Focused, With A Purposeful Stride

A fantastic afternoon of baseball, the best game I've seen so far in this tournament. Of course, I was rooting for Osaka Toin to win and they opened the first inning with a stunning six points. "Oh, this will be a walkover," I thought. But then Shizuoka scored six when they came in to bat. Obviously, this was going to be a very exciting game. In the second inning, Osaka were struck out very quickly by some powerful pitching, and then Shizuoka pulled ahead by one point.

No more points were scored again until the seventh inning with Shizuoka taking another point to lead eight points to six. It looked to me as if Osaka were finished, but then, in the eighth inning, they scored three points with some incredibly daring runs. Then, in the ninth inning, they scored another two points with some more hair's breadth slides. So Osaka Toin won by eleven points to Shizuoka's eight.

While I am, of course, thrilled that the (fairly) local team won, I would have been happy to see Shizuoka win as well. Not only did they play extremely well, they are also the most respectful team I've seen, always removing their caps and bowing deeply to the spectators each time they come out to field. I respect that.

"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart."  (Henry Clay)