D4 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020BASEBALL
Amid all the new safety proto-
cols and unusual scenes after the
delayed opening of Japan’s base-
ball league, a highly unscientific
yet intriguing multicultural study
is underway: Can a Venezuelan
player who became the emotional
soul of an American franchise’s
first championship run deliver
similar results in Japan with his
beloved Korean-produced chil-
dren’s song?
Nearly two weeks into Nippon
Professional Baseball’s coro-
navirus-delayed season, the early
results are promising.
Gerardo Parra is remembered
in Washington for using the chil-
dren’s song “Baby Shark” to in-
spire a team and its fan base on
the way to the Nationals’ 2019
World Series championship. But
while his walk-up song and on-
base celebrations may have gal-
vanized the team, his on-field pro-
duction was mediocre, and the
Nationals declined to re-sign him
after his one-year contract ex-
pired.
With an increasingly unkind
free-agent market for veterans in
the major leagues, Parra signed
with the Yomiuri Giants when
they approached him in Novem-
ber. Despite the long layoff and the
adjustment to a new country,
Parra is off to a fine start.
He got a hit on opening night af-
ter his manager challenged a
close out call at first base on a ball
Parra had bounced to shortstop.
With no fans in the stands, it
would have made for an awkward
debut for his “Baby Shark” dance.
The moment produced only a si-
lent exchange of gestures: the
umpire overturning the call with a
sweeping extension of his arms
and then Parra pinching his
thumb and index finger together
privately — just as he and his Na-
tionals teammates had done in
2019 to celebrate singles.
A bigger moment came in Game
No. 2. As the Giants broke open a
close contest in the seventh inning
against the Hanshin Tigers, Parra
blasted a chest-high pitch that
clunked off an empty seat in the
right-field stands for a three-run
home run. He was delighted with
both the result and the response
from his teammates.
“For this one, I do the big ‘Baby
Shark’ dance,” Parra said in a
postgame phone interview, refer-
ring to the chomping gesture
made with both arms. “When I
turned back and looked at the dug-
out, everybody do that. Every-
body. I be happy for that, because
when the team is together, every-
thing is positive.”
The Giants lead the six-team
Central League with a 6-2-1 start.
Parra is batting .286 with three
home runs and has started in right
field in eight of their games, but
they did not sign him for his homerun prowess. He hit just 88 in 11
U.S. major league seasons, includ-
ing eight for the Nationals last
year. The Japanese club liked his
solid career batting average of.276 and his versatile defense,
which includes two Gold Gloves
and more than 200 games at each
outfield position.
Beyond those skills, it has been
obvious since his signing that the
Giants also embrace his conta-
gious energy.
At his introductory news con-
ference in January, the Giants
blared the same tune that filled
Nationals Park last year through-
out the room. Everyone on the
dais received a pair of blue-and-
white Baby Shark hand puppets
adorned with a Yomiuri cap in
front of the dorsal fin.
Even Manager Tatsunori Hara
slipped one on each hand and
smiled broadly as he joined in the
dance that thousands of Nationals
fans happily performed last year.
With 22 Japan Series titles, the
most of any franchise, the Giants
are Japan’s version of the Yan-
kees, but they could use an extra
dose of inspiration. They haven’t
won a title in seven seasons, their
longest drought since another
seven-season dearth that ended in- In last year’s Japan Series,
they were swept in four games by
the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
without holding a lead for a full in-
ning.
Even with no fans in stadiums
after a 91-day delay of the season
because of the coronavirus, the
Giants are playing walk-up music
in the empty Tokyo Dome at home
games. Once again, Parra is step-
ping to the plate to the tune from
Pinkfong, the Korean educational
entertainment company.
“I can’t change the music now
because it’s emotion for me,”
Parra said. “It’s my life to see all
the people and kids happy. Right
now, we can’t see fans in the sta-
dium, but I know they like it be-
cause they send me video and pic-
tures by Instagram and every-
thing. It brings energy, and we
need that to help make a champi-
onship team here.”
He was credited with doing ex-
actly that in Washington. Parra
was released by San Francisco in
May 2019 after a slow start, and
signed with a Nationals team that
had stumbled to a 19-31 record. He
had been stepping to the plate to
the reggaeton track “Contra La
Pared,” by Sean Paul and J.Balvin, but before a doubleheader
against Philadelphia on June 19,
he changed it on a whim.
