~:[CH12 - Day 101]:~ Shotime
Immediately when I discovered Shohei was pitching, I bought my cheap outfield seats and prayed the schedule wouldn't change. A few times, it happened to me, tonight I lucked out. After a morning practice, a wonderful catch up lunch, and some work, I headed to the stadium. I was definitely excited and felt the anticipation. As planned, I got a great angle of him in the bullpen as he warmed up for the game. It's amazing to see so many people flock to the games just for one player. In America, he is celebrated, but in Japan, he is on another level. When you look around, there are advertisements of him everywhere and the newspaper will report on him in Japan regularly, as the fans follow him. While we can never predict for how long, for the time being, we are witnessing someone who is incredible, both as a player and as a person. His work ethic is beyond explanation as he constantly is working on what he needs to without losing much focus. He adds weapons to his arsenal of pitches, so much so that the scoreboard read unknown and the term sweeper has become a pitch you see more of from him. He has had control issues so far this year, but has been good at damage control (with help from his team), allowing just one run in 19 innings. On top of it all, he has has a decent start batting. While he'll face his toughest test on Monday against the Red Sox, Shohei has shown that he is someone that can be cemented into the history books and we're lucky to witnesses in front of our very eyes. In all things in our lives, there are people that are iconic and you are lucky enough to witness, Whether you get to work closely with them or get to see them in action, I hope that we can treasure those moments, as later on in life, I'm sure we'll be sharing stories about this and that. For now, I hope we can appreciate the greatness in front of us whether a professional athlete, the most improved student, or that dependable friend who are icons in their own right.
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