A Number A Day, Jan 6-8

My #8 for the 8th is one of my all-time favorite players, Makoto Kaneko of the Nippon Ham Fighters. Kaneko's birthday is Nov 8th and I often wondered if that's why he wears #8.It's really hard not to like him -- he's not a superstar by any means but he's been a solid player for his career, anchoring shortstop for the Fighters for pretty much the last 15 years or so. His glove is generally much better than his bat, but that doesn't stop him from doing crazy things like opening the 2009 season by batting .423 over the first month with like 8 doubles and I forget what else. And batting out of the 9-spot all the time, too! He also served as team captain and as player representative for the league -- he's just kind of a natural leader. Trey Hillman also said that Kaneko was one of the few Japanese players who would actually talk straight to him, like "If you had a booger on your nose, Kaneko's the only guy on the team who'd tell you."Also we ...