August 25, 2019: Shimin Byoinmae – When the Lupin Cliff Hanger’s second round draft pick Toyozo Fukuda complained of fatigue in his arm, the team immediately shut him down for a two-week rest.  The righthander has been on the Cagliostro Thieves roster (the team’s Ruukii Kyuugi entry) since June, and had registered only 2.2 innings pitched (without giving up any runs) when the fatigue hit.  A scan of his college records showed only 22 additional innings this season, so team insiders were concerned that Fukuda’s travails were, perhaps, an incdication of something deeper.

Now, however, amid discussion that Fukuda is healing and could be ready to pitch again this week, comes the rumors that the 21-year-old actually injured himself at an amusement park where he was seen “drinking excessive amounts of beer and throwing hundreds of games of bean-toss in hopes of winning stuffed pandas for a gathering of young women who had flocked to him.”  This last being reported on the Bleacher Scout, a small website written by fans of the LRS.

“And, yes,” the story goes on to say.  “We’re certain it was him.  The guy is 6’4″ and 240 pounds.  It’s hard to miss someone like that.”  The report describes how people gathered around Fukuda, and that some were paying for his string of games–each of which consists of three pitches.  Given that one observer reports that the Lupin pitcher threw “easily 100 games” one can see where he might have tired out the old shoulder, eh?

Fukuda was not available for comment at the time of this notice.