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| The storied Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers. |
The Hanshin Tigers are one of the preeminent teams in Nippon Professional Baseball through the good and the bad, and more of the bad. The Tigers have one of the most dedicated fan bases in Japanese sports even when the team does poorly as it seems to so often do of late. It is only possible to understand the fans by taking a trip to a game.
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| A fan wearing a Happi Coat, the traditional garb of Tigers fans. |
The fans are extremely passionate, especially in the outfield seats, which hold most of the dedicated fan clubs and cheering sections. The fans are easily recognizable by black and yellow outfits, jerseys, costumes, and most notably Happi Coats. This offers quite a sight when the fans are all cheering in unison and clapping their thunder sticks as is the tradition.
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| The ouendan waving their flags in preparation for Toritani's plate appearance to lead of the inning. |
The crowd at a tigers game is incomparable to American baseball crowds and even most other crowds at Japanese baseball games. The cheering is almost all rehearsed or planned cheers specific to each player that are chanted in unison by the entire crowd. This is led by fan clubs called Ouendan who yell through megaphones, play drums and trumpets and wave flags to urge the Tigers on to victory. While the Ouendan are a staple of any Japanese baseball team, the tigers still stand out due to the number of these people and the intensity of all the fans. Many writers have noted the listless crowds at most NPB games; the polite clapping and general socializing the tends to occur throughout the game. But the Tigers refuse to fit into this mold. The crowd is more attentive to the game and has a better understanding of the game and the players on their team, and while most teams get all their cheering from the ouendan in the outfield seat, at Tigers game the whole stadium participates in the cheering. This is most visible in the middle of the “Luck Seventh inning” when the entire stadium releases balloons into the sky in a shower of rainbow colored flying tigers banners to will the team on to victory. To go to one of these games is a must for anyone with an interest in sports and is an experience like none other you will find.
A video of the 7th inning stretch:
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| Some fans posing with To-Lucky, the Tigers' beloved mascot. |
the Tigers official website: http://hanshintigers.jp/
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/travel/05journeys.html?pagewanted=all
https://webspace.yale.edu/wwkelly/pubs-archive/WWK_1997_Japan-Q_44-4.pdf
While I always love to read posts about Hanshin, the timing here is a bit odd. Baseball season is over and we Tiger fans are stressing out about the new manager and how he will use the players...
ReplyDeleteHere's another good source:
http://www.japanesebaseball.com/blogs/blog.jsp?blogid=1137