I want to apologize for the lack of posts these past few weeks. I was just hyper busy since coming back from the States, finishing one assignment for Kyodo and two stories on Ichiro Suzuki. Then I caught one of my colds from the netherworld. The doctor didn’t believe my influenza test was negative until I’d had three of them, but after two days he ruled out the flu and pneumonia to account for my 39.2 C temperature and other symptoms.

After 72 hours and medication I was feeling fit enough to do a podcast, our PL prediction show, on Sunday night, my not so happy birthday — to be aired March 25.

I almost made it to the ballpark on Monday but my fever came back a little in the morning, as it did again this morning, and I’m back to the office after seven days off — the first four of which I could barely concentrate for 5 minutes at a stretch or eat or taste anything.

But enough about me. Since I returned to Japan on March 6, I’ve interviewed the head of Yoshitomo Tsutsugo’s youth baseball club in Sakai, Osaka, Ryunosuke Seno, the head of the Japan Rubber Baseball Association, Toyomi Munakata, as well as Lotte Marines manager Tadahito Iguchi. So, there is lots in the works that I need to get cracking on.