Sometimes history repeats itself. Eighteen years ago, in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers entered the month of August with a healthy lead in the Central League standings. The weather was as scorching as the Tigers who then, as now, played their home games at historic Koshien Stadium.

I don't recall Hanshin having as big a lead as they have now, and they surely did not yet have a magic number on Aug. 6 for clinching the flag. (The "magic" countdown actually began prior to the All-Star break last month and was reduced to 29 as of Aug. 5.)

But the pennant fever burned as hot as now, and Tigers fans went wild over the heroics of Randy Bass, Masayuki Kakefu, Akinobu Mayumi, Akinobu Okada, Rich Gale and company, predecessors of George Arias, Makoto Imaoka, Atsushi Fujimoto, Akihiro Yano, Shinjiro Hiyama, Atsushi Kataoka, Norihiro Akahoshi, Tomoaki Kanemoto, Kei Igawa, Trey Moore, Hideki Irabu, Jeff Williams, Jerrod Riggan, et al.