Joe Posnanski

So, I managed to watch the last few innings of World Series Game 4 here in my hotel room in Nagoya, Japan. Here’s something funny … after watching the game for couple of innings with Japanese announcers I realized there was a button on my remote control which allowed me to switch audio feeds. I pressed the button and, voila, I got the MLB International feed with Dave O’Brien and my fellow Kansas City guy Rick Sutcliffe.

It was like a little bit of home. True, O’Brien kept talking about how Bobby Kielty hit his home run with “one swing of the bat,” which seems to be the way most people do it. And they both made the major announcer faux pas of talking about the game like it was over in the eighth inning with the Red Sox up 4-1. They started talking about champagne in the Red Sox clubhouse and how it was still a good season for Colorado, and they were trying to place where this Red Sox team stacks up historically. Then Garrett Atkins cracked a two-run homer off Hideki Okajima (and this nation mourned) to make the score 4-3. And suddenly Misters O’Brien and Sutcliffe found themselves trying to build the drama back up. But it was too late. Once you let the air out of the balloon …

Of course, in the end, they were right. It was over. The Rockies were outclassed (as I sort of predicted here, kind of), and the Red Sox did put away the game without any real drama. Papelbon did give up a couple of decently deep fly balls, I guess. Anyway the guys sounded pretty good to me because they were speaking English. I knew what they were talking about most of the time.

I have watched three or four games with Japanese announcers since arriving in Japan. I don’t know how many times you’ve watched an entire baseball game with announcers speaking a language you don’t know — heck, I don’t know you at all — but it’s really a unique experience. A couple of years ago, I watched a couple of games with Spanish announcers when I was in the Dominican, but I took a little bit of Spanish and I watch Dora the Explorer with my daughters so I probably understood every 83rd word or so (“I think he said agua. That’s water, right?”).

Meanwhile, my entire knowledge of Japanese, at least before this trip, I learned involuntarily from Styx.

So, I have NO idea what they’re talking about. My ear is so untrained to Japanese that I can’t even tell when they are saying players names. And yet — this is odd — I have grown sort of attached to hearing these Japanese voices while watching games. When I first got here, I turned down the sound … but I didn’t like that at all. It was too much like watching the no-announcer Jets-Dolphins game about 20 years ago. So it turned it back up.

And now, I really like watching these games with the Japanese announcers. I think it’s the rise and fall of voices — I think that’s what I love about announcers. I still get chills — can’t help it — when hearing Al Michaels shouting “Do you believe in miracles? YES!” at the end of the U.S. Hockey Team’s amazing victory over the Soviets, and it isn’t because of the words. It’s because of the tone of his voice. It’s pure joy. He could have yelled, “Did you consume this applesauce BESS!” and, while it may not have survived as a classic call, it would have been just as cool in the moment as long as he said it with the same passion and conviction.

That’s what’s so great about watching these games with the Japanese announcers .There’s great conviction in their voices. When a shortstop makes a great play, you can hear it in the way they yell. When a ball cracks off the bat, you can hear the anticipation, and then when ball dies on the warning track, you can hear their disappointment. It’s like really good World Music I guess — you sort of know what they’re saying, even if you don’t KNOW what they’re saying.

And you know what? I think I may be beginning to understand Japanese a little bit. The other day, a Chunichi Dragons player named Lee Byung Kyu smashed a long two-run homer that essentially put away the Nippon Ham Fighters in Game 2. The announcer said something in Japanese, and I’m pretty sure that, loosely translate, it means: “Lee hit that home run with one swing of the bat.”

* * *

Well, the Sox are World Champs, and I’m very happy for my friends Bill James and Allard Baird, who work for the Sox. And, of course, I’m happy for Red Sox fans everywhere. It’s pretty good in Boston these days, isn’t it? You think the Patriots could be just a little bit better?

