Cat, Meloney, and Chris and I went to game 2 of the playoff series between the Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was my first time at a playoff game, and we had fun. However, the Padres didn't play well aside from their pitching, and I am disappointed in the Padres' fans in general, who quieted down once the Pads were down 2-0 in the 5th inning!
It reminded me of being in that same ballpark last spring for the World Baseball Classic semifinal between Japan and Korea. With Japan ahead 6-0, there was a rain delay of about an hour in the 6th or 7th inning. For the ENTIRE duration of the rain delay, the Korean fans were standing, chanting, beating on thunder sticks, and drumming. After the game, which Japan won, the Korean team came out onto the field and received a huge ovation from the Korean fans (which by then included myself and the others who'd come with me). The team returned the adulation to the fans. What a great way to lose.

ICHIRO SUZUKI -- childhood preparation for baseball
(from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichiro_Suzuki )
At age seven, Ichiro joined his first baseball team and asked his father, Nobuyuki Suzuki (鈴木宣之 Suzuki Nobuyuki), to teach him to be a better player. The two began a daily routine which included:

throwing 50 pitches
hitting 200 pitches from Nobuyuki
fielding 50 infield balls and 50 outfield balls, and
hitting 250-300 pitches from a machine.

Ichiro Suzuki, all-time single-season hits leader in Major League Baseball.As a Little Leaguer, Ichiro had the word shūchū (集中 — "concentration") written on his glove. By age 12, he had set professional baseball as his goal and, while he apparently shared his father's vision, he did not enjoy their training sessions. Nobuyuki claimed, "Baseball was fun for both of us," but Ichiro later said, "It might have been fun for him, but for me it was a lot like "Star of the Giants," a popular Japanese manga series that told of a young boy's difficult road to success as a professional baseball player, with rigorous training demanded by the father. According to Ichiro, "It bordered on hazing and I suffered a lot."

When Ichiro joined his high school baseball team, his father told the coach, "No matter how good Ichiro is, don't ever praise him. We have to make him spiritually strong." When he was ready to enter high school, Ichiro was selected by a school with a prestigious baseball program, Nagoya's Aikodai Meiden Kōkō, where, unlike as a professional, Ichiro was primarily a pitcher instead of an outfielder, owing to his exceptionally strong arm. Among the strength drills he performed in training there were hurling car tires and hitting wiffleballs with a heavy shovel. These exercises helped develop his wrists and hips, adding power and endurance to his thin frame. Yet, despite the production of outstanding numbers in high school, Ichiro was not drafted until the fourth and final round of the professional draft in November 1991 because many teams were put off by his small size, 5'9", 120 pounds (54 kg). (Whiting, 2004, pp. 2-12)