High School Baseball

After years of trying, I was finally able to watch my high school’s baseball team play. I have asked for the team’s schedule for years but could never seem to get one. Luckily, I spotted a poster displaying the bracket for the upcoming Chiba Prefecture regional tournament in the halls of my school. Shoin would be playing at ZOZO Marine Stadium on July 8 at 11:30. Finally, I had a time and place, and I also had the day off.

Mineshima kun tossed a perfect game

I called up a friend and off we went to cheer on the boys. While I have been to numerous professional games in Japan, this was my first foray into the high school game. High school baseball is a big deal in Japan. The Prefectural tournaments are televised. Yes, high school baseball is on national TV. The Prefectural tournaments lead to the Koshien Tournament held in Koshien Stadium in August. For the most part, winners of the prefectural tournaments land a spot in the national tournament. 46 teams make it to the tournament, so it would appear some prefectures don’t get to send a team, I don’t know why, but I’m sure it has something to do with the big cities of Tokyo and Osaka wanting more than one slot. If you want to know more about the Koshien, read this link from MLB.com

Another hard hit ball

It is hard to explain to people who live outside of Japan why high school baseball is so popular. For Americans, I think it is similar to the popularity of college athletics. If you tell someone from the UK that every Saturday millions of people gather in stadiums around the US to watch college football, they just can’t wrap their heads around it. Baseball has held a special spot in the sporting culture of Japan since its introduction in the 1880s.

Celebrating a triple that drove in a run

About the game, well, it was a short one. Before the game even started, I could see that the opponent for the day was in for a long day. My school suited up 20 kids, while the other school had a squad of 12. That led me to believe that either this was a small school, so not many kids to choose from, or baseball is not very popular at that school. Either way, once their lead-off hitter came to the plate, I knew that game was already over. The poor kid made very soft contact while fouling off a few pitches before striking out. This would be repeated time and time again. In fact, they were unable to get a single hit. Shoin’s pitcher threw a perfect game. Impressive, no matter the opponent. Meanwhile, the boys from my school were tearing the cover off the ball.

Bowing after the game

The Shoin lads ripped a few doubles, triples, and even a three-run homer during their at-bats. The pitchers, all four of them, didn’t help themselves out either by walking quite a few Shoin batters. Late in the game, while up 9-0, a Shoin baserunner stole second. This certainly raised my eyebrows because if you did this in the US, the current batter had better expect a fastball to the ribs. But since this game was played in Japan, there was no chance of a plunking. Not surprisingly, the batter immediately ripped a single sending the runner on second home. At that point, the game was called. It was then that I understood the stolen base. A mercy rule exists in high school baseball. A team up by 10 after five innings ends the game.

So my first game ended up being an entertaining but shortened affair. Hopefully, it won’t take me six years to get to my next game.

Raising the school flag after the win