Hanshin Tigers GO, GO, GO!!!

I went to see a baseball match between the Hanshin Tigers and the Buffalos on the weekend. It was AWESOME! In the Hyogo Prefecture, the most popular baseball team is the Hanshin Tigers. They are liked by pretty much everyone in the entire prefecture, despite the fact that they haven’t won a premiership in years! The fans are very loyal to their tigers and they will barrack for them to the bitter end!

There were so many people at the game and the entire stadium was full. There was a great atmosphere as people would sing the Hanshin Tigers victory song and bang their plastic baseball bats together, chanting and clapping in time.



Tina and I bought Hanshin Tigers baseball bats so that we could get in the spirit of the game. We had lots of fun pretending we knew the song and clapping in time to the music!

At one stage, everyone bought these big, long balloons of various colours and at the signal, they let them all go and it looked amazing to see them all fly off into the sky. It was a fantastic sight.







During the game, we went and got some food. We ate hotdogs - American-style and they tasted sooo good! I put lots of mustard, onion and tomato sauce on mine and it was absolutely delicious!




Unfortunately, the Hanshin Tigers lost. The score was seven runs to zero, so they pretty much got flogged! It was great to watch them, anyway. My next location to see the Hanshin Tigers will be at Koshien which is their home grounds because apparently the Hanshin Tigers fans go crazy with excitement! I can’t wait to go to my next Hanshin Tigers baseball match!

There is a funny story to be told about the Hanshin Tigers as they are said to have been cursed by Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Apparently, when the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Series for the first time in 1985, they were so excited that they had a big gathering at Nanpa Bashi over the Dotonbori River. As people would call out the names of their favourite players, one of the fans would jump into the river. However, when an American player, Randy Bass, was called out, there was no foreigner to represent him, so instead of a person jumping into the river, they got a statue of Colonel Sanders from a nearby KFC shop and threw it into the river. Then, in 1992, they were so close to winning the series again, but unfortunately lost the critical games leading up to it. As a result, they blamed the Colonel of KFC for their near-win in 1992. So from that day on, the Hanshin Tigers are said to be cursed! Maybe this year they will have better luck! Here’s hoping – keep your fingers crossed!