Japan is known for its baseball. The rules are nearly identical to Major League Baseball, specifically the National League since the pitchers also bat. The fields are a little smaller and so is the ball. Otherwise it’s the same and the Hanshin Tigers fans of Osaka are reportedly some of the most enthusiastic fans in the 12 teams that make up the Nippon League–the highest level of professional baseball in Japan. Teams here are owned by corporations and Hanshin is the electric railway that connects Osaka to Kobe.
I love live sports, especially baseball where you can see the whole field and the intricacies of the game. The season starts in April, like in US, so Katie and I had it on our list of things we hoped we could do. I had read about how to get tickets and several sites talked about how tricky it is. One guy earns a living buying tickets for expats and delivering them to their door for a $60 fee. Frequently the games sell out, so buying them at the stadium is risky.
No problem for Katie-the-Clever, though. She got on the Japanese website and using the diagrams got us 4 tickets, outfield right, just a little way past 1st base. 2700 yen each. We were going to the game!
The game started at 6 p.m. and the 2 trains we would need to take had us leaving around 4:30, since we had to pick up our tickets at the gate. I was so excited my heart was racing, as more and more Tigers fans got on the train at each stop.
The station exit is conveniently located right by the stadium. In fact, we learned that there is no parking lot–everyone takes mass transportation just like at Wrigley Field in Chicago where the Cubs (our team!) play. As we got near the stadium we could tell (as noted online) that it was actually inspired by Wrigley Field, built of brick and covered in ivy. Picking up the tickets turned out to be a breeze! You simply went to one of many ATM-like machines, put your phone with your QR code up to the display, and voila! 4 tickets print out! 
We stopped at a shop that was crammed with fans buying their hearts out. There was even a little section of items for tonight’s opponents, the Yokohama Baystars. We found a second store that was less crowded. Katie was looking at baseballs as a gift idea and an Asian guy in a Cubs jersey told us in good English that player #1 is the best! The jersey was for the player Yu Darvish, who still pitches for the Cubs and was born in Osaka. He asked where we were from and told us he was from Taiwan and his friend from Osaka; this was his first Tigers game and her second. We talked excitedly about the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 and thanked him for the advice. We bought the ball for player #1 (an infielder named Takashi Toritani) and when we found Toritani’s cardboard cutout outside we posed for pictures.
Security made a cursory search of our bags. Then we saw large cups of beer, or cans of beer….and realized that fans were bringing in their own beer. Employees would then courteously pour them into large cardboard cups for you to take inside–cool!
Entering a huge stadium is a thrill every time! Koshien Stadium was redesigned over the last couple decades to make it barrier-free, actually decreasing the capacity from 55,000 to 47,757. The mascots ran around before the game and they even had cheerleaders leading the crowd! 
The infield is dirt and many groundskeepers were watering it down when we arrived, using one long hose that came out from under the pitcher’s mound. 
The stands began to fill up with excited fans of all ages. There were a handful of Americans here and there also, as it is a popular tourist thing to do!
The lights came on and the ceremonial first pitch was thrown at exactly 6 p.m. A VIP of some sort was cheered onto the field. But unlike this tradition in the US, where the pitch is just lobbed in to the catcher, here a member of the opposing took the swing and “missed,” so everyone could cheer the VIP throw a strike 🙂 The actual first pitch was minutes later.
The kids got us all excellent baseball food–pizza, chicken, fries. People around us were eating sushi and bento boxes, some with food they had brought to the game.
The weather was the most incredible so far–warm, dry, and sunny, then cooling with a nice breeze but never too cold after sunset especially when we were squeezed together on our little bench seats. There was a lot of excitement in the first few innings with hits and men on base, but no score after 5 innings. The games here can end in a tie after 5 extra innings–by now though, we were hoping for a win!
Finally in the 6th inning our team scored 2 runs and everyone went crazy, cheering and waving! There was even a band in the outfield, where the Super Fans sat. It was like a college football game in that way, with drums and horns. Even the section of “blue” fans from the Yokohama team had a band. Every player had his own chant lead by the band that everyone knew, even the little kids. Even Rosario……Go go go, Ro-sah-ee-oh! Or that’s what it sounded like, but Katie said it was something in Japanese. The pitcher was Randy Messenger from the MLB. Rules allow a few foreigners on each team. Fukudome (who played for the Cubs from 2008 – 2011), Uema, Ioto….cheer after cheer, the crowds used little plastic baseball bats to clap out rhythms and chants.
