Daisuke Miura didn't get a fairy tale ending. Instead, Hama no Bancho (Boss of Yokohama) went out fighting; grinding for every last out in a blaze of guts and glory as he tried to summon every last ounce of baseball left in his 42-year-old body and leave it all on the field.
It wasn't always pretty, but the fans at Yokohama Stadium didn't seem to care by the end. They cheered him for good times past, they cheered him for staying, they cheered him for being theirs for so long. They cheered him because, as so many banners around the stadium proclaimed, "Since 1992 — Always Yokohama."
Miura made the final start of his 25-year career on Thursday, pitching into the seventh inning of the BayStars’ 11-6 loss to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows before a sell-out crowd of 28,966. All the BayStars wore his No. 18 during the game, a number that will be in semi-retirement from this season on.
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