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.
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.
posted by CHASE at
9:40 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Chase! Glad to see you're settling in great - always good to see a fellow Houstonian here in Japan and doing great! It's a fun place to be and the fans here are crazy and awesome - which is why I loved the Marines in the first place.
Oh - and thanks for linking to my blog - I run the http://www.welovemarines.com/ Marines fansite :)
Keep up the good work!
Many Thanks. Im new to all this "blog" stuff. Feel free to pass on my site to any one who might enjoy it. Chase
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