8/14 update - replays available on this page: http://www.asahi.com/koshien/97/other/marugoto/; tournament stats here: http://yakyubaka.com/koshien/2015su_viewKoshien.php
8/9 update - I'll add direct links to daily wrap up posts at the bottom of this post.
Welcome to the NeoGAF discussion thread for the 2015 Japan National High School Baseball Championship (Koshien). Hopefully there are a few people out there interested in watching the games and talking about the results, and maybe a few fans of Ace of the Diamond interested in watching the real thing.
Games start tonight.
Wait What is This?
The National High School Baseball Tournament of Japan (referred to in shorthand as “Koshien” or “Summer Koshien” because it takes place at Koshien Stadium) is an annual high school baseball tournament organized by the Japanese national high school baseball federation in partnership with Asahi Shinbun.
This year is the 97th tournament but also the 100th anniversary of the first tournament in 1915.
It’s also pretty much the hypest thing ever. It’s a single elimination tourney and for the seniors on the team, a loss means the end of their high school careers. Every player on the field has been dreaming of getting to this stage and as a result the games are high drama with lots of emotion. Plus you’re pretty much guaranteed to see players who will be drafted out of high school to play pro ball in Japan and maybe even the US. Former Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, for example, had a legendary run at Koshien that included a no-hitter. This year’s NPB All Star Game featured several guys who were at Koshien only a few years ago - guys like Otani, Fujinami, and monster rookie Tomoya Mori. This year is no exception, with two super Ace pitchers (Sendai Ikuei’s Sena Satou and Tsuruga Kehi’s Shota Hiranuma), and a monster first year - Kotaro Kiyomiya of Tokyo’s Waseda Jitsugyo (if you’re a fan of Ace of the Diamond: think Raichi Todoroki).
Although over 4000 schools are able to compete in the tournaments leading up to Summer Koshien, Japanese high school baseball is mostly dominated by several top programs (mostly private schools) that have appeared at the tournament many times. Having said that, this year’s regionals featured some HUGE upsets and features several new schools. Among those, Osaka Kaisei Gakuen got to Koshien by upsetting none other than Osaka Toin, the most dominant high school in Japanese baseball. No joke: there were six Osaka Toin graduates playing on the NPB All Star Team and it’s getting to the point that you could field an all Osaka Toin alumni team and beat several of the pro clubs. But this year, they’re watching from the sidelines and Kaisei is the team to watch in my opinion.
How Is Yakyu Different From Baseball
The ruleset and game are essentially the same, right, so they have to play out like the baseball you're used to, right?
Not really, not entirely. Yakyu (the Japanese term for baseball) has a different mindset, really, and it can be strange for new viewers. I *love* it. One of the biggest changes is mindset. US baseball looks for big innings. To paraphrase a recent Japan Baseball Weekly podcast, US baseball talks about the importance of "getting em on, getting em over, and getting em home" but really doesn't focus on that on an inning to inning basis. The mindset in Japan is to try to score one run (or more, of course) every inning - so if the first guy gets on, unless the next guy is the clean up, you may very well see a bunt. Get em on, get em over, get em home. It's weird for US viewers especially those with the mindset that says bunts decrease your expectancy of scoring multiple runs.
Some other big differences - you'll see a lot of head sliding, bunting for hits, and there are no real fastball counts (counts where you know a fastball is coming). Watch for the "Guts Pose" - a fist pump from a player when they get on base with a key hit.
When Does It Start and Where Do I Watch
Opening ceremonies are at 9am (Japan) on August 6 - or 8pm Aug 5 on the US East Coast. Sadaharu Oh is set to throw out the first pitch.
The first round games begin the same day at 10:30am (Japan) (9:30pm Eastern). On subsequent days, games will begin usually around 8am, but you can see the full schedule here.
You can watch all the games at Asahi Shinbun’s Koshien site: http://www.asahi.com/koshien/
Wait That’s In Japanese Help
No worries. Several sites have you covered.
yakyubaka.com has the schedule above, all the news, and will have english stats available as the tournaments go on. Over at goroshigeno.blogspot.com you can follow @eigokokoyakyu’s live updates of games in progress. And if you want to learn some baseball vocabulary, check out this site.
