Baseball by the (Yokohama) Bay
♫♫ "Seeking victory, we reach for glory. With strong teamwork, we paint a rainbow." ♫♫
For Japanese baseball odyssey game number 3, the whole family, plus Grandpa, made our way to Yokohama for a Yokohama DeNA Baystars game. We were able to make a whole day of it, hitting up the Silk Museum (N), the Hikawa Maru and Yamashita Park (the rest of us) and Chukagai (Chinatown - all of us) for lunch before catching the game.
Yokohama Stadium is an outdoor park, with one extended bowl, not too far away from the water. At 34,000, it is smaller than all Major League ballparks (counting the top deck at the Trop, which, while usually closed off, *could* be opened up if there was demand), but yet again, it was a sell-out, or near enough, again showing how popular baseball is here. We’d been prepared for the rather unusual shape of the bowl but it really shows in person - the first 25 rows or so rise at a very gradual slope, after which the seats suddenly start rising at a very steep rate. It’s a strongly-kinked hockey stick curve in the way predicted by startups everywhere when describing their future revenues. Overall, it’s a nice park, and while there’s not a lot of distinct character, the sightlines are good, and you can feel and smell the ocean on the air, giving it a bayside feel.
The crowd was very excited for the appearance of Hiroshi Tachi and Kyohei Shibata, the stars of an old 80’s era cop TV show with a series of revivals, including a forthcoming movie, who came out to throw the first pitch. I think it was Shibata who threw a strike right down the middle of the plate. Very impressive.
The BayStars had their requisite collection of mascots. In all, we saw 4 of them. DB.Starman is apparently the main mascot, in the form of a hamster, Kirara the female hamster, and then Bart and Chappy were large and small white and yellow characters respectively of unknown origin. The opponent being the Hiroshima Carp, we also saw the Carp’s mascot again, the half-brother of the Philly Phanatic.
Having come from eating in Chinatown, we didn’t get much in the way of food at the park. However, the boys did get some Mikan-kakigori, with segments of mandarin orange on a bed of shaved ice. They were also selling a DeNA BayStars-specific beer, although it wasn’t as satisfying as some of the more mainstream beers being poured around the stadium. There was, yet again, a host of young ladies (always and only young ladies) with kegs of beer on their backs going up and down those steep stairs all game long. Amazingly, there was no single beer sponsor for the park, and you could get any of the main Japanese beer brands so long as you waited long enough for someone pouring your favourite brew to pass by.
A got himself a couple of noise-maker bats, although they quickly lost their fascination for him, and they wound up being passed around our group throughout the game. Meanwhile, N’s favourite feature of the merch on offer was the digital gachapon machine on the concourse.
More so than at other parks, there was a heavy dose of between-inning on-field entertainment. There didn’t seem to be a single break in play that wasn’t accompanied by a fan trying to throw a ball through a huge catcher’s mitt, or trying to snag a flyball. Even the two detective-actors joined in the full shooting t-shirts out of a cannon into the crowd.
Having missed them in Hanshin, the jet balloons also made a reappearance. I’m really not clear why they’re still forbidden in Osaka, unless that’s more about preference than about COVID. The balloons themselves, and the mandated inflators were on sale throughout the park, while the visiting Carp fans also had their red balloons in heavy numbers ready for their own use. This was a big hit with both kids, as you might expect.
On to the baseball, the BayStars starter was Hayate Nakagawa, whose submarine-motion was familiar to fans of the San Francisco Giants and Tyler Rogers, or former pitcher Chad Bradford, along with a few others. Unfortunately Nakagawa’s delivery didn’t seem to be doing much to fool the Carp hitters, as they kept leaking runs inning over inning throughout much of the game.
Amongst the BayStars players, my immediate favourite was Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh. While Tsutsugoh spent a couple of years trying to make it in MLB, with an average well below the Mendoza Line, he was apparently a strong contributor to the BayStars, slotting in at the cleanup spot. He started the BayStars big inning (5 runs in the second) with a single before ending it by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded.
But what was most fun about Tsutsugoh was his chant. As with all teams in Japanese baseball, the fans have a unique chant per player. With “go” meaning 5 in Japanese, and “tsu” sounding like 2, Tsutsugoh’s chant lends itself perfectly to ending in “Go! Go! Tsutsugoh!” along with an accompanying hand signal showing 5, 5, 2, 2, and 5 fingers.
As fun as the BayStars fans were, I have to admit they were outshone by the Carp fans. The Carp fanbase travelled VERY WELL, with their designated areas of the stadium awash in red and full of enthusiasm. There were actually Carp fans throughout the stadium, and they really enjoyed themselves. This was the second game in a row we saw the Carp on the road, though I think this gave us some context on the Hanshin Tigers fanbase being robust enough to leave fewer available seats for visitors to buy.
What was even more remarkable, though, and a real testament to the way the Japanese think about road fans, was everything done to cater to those opposing-team fans. I’ve talked before about the designated cheering sections and the “you get to cheer during your half of the inning and we’ll be quiet” mindset. But I hadn’t seen before the lengths to which the Carp fans were supported here. There was a designated store at the park, selling road team merchandise. And, amazingly, at the top of the 7th inning, the stadium loudspeaker played the Carp fight song, accompanied by the Carp mascot, before the Carp fans all let loose their red jet balloons. It was a remarkable illustration of enabling the road fans that I just could never imagine happening in North America, let alone in Europe. Remarkable.
Now, the BayStars fans were exuberant as well. We particularly liked the outfit of this woman, who combined traditional summer yukata with player-jersey obi.
But a key anchoring dynamic of our experience was these fans beside us, with whom we made friends about halfway through the game. As they got lubricated up and realized we had some Japanese language capability, the conversation picked, up, and so did the rounds (very plural) that they started sending our way, despite our repeated protestations.
The game went into extra innings, longer than N, T, or A were able to manage. So it was left to Grandpa and I to see the game through to the end. Unfortunately, the Carp took the lead for good in the 12th, with a three-run lead they were able to carry to victory. It was just in the nick of time, as Japanese baseball games apparently can result in a tie if the game is still tied at the end of the 12th. While that would have been an experience, it would have felt very odd indeed, so I’m rather glad we had some form of result. And while we’re still 0-3 cheering for the home team, we at least had a decent offensive output this game. Good fun, and well done to both teams.
