Ben at Work: Whole Lotte Love, Part II, and more

CHIBA, Japan -- As promised, here's the second installment of my experience at a Japanese baseball game. I'll touch on a few aspects of the game itself, followed by some words about the 2007 MLB playoffs.

The Japanese crowd

Shirtless fan: Also available in the U.S. (Provided to CBSSports.com)

While watching the game, I was trying to come up with the right comparison for the Chiba Lotte Marines fans. Were they like a college football crowd? An English soccer crowd? A Little League baseball crowd? Kind of, a little bit and sort of.

First of all, like red-clad St. Louis Cardinals fans, everybody in the rambunctious right-field bleachers was wearing white. But unlike Cardinals fans (or any American fans, for that matter), the entire section sang a song when each player came up to bat. Yup, every Marines player has his own fight song.

How adorable is that? Can you picture Mets fans gathering to sing Shawn Green's theme song as he wallows up to the plate for an inevitable rally-killing double play? Didn't think so.

And it's not just the players that get tunes. There was also a popular chant based on the Marines' 2007 slogan, "Once Again, all Hands to the Flag." The "flag" obviously refers to the pennant, which the Marines are currently playing for in this week's, ahem, Climax Series.

Speaking of which, finding out the equivalent of their LCS is called the "Climax Series" made the fan-made "Go For Climax!" sign we saw make much more sense. And far less amusing.

Also, if you'd like to purchase your very own Marines flag, or an equally popular No. 26 (as in 26th man) Marines jersey, by all means, go ahead. Just try to make sure you can read Japanese, or else you might end up with a few more souvenirs than you bargained for.

The food

Absolutely delicious. (Provided to CBSSports.com)

Shockingly, Japanese baseball stadiums serve lots and lots of Japanese food. Bowls of rice and meat. Hot noodles. Salmon rolls. Edamame. The usual. But the best part was the American spin on a few things. Not only did they have bits of hot dog served over rice, but they also sold pizza. In a cone. No, I didn't try it. But my bowl of meat and rice was delicious.

And remember how last week I mentioned how nobody at the game booed, or got frustrated at all? Well, when we were getting our food, we were pointing to something in the case underneath the cash register. The woman working the counter couldn't see what we wanted, so she pleasantly came out to take a look. Meanwhile, everyone on line patiently waited in silence.

Could you see this happening at any stadium in America? A few idiot tourists holding up a line of hungry sports fans and not receiving any coarse looks or four-letter words? Pretty impressive stuff, I say.

Random amusing sight

In Japan, the bullpen car is not a thing of the past. When the Marines lifted their starter, the reliever came to the mound in a Volvo convertible. Because it's always nice to know you're safe during the treacherous drive from right field.

The game itself

So this is why Dice-K "kind of sucks." (Provided to CBSSports.com)

On one hand, Japan won the first World Baseball Classic last year. So obviously they're doing something right. On the other hand, three players in Japanese history have hit 55 home runs in a season. One is the legendary Sadaharu Oh, one is Tuffy Rhodes (who hit 13 homers in 225 major league at-bats), and the other is Alex Cabrera (who hit five homers in part of one year with the Diamondbacks).

In other words, the competition wasn't exactly what we're used to here. While the guys played very hard, running out ground balls and reaching for line drives with more verve than their occasionally lazy American counterparts, the play just wasn't as, you know, good.

I didn't get the feeling that anyone on the field was capable of doing something really special. Unless "special" includes a shortstop writhing around in pain after getting bumped into on the base paths. If Ichiro still played in Japan, I have every reason to believe he would have hit .600 one of these years. Or, as my wife put it, "no wonder Dice-K kind of sucks."

Speaking of Dice-K and the possibility of his sucking, it's time to give some ink (or pixels, I suppose) to the MLB playoffs.

ALCS

Except for a tiny, $80 million discrepancy in payroll, the Red Sox and Indians are very evenly matched. Both have patient offenses that score in bunches, both have two aces in the rotation and both have (at least) two solid arms in the bullpen.

Off the field, things are different. The Red Sox no longer have that whole "cursed" thing to deal with, while the Indians are still looking for their first title since 1948. On the other hand, Major League is an excellent film, while Fever Pitch is a reprehensible piece of crap.

Jimmy Fallon aside, it's tempting to give the edge to the Indians, since the walk-happy Red Sox won't have an easy time scoring against C.C Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and notorious strike-tosser Paul Byrd. Then again, it's not like Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling are playoff novices. Plus, Tim Wakefield and Matsuzaka are capable of big things as well. You just never know when.

But the reason I think the Red Sox will take the series can be summed up in one word: Borowski. Earlier this year, I called Joe Borowski the Least Valuable Player in baseball. It's not because he's a terrible pitcher (which he's not), it's because a guy with a 5.07 ERA isn't who you want coming out to face David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in Fenway Park for the ninth inning of Game 7 of the ALCS. And there's a very good chance of that happening next week.

And if Borowski comes through in that situation, well, stranger things have happened ...

NLCS

... such as, the Rockies.

Chew on this: on Sept. 16, the Rockies beat the Phillies, and across town, the Broncos topped the Raiders. Since that day, the Broncos have gone 0-3, giving them three times as many losses as the Rockies in that span. That's simply preposterous.

In order to make the playoffs, not only did the Rockies have to win 13 of their last 14 regular season games, but the Padres and Mets had to suffer two of the worst late-season collapses in baseball history. Again, this kind of thing doesn't grow on trees.

And not to jump ahead, but if the Rockies sweep the Diamondbacks in the NLCS, they'll enter the World Series with just one loss in over a month. That's absolutely bonkers.

And finally, there's this. When I figured out the Rockies' GOLDEN AXE score before the playoffs, it said they had the second-best shot to win it all. The only spot they were lacking was at the top of the order, where Kaz Matsui was filling in.

Then before Thursday night's game, it was announced that Willy Taveras would be back at the top of the order for the first time since Sept. 8. And that's when I knew the Rockies had the best shot to win it all.

Why is this? Because as mentioned in the GOLDEN AXE column, every World Series champ since 2001 (aside from the 2004 Red Sox) has had a leadoff hitter who goes against everything baseball's stat-nerd community stands for.

With just 21 walks in 97 games with the Rockies this year, Taveras is precisely the type of guy that has been propelling teams in the postseason. And precisely the type of anti-OBP machine that baseball nerds consider worthless. Coincidence? The way things have been going with the Rockies, there's no such thing as coincidence. Just a crazy streak of luck that seems as if it's never going to stop.

Yup, the next few weeks are going to be fun. Let's go for climax, indeed.