Dubious Quality

It's not big like American baseball, though. It's bigger. Much bigger. Imagine the NFL and MLB combined, and that's how important the Nippon Series is in Japan. 

This year, it's the Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) versus the Orix Buffaloes (also Osaka).

Hanshin (my team now) hasn't won in 38 years (and only once in 88 years). They're the equivalent of the Chicago Cubs in the U.S., so Osaka is losing it's mind. Just imagine a Cubs-White Sox World Series and amplify the hype 10X and you'll know what it's like.

The Nippon Series has one very odd quirk: if a game is still tied after twelve innings, it ends as a tie. This creates the possibility of an EIGHTH game if the series is tied 3-3 and another game ended in a tie. This has only happened once in NPB history, but what a bonkers rule.

This is why I was up at 6:30 this morning, watching the last five innings of game three of the Nippon Series (thanks to Rising Sun TV). The series was tied 1-1, and Hanshin was playing at Koshien Stadium, the most iconic stadium in Japan (this is why,). 

They got behind early, but had the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth--and their slugger struck out to end the game. Brutal. 

It's a different experience, watching a Japanese baseball broadcast, because they don't cut away to commercials between innings. There's a news update half way through the game, but otherwise they show highlights between innings. I'm so used to American sports broadcasts showing constant commercials (they even show commercials between batters occasionally!) that it's a huge pleasure to see a game this way, even though I don't understand anything the announcers are saying.

It's funny how much I want Hanshin to win because of one bartender in Kyoto.