The Eagles Have Landed...

And laid an egg upon the faces of the Almighty (occasionally controversial) Yomiuri Giants! After a rather topsy-turvy series against the Giants, including a terrific win by the Eagles on Halloween and a come from behind victory last night by the Giants, the Rakuten Golden Eagles emerged victorious! For a review of the Championship game, here is a lovely link to do so.

Kudos to their manager, Hoshino, star pitcher, Tanaka (ZERO losses in the regular season) and team captain, Matsui who helped them win the Pacific League and ultimately the entire Konami Nippon Championship!

Equally responsible for their victory are the many fans who watched them hatch from their egg, stumble through their first few seasons as hatchlings to fledglings to finally take flight and soar above all the other teams in the league. (Okay, no more bird metaphors.)

A friend summed it up eloquently as follows, "Just over two and a half years ago this area hit rock bottom after the huge earthquake and tsunami devastated the area, killing many people and bringing grief and sadness to those left behind. Those who were here that day will never forget that day and the weeks that followed....but through sport Tohoku came through and today's win was huge and will help everyone in this area....well done Tohoku Rakuten Eagles....Champions of Japan!!!"

This final series was a rocky road (mmm. ice cream) and I admit that I had a few misgivings about the Eagles resolve and took out my frustrations on their dopey mascot, the Giabbit, pronounced Jabbit. Here are a couple of badly filmed videos of my ill-will.





I promise to tilt my camera properly, next time.

Fortunately the Eagles reigned and I didn't need to carry around the beheaded rabbit in effigy.

I celebrated my win not with champagne but with sake and polished off the mini-bottle.

Now it's bedtime and tomorrow, I'll head down and pick up some Eagles goods. The Tackier, the better!!