“In the morning, my kids say,
‘Daddy, I want to listen to “Baby
Shark,”’ so I put it on my phone
and we dance in the apartment for
like three hours,” said Parra, who
estimated he had switched his
walk-up song more than 20 times
in his career. “When I go to the sta-
dium, I said, ‘Hey, I want to
change the walk-up song.’ I never
think I want to put ‘Baby Shark,’
but it was still on my phone and I
kept hearing it. After so manytimes, I said: ‘You know what?
That’s the song I’m going to use.’ ”
Some on the team were skepti-
cal, but when Parra saw how chil-
dren and adults reacted, he de-
cided to keep it. “I never seen kids
and adults happy together like
that before,” he recalled. “It’s
beautiful when you see that.”
The energy of the tune, coupled
with Parra’s charisma, eventually
seeped into the clubhouse and
helped build a camaraderie that
became a central story line in the
Nationals’ title run.
“Of course, you have to play
strong on the field, but when ev-
eryone is together like that in the
clubhouse, everything is possi-
ble,” Parra said.
In commemorating the fran-
chise’s first World Series, the Na-
tionals’ front office affirmed what
the Yomiuri Giants hope to cap-
ture. Inside the shank of the cham-
pionship ring they unveiled in a
virtual event, they included an
etching of a shark holding the
Commissioner’s Trophy to honor
Parra’s emotional inspiration.
“Henry Blanco send me the vid-
eo and I’m in shock — no talk, like
‘Wow,’ ” Parra said, referring to
the Nationals’ bullpen coach.
“That ring is beautiful, and now
‘Baby Shark’ is part of baseball for
our life. It brings us together.”
While Parra could not be with
his teammates in the United
States when the team unveiled the
ring design, he was touched to
hear that a member of the Lerner
family, which owns the team, was
planning to fly to Tokyo to deliver
his ring.
The pandemic has suspended
those plans, but the Giants hope
that whenever Parra gets his Na-
tionals ring, a second one won’t be
far behind.‘Baby Shark’ Resurfaces, Along With a Player Who Made It an Anthem
Gerardo Parra used the children’s song “Baby Shark” as his walk-
up music with the 2019 Nationals, above, invigorating the home
crowd during Washington’s title run. Parra wasn’t re-signed, but
now he’s doing the “Baby Shark” dance with the Yomiuri Giants.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMESBy BRAD LEFTONYOMIURI GIANTSA former National
hopes to inspire his
new team in Japan.
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Houses for Sale 1791Help Wanted 2600CROMWELL, Conn. — The
Travelers Championship, the PGA
Tour’s third tournament after a
90-day layoff because of the coro-
navirus pandemic, began last
week with a flurry of positive tests
for the virus among players and
caddies. The event warily lurched
forward.
But by the final round on Sun-
day afternoon, uncertainty, drama
and the import that accompanies
it seemed almost reassuringly fa-
miliar as another PGA Tour event
closed with gripping, taut pres-
sure.
There was Dustin Johnson,
ranked sixth on the tour, standing
in a pond with his pants rolled up
desperately trying to save par a
few minutes after he hooked a tee
shot out of bounds and close
enough to a railway to be a stow-
away. There was Brendon Todd,
who began the day with a two-
stroke lead, having to endure the
dreaded despair of a shanked chip
shot that ruined his round. There
was Kevin Streelman making a
late charge as if conjuring the
mojo of his 2014 Travelers victory,
when he finished the final round
with seven consecutive birdies.
Oh, yes, and Bryson DeCham-
beau, who has gained 40 pounds
from an intense workout regimen
designed to overpower tour lay-
outs, once again smashed tower-
ing drives that made some holes
look like those from a pitch-and-
putt course. However, as it turns
out, pitching and putting is still a
challenge for most golfers, includ-
ing DeChambeau.
In the end at T.P.C. River High-lands golf course about 12 miles
outside Hartford, Conn., Johnson
had the right combination of
strength off the tee and deftness
on the greens to claim the champi-
onship by one stroke over Streel-
man. For Johnson, who shot a fi-
nal-round 67 to finish 19 under par
for the tournament, it was his 21sttour victory and his first since he
won the World Golf Championship
event in Mexico in February 2019.
