jBaseball

Went to go see the Central League's No. 2 Chunichi Dragons yesterday face off against the No. 1 Hanshin Tigers, here in Nagoya. This was the third game of a 3 game series, with the Tigers snagging the first win on Saturday, and the Dragons coming from behind with a sayonara homerun to clinch game 2. The Dragons were only 1.5 games behind the Tigers going into the game, so it was supposed to be a good game: the only other time the Dragons faced the Tigers this season, each team won one game, with the last one ending in a tie (games don't go past the 12th inning in Japan). So this was the deciding game of epic proportions.

And man. The Dragons blew it. They ended up giving up 7 runs in the first inning alone, making it through the entire batting order. Nagoya's crowd fell silent, which is an understatement because the dome was packed for Kodomo no hi. Hanshin fans, whom were ever present, were louder than shit. You see, in Japan, they bring out their own pep band, with waving flags and the whole like. When said team is on offense, that team's band gets to play. Imagine the loudest possible college football college marching band. Inside a dome. It was out of control. Unfortunately, not for the team I was rooting for.