Fuji Friday...Fly Ball Fuji

Opening game day for the Portland Sea Dogs was delayed this past week by the arrival of yet another round of heavy, wet snow...this after Hadlock Field had been cleared of the four feet which fell over the winter months. The Sea Dogs are a Minor League affiliate team of the Boston Red Sox. Meanwhile, down in Boston, the Red Sox started their season on time.

In 2013 the Red Sox won their first World Series at home since 1918...an accomplishment rendered even more remarkable when considering the contribution of the Sox' Japanese born pitcher, Koji Uehara. Uehara's relentless efficiency on the mound dashed any hopes that the St. Louis Cardinals may have held of scoring in those final minutes of Game 6. Koji Uehara is the first Japanese pitcher to ever, at any time... put away a World Series game. Japan went wild, being every bit as red hot for the sport as we are here in the USA. "First Japanese Tossed Into Air in World Series" was the headline in the Nikkei financial news.

Uehara and the Red Sox gave Bostonians, and by extension, all of us in New England a reason to celebrate not only an historic series...but some good news for the people of a great city still recovering in the aftermath of the Marathon bombings. As David Filipov wrote in the Boston Globe, on October 23, 2013 "Boston needed the Red Sox a bit more than usual this year..."

Fly Ball Fuji 

8 x 10"   Graphite and Prismacolor on Paper

Photo by Jay York