Sutcliffe brought up an interesting opinion during the broadcast — he said that the Red Sox are now the most popular baseball team in America. I think he said most popular team in the world, but I suspect he meant America because I know Rick a little bit and I don’t think he was in Luxembourg polling anybody.

Anyway, is it true? Sutcliffe basically used one statistic to prove his point — the Red Sox had the highest road attendance in baseball this year. They outdrew the Yankees by more than 1,000 per game on the road. Sutcliffe offered up that stat with the “case closed” emphasis in his voice. And it is true that two of the last three years, the Red Sox have drawn more people on the road than the Yankees (the three previous years, the Yankees led baseball in road attendance … in 2004, the Yankees drew almost 41,000 people per game on the road, which I believe is a record). When I first heard Sutcliffe offer up this statistic, I thought: That’s a pretty good point.

Then I thought a little more about it, and decided it really wasn’t that good a point at all.

First off, does road attendance really give you a good feel for how popular a team is? Let’s take a look:

This year’s Top 5 road teams: 1. Boston; 2. New York Yankees; 3. Chicago Cubs; 4. New York Mets; 5. Barry Bonds. You could certainly make an argument those are the five most popular/unpopular teams in the game right now.

Last year’s Top 5: 1. New York Yankees; 2. Boston; 3. Cincinnati (?); 4. Chicago Cubs; 5. St. Louis. Well, Cincinnati certainly is an odd one thrown in there, no? How did that happen? A blip? Maybe there’s a huge Cincinnati following out there (I sure hope so since I’m writing this Big Red Machine book). I mean at least it wasn’t Pittsburgh in the Top 5. That would throw things for a loop.

Two years ago: 1. Boston; 2. New York Yankees; 3. Chicago Cubs; 4. New York Mets; 5. PIttsburgh (!).

Whoa. The year before that San Diego was in the Top 5. The year before that, Arizona was in the Top 5. So, I’m guessing that while road attendance might give you a general idea about the most popular teams in the game (Boston, the Yankees and the Cubs are perennial top five teams), it isn’t a precise barometer. Attendance is based on so many things, such as what day the game is played, weather, promotions, etc.

Here’s something much more to the point, though. Did the Red Sox REALLY outdraw the Yankees on the road this year? Yes, it’s true, overall the the Red Sox drew about 150,000 more fans on the road than the Yankees. They did play one extra game on the road, but to keep it simple, let’s leave the number right there — the Red Sox drew 150,000 more road fans.

OK, now here’s the problem (I know you’re already way ahead of me on this … sorry, you know I’m slow with math) … the Red Sox and Yankees played EACH OTHER 18 times this year. All 18 games were sellouts. But Yankee Stadium is much larger than Fenway park.

In the eight games at Fenway Park, the average crowd was 36,653.

In the eight games at Yankee Stadium, the average crowd was 54,977.

So, basically, in just those Red Sox-Yankees games, about 165,000 more fans saw the games at Yankee Stadium. That would be more than the 150,000 listed above, wouldn’t it? Essentially the entire road advantage for the Red Sox was due to Yankee Stadium.

Now, I don’t know if the Red Sox have really surpassed the Yankees in popularity — I suspect they have not — but I do know that you can’t make the argument that the Red Sox are more popular than the Yankees because they sold out Yankee Stadium.

* * *

I spent the other night watching baseball at Hillman’s Hangout, a bar in Sapporo that has photos of new Royals manager Trey Hillman all over the place. It’s a fun place, but what was really fun was trying to find it. I went to the hotel lobby to ask people there for direction, and there was this very nice young woman who helped me. She did not know where it was, but she went on the Internet, found it, wrote down the directions in Japanese, walked me out to the cab and told the driver how to get me there. She was very nice.

But here was my favorite part: While walking out the cab, she turned to me and said in her best English … “You go to Hillman’s Hangout?”

I said: “Yes.”

And she said: “You go to consume alcohol?”

I smiled and said, “No. Believe it or not I’m going to work.”

She smiled back and said: “I think you go to consume alcohol.”