Japanese Baseball: Kiyohara Gets Mad About A Change Up

Japanese Professional Baseball star Kazuhiro Kiyohara of the Orix complained about being thrown a change-up by closer Micheal Nakamura of Nippon Ham.

Kiyohara argued that Micheal, as the Japanese-Australian player is generally referred to in Japan, should have thrown a fastball instead of striking him out with a low-outside change-up. The logic seems to be that since Kiyohara is near retiring and a definite hall of famer, his going away present should be “grapefruits” from opposing pitchers.

Needless to say the internet baseball fan community is attacking Kiyohara for being a big baby about the thing.

Some commenters on bulletin boards argued that Kiyohara’s comment on the matter, that Nakamura’s pitch was something akin to being attacked with your back turned was the worst part because he hasn’t even played his last game. It actually made Kiyohara sound as if he were already turning his back on his own team.

Other people were angry at Kiyohara because the tale of the tape shows that Micheal had already thrown two fastballs to Kiyohara, to draw a 1-1 count. It seems that Kiyohara who is notoriously bad at hitting curve balls wanted Micheal to keep tossing the grapefruits until he found one sweet enough.

Here’s the video with some extra-special “Micheal, I am so disappointed with you” goodness on the face of Kiyohara after the strike-out.

(Editor’s Note: Micheal Nakamura spells his name officially with the e before the a.)