daigo.org

I've been using Twitter to make short updates about everything, but especially to put down those in-game thoughts of the Boston Red Sox games. My twitter activity is almost replacing this blog, so I thought I'd pout it here permaneently. You can follow me from here, but expect to be bombarded with updates during the Red Sox games.

Today (June 19, 2009) at Fenway Park in Boston, two Japan-born pitchers will start the game against each other in the match up of Kenshin Kawakami for the Atlanta Braves and Daisuke Matsuzaka for the Boston Red Sox. This is the 5th time that has happened in the history of MLB. Here are the all 5 match-ups in the past:

• May 7, 1999
  Seattle Mariners Mac Suzuki vs New York Yankees Hideki Irabu
  Retrosheet box score

  SEA A    0  0  0    0  0  0    1  0  0  -   1  5  2
  NY  A    0  0  0    0  3  5    2  0  x  -  10 10  1
  WP: Irabu (1-0)
  LP: Suzuki (0-1)
  HR: Russ Davis (8), Jeter (6)

• July 2, 2000
  Detroit Tigers Hideo Nomo vs Kansas City Royals Mac Suzuki
  Retrosheet box score

  DET A    1  0  0    0  0  1    0  0  0  -   2  6  0
  KC  A    0  0  0    0  0  0    0  0  0  -   0  3  0
  WP: Nomo (3-7)
  LP: Suzuki (3-3)
  SV: Jones (23)
  HR: Polonia (5)

• June 19, 2002
  Montreal Expos Tomokazu Ohka vs Kansas City Royals Mac Suzuki
  Retrosheet box score

  KC  A    0  0  2    0  0  0    0  1  0  -   3 10  1
  MON N    3  0  1    0  0  0    0  2  x  -   6  8  2
  WP: Ohka (7-3)
  LP: Suzuki (0-2)
  SV: Stewart (7)

• May 9, 2007
  Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka vs Toronto Blue Jays Tomokazu Ohka
  Retrosheet box score

  BOS A    1  2  0    0  0  3    0  2  1  -   9 12  0
  TOR A    0  0  0    0  0  1    0  0  2  -   3  8  2
  WP: Matsuzaka (4-2)
  LP: Ohka (2-4)
  HR: Lugo (2), Ortiz (9), Ramirez (6), Lowell (6), Overbay 2 (5)

• June 19, 2009
  Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka vs Atlanta Braves Kenshin Kawakami
  MLB Game Day

SABR (Society of American Baseball Research) New England chapter holds couple meetings every year (usually spring and winter). They had one today, and I attended the morning portion of it and it was, as always, pretty inspiring. What I love about baseball is that it is such a fascinating subject, there are so many different facets to it and every research project is unique, and hearing about other people’s project is so interesting. I found that often times they just pick a subject for very personal reasons. For example, one of the guy did a research on a player (and was published in a collective book about the team in that particular team in a year) because the player was his dad’s favorite player. He said doing this research was like a tribute to his father. And I like that.

I have been fascinated about Masanori Murakami, who was the first Japanese player ever to play in US. I’ve been meaning to start some researching about him, but it has been difficult, time wise and other reasons. First of all, year 1965, I wasn’t even born. I have no idea what the world was like in US, or for that matter, in Japan. Fascinating to think about a 19 years old boy who came alone to US from Japan in that year. And ends up playing major league baseball, facing Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose and the like, and he even gets a hit off of Sandy Koufax. Just mind boggling.

Anyways, I was thinking maybe I’ll start collecting baseball cards of that era in both Japan and US. Or at least looking into it. I have Murakami’s rookie card, which I saw in the shop in Cooperstown, and I had to have it right there and then. There is even a blog dedicated for it. I don’t want to spend too much money, but I think I’d like that…

CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Paul Levy started this on his blog, in response to the news surrounding possible close down of the Boston Globe, (and lots more updates here, here, and here and many others).