When you’re looking at stats, some quick things you can look for:
打率 = batting average
打点 = RBI
本塁打 (likely abbreviated in stat lines as 本
= home run
防御率 = ERA
Who are the Teams to Watch
I don’t know all the schools nearly well enough to give a preview of all of them. There are 49 schools and I haven’t been following kokoyakyu long enough to have a good sense of most of them. Frozenprince may be able to add more and @eigokokoyakyu’s twitter is a rich source of information. Here are the few schools I have my eye on this year:
Tsuruga Kehi. Winners of the Spring National Invitational Tournament (Senbatsu or Spring Koshien) - the tournament that Sawamura and crew aim for in the second season of Ace of the Diamond. They beat the living hell out of Osaka Toin to do it, too - center fielder Kota Yamamoto mashed not one but TWO grand slams in back to back at bats (in back to back innings) and Ace Hiranuma cruised. Hiranuma is a beast. When he’s on his slider is unhittable. He’s also been the offensive engine of the team but with Yamamoto and right fielder Matsumoto they are now getting production in more places. Tsuruga Kehi can mash. I’m a fan, if you can’t tell.
Sendai Ikuei. Ace Sena Satou hit 154 kmh on the gun at Senbatsu and held Tsuruga Kehi to 2 runs - unfortunately Hiranuma held Sendai Ikuei to 1 run and eliminated them.
Osaka Kaisei. I know next to nothing about them but they eliminated Osaka Toin and went on to win the Osaka regional so I’m really excited to see them play.
Waseda Jitsugyo. This is the school that produced Sadaharu Oh. They participated in the original tournament in 1915 and will play their first game in throwback uniforms from that year. They staged a huge come from behind effort to win the West Tokyo final - down 6-0 they had an 8 run 8th inning to take it. All the attention is centered on first year slugger Kotaro Kiyomiya who batted .500 with 10 RBIs in the regional.
Tokai Daigaku Fuzoku Sagami is the only other school ranked as highly as Tsuruga Kehi by the major sports papers, but I know very little about them.
------------
Daily Wrapups
Day 4 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=174785937&postcount=415
Day 5 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=174889548&postcount=430
Day 6 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175017432&postcount=475
Day 7 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175151043&postcount=510
Day 8 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175289757&postcount=550
Day 9 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175403871&postcount=594
Day 10 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175521069&postcount=657
Day 11 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175617126&postcount=747
Day 12 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175720701&postcount=796
Day 13 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175909619&postcount=845
8/9 update - I'll add direct links to daily wrap up posts at the bottom of this post.
Welcome to the NeoGAF discussion thread for the 2015 Japan National High School Baseball Championship (Koshien). Hopefully there are a few people out there interested in watching the games and talking about the results, and maybe a few fans of Ace of the Diamond interested in watching the real thing.
Games start tonight.
Wait What is This?
The National High School Baseball Tournament of Japan (referred to in shorthand as “Koshien” or “Summer Koshien” because it takes place at Koshien Stadium) is an annual high school baseball tournament organized by the Japanese national high school baseball federation in partnership with Asahi Shinbun.
This year is the 97th tournament but also the 100th anniversary of the first tournament in 1915.
It’s also pretty much the hypest thing ever. It’s a single elimination tourney and for the seniors on the team, a loss means the end of their high school careers. Every player on the field has been dreaming of getting to this stage and as a result the games are high drama with lots of emotion. Plus you’re pretty much guaranteed to see players who will be drafted out of high school to play pro ball in Japan and maybe even the US. Former Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, for example, had a legendary run at Koshien that included a no-hitter. This year’s NPB All Star Game featured several guys who were at Koshien only a few years ago - guys like Otani, Fujinami, and monster rookie Tomoya Mori. This year is no exception, with two super Ace pitchers (Sendai Ikuei’s Sena Satou and Tsuruga Kehi’s Shota Hiranuma), and a monster first year - Kotaro Kiyomiya of Tokyo’s Waseda Jitsugyo (if you’re a fan of Ace of the Diamond: think Raichi Todoroki).
Although over 4000 schools are able to compete in the tournaments leading up to Summer Koshien, Japanese high school baseball is mostly dominated by several top programs (mostly private schools) that have appeared at the tournament many times. Having said that, this year’s regionals featured some HUGE upsets and features several new schools. Among those, Osaka Kaisei Gakuen got to Koshien by upsetting none other than Osaka Toin, the most dominant high school in Japanese baseball. No joke: there were six Osaka Toin graduates playing on the NPB All Star Team and it’s getting to the point that you could field an all Osaka Toin alumni team and beat several of the pro clubs. But this year, they’re watching from the sidelines and Kaisei is the team to watch in my opinion.
