The baseball season got off to an interesting start at the weekend. The Sendai Rakuten Golden Eagles, the first new franchise in over 50 years, won their very first game 3-1 on Saturday but then lost by the staggering score of 26-0 on Sunday. Both games were against Bobby Valentine’s Chiba Lotte Marines, who set a club record in the second game. Meanwhile over at the Yahoo! Dome, the renamed Fukuoka Softbank Hawks had popular actress Ueto Aya (photo, 19) and fellow Oscar Pro beauties Yonekura Ryoko (29), Kikukawa Rei (27), Ishikawa Asami (27) and Tamaru Maki (26) on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters poster boy Shinjo Tsuyoshi (33). Ueto and Shinjo teamed up for the Oronamin C TV commercial, and the flamboyant outfielder carried a bottle of the “genki” drink rather than a bat into the batter’s box.
• Actress Momoi Kaori (52), who has a major part in the upcoming Rob Marshall geisha flick “Sayuri,” has joined the US Screen Actor’s Guild. It’s unusual for an actor to join the organization with less than three Hollywood features under their belt. Momoi is said to be considering following co-star Watanabe Ken‘s lead and moving to Los Angeles. “Sayuri” is due for worldwide release in December.