Mid May Bobby had some of his best friends visit. Frank Abbott, Bobby’s life long friend from Stamford who grew up playing ball with Bobby. Phil Hersh, who Bobby met in college, now an attorney living in Peekskill NY. Pete Serino, another college buddy, also an attorney who resides in Boseman MT on his 200 acre ranch. And Mike Abate, currently one of Bobby’s key employees and instructors at the Bobby Valentines Sports Academy on Camp Ave. in Stamford. Mike also played professionally for the Seattle Mariners and went on to QB in the Arena football league.
Big Mile Abate, Frank Abbott and Pete in Tokyo, Akiharbara.
Mike showed us his can still hit and with power as we took BP at Marines stadium on an off day and went deep often. My boys wanted his autograph after watching him hit.
Frank in the meantime took thousands of photo’s on his digital camera of all the adventures Bobby took them on during their stay. If you know Bobby, there is never a dull moment and never down time. It’s one place to another and one adventure after another. As he always says “enjoy the journey”.
One of the many great things I have had the pleasure to experience in my 30 years with Bobby is getting to meet and share time with many of his great friends. Frank, Phil, Pete and Mike are awesome and it was great to see them.
Phil Hersh, Frank, Pete Serino and Bobby Valentine singing a little karaoke.
Singing group from Stamford.
June in Japan started with some power and some ties.
Power in the form of “Tower of Power”, the legendary soul band, and more power and ties when the powerful Tokyo Giants (the Yankees of Japan) came to town.
During our previous road trip to Hiroshima, Bobby and Paul Pupo, Bobby’s long time friend, business associate and current Data Analyst for the Chiba Lotte Marines, ran into a few of the members of Tower of Power in our hotel lobby. Of course they recognized Bobby and after talking for a while they invited Bobby and some quests to their upcoming concerts in Tokyo.
So on Saturday night after a day game (which we won) Bobby, Paul, myself and my wife Michelle went to the famous Blue Note Jazz Club in Tokyo to see Tower of Power. First we ate at the original Shabu-Shabu restautant in Japan which is over 100 years old. Shabu-Shabu is a traditional meal here that consists mostly of thinly sliced beef and vegetables. Both are brought to your table on platters along with a pot of boiling hot water. You then cook the beef and vegetables yourself in the hot water. The beef is so thin it takes only seconds to cook and is as tender as it gets. There are several choices of sauces for dipping that enhances the taste. Wonderful meal, wonderful experience.
We then walk a few blocks to the Blue Note. The club is small and quaint so the sound was fantastic. The boys rocked it like they have been doing since the good ole days. During the concert the lead singer, Larry Braggs, announced to the audience that Bobby V was in the house which brought the roof down. If you think Bobby is famous in the states, you should see him here.
On a side note, this was the first time my wife and I had the chance to go out together in Tokyo in our 6 years here. With 2 young boys living in a foreign country, baby sitters are not easy to come by. Fortunately for us Michelle’s parents, Mike and Lydia Lupinacci were visiting from Stamford so we had our sitters. Thanks guys!
After the concert we went back stage and met the boys, Emilio Castilla, Dave Garibaldi, “Doc” Kupka, Rocco Prestia, Larry Braggs and the rest of the band and crew. What a great bunch of guys. They will be playing at Foxwoods at the end of June so Michelle will be heading up there with a bunch of friends now that she is a “big shot” and knows the band members.
Sunday night Bobby went back again with a good friend of his, Akizawa-san and again had a great night.
Tuesday the Giants came to town for a 2 game series. As I mentioned earlier, the Giants are the Yankees of Japan and therefore the stadium was packed for a weeknight game. After 12 innings of great pitching and a few squandered scoring opportunities, the game ended in a tie. That’s right sports fans I said tie. In Japan games only go 12 innings and end in ties. Very difficult to get used to at first but it’s better than losing. To the best of my knowledge, the reason games only go 12 innings is due to mass transit. Mass transit is heavily utilized here and the trains stop running at and early hour so when the games run late all the fans have to leave to catch their trains so they decided, why play when everyone is gone, let’s just make it a tie.
Wednesday night was like ground hog day. After great pitching from both sides again and a few squandered scoring opportunities, the game ended after 12 in a 1-1 tie. Go figure. 47 games into the season without a tie and now 2 in a row. Kind of like kissing your sister as they say.
Another side note, the 2008 season began for us with back to back ties. 2 months of spring training, everyone is pumped for opening day and we tie. Then come back the next day and do it again…..wow. crazy.
Thursday was an off day and not such a great day for either Bobby or me. Bobby either had food poisoning from a ham sandwich or had some type of infection. Either way, he felt like crap and had a fever for most of the day. Bobby is like Superman and never gets sick so let’s just say it was food poisoning.
For me, Thursday was rough because I had to take my family, Michelle and my two boys, Frankie and Zack, who mean more to me than anything in the world, to the airport for a flight back to the states for a month. Tough saying goodbye but time flies and they will be back playing ball and coming to the ball park in no time.
Thursday night the team travelled to Nagoya for our next 2 game series against the Dragons. For you movie buffs, the Dragons are the team Tom Selleck played for in Mr. Baseball.
Most of our travels are on a high speed train called the Shinkansen. What an awesome way to travel. The team travels in first class which has huge reclining seats, plenty of leg room and a food and beverage cart that rolls by regularly with all kinds of goodies for sale. And the best part is your on the ground and not 30,000 feet in the air. Not a big fan of airplanes as I’m getting older.
By the way, these games I have mentioned are all against the Central League teams so we are currently in the portion of the schedule that MLB calls interleague game. Here it is called Koreosen. The Marines play in the Pacific League. The main differences between interleague play here and in the US is we play all the other leagues teams 4x (as there are only 6 in each league) and there is a trophy and bonus money for the team with the best interleague record. In 2005 when we won the Japan Championship, we also won the Koreosen title.
So we arrive in Nagoya Thursday night at the beautiful Westin hotel directly across the street from the famous Nagoya Castle. Most hotels we stay in are Japanese but there are a few Westins that I love since they have great beds and pillows. Most Japanese hotels have hard beds and big, hard pillows which makes sleeping tough for some of us.
Bobby traveled he next morning so he could get a good nights sleep and recover from whatever it was that hit him.
Friday (June 5) we lose a tough one 2-1 on a 2 run homer to right center. Once again, excellent pitching but no run support.
Saturday, in an afternoon game, ……….you’ll never guess……….ANOTHER TIE. Down 2-0 going into the 7 we scored 4 but gave 2 back in the bottom of the 9 and nobody scored in extra innings leaving us with our 3rd tie of the week and of the year.
Immediately after the game we are back on the Shinkansen heading to Yokahama for our next 2 games series against the Baystars. Yokohama has the highest population of foreigners in Japan and really is a cool city. Yokohma is the home of the first beer brewery in Japan, and is the first city to have ice cream. Many other first occurred in Yokahama since it is such a big port city.
Well, finally the bats came to life today as we scored 6 in the first highlighted by a grand slam by Chase Lambin, one of our new foreign players this year. It turned out to be a slugfest featuring 8 home runs (2 by Ohmatsu our RBI leader last year who has been struggling of late…..good sign) with the good guys coming out on top 9-7. After the game, Bobby and I wandered around the city which was mobbed with young kids who had just let out of an Excile concert at the Yokohama arena. Excile is a pretty hot band in Japan these days.
We ended up running into Chase and his wife Sarah and all had dinner together at an Italian restaurant. It was a beautiful spring night and we sat outside and had a great dinner.