Nonetheless, earning the Trav-
elers title means that Johnson has
won a tour event in each of the last
13 seasons. Only Jack Nicklaus,
Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods
have longer streaks for wins in
consecutive PGA Tour seasons.
“It’s obviously a great streak
and anytime you’re mentioned
with those names, it’s obviously a
big accomplishment,” Johnson
said on Sunday. “But it was a long
time between wins, and hopefully
I won’t have to wait that long
again for the next one.”
Johnson shot a career-low 61
during Saturday’s third round and
on Sunday was forced to wait
through a weather delay of about
an hour when thunderstorms
moved through central Connecti-
cut. Johnson was leading the tour-
nament with three holes left to
play at the time.
“The rain delay didn’t help be-
cause I had time to think about
things,” he said. “I had been on a
nice roll before that.”
It would be more accurate to
say that Johnson had settled down
after an adventurous stretch of
golf when he chased down Todd
but was suddenly staggered by
wayward tee shots. In all, Johnson
had three bogeys and four birdies
in his final 12 holes.
A bogey at the seventh hole be-
gan the topsy-turvy stretch, but
Johnson rallied by sinking a 27-
foot birdie putt that broke sharply
from right to left on the eighth
hole. He then birdied the next two
holes as well. By the 13th hole,
Johnson appeared to be in cruise
control but then knocked his drive
out of bounds to the left and strug-
gled to make a bogey on what
should have been an easy par 5 for
the long-driving Johnson. But he
rallied with a birdie on the next
hole.
On the 15th hole, a short, drive-
able par 4, Johnson’s tee shot was
heading for a pond to the left.Though the ball landed at high
speed just a few feet from the wa-
ter, luckily for Johnson it re-
mained on the grass bank.
“I hit a 3-hybrid very poorly,”
Johnson said of the shot. “I don’t
know what was going on with my
tee balls today. And I was a little
lucky there, but I still had to get up
and down for par.”
Johnson’s only chance to ad-
vance the golf ball toward the
green from about 25 yards away
was to wade into the pond, which
he did after removing his shoes
and socks and hiking up his pants
to just below knee level.
His chopping chip from the
bank traveled about a third of the
way to the green but Johnson, af-
ter being reunited with his shoes
and socks, pitched his third shotwithin four feet of the hole. He
made the par putt.
A bogey on the 16th after the
weather delay cut his lead over
Streelman to one stroke, but
Streelman, who shot 67 on Sun-
day, could not replicate his 2014
magic on the greens. He finished
with five successive pars.
It was Streelman’s second run-
ner-up finish of the year, having
been second at the AT&T Pebble
Beach Pro-Am in February.
“It’s a little disappointing, mak-
ing a last birdie would have been
nice,” Streelman said. “But I have
to take a lot of positives. I just
played beautifully.”
Todd, who overcame golf’s
dreaded swing yips a few years
ago, held a two-stroke lead over
Johnson when his approach shotto the par 4, 12th hole drifted
slightly right of the green. Todd
was left with an awkward uphill
chip shot within eight feet of the
green.
It was a delicate shot, but Todd
rocketed the ball off his wedge and
it flew over the green and sharply
to the right. Now needing a flop
shot to ascend to the green, Todd’s
attempt was short and rolled back
down the hill. A putt still did not
reach the green and two putts lat-
er, Todd was out of contention af-
ter a triple-bogey seven. For Todd,
it was the first time he had not
made a par or better since the
fourth hole of Thursday’s first
round.
The PGA Tour resumes this
coming Thursday at the Rocket
Mortgage Classic in Detroit.Johnson Wades In and Pulls Out a Tour Victory for the 13th Year in a Row
By BILL PENNINGTONDustin Johnson after making a par putt on the 18th hole that gave him a one-stroke win over Kevin
Streelman in the Travelers Championship. Streelman had won it in 2014. Only Jack Nicklaus, Ar-
nold Palmer and Tiger Woods have had more consecutive seasons with a victory than Johnson.ROB CARR/GETTY IMAGESHanging on despite a
weather delay of an
hour and a wild ride
on the final 12 holes.