Can you imagine MLB being so much fun? Image: AP
Major League Baseball is great. As long as nobody complains about the unwritten rules and Nick Castellanos isn’t at the table, the game is relaxed and fun. I doubt I could enjoy it any more than I already do.
never mind
The legend in the video above is Nippon-Ham Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo. He puts the Dos Equis guy to shame. This is a baseball manager driving a hovercraft into a game! How can you not think that’s the coolest thing ever?
Only Shinjo himself is cooler than the entrance. The man was the first Japanese-born baseball player to compete in a World Series. In 2002, Shinjo played 118 games for eventual NL champions, the San Francisco Giants. He crossed out .238/.294/.370. While Shinjo only played three seasons in MLB, he didn’t let his career fall into oblivion. After returning to Japan, Shinjo became a celebrity. He started a clothing line, went on television and won the Japanese version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? all while still playing baseball, eventually winning his first and only Japan Series title in his final professional game. He has earned a minimum of nicknames and titles throughout Japan, such as “Mr. Two” and “Spaceman” for his eccentric, larger-than-life personality and, of course, for his position as manager of Nippon-Ham.
When Shinjo was first named the team’s manager, he wasted no time in making waves when he officially registered his name as “Big Boss.” More baller is not possible, but Shinjo still managed to outdo himself. Here’s how Shinjo came into play on opening day:
This man had four spotlights on him! FOUR! If I hadn’t seen the hovercraft with my own eyes I’d think that entrance was unbeatable, but of course Shinjo was 30 feet in the air over the diamond less than a week later. At this rate, we should expect Shinjo to be teleported into a game by the end of the season.
I’ve seen some cool MLB bullpen entrances in my time. Watching Trevor Hoffman run onto the field with AC/DC’s Hells Bells at Petco Park is still one of my fondest childhood memories. The bullpen wagon was cool… for a moment, then he did like a nosy relative on Thanksgiving and overstepped his greeting. It got dry quickly.
Major League Baseball has struggled to attract younger fans for some time, and the spectacles Shinjo has put on in his short tenure as manager of Nippon-Ham are nothing short of cool. There’s no denying that. It doesn’t matter if you despise baseball with all your heart, hovercrafts are great, and that might be enough to convince some younger Japanese viewers to try baseball.
While the world’s baseball purists may despise Shinjo’s actions for “stealing the limelight” or “floundering,” I’d happily take Shinjo’s antics about Tony La Russa ridiculing one of his own players for ridiculing everyone A home run a day beats the week.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Shinjo’s Fighters are 0-5 so far and haven’t even participated in a one-run game this season. However, I’m sitting here writing about the Fighters, not the 5-0 SoftBank Hawks, so who’s really the winner in this situation?
I’m just saying that MLB 2022 could use a little bit of that flavor. Nobody outside of Pittsburgh is interested in the Pirates this season. They have some promising young stars in Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz, but no one is biting their nails to see this team take the field. Now imagine for a moment that Derek Shelton comes into play with fireworks and a marching band behind him when the Pirates have their home game on April 12th. The pirates might lose this game, but you can bet I’ll be watching the rest of this series at any moment.
Will it ever happen? No, absolutely not, but it would be fun, and that’s a word not often thrown around when it comes to the current state of Major League Baseball.