Balentien at ease as race for CL home run crown heats up

As Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger Wladimir Balentien went through his pregame stretching, he surveyed the field where the newly minted Central League champion Yomiuri Giants were wrapping up batting practice and barely suppressed a laugh while noting, "everything has gone right for them this year."

He has a point. The Giants landed big-ticket free agents Toshiya Sugiuchi, D.J. Houlton and Shuichi Murata during the offseason, won the CL's first interleague title, and added the CL pennant on Friday. The Kyojin are 43-games over .500 and won't play another meaningful contest until Oct. 17, when they'll begin the Central League Climax Series Final Stage with an automatic 1-0 advantage.

Even Yomiuri Old Boy Davey Johnson is getting in on the action, having managed the Washington Nationals into the MLB playoffs this season.

So yeah, it's been a Yomiuri kind of year. Except for the fact a certain Swallows slugger can still manage to spoil some the party.

Giants captain Shinnosuke Abe is putting the finishing touches on an amazing season and leads Japan with a .341 average and 98 RBIs. What he doesn't have the lead in is home runs.

The Giants catcher is second in Japan with 26 homers. Balentien leads the way with 29, making him the only obstacle between Abe and the Triple Crown.

"I always heard he was a great hitter, and I had a chance to see him the last two years," Balentien said. "This year he's been amazing. There's nothing I can say. I'm happy for him, for the season he's having."

The last player to win the Triple Crown was Fukuoka Daiei Hawks outfielder Nobuhiko Matsunaka (.358, 44 home runs, 120 RBIs) in 2004. The last time a catcher did it was way back in 1965, when Nankai Hawks great Katsuya Nomura hit .320, with 42 home runs and 110 RBIs.

If Balentien remains out front, he'll win the CL home run title for the second straight year.

Abe has nine games left to catch him, three of them at Tokyo Dome, where he's hit 12 in 57 games. Balentien has 12 games left and will play eight at Jingu Stadium, where he's knocked 14 out of the park in 37 games.

"It's getting tight," Balentien said. "Abe's having a great season. I would be happy if either of us gets it."

Despite the good vibrations, 'Coco' will make Abe work for it.

Balentien is playing at a much higher level than he was at this time last season, when his numbers took a big dip after the All-Star break.

"I made some adjustments, because as everybody knows, the pitchers make adjustments and you need to keep pace and be better than them," he said. "What I've just tried to do is concentrate, stay in my swing, and not try to hit home runs, because home runs come by themselves. I think that was the basic point, just try to see the ball and hit it in the sweet spot and let the rest happen.

"I will try to stay consistent, because that's the basic thing," he said. "Just don't try to do to much, do what I gotta do, do the little things. Those are the things that help me make my game a little better, and if my game gets better, that will make my team a little better."

Winning the home run title would be nice, but Balentien is honing his game in order to snatch an even bigger prize (the Climax Series title) away from Abe and the Giants, especially given that Yomiuri clinched the league pennant with the Swallows sitting in the visitors' dugout.

"We're hungry every day," Balentien said. "They celebrated (Friday night). It was fun for them. It hurt a little for us, because we went to spring training with the mentality to celebrate same way they did. It wasn't able to happen this year, but we still have a good chance to face them again in the final stage if we win the first stage, and I hope we can come through. And it'll be our turn to celebrate."

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Interest heats up for new-look BayStars

Merry Christmas to all readers of the Baseball Bullet-In, and the fans in Yokohama should have a relaxing holiday season now that their team has been sold, it has a new manager, new owner and a new look after limping through a few — shall we say — less-than-spectacular seasons.

Santa Claus has brought a special gift in Kiyoshi Nakahata, former Yomiuri Giants player and NTV commentator who will take over as the field boss. If Nakahata runs the club with even half the enthusiasm he had during his days as a Giants infielder, we should be seeing vast improvement in the team right away.

Nakahata was a tenacious player who made his first mark in November of 1978 when called up from the Giants farm team to play against the visiting Cincinnati Reds on their post-season Japan barnstorming tour. Then 24, he broke in with a home run off "Big Red Machine" pitcher Mario Soto at Korakuen Stadium.

