookin for a place called "Mos Burgers". Gary swears its the best hamburger in Asia. We finally find it and it was AWESOME. Explaining "ketchup and mayonnaise only" is a bit difficult, but they were great!! After chowin down we take off towards the mountains that make up the interior of the island. Chase, "They don't look that steep". About half way up the smallest mountain I am walkin my bike, kicking myself for suggesting we make this detor. "Why do I insist on wooping my own ass on off-days!!???" We finally get to the top and its gorgeous from up there. You can see all the sugar cane fields, rice fields, ginger root and diakon radish fields, and the crystal clear ocean off in the distance. We take off back down the mountain side towards our hotel zooming past confused farmers and field workers. I don't think I peddled the entire time back down. We didnt have a map, but I have a decent sense of direction and we luckily got spit out right in front of our hotel!! We keep riding past our hotel and stumble upon a sweet lighthouse. We take a break and discover this cool little trail goin down through this cave that took you to the waters edge. We snap some pics and hop back on our bikes and take it on home.

The next day we had another practice game and guess where I was playing.You guessed it. But this time I actually got to bounce around and play SS, 2b, and RF. My first at-bat I was quikly down 0-2, but fought back to draw a walk. My second at bat I was facing our 44 year old veteran pitcher who throws everything but the kitchen sink up there and I roll over a 60 mph curveball to the second baseman....arghh. But my third at-bat I am facing our American relief pitcher, Brian Sikorski. He throws hard and I am lookin dead read from the get go. I get a first pitch Fastball up and in and I hit it almost back to Texas! (We have a 60 foot net around the entire field to protect the fans from balls and I cleared the net with room to spare). I trot the bases and get high fives from all my teammates. They say "nice batting!!" We finish shortly there after and I have to stay after for some extra htting on the field. Bobby had been watching my swing earlier in the day and noticed a slight mechanical error. I think he has a slow motion camera in his head. He sees every little thing. So he's standing behind the cage and Im doin what he's instructing me to do and I am crushing balls over the net left and right! I must have hit 25 homers in about 50 swings! He's getting all fired up because what he taught me is working. He is an amzing person and teacher!!

I do my conditioning and then I am asked to go do a photo shoot with some of the fans in the basketball arena. I sit with 4 other teammates (including Tadihito Iguchi, the White-Sox 2b when they won the World Series) and smile for pictures with damn near every person on the island!! It was fun because the kids are so damn cute and they are so appreciative. After the photo shoot I am asked to do an interview. So here come a pack of beat writer and news anchors firing questions at me. Their questions crack me up. The first one was "What did the homerun feel like?" Ummmm....good. The next question was "Do you have a picture of your wife?". Yeah, I keep one in the back pocket of my uniform...no I dont have a picture silly. The next question really got me. "What do you plan on doing for your homerun celebration once the season starts?" What? "What dance will you do?" Dance? Where I'm from, if you do stuff like that you get drilled your next time up. They explain to me that in Japan it is much more theatrical, and the pitchers understand if you want to do a little dance after a homerun. I laugh and tell them I would think on it and get back to em. So I'm open for any reccomendation! They ask a couple more silly questions and the interview is over. I get a kick out of these people. Thats all for now. To be continued from Ishigaki Island....


Chase

More Spring Training laughs! (Feb. 2009)

This was the first week of Spring Training...
Sunday, February 08, 2009So the veterans on the team throw a team party at our hotel.  It is an outdoor BBQ, Japanese style.  They have a bunch of the Korean BBQ grills set up out on the grounds of the resort. (I've written about these grill it yourself BBQ pits before.  They rock.)  The older team leaders grab a microphone and welcome the new players to the team (this includes me and
Gary, players just drafted, and free agent signees). We all raise a beer and yell "Kampai!", which is "Cheers" in Japanese.  We have an awesome meal of chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, steak, and all kinds of other meats (intestines, liver, hearts, etc.)  We have a great time.  At the end, the leaders stand up again and make all the new players make a speech!  I start to panic!  I dont mind public speaking, but this is different.  I don't know if I should say it Japanese or English, or what! So Bobby starts helping me and Gary out on what to say.  He says for us to get up and say something
funny.  What? Do I look like a Japanese comedian?  So I get up with my interpreter in front of the ENTIRE team, plus the team owner, the team president, and the team General Manager.  YIKES! I say my name and that I am from Houston, Texas.  I then mention that I got married just two days before I arrived in Japan.  They all clap and raise
their beers for a "Kampai" to that.  I say how I had to leave my new wife behind and that I was worried about being lonely when I got to Ishigaki.  I then say that I am not lonely because I have the Japanese toilets to keep me VERY happy! (I'm sure everyone remembers my excapades with these porcelain robots that give you a little mini car wash every time you use the restroom.)  The guys ROLL OVER laughing! They laugh so hard its scary.  They are a great audience. I then tone it back a notch and say how I am blown away by the talent I have seen in the first week of being here.  I say how I am extremely impressed with their work ethic and there passion for the game of baseball.  I say that
they have my utmost respect, and that I consider it an honor to be their teammate.  They love it.  They clap and cheer and  we "Kampai" one more time. It was a really neat experience.  A couple of the guyssaid "nice speech", and some called me "Toto", which is the name of the toilets here.  Just another day on Ishigaki Island.
To be continued.....