A number of Boston-based bloggers who care about the continued existence of the Globe have banded together in conducting a blog rally. We are simultaneously posting this paragraph to solicit your ideas of steps the Globe could take to improve its financial picture:

We view the Globe as an important community resource, and we think that lots of people in the region agree and might have creative ideas that might help in this situation. So, here’s your chance. Please don’t write with nasty comments and sarcasm: Use this forum for thoughtful and interesting steps you would recommend to the management that would improve readership, enhance the Globe’s community presence, and make money. Who knows, someone here might come up with an idea that will work, or at least help. Thank you.

I thought I’d pass this along. If you have a blog, Twitter, or Facebook account, please add Paul Levy’s blog url as an update or to your status bar to help us reach more people.

[UPDATE] and there is a Globe story about this: Bloggers rally to back paper

Japan beat US and advanced to World baseball Classic final against Korea in Dodger stadium. I expect tomorrow’s game to be another nail-biter.

• Crap crap crap crap carp, CRAP! (Daisuke Matsuzaka allows a solo home run to Brian Roberts) #wbc (about 4 hours ago)
• Thirty five pitches in first two innings by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Roberts HR in the first is the only damage so far. He did issue a walk. #wbc (about 4 hours ago)
• A walk, Ogasawara’s single and Kenji Johjima hits sac fly to tie the game. That’s good and all, but why can’t Fukudome do that? Go Daisuke! (about 4 hours ago)
• Well, if I remember correctly, Daisuke allowed lead-off homerun in the 2006 WBC final against Cuba but got MVP. Maybe he’ll repeat that. (about 3 hours ago)
• OK, Matsuzaka did not look good that inning. 30 pitches in a inning with nearly half were out of strike zone. Couldn’t Fukudome catch that? (about 3 hours ago)
• NICE FUKUDOME! I believed in you even though I was picking on you all night. lets get one more run in. USA-JPN game tied at 2 #wbc (about 3 hours ago)
• Second sac fly by Johjima then Iwamura’s hit with Fukudome’s base running makes JPN4 – USA2. GET REVENGE on Bob Davidson game! Go Japan. (about 3 hours ago)
• Mune-rin and Nakajima even gets RBI hits. This is Japanese baseball. Fukudome’s hit was rules error but I’m calling it a hit on my book. (about 3 hours ago)
• That’s it for Matsuzaka tonight. 4 2/3 Inn 5H 3BB 4K. Still on hook for 2 guys. Sugiuchi on the mound. I’m sorry but who’s John Grabow? #wbc (about 2 hours ago)
• Breaking ball called strike one. 96 mph fastball fouled. Then comes fork ball in the dirt, swing+miss Nice pitch selection by Johjima. #wbc (about 2 hours ago)
• That was a sequence of pitch by Masahiro Tanaka (a Koshien phenom) to US clean-up hitter David Wright with man on third. I love baseball! (about 2 hours ago)
• John Grabow, J.P.Howell and Matt Thornton as the face of USA? Granted they all pitched great, but are they the stars of the game? Japan is. (about 2 hours ago)
• Crap. Com’on Mahara. You gotta get that ball lower against the US. And what happened to you Aoki? Come on, now. #wbc (about 1 hour ago)
• Yu Darvish warming in the bullpen. Japan adds another run in the bottom 9th by Jeter’s E6. Just need 3 more outs without giving up 3 runs. (about 1 hour ago)
• Ichiro RBI single and more! Sacrifice bunt, hitting to right side of the field, stolen base, error forced by speedy runner. Small ball. #wbc (about 1 hour ago)
• Darvish was all fastball against Jeter. 6-3. Two more. Mixing in two seamer now against J-Roll. Now curve, and silder was hit to a single. (about 1 hour ago)
• Down goes Wright a defensive swing on the 2-2 changeup. Adam Dunn at the plate. He is 0-for-3 today with 2SO 1BB. One more. #wbc (about 1 hour ago)
• 96 mph four-seamer from Darvish. Third strike called. Japan redeem the Bob Davidson’s bad call from 3 years ago. “The Game Five” tomorrow. (about 1 hour ago)

Japan has just beaten Korea to secure the spot for the second round pool (other likely candidate for that pool is Korea, Cuba, and Mexico) of the 2009 World baseball Classic, but I was, and am obsessed with this tournament. I’ve been keeping my thoughts on Twitter but I thought it may be a good idea to organize my tweets (I hate that saying…) and copy that here for later. Oh, by the way, I am going to San Diego to watch this event in person.

