June 16 part 2: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

When I heard that people often went to baseball games when in Tokyo, I thought that sounded fun. After talking to Kelly Walker about it, it became one of two things I wanted to try to experience while in Japan. (Generally, my attitude to the trip was to see what other folks were interested in and tag along - I knew that any experience was going to be an exciting opportunity and as someone who struggles to navigate, I mostly wanted to be able to do things with others. This plan served me incredibly well - we had a few people on the trip who had come with very full itineraries, which meant there was always something for me to do if I wanted.)  A baseball game seemed like a great place to compare and contrast cultures and also a great bit of fun. Given that our sightseeing left us at Tokyo Station (we stay in Fuchu, which is a pretty good haul from there), we had the night off, the Yomiuri Giants were playing the Rakuten Eagles in the Tokyo Dome, and I was far too mentally drained to do anything that would require thinking, I joined up with a few other people to head to the game once it was clear that my student was recovering ok. 

We were able to get tickets down the left field side, quite a ways up but definitely not at the top of the stadium, and after going to the gift shops to look for a few things we headed inside to our seats just in time for the first pitch. The environment was wild: flashing displays that ran the majority of the centerfield wall, young women wearing beer kegs from which they dispensed beer, and then there were the crowds. The fans know a different cheer for every single player and they sing / chant them the entire time the batter is at the plate. All game long. Nearly all athletes will tell you that having fans makes a difference. These fans truly live up to the billing of the 10th player on the field - they are an integral part of the game. 

On top of that, it was an incredibly exciting game. The Giants looked like they were going to dominate in the first inning, going up 3-0 in the first. I do not recall when the Eagles scored 3, but I believe it was sometime around the 5th inning. In the 7th, the Eagles pulled ahead 5-3, which remained the score heading into the bottom of the 9th. With runners at 1st and 3rd (if I recall correctly), a batter hit a beautiful home run to end the game. The crowd went wild. There was much high diving all around. Then they rolled out a backdrop and some lighting instruments and a mass of reporters circled around some of the players for the post game interview session. Though we didn’t understand the Japanese, we stayed to catch the full spectacle of the evening. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a major league game in the US, but I was so impressed by this game. The ballpark was a lovely place to watch a game. It’s pretty large. It was packed, and the fans for both teams were vocal and engaged. There were traditions, but nothing as messy as something like a beer snake. In fact, fans uniformly carried their trash out and sorted it carefully into bins for recycling, burning, landfill. While there were some inning change games, definitely nothing as personal as a kiss cam. Lots of energy. I’m really curious to know why all of the signage that lit up to excite the crowds was written in English with no Japanese translation. At times the English was broken, but it was never Japanese. The stats and other bits of information, on the other hand, were in Japanese. All announcing was in Japanese. I have some theories, but I’d love to learn from someone who knows…