Daily Archives: November 2, 2009

Just Tsuyoshi being Tsuyoshi

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Tsuyoshi Shinjo sighting.

One of the many disturbing things about Paris Hilton is that it's absolutely impossible to distinguish her from a mannequin.

The former Mets outfielder and longtime Nippon Ham Fighters star threw out the first pitch at Game 2 of the Japan Series yesterday. From the Japan Times:

The roar only got louder when former Nippon Ham star Shinjo made his appearance.

With his unnaturally white teeth gleaming, hair teased and dark sunglasses perched on his face, the heavily tanned former outfield maestro looked more like a movie star than a baseball player.

Yes!

Say what you will about Shinjo’s lifetime .668 Major League OPS, the dude did it with flair. That, and huge orange wristbands.

There are far more meaningful aspects to the story linked above, most notably the return of uber-phenom Yu Darvish from shoulder fatigue. After a 42-day layoff, Darvish threw 87 pitches over six innings, allowing two runs while striking out seven and walking none.

Despite never having seen them play, I’ve long been a fan of the Nippon Ham Fighters. Until recently, I thought “Nippon” meant the place they were from (which was itself perplexing, since Nippon is Japanese name for Japan) and “Ham Fighters” was their nickname, as though they were either fighters made of ham or fighters who battled ham.

Obviously that was a bit conflicting, as I wanted to root for a group of pork-based fighters but couldn’t even consider supporting any team that was waging war on ham. But it turns out they are the Fighters that are sponsored by Nippon Ham, a Japanese company that predictably sells ham.

So I guess they are fighting on behalf of ham, and so I’m cool with that. Plus they have Darvish, who appears to be incredibly good at pitching.

I know this much: The best decision I’ve made today was searching YouTube for Tsuyoshi Shinjo. It’s a veritable goldmine of awesomeness.

Die by the sword

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I’m still trying to process the Jets’ loss yesterday.

Gary Myers in the Daily News points the blame at Rex Ryan, but I’m not willing to.

Going for the two-point conversion in third quarter was a questionable call. But Ryan was pretty clearly thinking that two points would put the Jets within three points of Miami, and until that quarter the game had been a defensive struggle. So I’m not going to kill him for that call.

Myers blames Ryan and special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff for kicking the ball to Ted Ginn Jr. after he had already broke one for a touchdown.

I mean, I guess. Myers points out that the Jets had never allowed two kickoff-return touchdowns in the same game in their history, as if that’s an indictment of Ryan. Doesn’t that speak to how rare a kick-return touchdown is, even from the legs of a returner as deft as Ginn?

Plus, just a few weeks ago Ryan was being praised for his swagger and bravado. I understand those things can become difficult to bear when a team starts struggling, but I also suspect that in football — unlike in baseball — they might actually help a team win.

Ryan and Westhoff had to show confidence in their kickoff coverage or risk undermining everything Ryan has said all season. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Essentially, the Jets outplayed the Dolphins in nearly every aspect of the game and lost because of three freak plays: The kick returns and Jason Taylor’s 48-yard fumble recovery return.

Those were all indicative of poor play by the Jets: Jay Feely made a bad kick on the first return, the tackling broke down on the second, and Shonn Greene coughed the ball up for Taylor.

But none of them exposed any massive flaw in the Jets’ roster or gameplan. They were just three  bad plays that happened to come in the same game.

So it strikes me that the loss might be the product of a whole lot of bad luck, more than a bad coach or a bad team.

The problem is — and again in contrast to baseball — the NFL’s 16-game schedule doesn’t allow a whole lot of wriggle room for misfortune.

So now Ryan and the Jets enter their bye week with an uphill battle on the horizon. To make the playoffs, they’ll now not only have to avoid similar bad luck against the Jaguars, Panthers, Bills and Bucs, but they’ll likely need to beat two of the Patriots, Falcons, Colts and Bengals.

The odds appear against them, for sure. But, for the first time in my life as a Jets fan, I have some confidence in Ryan’s confidence.

Items of note

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Joe Janish continues his 2009 Mets analysis series with his take on Daniel Murphy. I’m still ambivalent, but I think the Mets should stick with Murphy at first at least to start the season. More on that probably later today.

Diamondbacks reliever Clay Zavada won the American Mustache Institute’s Mustache of the Year Award, and showed up to accept it. Good for all parties involved. My former roommates and great facial hair men over at Rockiescast.com did a great job tracking baseball beards all year long.

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Tim McCarver said about three or four things that made no sense at all last night. Ron Darling usually makes a lot of sense.

Sam Page does a great job running down the ways in which Omar Minaya has failed. He points to the JJ Putz trade, a good example. Not included in Sam’s excellent writeup? Omar Minaya once traded two Minor Leaguers for 41-year-old Jeff Conine.