Thursday morning, March 5, 2009

Japan vs China

• I am up and ready for some baseball action at 4:30 AM. it’s pitch dark outside, Go Darvish, Go Japan! http://worldbaseballclassic…4:32 AM Mar 5th from web
• Yu Darvish gets Ray Chang from Kansas looking. Easy 1-2-3 to start the game. It’s all about Yu. Here comes Ichiro. He needs a hit. #wbc094:58 AM Mar 5th from web
• I have forgotten how much I love this game. Game day on my laptop. I am wide awake now. Nakajima walks and nice hit by Aoki. Go Inaba! #wbc5:02 AM Mar 5th from web
• Johjima throws out a runner at second, but GIDP, 463. Com’on. I hope he turns it around. I love this MLB 2K9 commercial. http://is.gd/lTjd 5:24 AM Mar 5th from web
• Love that I’m watching Darvish pitch on TV in my living room. 70 pitch limit in WBC 1st round, but he’s efficient w/32 pitches through 3. 5:35 AM Mar 5th from web
• YES! Shuichi Murata of Yokohama Bay Stars gets two run home run. 3-0 now. He was HR king last year, closest to NPB triple crown .323/46/114 5:53 AM Mar 5th from web
• Darvish replaced by Wakui top of 5. Darvish’s line: 4 Inn 0H 0R 1BB 3K. 46pitches 26 strikes. Wakui allows a hit but gets out w/o run #wbc09 6:17 AM Mar 5th from web
• Well, Japan is winning, but that is expected. What is not expected and concern me is that hey only have 5 hit and 4K against China #WBC09 7:32 AM Mar 5th from web
• More concerning is that Ichiro is 0-for 5 today. Including all the exhibition game, he is so far 3-for-28, .107 Ave. We need real Ichiro. 7:46 AM Mar 5th from web

Friday morning, before going into work

• I know there is 13 hours to go, but I am so anxious about Japan-Korea game tomorrow. It is a HUGE deal and Daisuke is going to start. #wbc09

Late friday night, or early Saturday morning after work

• Geez, I’m still up. I’ll have a quick nap and get ready for the game between 20-year-old lefty Kim Kwang Hyun and Daisuke Matsuzaka! #wbc09 2 AM on Saturday

Saturday morning, 5 AM

Japan vs Korea

• NICE Ichiro!!! Starts the game with a single. I am awake now with that hit. #wbc09
• YES! Singles by Ichiro, Nakajima and Aoki and now Japan is up 1-0. No out in the top 1st with Murata who hit HR in game 1 up. Go Japan! #wbc
• Seiichi Uchikawa of Yokohama Bay Stars (.376 avg) delivers and gets a two run double, 3-0 Japan. Fukudome fans and here comes Daisuke. #wbc
• Daisuke allows two hits but 3B Murata’s quick thinking gets Kim at 2nd (1B-954) OH CRAP, Kim TK hits 2-run HR, Japan 3-2 Korea, Go Daisuke.
• Daisuke walks Lee DH but gets Choo SS to ground out to 1B. Was 29 pitch 1st. with 70 pitch limit, it hurts. Johjima gets on w/single. #wbc09
• Iwamura walks. Ichiro up at the plate. BUNTS! Nice bunt. Perfect. Bases loaded no out. Kim KH is up to 33 pitches now. Nakajima up. #wbc09
• Nakajima walks w/ bases loaded, Aoki beats DP with his legs to get the run in with fielders choice. 5-2 Japan. Murata up. #wbc09
• MURATA! Three-run home run! 8-2 Japan. I like Orestes Destrade as a color analyst, he played with Seibu in the 90’s. I remember him. #wbc09
• So, Daisuke, with 6 run cushion, looks more confident. Single by Lee JY (who hit grand slam vs Taiwan) but DP and 4-3. 14 pitch inning. #wbc
• Kosuke Fukudome walked all 4 times in the first game, and struck out looking both times at the plate this game. Has he not swung in WBC yet?
• Man, I was so nervous last night and this morning, my stomach was in a knot. Much better now. Daisuke at 56 pitches after 3. 8-2 Japan. #wbc
• Destrade asks: which nation is crazier? Japan or Red Sox? Ichiro just dropped a hit in center. He is 3-for-3 today. Funny how things change.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, with that 8-pitch 4th inning, is now at 64 pitches and his night is likely over. Line: 4 inn 4 hits 2 runs 1K 2 BB. #wbc
• Kosuke Fukudome his first hit of WBC, and Kenji Johjima hits 2-run HR. 13-2 Japan now. Could be mercy rule win. Johjima 3-for-4 3 Run 2 RBI.

