publications

Toreba no Toraba: Gaijin WTH Things

Toreba no Toraba: Gaijin WTH Things

From T-Ray’s Monthly Daily Sports Column トレバーの虎場 February 1 is one of the most anticipated days of the year for Hanshin fans. No one likes those winter months when baseball goes on pause and sportswriters throughout Kansai scrape the bottom of the barrel for some kind of headline that strings fans along until camp begins….

Toreba no Toraba: 2020 Bour Out, 2021 Rojas In

Toreba no Toraba: 2020 Bour Out, 2021 Rojas In

From T-Ray’s Daily Sports Monthly Column / トレバーの虎場から Twenty-twenty started with so much excitement but was filled with a lot of dread, loss and hardship. It’s finally about to come to an end, but no one has promised us a better 2021. Every year has its ups and downs, its starts and its ends, and…

Toreba no Toraba – Warm Stove League

Toreba no Toraba – Warm Stove League

As seen in Daily Sports (Japanese) – トレバーの虎場 As the cold of winter sets in and the long (shortened?) offseason officially gets underway, there are two main things that keep die-hard baseball fans like myself warm. The first is the hot-stove league, which we all gather ‘round and anticipate which players will move to which…

Toreba no Toraba – Humbling Heroes with Japanese Requests

Toreba no Toraba – Humbling Heroes with Japanese Requests

Daily Sports Column (Japanese) here / トレバーの虎場(デイリースポーツ)から I can still remember July 1998 like it was yesterday. I wouldn’t call myself traumatized by what happened. Just shell-shocked. I had just come to Okinawa, Japan, and the town Board of Education threw me a welcome party. There I was, sitting at a table with a bunch…

Toreba no Toraba: Befriending Players’ Families

Toreba no Toraba: Befriending Players’ Families

From T-Ray’s Daily Sports Column (Japanese) / トレバーの虎場(デイリースポーツ)から I can’t remember the exact day it dawned on me that I would never be a professional athlete, but I clearly recall my ambitions changing very quickly from athletic to journalistic. Like, if I could not be in that locker room celebrating a Stanley Cup with my…

Toreba no Toraba – Lessons from a Sri Lankan Umpire

Toreba no Toraba – Lessons from a Sri Lankan Umpire

Based on my Japanese column for Daily Sports / トレバーの虎場(デイリースポーツ)はこちら Life in 2020 has shown us that things will not always go as planned. The spread of COVID-19 has changed everyone’s lives in some way, shape, or form. Baseball is no exception. The Olympics have been postponed, the NPB season has been shortened, and for…

Toreba no Toraba – You Need This Vest!

Toreba no Toraba – You Need This Vest!

From T-Ray’s Daily Sports Column (Japanese) デイリースポーツ のコラムはこちら Summer has really hit hard the last few days here in Kansai. It’s hot, but more importantly, the Tigers have gotten hot, too! Those June Tigers (2-8 record on the month) appear to have vanished, and it’s a ton of fun watching them win a lot of…

Toreba no Toraba – There Will Be No Second Coming!

Toreba no Toraba – There Will Be No Second Coming!

Also seen in Daily Sports / デイリースポーツのコラム(トレバーの虎場) There are two things I have gotten plenty sick of since becoming a Hanshin Tigers fan six years ago. The first is the constant beatings at the hand of the Yomiuri Giants. In fact, when I first started this column at the start of the 2018 season, the…