Chase

Spring Training 2009: Ishigaki Island

Here is how this year got started back in January...
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 4:58 AMOff for the land of Zen at 10:45 Texas time. Say my goodbyes to my beautiful new bride and check in for my flight. I take my seat in "business class", and was blown away. Fully electric reclining chairs, tons of bells and whistles, and unreal service. I was served a 5 course meal featuring shrimp cocktail, lump crab meat, salad, halibut, fruits, cheese and crackers, and dessert! I was in heaven. (I found out later, my seat cost a few thousand dollars...yikes!) I max and relax for the next 14 hours and finally land in Tokyo. Since I have been here before, getting through customs and retrieving my bag was not quit as intimidating. I get through with no problems, grab my bags and head out the exit to find 15 cameramen running towards me snapping pictures!!! I just stand there smiling, not knowing what the heck to do. A team employee finally saves me and has me stand against this wall while all these guys fire questions at me. The questions start off normal, "have you been training...How will you help the team...whats your goals?". Then they got out of hand. They start asking me about Japanese toilets and whether or not I prefer theirs or American ones. (They must have read my Travel Journal). I answer there silly questions and happen to mention I just got married two days before. Boy did they run with that one. The next 25 questions where about Sara! They asked if I had a picture, I said yes, and they proceeded to take my picture while I held the picture of me and Sara next to my face! (The next morning's paper had a picture of me holding a picture of Sara! ha...too funny. Sara is celebrity in Japan!) After about 30 minutes the press conference ended and I jumped on a van and headed to Makuhari. I get to my apartment which is really nice. Gary Burnham was there to greet me. We catch up a bit and head out to dinner with Bobby and some of the coaches. We ate at a Korean steakhouse which was PHENOMENAL! We run up a huge tab crushing tons of beef, tongue, liver, heart and intestines! I stuck to beef mainly. I'm starting to fade from the jet lag and crash around ten. Up at 8 to catch a 10:30 flight to Okinawa. We meet the rest of the team at the airport and are greeted by tons of Marine fans. We board the plane and take a three hour flight to the island of Okinawa. We are greeted by even more adoring fans as we exit the plane. We jump on another plane and fly about an hour more south to the tiny island of Ishigaki. As we are taxiing towards the airport I see a line of people on the tarmac beating drums and screaming. "What the heck are those people doing?" I ask. I find they are here for us! Right as I'm about to step off the plane and bask in my celebrity, the bottom drops out of the sky and it starts pissin! The rain was comin down sideways and the people didn't budge! They just kept screaming and pounding there drums. I was handed an umbrella and sprinted for the airport (I was sporting my new suit from my wedding and didn't want it gettin ruined). Once inside, there were even more screaming fans all waving marine flags and snapping pictures. I felt like a Backstreet Boy! We quickly jump on a team bus and head for the Spring Training complex where we are to be honored at a pep rally in a gymnasium. We line up in numerical order and are announced one by one to the hundreds of adoring fans. The fans made a tunnel for us to walk through en rout to the main stage where we were to sit. Me and Gary are freakin' out. We high five all the little kids and take our seat on the stage. Our team owner, own team president, and Bobby all make a speech and then we are treated to a performance by a high school dance team. They dance and sing for us as the fans wave there flags and squeal with excitement. We wrap up the rally and jump back on the bus to our team hotel. What a trip!! We arrive at our hotel and HOLY!!! It is a "five star" resort ON the beach, and I have a suite with a balcony over looking the ocean!!! Gorgeous turquoise water, immaculate grounds keeping, palm trees, the works! My room is off the charts and I have it all to myself! (No sharing rooms in the big leagues.) Me and Gary are like kids in a candy store, and cannot believe we are living out this dream. To top it all off, we have a couple boxes in our room FILLED with goodies. Six different uniforms, fleeces, hoodies, shorts, pull overs, t-shirts, a huge suitcase, ball bags, bat bags etc. And everything has my name and number embroidered on it! I'm number 43. It really rolls off the tongue doesn't it? ha! We snap off some pics and head down to the restaurant for dinner. We have a little coupon for dinner and it says we have to keep it under $63!!! HA! I of course order a $63 chef selected 5 course meal. Lots of funny dishes, but very good overall. We crash after dinner. Up at 6 a.m. because I cant sleep. I sit on my balcony and watch the sun rise. What a site!! I feel so blessed!! Gary and I head down to breakfast around 8 and it was AMAZING!! TONS of food. They must of had 30 different things on the buffet line. We crush until we cant walk and head upstairs to change for our practice. Since practices can't officially start until Feb. 1st, we have free reign to do whatever we need. The complex is super nice. A Full field, an indoor facility, and lots of cages and bull pens. We play catch, take some ground balls, hit, and lift some weights. There is tons of media all over the place. They snap pics every where we go. We take it back to hotel and have ANOTHER amazing meal which was followed by a team meeting. To be continued.

