The Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo have long been the powerhouse team of Japanese Baseball. Through highly effective promotion and the acquisition of top players they often draw parallels with the New York Yankees.
So it’s no surprise that a month and a half into the 2013 season the Giants are sitting in a familiar first place spot in the Central League standings. However, things have begun to take a turn for the worst after a comment made by model Aki Higashihara in her supernatural “death blog.” Over the past decade people, places and businesses have all suffered some form of misfortune shortly after being mentioned in her blog Higashihara Desuga?
For example, in December of last year she made a post displaying the image of a Boeing 787. In the following weeks several serious malfunctions occurred which led to the entire fleet being grounded in Japan and abroad. More recently, her comment about the sea triggered a tsunami according to believers.
This time, Higashihara paid a visit to the Tokyo Dome casting a dark shadow on the performance of perennial favorites, the Yomiuri Giants. According to Higashihara’s death blog posting of 5 May; “There were lots of people at the Tokyo Dome! It’s moving…”
Also on 5 May, the Giants wrapped up a three game sweep against the Hiroshima Carp at the Tokyo Dome and won the thirteenth of their fifteen home games thus far. However, in the days immediately following the blog post, the Giants lost three games straight at home.
Adding to the Giants’ misfortunes, these games were against the Hanshin Tigers, long-time rivals and current second place holders. Including another loss on the road and the Tigers’ current six-game winning streak, the Giants have fallen to a mere 1.5 game lead. Assuming the curse only applies to home games and since Higashihara only referenced Tokyo Dome itself in her blog, we will have to wait until next week for the Giants’ four inter-league home games against the Lotte Marines and Seibu Lions to get a better idea of her impact.
The death blog doth work in mysterious ways, but if Vegas or Macau happen to be running bets on Nippon Professional Baseball games, I’d steer clear of any Giants futures this season and probably next.
Source: Higashihara Desga? via Hachima Kiko (Japanese)
Giants’ Season Calendar (Japanese)