By Toin Sugiyama, Kure Daily

9/8/2012: Tokyo, Japan – October was an ugly month for the 2007 Makurosu Hunters.  The team dropped its 100^th game, still an LRS record to this day, and finished the season with a .315 winning percentage.  Then-GM Michael Crawford, hired in May of that year, was arrested for urinating off a light tower at the Ballpark of Kure hours after that fateful 100^th loss.  What many believed should have been grounds for firing was not, and Crawford stayed at the helm for the almost equally disastrous 2008 season, for which the team made a slight three-game improvement to finish with a 97-loss record.  Two days after the 97^th loss, Crawford was mercifully fired.

With new management and the LRS descending into financial chaos, the Hunters saw a marginal improvement, only losing 91 games in 2009.  Hoping to capitalize on the rebirth of the LRS and a new franchise name, the Kure Arsenal had high hopes going into 2010.  However, by July of that year, a scant few seats were being sold as the team once again lost 97 games and finished in last place.  To add injury to insult, the team’s best player, Kure legend Michinaga Honda, who was expected to be a major trade chip for the fledgling franchise, was lost to a career-ending torn labrum.

The “Curse of the Crawford” was born and became a popular scapegoat among Hunters/Arsenal fans.  Then team lost 10 in a row?  The Crawford Curse was to blame.  A season-ending injury to a key player?  The Crawford Curse had reared its ugly head again.

Last week, on August 31, the Kure Arsenal beat the Kawaguchi Transmitters by the score of 1-0.  The win was the 55^th for Kure, a new franchise record.  Few of the 23,252 in attendance were aware of the milestone and, in fact, the team’s management downplayed the accomplishment, citing the fact that the Arsenal are more concerned with securing a playoff berth than breaking a streak of futility.  There was no announcement on the electronic scoreboard, no fireworks, but in the locker room, two members of the 2012 Arsenal had a quiet conversation with one or two reporters.  For them, the win was more meaningful than the average victory.

As a young 22-year-old, Takanori Takano was pushed into relief duty for Makurosu in 2007.  He fared well and managed to be one of four pitchers on the team to maintain a positive VORP with a modest 5.6 mark.  His 5.04 ERA was nothing to write home about, but on a team sporting a 6.49 ERA, keeping his around five was downright spectacular.

“Thinking back on those years,” said Takano after the victory versus the Transmitters, “it’s hard to even remember; it seems like so long ago.  We wanted to win, of course; we went out on the field every night expecting to win…”  Takano paused for a minute.  “Wait, who am I kidding?  We never expected to win.  We were awful,” he said breaking into laughter.

Likewise, Takahiro Nomura was pushed into service long before his time.  As a 19-year-old from blue-collar Izumi City, Osaka, Nomura was called up to the big club after just 41 games at AAA Ikari.  At Ikari, Nomura at least tasted victory, as the team just finished under .500 with a 46-50 mark.

“We used to joke about it,” confessed Nomura, who is currently on the shelf with a torn hamstring.  “When one of us was called up to the big leagues, we’d console him.  `Sorry, man, sorry, but you’re a Hunter now.’  On the day I got called into the office, I was happy… but I knew I was heading into a bad situation.”

As their teammates from that 2007 team slowly disappeared – most moving on to better and brighter opportunities – Takano and Nomura each started to wonder if they were the cause of what fans had termed The Crawford Curse.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Nomura.  “I can’t say I ever believed in the curse.  Mr. Crawford gave me my big break, so I do feel some debt toward him.”  Nomura paused.  “Although I used to hear there were some strange voices and whispers out under that light tower he peed off of,” he joked.

“I can remember after one game in 2009.  Takahiro came up to me and asked if he should retire,” remembers Takano.  “I was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got about 100 career AB.  What are you talking about?’”

Fortunately for Hunters/Arsenal fans, Nomura didn’t retire.  His 2010 was one of the very few highlights on that 97-loss team, as he set an LRS record with 87 stolen bases.

“I remember that day.  I’d just broken up with a girlfriend.  I wasn’t playing.  I was a 5^th outfielder on a team that won 30% of the time.  I was like, ‘This just can’t get any worse.’  But it did,” he laughed.  “Much worse.”

“Your love life or the team?” joked Takano.

“Both,” said Nomura.  “Both and neither.  Everything was bad.  That’s all.  Just badness everywhere I went.”

Today, Kure sits two games behind Neo-Tokyo for a wild card spot in the 2012 LRS playoffs.  The team has won 59 games and 56% of its games overall, a much different picture than what Nomura and Takano remember from just five seasons ago.  Budding superstar outfielder Katsumi Hayagawa was a mere 15 years old in 2007.  Still, Nomura and Takano remember the hard bitter taste of defeat.

“You try to remind the younger guys,” says Nomura, “but you just can’t explain it in a way that makes them really understand.  Hopefully, these guys will never have to understand.  I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

“Your love life or the team?” joked Takano again.

Both players laughed, showered and gathered their things.  As they walked out to the parking lot together, two fans wearing Makurosu Hunters jerseys waited for them outside the stadium.  Takano and Nomura stopped and talked to the fans.  While they’d been joking about 2007 inside the locker room, the tone of the conversation appeared to be quite serious.  There was no mention of a curse or a ghost or Mr. Crawford.  After the conversation, Nomura and Takano signed the jerseys, took one step backwards and bowed deeply to both fans in thanks.  It was a solemn moment that none of the four is likely to ever forget.  They’d finally made it.  Together.