Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The opening game, Tigers vs. Carp






We had a great time at the Koshien Stadium!!  
The baseball season finally started last night. It was supposed to be two weeks earlier, then the earthquake prevented them to go ahead. Every player and every fan thought it shouldn't be the time to do any entertainment so early after the tragedy It was really difficult to postpone the games.  Players, owners, fans had different reasons and different perspectives. 

We had a hard time and are having a hard time. Then I would love to say, I really love baseball! When all of our Tigers players ran out to the field and started to play catch at the beginning of the game, I was almost crying. Kanemoto was one of them. He injured his shoulder really hard last season and barely could play catch until recently. We could see how hard he did for the pre-season training. Not only him but all the players did their best at full power.  It was really beautiful to see them play.  Just beautiful and tearful. 

There were 4 American fans sitting just in front of us.  We chatted a bit and they told us that several friends of them left Japan due to the earthquake but they chose to remain here and came to the ball park for have fun.  One from Atlanta, the home for Braves, another from Boston, home for Red Sox.  I told them that we went to Baltimore last year to see the Orioles game.  We had great fun together.  At the moment Tigers won the game, all people sitting around us, exchanged high five with great joy. We sang Rokko-oroshi all together.  
One of the best nights we ever had.

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