Rock legends Queen (or what’s left of them) arrived in town yesterday. original members Brian May (58) and Roger Taylor (56) were joined by ex-Free vocalist Paul Rodgers (56) for the band’s seventh vist, but their first in 20 years. 300 fans turned out at Narita Airport to greet them. They have very fond memories of Japan, having been met by huge crowds on their first visit 30 years ago, just before they returned to the UK and released the earth-shattering hit Bohemian Rhapsody. This time around, they’ll play a series of dates starting tomorrow at the Saitama Arena, then Yokohama Arena and Fukuoka and Nagoya Domes.
• The Japan Series is turning into something of a slaughter. The Chiba Lotte Marines have put up double digit runs on the board in all three games so far and the usually formidable Hanshin Tigers batters have failed to show their fans much to hang their hopes on. The first two games were played in Chiba, the opener being the first Japan Series game ever called due to fog. And the TV ratings show that Hanshin fans were glued to their screens hoping their team would return to Kansai with at least one win under their belts – the region’s rating for the opening game was a whopping 33.2%. Lotte finished second in the Pacific League and had to go through two rounds of playoffs, beating last year’s champion Seibu Lions and then the Softbank Hawks, to advance to the series. They haven’t been there in 31 years but are playing like postseason veterans, perhaps thanks to rather than in spite of the postseason games. A lot of the credit also goes to Lotte’s popular manager Bobby Valentine, the first to take a team to both the Japan Series and the major league World Series, and on the verge of being the first non-Japanese manager to take his team to the pinnacle of the Japanese game (if you don’t count the Taiwanese-born, but Japanese passport holder, Oh Sadaharu). Ironically, the last time Lotte won it all was in 1974, when they were the Lotte Orions, and the team they beat, the Chunichi Dragons, was the first to reach the series managed by a foreigner, Hawaiian native Wally Yonamine.