Last night I went with three other people to a Hanshin Tigers game. This team has a huge following in the area where I live. The stadium was built in 1920, and feels really small, but I think it can hold well over 50,000 people. Opposing the Tigers was the Orix Blue Wave, Ichiro's former team.
I had a great time talking to strangers at the game, who were all happy to be single-serving friends as we supported the Tigers together. I am still not very good at the chants, but I do try. More than that I enjoyed expressing my individualism by yelling something when the crowd was kind of quiet, often in between the well organized cheers. The fans seemed to appreciate this, so I didn't feel too shy about it. One player, Hiyama, came up to bat but I misread the kanji for his name because the scoreboard was too far away and because kanji are hard to read. "Let's go Matsuyama!!!" I shouted, with all the power I could muster. I was soon informed of my mistake. A bit embarrassing but bound to happen. Oh well.
Many of the fans were drinking beer, and some were drinking a lot of beer. Some of the latter were in fact drinking too much beer. I say this because when I went to use the restroom I could hear two men vomiting at the same time. One was flushing the toilet repeatedly, presumably to mask the sound of his wretching. I was glad that the task I needed to perform was much simpler than that. But it didn't stop me from drinking beer.
The game went into extra innings and was eventually left as a tie, I think after the 12th or 13th inning. It was 11:30 pm by that time. My overall impression was that I need to get to games more often, but make sure I know the player's names before I try to cheer for them.
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2 comments:
Beer and Baseball. That sounds like a classic American summer afternoon. So any big differences between the two atmospheres? I spent an hour last evening shooting hoops with 3 high sophmore South Korean foreign exchange students. We were playing in a driveway, which is my favorit place to shoot hoops. When I grow up, I definitely want to have a hoop above the garage. We weren't playing competitively, just shooting around. I haven't done that in months, but it always feels good to find your shot and feel like you can consistently make shots.
reminds me of when i lived in Atlanta - before the Braves were good. Turner couldn't afford to pay the ticket takers so we walked in for free. He did however make a good profit on the beer which led to our rather boisterous cheering!
The good thing about an empty stadium and a team with it's own TV station is that you get to be on TV quite regularly. Teh bad news is that yiou get call from people you know all over the country - "Was that you on top of the dugout last night?! Man have you gotten fat!"
Still watchign the Bravos org with the Pelicans here in Myrtle Beach
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