nice guy Taishi. the first day i met him he was ready to take a two shot and i’m like, no just a solo... and he was so funny he goes... huh? why??

got back from a week in Peoria for another year of Fighters camp. it was fun of course but since i was staying at the same hotel as the team i felt really weird sneaking around and taking the stairs to avoid as many of them as possible. 

on the first day the first player i ran into was Murata right after i checked in, he goes “hey nice shirt!” do you like Fighters?” Murata was a recent pick up, used to be with Cleveland Indians. it was rather cute though because there i am standing wearing a Fighters shirt and carrying Fighters bags... since he initiated the conversation i figured it is okay to talk to him so i told him how happy i was that Fighters signed him and told him i’d cheer for him this year.

and then Tatsuya Morimoto came out, and stopped and was all “HEY!” i’m like “Hi!” i had an old Hichori Morimoto shirt on so maybe that is why he randomly decided to stop on his way to lunch. Tatsuya is a really nice kid, so it could have just been that he was curious. like when my friend went to Kamagaya he was the first one to say hello to her. so i have no idea which it was, but at that time i had bleached hair (this is actually relevant later) and then he’s like “ok, see ya!”

so the first 5 minutes after checking in i run into 2 players, i’m like this is going to be a long stressful week....

anyway i put my crap in my room and hightailed it to circle k to grab some snacks and as i was crossing the street Hakumura and Yuki Saito zipped out on their bikes and Hakumura kinda giggled cause i saw a car coming towards me and yelled and started running. then off to sports complex where i saw quite a large line already formed, and i totally knew just by looking at most of the guys there that they were waiting for Otani, so i decided just to head to the field instead because i really didn’t want to be asked things. last year i felt totally taken advantage of because i helped out this one guy thinking oh he has a real interest in becoming a fan of the team only to find out later he was an autograph broker and was talking shit about all us fans behind our backs then posting signed good on ebay for ridiculous amounts of money. but it was nice because as i passed the sign line i heard some ladies call out hi, it was women i had met last year and the year before in Nago. and so i said hello and a couple ladies ran up to me and pulled out last year’s guidebook which i was in with my friend while i was taking a picture of her and Ohno and were like, “this is you right?!” (while all the autograph vultures looked on curiously)

walking to the practice fields i heard a loud DANICHANNNNN! coming from the entrance gate, it was my friends i met last year so we ran over to each other and were like YAY so good to see you again and high fived and stuff because they were going to go to the sign line and take pictures and stuff. 

anyway so i was wearing the old Hichori shirt right? so one of the other fans was all hey Hichori is over there, and he doesn’t look busy you should go ask him to sign your shirt, it is 10 years old! i was like no it’s okay, really! anyway i went around and took pictures and talked with fans i had met before and eventually made my way out to the sign line. and the same sweet fan runs over to me and goes, “i’m going to get Hichori for you!” and goes to where he was walking in the parking lot (he is retired Fighters and now a media guy for them so he took a different exit from the players) and she got him to stop and she beckons me over, has him sign my shirt (i REALLY don’t like people signing things i am wearing, but this is Hichori we are talking about so i was like fuck it) then i ask him for a picture and he says sure! and then she goes, you HAVE to take one together! i HATE pictures of myself with players so i was like please no but she took one of us anyway. so that was the third embarrassing thing that happened.

so back in the sign line and of course Otani madness ensued when he came out. my friend who was at camp last year and runs a blog about japanese baseball cards asked me if i could try to get his rookie card signed for him. he is like me in the way that i don’t want a signed card unless i asked for it myself, that is what makes it personal, so for him to ask for someone else to do it was a big stretch for him and i’m happy he trusted me with that task. and of course i was up to the task because last year at camp he wasn’t around on the days that Otani came out. so i got my friend’s card signed and otsukare’d Otani and all that.

this is when the infuriating part started setting in (it just got worse as the week went on), all the autograph vultures kept jumping back in line like 4 or 5 times and cutting in line and just being really disrespectful. and they didn’t say please or thank you to Otani, they just kinda shoved the pen at him. and as soon as Otani was gone they all left....WHICH WAS NICE. 

after they left it was pretty much back to having fun with the other fans, but of course more embarrassing things kept happening like, Yokoo came out and i was chatting with someone and these fans i hadn’t even met before ran over to get me like, “Yokoo is coming out!” i’m like wait why do they know this stuff?! (oh the guidebook picture i was wearing his uni hehe) so they shuffled me up to him and they were like, “Yokoo this is your biggest fan!” and okay so even in his rookie year Yokoo doesn’t take solo photos let alone two shots. so he signed my uni and took a solo shot (he doesn’t actually look grumpy in it too...) and then the fan who told him i was his biggest fan grabbed my phone and was like YOU HAVE TO TAKE A TWO SHOT, i was like no please i don’t like two shots but... they took it anyway. i wanted to crawl under a rock.