Japan’s teens have an inspiring message in love for baseball

I’m not a baseball aficionado. But last month I was carried away by the “fighting spirit” of Japanese teenage baseball players. NHK cancels all its daytime programs to live broadcast an annual national tournament over two weeks of August.

The teenage boys with their closely cropped hair bow every time they step on and walk off the field. At the end of every game, players of two teams exchange bows and handshakes. The winners rush toward their supporters to celebrate. The losers drop to their knees in tears and scoop handfuls of the dirt from the ground into their bags as mementoes of their fleeting time at their dream ballpark.

This is Japan’s national high school summer baseball tournament, known simply as Koshien after the stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, on Honshu island.

In its 99th season, the tournament, which ended on Aug 23 this year, is tailored to bring out regional rivalries among the youths in this supposedly homogenous country. The annual tournament has two versions — one held in March during the spring break, the other in August during the summer vacation. While the spring tournament is invitational, the summer event is more competitive and popular: about 4,000 teams fight their way up, win by win, in prefecturelevel qualifying rounds. After the elimination rounds, each of Japan’s 47 prefectures sends its best team for the final showdown — with extra ones from Tokyo and Hokkaido — to Koshien to compete for the trophy.