What a day! (November 2008)

This all started by me calling Bowser on Sunday to inform him of the good news that I was signing with Japan. We were talking and he mentioned his father in-law's land up in Bonham Texas, and that I could hunt it anytime. I said, “I'll be there next weekend!” He has 750 acres of good land that is hardly ever hunted. On Thursday night I pack my bags and every weapon I own. I wake up at 5 a.m. on Friday morning so I can work out and get on the road by 9a.m. to catch the evening hunt. I’m cruising up I45 when my agent calls and asks for a fax number to send me the terms agreement for my Japanese baseball contract. “Uh…I'm driving…just send it to Bowser's bank and I will sign it when I get there.” I inform Bowser I will be receiving a fax shortly. I continue driving and make it to the bank in great time. I give Bowser a big hug and we immediately head for the fax machine. There it is, a contract entailing all the salary info, signing bonus, and incentives package. It’s crazy to see it all in writing, it doesn’t seem real. I sign it and put it back in the fax machine. Bowser, “Go ahead, with a push of that button, your life is goin to change.” I smile and push the big green button. Bowser congratulates me and we take off for his house to grab a couple things for the hunt.

While at Browser's house, a buddy of his who is a hunter drops by and I start askin him about the deer in the area. He said his brother had killed a good 8 point about 40 miles from there. “40 miles!, what's around here?” He looked confused and doesn’t recollect any nice bucks being killed around these parts. Sweet, I drove 5 hours to hunt land with no deer. I'm still feeling optimistic as we head out to the farm. Bowser has very little hunting experience (he wouldn’t know a buck from a beaver). He also knows the land about as well as I do. We pull into the property and he says, “Well, I saw a couple deer in this field a few years ago.” Oh boy, this might be a long weekend. After driving for a bit, I see a natural alley cutting into a thicket. The cut is surrounded by thick timber on 3 sides and a pond back behind it. We get out and walk down the treelines looking for some signs. In all, we find ONE deer track! Bowser,“That’s a good sign aint it?” I’m feelin less and less optimistic by the minute.  We are running out of time so I just decide this place is as good as any. I corn what little trails I could find and start to set up the blind. The day before I had a bought a pop up ground blind with a gift certificate I received from Sara’s sister, Kristen. It Rocks! It went up in a flash and the thing was the size of a small living room. Bowser and I fill the blind with two chairs, two guns, a backpack, and a cooler full of beer. We hide the truck a couple hundred yards away and settle in for the hunt.  Bowser and I catch up and tell stories of the old days (Grayson baseball). I teach him a little about hunting because he has a genuine interest and wants to start doing it more. We're having a good ole time drinkin beer and laughin. About 15 minutes into the hunt Bowser says “I gotta pee.” Damnit! I find an old water bottle in my backpack and he proceeds to fill it up. Great, deer love the smell of beer and human piss. On top of the odors pouring out of our blind, I have the dang whooping cough and can't stop. I'm just a coughin away. I say “We might as well pull the truck up and sit on the tailgate and turn on some Willie Nelson, cuz we aren’t gonna see a damn thing.” Another ten minutes go by and I have to pee too. Over the next hour and a half, we fill up half a dozen beer cans with piss! I give up on seeing anything and am just enjoying being outdoors and hangin with one of my best friends in the world. As the sun starts to fade, I tell Bowser this is the time of day when things start moving. Right as I'm saying that he says, “What's that out in the field?” I quickly throw up my binoculars. “That’s an expletive buck Craig!!!” About 300 yards away a beautiful mature buck is sauntering right towards us! My heart starts to pound. I’m playing it cool telling Craig we'll just wait for him to come on in for an easy shot. While the deer is making his way towards us, I am trying to grab all the beer and piss cans from atop the cooler and get them out of the way. Bowser suggests we switch seats because I would have a better angle in his seat. So we stand up and fumble around this blind knocking over piss cans and tripping over the cooler. I settle in Bowser's chair and the deer is now only 150 yards away! I get in a comfortable position and get my gun up. The buck keeps on walking