One pitch, one soul – Hanshin Koshien Stadium, Japan’s high school baseball mecca

By MOOK Editorial Department
 
(Image: None) Koshien is known as the “sacred ground of baseball” because making it to the tournament is no easy feat. With over 4,000 high school baseball teams across Japan, only the winners of grueling single-elimination regional tournaments can advance to the Koshien competition. That means only one team per region (except Tokyo and Hokkaido, which have two), resulting in just 49 schools qualifying for the tournament. The Summer Koshien tournament still follows the single-elimination format, ensuring high-tension matches every game.

Koshien Stadium is the home field of the Hanshin Tigers, and the entire Kansai region can almost be considered Tigers territory. Tiger fans are famously passionate, often dressing head to toe in gear featuring their favorite players’ numbers, and going all out with wild costumes. They cheer loudly with chants and fight songs, and of course, no game is complete without singing the team anthem “Rokko Oroshi.”

Hanshin fans have created one of the most iconic cheers in Japanese pro sports: at the end of the top of the 7th inning, the whole stadium releases balloons (jetto fuusen), filling the sky with mostly white and yellow balloons — an incredible sight. If you’re watching a game where the Tigers are playing well, you might even get to see the team mascot, Tora-chan (a pun on “tiger” and “lucky”), perform backflips to crank up the atmosphere even more.

Another legend surrounding the Hanshin Tigers is the Curse of Colonel Sanders (KFC’s mascot). In 1985, the Hanshin Tigers defeated the Seibu Lions to win the Japan Series championship for the first time in 21 years. Overjoyed fans celebrated by jumping into the Dotonbori Canal from the Namba Bridge (known as the “Dotonbori Dive”). During the celebration, some fans, mistaking the KFC mascot for Randy Bass (a key player in the win), threw him into the river. Since then, the Tigers’ performance has been dismal.

In 2003, they finally made it back to the Japan Series, but blew a near-certain win and were reversed by the Daiei Hawks (now SoftBank Hawks). In 2005, they tried again but were swept by the Lotte Marines, sparking the urban legend of the Colonel’s Curse. In 2014, they finally defeated their longtime rivals, the Yomiuri Giants, to clinch a spot in the Japan Series. Fans hoped the Colonel would forgive them and bless the team with a win, but alas, they lost to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. To taste championship glory again, they’ll have to wait a bit longer.