TOKYO — Two hours before the Chicago Cubs’ first exhibition game Saturday at the Tokyo Dome, Colin Rea received a special request.
Rea spent nearly two seasons in 2021-22 in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, and in his return to Japan, the 34-year-old right-hander was asked if he would catch a first pitch from Japanese baseball legend Masanori Murakami.
Murakami, 80, became the first Japanese player in Major League Baseball when the lefty pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1964-65. He was only 20 when he debuted and went on to record a 3.43 ERA and 106 ERA+ in 54 games (89 1/3 innings).
“I’m just glad they asked me to do it. It was an honor and a great privilege,” Rea told the Tribune. “And he threw a strike right down the middle, which was cool.”
Rea’s experience in NPB prepared him for the boisterous atmosphere that greeted the Cubs in their exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants. The chants, cheers and band music from Tigers and Giants supporters in the right-field seats while their team bats has been a popular conversation among Cubs pitchers the last two days.
Although Rea wasn’t asked for advice on how to handle the noise while on the mound, some sought feedback on how best to attack the NPB hitters because of their unique swings and bat paths.
“Guys are like, what’s something that they kind of struggle with?” Rea said.
Rea didn’t travel with the team to Tokyo, instead arriving Saturday. He decided to stay back at the Cubs complex in Mesa, Ariz., to throw in a simulated game to build up his workload in preparation for the regular season. Rea threw 70 pitches in his five-inning outing.
The choice to get in work and travel separately wasn’t a hard decision, Rea explained, because he already spent time in Japan. He admitted it would have been much tougher had the Tokyo Series been his first trip to the country. Rea estimated this is his fourth or fifth time in Japan, and his familiarity with the country made everything easier.
“I thought it was just best,” he said. “We weren’t going to have the time on the field to do that (sim game), and with the limited space we have here, I thought it was just a good idea to stay back.”
Chicago Cubs notes from Tokyo: Matthew Boyd’s roots to Japanese baseball — and a healthy Julian Merryweather
Rea will be in the bullpen for the two-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But there’s no guarantee he will get into a game, which would have meant a long stretch at this point of the year to go without pitching.
“I felt like I would have been going backward,” Rea said. “The last two outings have been both sim games, so that part is not ideal, but that happens. It’s just important that the way my body’s feeling, pitch count, my velocity is in a good spot right now, I’m recovering. I’m bouncing back, checking off all the boxes.”
Shohei Ohtani’s presence everywhere
For any Chicago sports fans old enough to remember the height of Michael Jordan’s fame and popularity, that’s what Shohei Ohtani mania looks like around Tokyo.
His image is inescapable on billboards, ads in taxis and flag poles. Ohtani’s face is synonymous with baseball in Japan. Some of the advertisements include promotions for the Tokyo Series, with signs around the city highlighting the games. It’s a stark contrast to how visible the London Series was in the days around the Cubs’ two-game series across the pond in 2023.
The interest level in the Cubs-Dodgers series hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Everybody’s very aware of the series, that is evident for sure, more than I feel like it would be in America,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “More people are talking about it absolutely, so that’s a great feeling.
“The players love big events, and that’s why we do this. That’s why we love to do it. So to be a part of that is another reason it’s so special.”
Hall of Fame announces partnership with Japan
The Baseball Hall of Fame is teaming up with several historic institutions in Japan to showcase the longstanding exchange of teams and players in the 150-plus years since baseball was introduced to the country.
The exhibit, titled, “Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game,” is scheduled to open in July to coincide with Ichiro Suzuki’s induction as the first Japanese-born Hall of Famer.
Artifacts loaned to Cooperstown include a handmade wooden home plate from Zenimura Field connected to the Japanese American community unjustly imprisoned at the Gila River incarceration camp during World War II and LeRon Lee’s batting champion award from winning the 1980 Pacific League batting title. Lee’s .320 career batting average is the highest in NPB history.
“We are thrilled and honored to have partnered with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Tokyo and numerous other individuals and museums both in the United States and Japan in order to bring unique and rarely seen artifacts to Cooperstown for this special exhibition,” RJ Lara, the exhibit’s lead curator, said in a statement.
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