Short takes

You remember Ryuji Tachibana? The guy who went to the Mets in '97 as a conditioning coach, and worked for Bobby Valentine for several years with the Marines, and so on? Yeah, this guy? Apparently he's been working with the Rikkio University team as a coach as well. I believe Kenichi Yazawa is still working with the Tokyo University team off and on too. Wouldn't it be amazing if Rikkio managed to win the Big 6 this fall and Todai managed to win a game?Anyway, I have no real point here, I just felt like posting. I started a Twitter account, which may be more useful when I go to Japan this fall.Qualifying tournaments for Koshien are going on all over the place. I am, for the record, pulling for Nichidai San in West Tokyo (which should surprise nobody, and I really ought to finish my series on them), though if they don't make it I guess I hope Waseda Jitsugyo does again, because Konsu Yasuda is now their team captain and I was pretty captivated by him last summer,...