Win, Lose, or Draw
I went to the BEST baseball game of my life today! Now I know that's not saying much since I don't like baseball and I've only gone to about 5 baseball games ever. (This is excluding my own little league experiences which don't really count as they aren't real games and I've done everything I can to repress the memories anyways.) There's a tournament going on in Hiroshima ken. The winning high school of the tournament gets to play nationally. Hatsukaichi high school isn't particularly strong but they're not bad either. They had a game Thursday and won. (Incidentally, I went to that game by bicycle 35 minutes each way and baked on concrete bleachers for over 2 hours. I got very sunburned and unrecognizably tan.) Today, my school played last years second place team. Japanese baseball games are so different than American ones. They have fans come with instruments and the baseball club boys do cheers and dances to music. My school also passes out wooden sham's (rice scoopers) to everyone in the audience and we clap them together REALLY loud. I would guess you're cheering, singing, or clapping your sticks nonstop for about 80% of the game. It makes baseball a lot more fun though. Today's game was awesome though. Both teams played really well, it was tied 7-7 and went to the 14th inning. For about 6 innings we were standing and cheering. For high schoolers they had some amazing plays but they're not perfect. They make a lot of errors which make the game even MORE exciting. Finally, my school's team scored the last winning point. Everyone, myself included was screaming and jumping up and down. Lots of people (like the teacher I was sitting with) were even crying. I felt like I could have but I was more excited than anything. You know how they say it's not whether you win or lose it's how you play the game. I've always believed that, but only up to a certain point. As for today, I thought they played so brilliantly, they just deserved to win. Yes the other team was good too but everyone knew that they were going to be good. Not many people showed up on their side of the field because they were expected to go on to other games. There's something karma-tic about an underdog excelling. Yet another occasion for me to be amazed at the talent of these students.

- posted by Chris @ 3:24 AM