Having proven he could hit major league pitching, at least in one at-bat, Nakahata was given a chance to become the regular third baseman for Yomiuri and by 1981 had established himself as the Giants' hot corner man. However, the club drafted highly touted rookie Tatsunori Hara in the fall of 1980, and then-manager Motoshi Fujita moved Nakahata to first base.

He went on to enjoy a 14-year career at that position, helping the Kyojin win five Central League pennants with Hara (currently the Giants manager and a CL rival skipper) at third, Toshio Shinozuka at second base and Kazumasa Kono at shortstop. The quartet was one of the most productive infields — offensively and defensively — in Japanese baseball history.

Besides serving as a batting coach with the Giants and acting manager of the 2004 Japan Olympic team (filling in for the ailing Shigeo Nagashima), Nakahata is also a past chief of the Japanese Pro Baseball Players Union. It was often said during his time as head of the JPBPU there was no chance the labor group would go on strike, because Nakahata enjoyed the game so much, and he could not stand not playing.

The mood on the 2012 Yokohama DeNA BayStars should be light, as Nakahata's personality is fun-loving and sometimes comedic. I've been out with him and the NTV broadcast crew following Giants "home" games in countryside towns, and he loves to sing karaoke. One evening he cracked up the staff by dialing up "Rokko Oroshi," the fight song of the Hanshin Tigers, and belting it out as if he were a fan of the archrival CL team.

On another occasion, Nakahata was assigned to add color commentary to NTV's telecast of a Giants game at Fukushima. Since he is from that prefecture, he was asked to serve as the honorary batter during the first-ball throwing ceremony.

The "pitcher" was a local schoolboy who nervously threw his ball directly at Nakahata, who had to jump out of the way to avoid being beaned. Nakahata then simulated charging the mound, much to the amusement of his hometown crowd.

Despite his flamboyant personality, Nakahata must be serious about taking the Yokohama manager's job after four others had apparently turned it down. At 57, he must be thinking it's now or never if he's going to manage, something he said he had thought about for a long time.

Obviously, he will have his work cut out, taking over a last-place club further weakened by the loss of third baseman and cleanup hitter Shuichi Murata, who left as a free agent and will be playing for Hara and the Giants against the BayStars. Nakahata will have 11-year Japanese baseball veteran Alex Ramirez to play left field, but there are several weak spots that must be beefed up if the team is going to escape the basement, let alone contend for a playoff spot.

No BayStars pitcher won more than five games in 2011 and, with Murata and outfielder Terrmel Sledge (going back to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) no longer on the roster, Ramirez will be the only regular who had a double-figure home run total in Japan during the past season.

At the Dec. 9 news conference introducing him as the DeNA manager, Nakahata said his impression of the team and one bright spot is how youthful it is. He expects a lot from youngsters such as 20-year-old first baseman Yoshitomo Tsutsugo. He also said he hopes the team will adopt a catchphrase with the word "hot" or "fever" included, indicating he wants to heat up baseball in Yokohama.

Nakahata's coaching staff has been announced, and there are no foreigners listed, but the team would be wise to take advantage of Yokohama's reputation as an international city and fill some of the gaps with talented pitchers and position players from overseas. Ramirez, having played in Japan more than nine years, does not count against the club's four-foreigner limit on the first team roster.

Even before Nakahata was named manager, the BayStars drafted two high school players with mixed parentage; outfielder Tomo Otosaka of Kanagawa Prefecture and pitcher Travis Mikihisa Samura from Okinawa.

Otosaka, 17, is the son of a former American ice hockey player and was selected as the No. 5 draft choice. Samura, 18, was the 'Stars No. 6 pick and is said to possess a dazzling forkball and throws a 150-kph fastball.

I like the team's spiffy new logo and am waiting to see how the DeNA uniforms will look. The team designation has been changed from "YB" to "DB," and the new BayStars will begin spring camp in Okinawa on Feb. 1. Their first exhibition game is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26, at Naha — against the Giants.

