05/24 - Takeya at the Bat

Summer's game beckons.

Take me out to the ballgame

where balls, things, time fly

I did something I've wanted to do for a long time today. I went to watch a Japanese Pro Baseball game live. Along with my friends Tasuku and Tim, I went to the Seibu Dome in Saitama. The stadium is a dome as the name suggests, but it is also open to the outdoors all around the perimeter, which is a fantastic design. We watched the Saitama Seibu Lions play the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Since getting to Japan I've slowly been becoming a Lions fan, largely because they have a big presence on the trains I take, the stations I frequent, and even the area around where we live. In fact, the train line I take everyday is owned by the same company as the team, Seibu. The company also owns department stores in and next to the station I go through for work and to get home, respectively. So I cheered for the Lions at the game, while Tasuku and Tim both cheered for the Swallows, due to prior allegiances.

Before the game, we went to check out the merchandise available, and I was surprised to see that you could buy gear from both teams playing. The whole atmosphere was actually very inclusive, not favouring the home team. Even inside the stadum, the fans were split about half and half, with the hardcore supporters for the Lions occupying the Left Field bleachers and the Swallows fans the Right Field ones. I bought a Lions T-Shirt, with my favourite Lions player's name on the back. Takeya Nakamura became my favourite after I saw him play on TV and then got his baseball card with a pack of "Pro Baseball Chips". I like him because he's chubby and has a big smiley face. He's plays Third Base and is the clean-up hitter for the Lions. Tasuku bought a cool Swallows mascot hat, and he and Tim both bought Swallows mini umbrellas. Mini umbrellas?! Yeah. More on those to come.

Inside we found our seats and grabbed a beer from a beer girl. The beer girls wear brightly coloured baseball-themed uniforms, while lugging around backpacks full of draft beer that they can dispense from a tap right at your seat. After a routine first half inning, the Lions took to the batter's boxes for the first time. To my absolute delight, Nakamura came up to bat with two runners on and hit a three-run dinger in the first at-bat of his I witnessed live. Favourite player status and shirt purchase justified! The Lions ended up scoring 5 runs in the first off of former MLB Pitcher Chris Narveson, who had a rough day. It took us a while to figure out what his name was, because the scoreboard only shows the players numbers and their name in Katakana or Hiragana. As a result, when Tim and Tasuku pronounced his name it sounded like "Nabusan", which sounds much more Japanese.

The Lions fans cheered, waved flags and sang a song for every run, and also sang specific songs for most players that came up to the plate. That meant a lot of singing and chanting since they scored 12 on the day. The Swallows were behind all afternoon, but did end up putting up quite a few runs themselves. Each time the Swallows scored, their fans, admittedly more fanatical than my fellow Lions supporters, sang and raised mini umbrellas which they thrusted back and forth to the music. It is a pretty hilarious tradition, that all three of us felt should be brought back to North America. Another great tradition here is that all the fans blow up big long balloons that they then release at the same time during the seventh inning stretch. The balloons, which look a bit like coloured blown up condoms, all fly in different directions and also make whistling noses thanks to bits of plastic inserted where the air shoots out.

The game ended with a final score of 12-8. My choice of the Lions as my team in Japan was cemented. I had a couple beers and some takoyaki. AND, I enjoyed a fabulous afternoon with two buddies. What more can you ask from a baseball game?

 





                                 


Today's title references the famous poem "Casey at the Bat". I can't help but think of that poem any time baseball and poetry come into my head simultaneously. Luckily, my boy Takeya had a much better day at the plate than the eponymous character in the poem.