Hanshin Baseball!

June 4, 2004 on 11:43 pm | In Uncategorized | | Email This Post

Bottom of the 12th!

Went to a Hanshin Tigers game in Osaka with the guy from
MLB RoadTrip.com a while ago.

I’ve been to baseball games in Japan before, but this was really fun. The MLB Road Trip guy is a baseball -nut-. Been to every US stadium, and is working on Japan now. He’s the kind of guy who keeps score during the game on custom enhanced score sheets.

First we went to a minor league game at a small field called
The Tigers Den. Usually minor league games are really unpopular, so we didn’t bother to get tickets in advance. “Usually” doesn’t always happen though, and this game was packed. We ended up watching the game by climbing a wall and watching through the fence… Along with about 100 other fans. Some Japanese guys who were already up on their perch grabbed us and pulled us up the wall one by one, through the bushes… I was flying.

Great View!

After the minor league game, which the Tigers won by a ridiculous amount, something like 19-2, we killed some time and got ready for the major game at night. The whole area around Koshen Stadium is filled with places selling Hanshin Tigers Goods, and more goods. Even Hanshin Onigiri. It tasted not like tiger, but like rice. Real Japanese baseball fans deck themselves out in this stuff before going to the games. Actually… Even the not so real fans do that… I bought a hat.

McDonalds was even having a promotion where if you come in the day after the Tigers win a game, you can get five nuggets for 105 yen! The only thing is… There’s not much else going on in Koshen except the baseball stadium… So you’d have to go to back-to-back games to catch this hot nugget deal. I’m not that hardcore though…

Well before the game was scheduled to start the people fighting for the Free Seating were lined up. In baseball in Japan, the crowd really gets involved as I’m sure you’ve heard. But, the Free seating area usually gets more into it than the reserved seating area. So people, even if they can afford the reserved seating, often go to free seating for the energy.

The stadium is called Koshien, it’s really famous, Babe Ruth played there. My baseball maniac friend said that Japanese baseball stadiums are usually boring because they are built for efficiency, while US stadiums are built to be fun, built for the fans. Even so, Koshien is among the most entertaining of Japanese stadiums it seems.

By far the most obvoius cultural difference in a baseball game in Japan is the 7th inning balloon event.

This image is just a teaser. Take a look at this. Have you ever seen Nausica? This reminds me of the scene where Nausica is being carried by the Om’s and stuff. Umm… Anyway, yeah. Isn’t it amazing?

Lastly, the game went to the bottom of the 12th before Hanshin won. In the rain! Almost missing the last train! It was a great game. Really great.

-Harvey