Just after dusk the bats came out. A dozen silver colored bats flashed around the stadium like tiny origami, keeping the mosquitoes off us 🙂
Between innings the mascots would be funny, just like home. Once the mascot did back flips across the outfield as the fans counted out the number of flips. And when he didn’t land in his designated hoop laying on the ground, the mascot slapped himself repeatedly on his big head haha!
There was a 7 foot fence along the entire field–no fan would get beaned by a line drive here. Behind home plate was a net that went all the way to the top. When a foul ball was hit, there would be like a siren noise and words in Japanese flashing on the signs, then English “Warning” or “Caution,” in hopes no one would get hit. The fans would not fight for the balls–they would hand them back to the ushers. Cute girls would carry snacks for sale. Some girls had small kegs of beer strapped to their backs and would use a hose and nozzle to pour beer into cups–it had to be really heavy!
There was no warning track, only a narrow strip of dirt. There was also no bullpen; the guys just warmed up in front of their respective dugouts. After each side of the inning a clock would start on the scoreboard and it became apparent that the team only had 3 minutes to start again. There was very little of the lead-off at first/pitcher duel like in the MLB, so the game moved along and lasted about 2 1/2 hours. After the 3rd inning the grounds crew came out and smoothed out the infield. After the 5th and 7th innings, 3 little zamboni-like lawnmower things came out and quickly pressed down the dirt. Still they were ready to go after 3 minutes.
Turns out they even have the 7th inning stretch, but not any like we ever seen before. We were noticing people blowing up long tiger-tail balloons and waving them around during the singing of the fight song with the band playing along. 
And at the end of the song everyone cheered and released thousands of untied balloons which flew into the air towards the field! 
It was soooooo great and we laughed and cheered in amazement!
It was still 2-0 and Messenger was still pitching at the top of the 9th inning–very unusual for a pitcher to be in so long. Then the Baystars scored a home run–2-1, uh oh! The players huddled at the mound and Messenger made the long walk to the dugout, all the fans clapping and cheering his excellent performance. A new pitcher came in for the save, another foreigner, Rafael Dolis from Dominican Republic, who was brought in from under the stands by a small car driven right up to 2nd base. He struck out the next batter and the third got out on a short fly to center field. WooHOOOO!!!! We hadn’t even realized it but the fans had blown up more balloons! As the fight song rang out again, more balloons were released while every fan cheered and no one even thought about leaving early!
Several minutes after the game and still no one left. They sang and cheered and then we saw the team walk in, line up….and bow. 
Quickly the stadium people set up an interview area by home plate and the Big 3 players of the game were interviewed over the intercom system. First, Messenger who said in English to keep rooting for us because were working hard. Everyone cheered, especially us! Then Dolis spoke in Spanish, and Priscila translated his gratitude and everyone cheered. Then Haraguchi, who batted in the 2 runs, spoke in Japanese and the fans went crazy! People were coming up to us to high five! And old man held out his hand as we were leaving to slap our hands. Still no one was leaving. We stopped at the restroom and went back and they were all still there singing the fight song again!
We made our way outside the there was a group of crazies under a bridge singing, chanting, and dancing. 
The police stood by politely and everyone shouted. After awhile the police started saying something into a bullhorn. They shut off the lights under the bridge and the fans dispersed easily, and another smiling guy came up to slap our hands. We went back to the store and the kids couldn’t resist getting hats with the very cool HT logo–we were officially fans!!!
We started moving toward the train station, the Americans thinking oh man, here comes the long wait to get home. But everyone was super cheerful–a man behind me was whistling the Mickey Mouse theme–M-I-C…K-E-Y…..We moved slowly into the station with the crowd, then onto the train platform. Then, efficient Japan brought us an empty train, just for the Tigers fans! We even got seats! 
And as all the fans left, it seemed we were all feeling grateful for the many things to be happy about 🙂 Go Tigers!!!
Photo: Koshien Stadium, Osaka
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