Niku means meat. Jagaimo is the potato. My wife says it originated in western beef stew (via Wikipedia), and that makes sense. Except niku-jaga flovor is typical Japanese flavor (mirin-sake-soy sauce) and much sweeter than the western counterpart.

INGREDIENTS

• Sliced beef: half pound (or less)
• Potato: 3-4
• Carrot: 1
• Onion: 1 large
• Shirataki Noodle (optional)
• Sugar: 2 table spoon (or more, to taste)
• Sake: 2 table spoon (ditto above)
• Mirin: 3 table spoon (ditto)
• Soy Sauce: 5 table spoon (ditto)
• Frozen peas: handful, for color

DIRECTIONS

1. Peel and cut Onion to half, and then slice it into about 1/4 inches. Peel carrot and potatoes, then cut it into bite size. Don’t make carrot/potatoes too small, it will melt away.
2. (optional) Cut shirataki noodles into smaller chunks and boil to get rid of bitterness.
3. Heat the pan (something deeper than frying pan, but not the deep stew pot. I use my trusty wok.), put a little vegetable oil, cook beef evenly in medium heat.
4. When it changes color, add in shirataki, potatoes and 2/3 of onion. (Leaving some onions later to preserve that firmness/crunchiness. Those onion you put in here will melt, but it gives awesome flavor)
5. When the surface of the potatoes gets cooked, add in some water. Water should almost cover the things in the pan, but not drowned in it. This is called “hitahita.”
6. Set the heat to high, bring it to boil.
7. Set the heat to medium, then cover.
8. At this point, you have to ocassionally “skim the scum.” Scum (in Japanese: Aku) is the white/gray stuff that floats up to surface. I don’t see the direct translation, but closest one maybe ash (aku literally translate to “ash water”) or limescale? in the potatoes, carrots and shirataki. Anyways, whatever that is, by doing this, food gets less bitter and yummier, and it is almost common sense in Japan, but I never hear of it here in US.
9. When the potatoes gets soft, add in sugar, mirin, sake, soy, carrots and the rest of onion. Cover again (and enjoy the smell).
10. Occasionally mix it in and when it’s just about ready, add in green peas.

Warning: I couldn’t do it.

So, i have this cellphone, T-Mobile Shadow. I have some what love/hate relationship with this phone. I like it enough that I spend tons of time on it, but some times it doesn’t love me back. Anyhow. I was able to install Meiryo font (Windows vista’s default Japanese font and it is really good one, it blows MS Gothic away). Just leaving note to myself (incase if I have to back track or do it again), here is what I did:

1. Using Windows Mobile Device Center, copied over the font. I put it in \Windows\Fonts\ folder.
2. Also I picked Mobile Registry Editor as my registration editor found via InspectMyGadget.com.
3. I tried many ways to set that a default font without success. I used this xda-developers.com thread’s advice to
   

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\SysFnt
   Find the key named “Nm”. Replace what’s in it (usually Tahoma) with the name of the font, in this case “Segoe UI”
   Repeat III for “HKLM\SYSTEM\GWE\Menu\Menufnt\Barfnt” and “Popfnt”

   Except I used “Meiryo” or “Meiryo; Meiryo Italic” as values. It froze my phone at start up.

