T-Ray Original (in Japanese) in Daily Sports here
Summer vacation is upon us at long last. School’s out and the kids are free to do whatever they want. Well, most kids. A select few hundred boys are getting ready to stand on the most important stage of their lives. That’s right — while the Hanshin Tigers spend much of August on the road, high school baseball kids will once again vie for glory at the annual National High School Baseball Championship at Koshien Stadium.
And as you all know, this year is a special one – it’s the 100th tournament! Quite the tradition for a nation to get excited about every year! In fact, I often get asked by foreigners what the big deal is about this tournament. After all, even in America, the country where baseball was born, there is no such tournament that captures the heart of the nation – at least not in baseball. Sure, there’s the Little League World Series (which is literally a world series), but it only garners attention from the most devout of baseball fans. So to what can I compare this tournament, when asked by Americans? I suppose the most comparable tournament is the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. March Madness, a.k.a. The Road to the Final Four.
I honestly cannot accurately put into words how special and mystical this tournament is to people who have never experienced life in Japan. It transcends sports and unites people like nothing else does in Japan. I mean, where else do you see people cheering with such passion? Where else can you hear students singing their school song with such fervency? Where else in the world do crying young men scoop up piles of dirt as though it were gold?
Everything about this tournament is perfect: the siren that starts and ends every game, the uncountable squeeze plays, the constant turning of the tide, the bands playing eclectic medleys in the Alps seats. And of course, as a fan of professional baseball, where else can one see such a gathering of potential future superstars?
Speaking of which, this tournament is most definitely a scout’s dream: over the course of two weeks, your job is to sit at Koshien Stadium and just watch. Unfathomable heat aside, who could ask for better work than this?
In comparison, scouts in America have it a little harder. And when you think of the Hanshin Tigers, they have exactly two scouts in America – the third largest nation in the world – to scour baseball diamonds from sea to shining sea. Surely Jeff Williams and Andy Sheets love their work, but it’s no picnic having to drive (or fly, if the budget allows) all over the country in search of talent. I have spoken with a couple of stateside scouts, including Kent Blasingame, son of ex-Hanshin manager Don “Blazer” Blasingame. Area scouting in America, whether you’re scoping out talent for Japan or for an MLB team, is a grueling one. No bullet trains, no stamp-sized scouting zones, and biggest of all, no big national tournament at which to get a finger on the pulse of the newest crop of talent.
I say this to you, dear Japanese fans of amateur baseball: treasure this tournament. It surely is one of the culture-defining treasures of your nation.