As we see the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, I have compiled a list of five people, places and things I will miss when the new Japanese baseball season rolls around in the spring. Here they are:
• Sadaharu Oh
It will be, as they say in Japanese, sabishii — or lonely — to go to a Fukuoka Softbank Hawks game and not see Oh-san who has stepped down, at age 68 and due to health problems, after 14 seasons as manager of the Daiei and Softbank Hawks.