A win in style: Summer Koushien is over

The summer tournament at Koushien Stadium is over and we have a winner. Saga Kita High School have won in style. A grand slam homerun in the bottom of the 8th inning took them to a 5-4 victory over Koryo High School from Hiroshima, who had advanced to the final for the first time in 40 years. This makes Saga Kita the first public school to win the title 1996.
I really enjoyed watching the few matches I was able to see. Although I know that there is a lot of talk about the pureness of "koko yakyu" (high school baseball) in Japan it definetely is different from what you get to see if you tune in to some major league games, whether it is MLB or NPB. The boys playing on the "sacred dust" of Koushien for their schools sure look like they are really enjoying themselves. You always have to keep in mind that the whole tournament is televised live throughout the entire country and of course the must be millions of sponsorship money in it as well. This is the big stage for those kids, this will determine their future as professional players. But when you watch the games at least I never had the feeling this was going through their minds at all. They looked like they had the fun of their lives. Even when they lost they still had some sort of snmiles on their faces. Yeah, I know, it might be fake but I'd really like to imagine that it isn't. Plus, the line up they do when the game is over shows real sportsmanship. Both teams congratulate each other on playing a good game. That's how it should be.
I'm really looking forward to the Spring Koushien. Hopefully it gets such a great coverage as well.

Another thing which I really found exciting is the way the teams were supported by their schoolmates. There are two major terraces in Koushien, one next to the right outfield, the other one right across the pitch at left field. Those are always filled with the supporters of each school and they make one hell of noise when their team is batting. The cheer for them constantly. Occasionally you get to see some players from the teams standing there, those must be the guys who didn't make it to the first team. But they are cheering for their friends really hard and they seem to be overjoyed when they finally get the win. Great.

If you are interested in a more in-depth article on how the game went be sure to read the article at Japan Times Online.