Many of you are probably aware of the fact that the Hanshin Tigers have a long history of scandal and notoriety. During the weeks before the upcoming season, we will look at ten of the most interesting ones. We continue here with one that was caused by the rowdy fans.
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In one of the saddest (and somewhat controversial) “close but no pennant” seasons, the fans took center stage after the season’s final out. We go back to 1973. Yes, the same year in which Yutaka Enatsu pitched a no-hitter and hit an extra-inning walk-off home run in the same game. The Tigers were rolling, and ready to put an end to the Yomiuri Giants‘ eight-year dominance over Japanese baseball.
With two games left, all the Tigers needed to do was win one to clinch the pennant. First up were the Chunichi Dragons, in Nagoya. Two interesting things happened here. First, Enatsu suddenly got called into the team’s front office the day before the game. He was allegedly told that he was not to win the game against the Dragons. (Also, given that his record against them was poor, and that secondary Jiro Ueda had their number, it was odd that they went with Enatsu in the first place.)
Long story short, despite Enatsu’s efforts to stick it in the club’s face by winning, he failed in Nagoya. The Giants players were riding a bullet train towards Koshien for their final game of the season at this time. Their train stopped at the station adjacent to Nagoya Stadium just as the game ended, and they heard an uproar at the stadium. As a result, they knew before arriving in Osaka that all they needed to do was beat the Tigers in the last game of the season, and their pennant streak would extend to nine.
And win they did. Ueda did not fare well, and Enatsu was not usable after having pitched the day before. Final score: Giants NINE, Tigers zero. The final out of the game was a Willie Kirkland strikeout. Agitated, frustrated fans stormed the field in anger. Two thousand, to be precise. They tackled security guards. They whacked Giants’ legendary slugger Sadaharu Oh over the head with their wooden sandals (photo here). And because of the brouhaha, the Giants were unable to hoist their manager in the air or celebrate by spraying each other with suds… so they cowered away to their hotel, where they celebrated quietly, lofting Mr. Kawakami only as high as the ceiling would let them.
Fans got violent, particularly towards the TV equipment of Yomiuri TV. Meanwhile, they made sure to protect equipment used by the local Sun-TV, who, unlike most broadcasters, always show Hanshin Tigers games from the first pitch right through until the bitter (and in this case, violent) end.