Hokkaido, the northernmost place in Japan, opens the door to winter faster than other places, and the leaves are already changing colors from green to yellow and red. And this makes Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters skipper Hideki Kuriyama genuinely thankful to be playing baseball this late in the year.
"It's beautiful to see the leaves changing colors, but driving down to Sapporo Dome, I hadn't seen it," Kuriyama said before Tuesday's Game 3 of the Japan Series against the Hiroshima Carp. "That means we hadn't played baseball this time of year for a while. I feel fortunate to be playing right now."
The 55-year-old took the helm in 2012 and guided the Pacific League club to the Japan Series against the Yomiuri Giants that year (Yomiuri won the series in six games). But he hadn't led the team to the Japanese Fall Classic again until this year.