in. I put my crosshairs on him as Bowser tells me to let him know when I'm gonna shoot. The deer gets about 80 yards away and throws his head up, no doubt smelling the filth coming from our direction, and takes off running. NOOOOOOOO! Luckily the big boy stopped after about 20 yards and looks dead at us, standing broadside. BANG!!!!!!! The deer bucks violently and takes off for cover. He’s hit good! I have trouble finding him again in my scope and Bowser is screaming for me to shoot again. I finally find him, he's standing by the treeline and is starting to fade. He staggers and topples over in a heap of fur and horns! Bowser, “HE”S DOWN!!!” We explode out of the blind hollering and cussin. “WHOOOO….F- YEAHHHH….THAT’S WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT!!!” Now let me remind you, me and Bowser have won two national championships together, and I can't remember us getting as excited over that as we did over this deer. We jump up and down, hug, and high five! We grab a celebratory beer and make our way across the field towards our trophy. As we make our approach, the emotions and adrenalin are flooding thru me. Granted, it had dropped about 20 degrees since the beginning of the hunt, but I was shaking like a dang leaf! Bowser, “Are you cold or something?” I have faced some of the best pitchers in the world on some of the biggest stages, and have never had the shakes like I did after takin this deer. It was as beautiful on the ground as it was in the field. (By no means was this deer a monster, I have seen and shot much bigger, but for these parts, it was a real trophy). It was a fully mature buck in the prime of his development, with long arching main beams, lengthy pitchfork-like tines, and a broad, full neck and chest. (I later showed a pic of the buck to the land owner who has lived on that land for 60 years and he doesn't remember seeing many deer that big.) Craig and I high five some more.  I lift the beauty up and take a closer look. What a sight! I pose quickly for a couple pics with my cell phone and Bowser says, “Chase, check out the moon.” On one horizon, a bright yellow full moon was just rising over the treeline, surrounded by wispy clouds, while on the other horizon the sun had just set and was casting orange, yellow, and purple rays up and out over the sky above. We take a second to take in the beauty of our situation. Best friends, hunting, and nature at it’s best. It don’t get no better. Craig and I walk to grab the truck while I call my parents and Sara and give them the good news. We get back to the deer and I quickly field dress it and lift it into the back of the truck. We are still laughin at the chain of events that just occurred. We take the deer to Bower's' mother in-laws house and right as we get there Leslie and Bowser's three boys pull up. The boys are in heaven. Leslie rolls her eyes at us while we excitedly tell the story to her and the kids. We take a ton of pics for documentation and then we decide we must find a way to skin and quarter this thing. We head up to Wal-Mart to buy a big cooler and some rope. We explain to a Wal-Mart worker our situation and how I need to get this deer back to Houston for processing. He says, “Hell, I got a neighbor that processes deer for his friends and family in his barn, call him up.” It’s 9 p.m. and I call this random stranger named Larry. He says, “Bring him on over, I'll have him ready by Sunday morning.” We take the deer out into the middle of nowhere and this 70 year old man is waitin for us. He strings him up in his barn and skins and quarters it in about 15 minutes. “Ya'll come on back Sunday morning and he’ll be ready.” What a great man, he casually mentions he has cancer and that he just enjoys working and helping people out. He was stone cold country and will prolly work his fingers to the bone for the remainder of his life. We profusely thank him and tell him we will see him on Sunday. On Sunday morning, we head out to get our deer meat and he and the meat are waitin for us. I ask what I owe him and he says whatever I think he’s worth. I hand him $100 bucks and he hands me back $20 sayin he wasn’t worth that much. Ha. We thank him some more and he tells us to drop back by anytime. It’s amazing the people God puts into your life to help you out.  Time to load up all my gear, say goodbye to the Bowser family and hit the road. What a great trip, it's not every day you sign a major league contract and kill an eight-point on the same day. I feel blessed to have these opportunities and will continue to share them with my loved ones to enjoy.


See ya on down the road,

Chase