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.

NPB and Koushien: A nice start into a new day

After waking up today I watched two games from Japan. First up was a match at Koushien Stadium where Aomori Yamada played against Seiko Gakuin. This was an interesting game with both teams being in a deadlock in the first few innings. But then a grand slam homerun for Seiko Gakuin in the 5th broke up the tie and sent them up 4-0. Aomori Yamada would score as well in the remaining innings, but they faied to capitalize on a loaded bases situation in the top of the 9th when their clean up hitter and pitcher struck out in three straight pitches. Seiko Gakuin won 6-4.
I also watched the closing innings of Niigata Meikun vs Kofu Shogyo on Wednesday, a very close game. I tuned in when the score was tied at 1-1 and it was already the 6th inning. Both teams went on scoreless until a single would give Niigata Meikun the winning run in the 12th inning.
Watching those students play in front of a huge (although not sell out) crowd at koushien Stadium is a lot of fun. It seems as if they are enjoying every minute they get to stand on the field, sometimes they laugh, sometimes they are frustrated with themselves, but they never have this dull and emotionless expression that some professional players seem to have when they play. Also I noticed that the games at Koushien have a much faster pace than professional baseball matches. Maybe that is because there are four games on each day and they have to get through the program as quick as possible.

This concludes this round and now these teams are left in the competition:
Day 10 (07-08-17):
Game 1: (Nagasaki) Nagasaki Nichidai vs. Kyoto Gaidai Nishi (Kyoto)
Game 2: (Shimane) Kaisei vs. Yoshikan (Oita)
Game 3: (Shizuoka) Takoha Gakuen Kikugawa vs. Nichinan Gakuen (Miyazaki)
Game 4: (Gunma) Maebashi Sho vs. Saga Kita (Saga)
Day 11 (07-08-18):
Game 1: (Tochigi) Bunseigei Daifu vs. Imabari Nishi (Ehime)
Game 2: (Nara) Chiben Gakuen vs. Teikyo (East Tokyo)
Game 3: (Niigata) Niigata Meikun vs. Ogaki Nichidai (Gifu)
Game 4: (Hiroshima) Koryo vs. Seiko Gakuin (Fukujima)

So when the Koushien broadcast (which can be found on the Asahi Shimbun website) ended I tuned into the top game of the NPB Pacific League where 1st place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters took on 2nd place Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Fighters starting pitcher Yu Darvish carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning, I think, when it was crashed by a single. That guy seems to be the new top prospect of Japanese baseball after Matsuzaka Daisuke went to the MLB. He also made his first big impact while playing at the Koushien tournaments and is currently engaged with Actress Saeko who seems to be pregnant with his child. So he's all set to fill in as the new star celebrity of Japanese Baseball.
Fighters, who are the defending Japan Series champions, went on to win 0-8. This was only the 2nd time I watched an NPB game, the other one being Tohoku Rakuten Eagles against a team whose name I forgot. What's most interesting is the noise in the stadium. The crowd is always chanting, shouting and singing, bands can be heard and theer is constant noise, even when the sides change offense and defense.

Because the Summer Koushien started: Ookiku Furikabutte

Today the final round of summer tournament of the Japanese high schools started at Koushien stadium in Osaka. I really don't have the insight on which school might be a favourite to win the whole thing this year since there are so many changes on the teams each year, mainly because the students graduate and new players will come to the teams with each school year. But because the tournament started today I found a new anme series which is airing on TBS in Japan at the moment. It's called "Ookiku Furikabutte" and just as other school animes it's about a high school baseball team that is aiming to go to Koushien at least once in their three years at high school. It is set in Saitama and tells the Story of Mihashi Ren, the pitcher for Nishiura High School. He always thought that his spot on the team of his Middle School was because his grandfather was the manager of the baseball club. When he joins his new club he doesn't want to be a burden for his teammates and doesn't try to mix with them. But the catcher Abe Takaya believes in him and his arsenal of pitches which are extremly slow. Together they enter a match against Mihashi's former high school.

As I said, this series is airing right now but it shows a lot of potential. True, the first match is already dragging over three episodes, but the character development takesa very slow and nice way. There's funny points every now and then. Especially the character of the team manager, a woman called Maria Momoe, might be in for a lot of funny parts.

It might not be a hit like "H2" which also turned out to be a very good drama, but it's a very good sports and high school anime. The animation is good, sometimes it looks like they used real life examples e.g. for the windup the pitcher does on the mound. It looks very authentic. The voice actors are also very good. I'm looking forward to the future episodes