How Is Yakyu Different From Baseball
The ruleset and game are essentially the same, right, so they have to play out like the baseball you're used to, right?
Not really, not entirely. Yakyu (the Japanese term for baseball) has a different mindset, really, and it can be strange for new viewers. I *love* it. One of the biggest changes is mindset. US baseball looks for big innings. To paraphrase a recent Japan Baseball Weekly podcast, US baseball talks about the importance of "getting em on, getting em over, and getting em home" but really doesn't focus on that on an inning to inning basis. The mindset in Japan is to try to score one run (or more, of course) every inning - so if the first guy gets on, unless the next guy is the clean up, you may very well see a bunt. Get em on, get em over, get em home. It's weird for US viewers especially those with the mindset that says bunts decrease your expectancy of scoring multiple runs.
Some other big differences - you'll see a lot of head sliding, bunting for hits, and there are no real fastball counts (counts where you know a fastball is coming). Watch for the "Guts Pose" - a fist pump from a player when they get on base with a key hit.
When Does It Start and Where Do I Watch
Opening ceremonies are at 9am (Japan) on August 6 - or 8pm Aug 5 on the US East Coast. Sadaharu Oh is set to throw out the first pitch.
The first round games begin the same day at 10:30am (Japan) (9:30pm Eastern). On subsequent days, games will begin usually around 8am, but you can see the full schedule here.
You can watch all the games at Asahi Shinbun’s Koshien site: http://www.asahi.com/koshien/
Wait That’s In Japanese Help
No worries. Several sites have you covered.
yakyubaka.com has the schedule above, all the news, and will have english stats available as the tournaments go on. Over at goroshigeno.blogspot.com you can follow @eigokokoyakyu’s live updates of games in progress. And if you want to learn some baseball vocabulary, check out this site.
When you’re looking at stats, some quick things you can look for:
打率 = batting average
打点 = RBI
本塁打 (likely abbreviated in stat lines as 本
= home run防御率 = ERA
Who are the Teams to Watch
I don’t know all the schools nearly well enough to give a preview of all of them. There are 49 schools and I haven’t been following kokoyakyu long enough to have a good sense of most of them. Frozenprince may be able to add more and @eigokokoyakyu’s twitter is a rich source of information. Here are the few schools I have my eye on this year:
Tsuruga Kehi. Winners of the Spring National Invitational Tournament (Senbatsu or Spring Koshien) - the tournament that Sawamura and crew aim for in the second season of Ace of the Diamond. They beat the living hell out of Osaka Toin to do it, too - center fielder Kota Yamamoto mashed not one but TWO grand slams in back to back at bats (in back to back innings) and Ace Hiranuma cruised. Hiranuma is a beast. When he’s on his slider is unhittable. He’s also been the offensive engine of the team but with Yamamoto and right fielder Matsumoto they are now getting production in more places. Tsuruga Kehi can mash. I’m a fan, if you can’t tell.
Sendai Ikuei. Ace Sena Satou hit 154 kmh on the gun at Senbatsu and held Tsuruga Kehi to 2 runs - unfortunately Hiranuma held Sendai Ikuei to 1 run and eliminated them.
Osaka Kaisei. I know next to nothing about them but they eliminated Osaka Toin and went on to win the Osaka regional so I’m really excited to see them play.
Waseda Jitsugyo. This is the school that produced Sadaharu Oh. They participated in the original tournament in 1915 and will play their first game in throwback uniforms from that year. They staged a huge come from behind effort to win the West Tokyo final - down 6-0 they had an 8 run 8th inning to take it. All the attention is centered on first year slugger Kotaro Kiyomiya who batted .500 with 10 RBIs in the regional.
Tokai Daigaku Fuzoku Sagami is the only other school ranked as highly as Tsuruga Kehi by the major sports papers, but I know very little about them.
------------
Daily Wrapups
Day 4 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=174785937&postcount=415
Day 5 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=174889548&postcount=430
Day 6 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175017432&postcount=475
Day 7 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175151043&postcount=510
Day 8 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175289757&postcount=550
Day 9 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175403871&postcount=594
Day 10 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175521069&postcount=657
Day 11 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175617126&postcount=747
Day 12 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175720701&postcount=796
Day 13 - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175909619&postcount=845