yakulto

And even there, the pitcher is unlikely to be on the mound for more than a seventh of the season, thanks to rotation of starting pitchers and the substitution of relief pitchers. Absolutely, though (I believe) starters in Japan pitch more complete games than in the MLB, overall they're still only on the mound for a fraction of the season. Talking of the Yankees, for the last few years it's been pretty much mainly their games screened over here due to the (evil) Matsui factor. And the coverage comes from the Yankee's own YES network with some dude named Michael Kay doing the play by play. My lord do I want to strangle that man.

And then these young maidens are tentacle raped, I presume? Not seen that yet, but it might help spice up an evening if the game's not going well! I agree with what you said about the balance of team and individual, it's a pretty unique sport in that regard. Most players go through hot and cold streaks hitting-wise, and it's when the majority of guys on the team are all 'hot' when the team can get some momentum, just one guy on a streak by himself won't be of much use overall. The guy with the most influence is the pitcher, but even if he's on fire, it's not much good if the team's not hitting, or the teams fielding sucks. So the balance is perfect in my view. There are so many nuances to the game that I love. And I also love the sense of history and tradition in the sport, much like football has.

Love the sport, though I've watched the Japanese version way more than the American one. It's helped me greatly to acclimatise to life in Japan, as when I moved here one of the biggest things I missed was the Villa. I needed to find some sort of substitute. Tried watching J-League soccer but it just got me pining for the English game so I gave baseball a go. Hadn't ever watched a game before I got here so started off pretty clueless, but soon got the general idea and started to love the sport. Eventually chose the Tokyo Yakult Swallows as my team and they've proved a worthy Villa substitute, and my level of passion for them is approaching that of Villa. That was seven years ago and I go to around 30-40 games a year and have been to a fair few away games too (Japanese fans travel to away games much the same as UK footy fans). As for the sport itself, it's much more akin to a condensed game of cricket as a spectator sport, though I'm not a real fan of cricket. People go to the games to cheer the team, socialise with friends, drink a lot of beer, eat food and generally be merry. I think, similarly to cricket, if you watch a short segment of a baseball game it comes across as deadly boring. But the overall ebb and flow of a game is fantastic. It's one of the few sports that's not over until it's over - I mean in footy, if a team has a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go, more often than not the game is effectively over. In baseball, unless you're really getting a beating, all it takes is a string of hits and you can come back into the game, even in the final inning. Plus in Japan, draught beer is served at your seat by young girls with a keg of beer strapped to their back - this alone is worth a visit.

General I've been having a problem with the Villa Direct online store. I am a brummie resident of Japan which means the online store is my only real means of getting hold of Villa goods (as I like to do my bit, however small, to promote the Villa cause over here!) I ordered 7 items on the 25th of August. At first I received an email saying they were just doing a standard security check on my card but that it should only take between 1 and 3 days. So since then I've been checking the order progress online and it listed the order as "picking in our warehouse". Over a week passed and the order was still listed as "picking". Now it's been in this state for well over two weeks and I have difficulty believing it takes this long to pick 7 items that were all listed as in stock. I've sent them 2 emails (one on the 4th and 7th of September) to customerservice@astonvilladirect.com but have received no reply to either. This is dissapointing as on the website it says they will endevour to reply to all emails within 48 hours. I live in Japan so don't want to spend vasts amout of money calling them to sort it out so you have an email address of someone who either works at the club shop or otherwise who may be able to help me? The 3-5 days working days for worldwide deliveries advertised on the website is looking very innacurate indeed. Sorry to bother you with such a trivial matter, but I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall trying to email the store and if it's happened to me then chances are it's happened to others. The online shop may be the only contact overseas fans have with the club so it's essential that it's running smoothly and creates a good impression of the professionaliam of the Villa organisation with the fan (not that you needed me to tell you that!). Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.

Looks great! Had to laugh though watching the Villa World video of the opening when Woodward said: "State of the art showers" Made me piss myself, I'm not sure why though. Maybe because we'll be sure to get those big signings in now, all MON needs to do is mention those "state of the art showers" and they'll be signing in a flash. :winkold:

Wow, talk about overly negative.......... I watched the game and it really was just one of those games. Read the Guardian Unlimited match report for a fair reflection of the game. From just after Parker hit the bar (which would have made it 3-0) Villa almost totally dominated the game, especially in the last 30 minutes of the first half where our attacking play was unrelenting and we, with the addition of Young and Carew, looked fantastic. Yes we lost "yet again" but for me, despite the frustrating nature of the loss at St.James', things really are looking more and more rosey for the future, especially if you take in to account Maloney's last-gasp signing. Don't give up the hope just yet.