By Saruwatari Tsuyoshi, Kyoto Shimbun News

December 1, 2013: Kyoto, Japan – Withering away in the winter sun like so many dreams of glory, the grass at Koshien Stadium fades.  Frost has taken root on the pitchers’ mound, our Olympus, where they hurled thunderbolts past the league’s most talented batters all season long.  Another season come and gone.  Another Neo-Tokyo Cup gone again to some other club.  One moment they were destined to take it all; then everything changed.  Fans paraded home in the gathering cold to argue about what might have been and what it will take to get to the apex.  Let us take a moment to join them…

The club was wildly successful in 2013, setting a club record and topping the league in attendance at 3,109,246.  This resulted in another club record: an $18 million profit.  They also set a league record for wins with 103.

By season’s end, fans were calling Edo starting pitchers “The Pentagon”.  “Nobody has more quality arms!” they said.  They were right.  At an average age of 25.8, these guys will be dictating from the mound to every team they face for years to come.  With 23-year-old SP Kenkichi “Virus” Gato ready to take the hill at any time, fans had better prepare for an outbreak of Edo fever.

In the same vein, the bullpen was dubbed “the Coast Guard”.  They stood ready and delivered when storms threatened.

At the plate, where do we start?  RF Shimpei Adachi was stellar all season until he was heroically felled by a broken kneecap while making a critical defensive play in the Neo-Tokyo Cup.  The club assigned him the “Juuki” designation, ensuring his return.  1B Bing-zhang Chien gave a brief glimpse of future greatness and arrived from serious injury in time to bolster the club in the post-season.

Their arrival was all that LF Morihiro Nakamura needed to revitalize his game at the plate.  Moved into the third spot in the lineup, he rose like the giant he is and drove a league-leading 42 HR and 113 RBI.

RF Kansuke Murata keeps exceeding expectations, as did free agent 2B Roy Benthall.  At 39, C Kenko Nakamura continues to defy time.  2B Hank Bailey quickly faded from sight.  After early high hopes, he was eventually released.

In the end, it wasn’t enough to take that final step and recapture the Neo-Tokyo Cup.  Where does the club go from here?

Looking forward, one has to believe that AAA LF Hiroshege Takeda will get the nod soon.  “Homu-Ran” isn’t likely to be going anywhere, so one wonders how that will play out.  Adachi is out until August most likely, leaving the RF situation in flux.  Can Murata pull another rabbit out of the hat if he’s re-signed?  Is CF Ben Bigalow ready to blossom or have we seen his best?

In the infield, 35-year-old 2B Manabu Ogura can’t keep it up much longer.  Is 3B Takeshi Hayashi ready to assume the hot corner duties?  For a team that is a perennial contender, they seem to have a lot of questions.  Perhaps it’s more than luck that they have BBG Manager of the Year Shigeo Nagashima calling the shots.  What’s he got up his sleeve this year?  Spring can’t come fast enough!