A few words of praise this week for the 2007 performance of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The third-year Pacific League expansion team made great progress this year, and manager Katsuya Nomura and his staff deserve credit for the improvement which might see the Eagles soar as high as fourth place before the current season ends.
There were many skeptics critical of the decision to hire Nomura in 2005 for the 2006 campaign, and I must admit I was one.