Summer Koshien

In Japan, every High School has a Baseball team. It can be the prie and joy of the school, bringing pride and honour on the school by doing well. All year, these teams battle it out to go to the National Baseball Championship, or Summer Koshien. It culminates in a prefecture-wide 1 or 2 week tournament where the winner gets the honour of representing their prefecture at the summer tournament. So, in the end, 49 prefectures are represented by their champions (2 from Hokkaido since its so big, and 2 from Tokyo since there are so many schools!).

The teams meet in a huge tournament held in Osakaduring the height of summer. This tournament is hugely important, and a big test of a teams will to win. The games are played during the heat of the day, with virtually no shade. The heat is also a test for the fans! With a lot of the young men going shirtless (At the baseball field, its one of the few times this is socially acceptable) and women wearing as much as possible (to protect the paleness of their skins).

Not only that, but the players have to play in thick socks, with a long sleeve under-shirts and thick outer shirts (not many schools can stump for a summer set!).

There is also a lot of ritual and social rule at play in the tournament, with players bowing to each other at the start and end of the game, the winning school gets to sing its song, pitchers doff their hats to the batter whenever they strike the batter with a wild throw, the list goes on. This, however, does not mean a huge deal, as I am not trying to describe the tournament itself, rather 1 game.

A very important game.

The final.

I have not mentioned it before as I have not been that interested. This time, however, I was.

It say the debut of Nihon Bunri High School. This team finally made it to the final for the first time in its history. Not only that, but hailing from Niigata, it was the first team from the prefecture of Niigata to make it to the final.

The game itself was a picture-perfect Disney movie final. If anyone watches any of the Disney sports movies, you can spot a standard plot that builds up the plucky underdog line. Team of good, but unspectacular players pull together and achieve something amazing to get to the final. At the start, they play well against the higher ranked, better team, keeping it close. In the middle third, there is a collapse, and then in the final third, pull it together and win in the nick of time, or just hit the post as the clock dies.

So this game went!

Niigata (Nihon Bunri is too long, and not location-specific!) took to the field on a blazing August day to face Chukyo. A team that has been close many times, and winning the thing about 40 years ago (remember, Niigata has never had a team in the final, so this 1 school has managed better than our poor impoverished prefecture!)

It did not get off to a good start, with Chukyo getting a 2 run homer in the very first innings. Niigata however, struck back, managing to get one round in the 2nd innings, and Kashiwazakis own Takeshi striking a home run in the 3rd.

(*Disney movie. Final game. Act 1!*)

The game stayed in the balance, with Chukyo trying everything to crack open the Niigata team, and Niigata stubbornly refusing!

However, Niigatas luck finally ran out in the 6th, (*cue Disney movie, final game, act 2!*) when their visibly tired pitcher finally began to wobble. His control began to leave him, and Chukyo capitalised. In the 6th inning, they built a big 6 point lead very quickly. Extended to 8 by the 7th inning as they took advantage of Niigata's smaller squad and reliance on one pitcher, as Chukyo rested the starting pitcher, and switching to the reserve.

It looked like it was all over. Niigata managed to get nothing in the 8th, allowing Chukyo to put 1 hand on the champions flag (not a cup, a flag).

In the 9th and final inning, Chukyo began the slow march towards the title by dismissing the first 2 Niigata batters with relative ease (*cue Disney movie, final game, act3!*). The next Niigata batter marched to the plate, and settled in. Strike! Ball! Strike! Foul ball! Ball! Foul ball! Niigata simply refused to give Chukyo an easy ride in the final inning, with the batter flat out refusing to budge, until, finally, he managed to get hold of a pitch from the increasingly nervy Chukyo pitcher and send it deep into the outfield, allowing him to sprint to 2nd base.

Up marched the next batter, and again, he flat out refused to shift! Again, catching a ball, helping himself to a race to 1st, whilst the first batter scampered round and home! Up stepped another batter, this time, he was clocked square on the bum (pitcher doffs his hat, and batter marches off with a stinging bum, but pleased he can get on base.)

Niigata flat out refused to die and like a bulldog backed into a corner, dug in, and fought back. Clawing point after point. Slowly eating into Chukyo's lead. Finally, a bit of a break through. Niigata managed to slam a home-run! Grabbing another 2, bringing the score to 10-8, and 1 on 1st base!

1 more batter came up, and by now, Chukyo had switched back to the original pitcher. A little tight now, his control was a little wild and he was made to pay, with another ball struck all the way out to left field. bringing the score to 10-9! Cue people beginning to believe the impossible may happen!

So, with 1 on 2nd base, and another batter walking up, Niigata had the chance to actually take the lead for the first time in the entire game! First pitch in was wild, the Niigata batter cought the ball well and sent it flying on its way screaming off and away...

Into the mit of Chukyo's 3rd baseman who was in the prefect placement to catch it! 1 foot either way, he would have missed it, that ball would have been all the way to the wall (if not over it), and Niigata would have been able to take the lead!

Ah well.

That brought the curtain down on a game that ebbed and flowed, and saw one huge and amazing moment of glory when the upstarts from Niigata shook things up by poking one in the eye of one of Japanese baseballs status quo!

They may have lost the game, but they won many hearts that day.

Being from Niigata is not something that marks you out as something amazing.

But the Nihon Bunri team stood up and shouted. A shout that carried throughout the prefecture, and reverberated round Japan.

Now, we are something amazing.

Well done Bunri. You made it to the final. There is next year!