4. At the same time I was also trying to get the ClearType stuff, as seen at freddyreyes.com (He does a lot of nice/cool Shadow stuff.).
   

   1. HKLM/System/GDI, add a Dword, ForceGRAY16. Value=1
   2. HKLM/System/GDI, add a Dword, ExpensiveAntialias, value=1
   3. HKLM/System/GDI, add a new key. Fontsmoothing, leave default value, blank
   4. HKLM/System/GDI, in sub key Gamma, increase value to 2500

   I did not see much improvement.

5. Then I read the article at ookii.org and leeblood.com, I remember from my old post about the registry, so I added couple strings to my registry:
   HKLM\Software\Microsoft\FontPath\FontPath=\Windows\Fonts
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink\Segoe Condensed=\Windows\Fonts\mmeiryo.ttf,Meiryo; Meiryo Italic
   Now it is stuck trying to launch the Windows Mobile… I got it to unstuck, but I spend about last 3 hours on this issue and still no Japanese! It looks like all the fonts are now meiryo, except that the Japanese characters are bunch of squares. I am giving up and going to bed….What an unproductive night.

I subscribe to very expensive data plan at T-mobile (Not that I am proud of that). I use T-Mobile Shadow. But I really felt that I was missing out on stuff. There has to be so much more I can do with the cellphone web. And, so, I started my own cellphone portal at daigo.mobi. It may be a faze that I am going through and I may get bored of it, but people in Japan are using cellphone website like crazy, and I think US is a bit behind in that regard. Also, i am thinking purchasing iPhone maybe next Christmas, so this project may not last after that. Anyhow, here are couple memos as I build my site. My user agent string for my phone is
Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7) T-Mobile_Juno

Very useful links:

• User Agent Switcher for FireFox
• Alex King’s WP mobile edition
• User Agent String
• AlexKing.org/who

I had this kinda crazy idea of doing pythagorean flash calculator of Red Sox, Yankes and Rays for boston.com. According pythagorean expectation, a baseball team’s winning percentage is 1 divided by 1 plus runs allowed divided by runs scored square.

but for it to make sense, the 2008 numbers has to come pretty close to the actual numbers. So here is your 2008 numbers.

Well, it doesn’t work. Especially AL East comes out Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays, Yanks then Orioles. It is completely off. That would make the whole calculator worthless…. Oh, well. It was interesting idea anyways.

Here is 2007, for just a fun of it.

As I get older, one of the things that I realize now that can never be changed is my taste bud. The Japanese food is very important to my life. Seriously. Every New Year, Japanese people eat mochi — which also cause fatal choking among elderly every year — and I made an ozoni today and came out better than expected, so I am going to write myself a reminder… Ozoni is one of those dish that is very wide ranging in what is in it depending where you are from in Japan, and quick web search brings up all different things. It is basically a soy-sauce based soup with mochi in it and only constant that i can find is dashi and mochi. People put carrots and potatoes and anything, but here is hwat I made based on what I’ve eaten while growing up in central part of Japan, Okazaki, Aichi to be specific.

Ozoni

1. Mochi – as much as you want to eat. I get packed “kiri-mochi.” Usually three mochi per person is enough…
2. 1/2 lbs or so Sliced Pork. – I used one from Super 88 super market, sliced and frozen one. I keep it stocked in the freezer as this is handy for Yasai Itame and Yakisoba etc…
3. 1/4 or 1/3 bag of spinach
4. 4-5 leaves of Hakusai (or Napa cabbage)
5. SOUP:
   • Dashi, power and/or liquid. I used combination of non-MSG power dashi and liquid dashi that I use for Udon/Miso soup.
   • Soy sauce – to taste
   • Sugar and Sake – a little
6. Katsuobushi (Bonito flake)

Cut all non-mochi ingredients in to 1/4 to 1/3 inches wide slices. Put them in pot with soup, bring to boil, turn the heat down them let shimmer. I then cut the mochi in half and microwave them 15-30 sec just to soften a bit. If mochi is fresh this step is not necessary. place the mochi in the pot and make it soft, then serve with Katsuobushi. Takes only about 30 min.