Saturday, July 19th, on my way home from teaching in Natsume, at the train station, my keitai rang. It was Katsuhiko.
‘What are you doing tomorrow?’, he asked. I truthfully answered that I wasn’t sure, though I knew there were lots of things I should be doing… ‘Oh, in that case, let’s go to Matsuyama for Saijo Koko’s first game of the Ehime Baseball Championships!’
Katsuhiko’s son, Kazuma, attends Saijo High School and plays for their baseball team. He was recruited. Saijo is a town 35km southeast of Imabari, with a strong team. The Ochis, including all three sons, are mad for baseball.
This team has a good chance to win the Ehime championship, meaning they could go to the Japanese National Championships (Koshien) later on in August. There are two national championship tournaments in Japan every year. They are as popular as professional baseball, televised and all…Saijo went to Spring Koshien in Osaka in March, but lost their first game and were put out of the tournament.
Kazuma just joined the team as a junior this year and so wouldn’t be playing, but it was a chance to see the team play on the professional pitch of Botchan Stadium. So of course I said yes.
We left my house in Imabari at noon, arrived in Matsuyama around 1:00 and were seated in the stadium by 1:45. The admission was 500 yen. The game was pretty good, though Saijo lagged a bit in the the fifth through eighth innings. The game concluded after nine innings, with Saijo winning 7 to 1. The other team played better than the score might indicate, but couldn’t score runs. Saijo was repeatedly lucky, ending innings with opposing players on bases, unable to score.
The Saijo team is focused around Takumi Akiyama, a physically and technically imposing (though sometimes wild) pitcher probably already pegged for the majors. There are a number of other very good players on the team, though; I saw some wicked catches and cool, intense plays.
Japanese high school baseball games come complete with cheerleading squads and a band. I got to sit with the fathers, all in their special Saijo shirts and baseball caps(!!) We were given two yellow plastic megaphones, not to yell into, but to knock together in time with the cheers. Good fun!
Saijo’s next game was on Thursday, July 23rd. I don’t know how it turned out yet…