Nakahata's troops will open the 2012 regular season against Hanshin at Kyocera Osaka Dome on March 30, and the first home game is set for April 3 against the CL champion Chunichi Dragons. I can't wait.

Merry Christmas, Yokohama.

Contact Wayne Graczyk at Wayne@JapanBall.com

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Close friendship brings out best in Heat's Wade, James

MIAMI — Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are known to bicker like brothers. They screamed at one another more than once during Miami Heat playoff games last season. And when they're on opposite teams in practice, they attack the other like they would any opponent.

Double trouble: Dwyane Wade (left) and LeBron James share a joke during a preseason game against the Magic last week. AP PHOTO

Now they're closer than ever.

And on the cusp of entering Year 2 together with the Heat, Wade and James opened up about their friendship Friday.

"I don't think many players that have the similar games as we have or have done the things that we did in the league can come together this fast and make it work," Wade said. "That communication is there. I don't mind him saying something to me. I don't mind when I have to say something to him. We know how to make it work."

They have so much in common that both find it almost funny sometimes.

Forget the obvious stuff: They're both among the NBA's highest-paid players, then make another truckload of money annually in endorsements. They're both among the league's best scorers, perennial All-Stars, among the most recognizable athletes in the world. What's often forgotten is the ties that really bind, like both having difficult times as kids, relying on one parent at a time and soon understanding that basketball was the vehicle for changing their lives.

James is 203 cm, Wade is 193 cm. James is from Akron, Ohio, Wade from Chicago. James loves tattoos, Wade doesn't have any. James went to the NBA straight out of high school, Wade went to college first.

Nonetheless, Wade and James basically look at each other as mirror images.

"That had a lot to do with me coming down here," James said. "There's nothing that I've seen that he hasn't seen, and vice versa. To be able to be alongside him, be with him every day and basically go through the same things on the court and off the court, it's great. Sometimes you're able to sit back and see things from a different perspective instead of everybody watching you."

They take their cues from each other, whether it is fashion, workout regimens or just where to sit sometimes. For Friday's post-practice interview, Wade slid his body down a wall in a room adjacent to the Heat training facility, slumping to the floor.

"Tired," Wade said.

Two minutes later, James entered the room. Even though he didn't see how Wade took his seat, he did the same thing, putting his back to the wall and sliding to the red carpet.

"Tired," James said.

Maybe it's more than a coincidence.

"What's the saying? Iron sharpens iron. Greatness breeds greatness," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "So you see an example of that next to you. Those guys want to be challenged. Those guys like to be challenged. They do not accept the success that they've had and where they are right now. They're always trying to push to go to the next level. And there's no better way for them to do that than to have an equal peer next to them, pushing them."

The biggest question when Wade, James and Chris Bosh teamed up in July 2010 was will it work?

There have been bumps in the road, and likely there will be a few more — but they are making it work.

James finished second in the league in scoring, Wade finished fourth. Since 1965, the only other time two teammates were among the NBA's top four scorers, and played for a team that went to the NBA Finals was 2001, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal did it for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Of course, Bryant and O'Neal won the title; Dallas beat Miami in last season's Finals. And James and Wade will get yet another reminder of that defeat Sunday when the Heat open their season against the Mavericks — and watch the new champs raise their title banner.

"For us, getting better is not necessarily going to show in our numbers," Wade said. "It's going to show in our leadership. It's going to show in those moments where we get in those games like the Finals where we're up 10 in the fourth quarter, how do we help our team get that win no matter what's going on in the game. It's more so that, not just how we score the ball, rebound, pass. We're going to have those numbers. It's the other things."

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Heat's Miller brings daughter home

MIAMI — Mike Miller is already celebrating, and the NBA Finals have not even started.

The Heat forward and his wife brought home newborn daughter Jaelyn from a South Florida hospital on Saturday afternoon, about two weeks after the baby arrived. Jaelyn had spent some time in the pediatric intensive care unit with four holes in her heart — the condition is called a ventricular septal defect, Miller said — and is now doing much better.

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