Baseball!

Pretty interesting day today, Azami and Koharu took Lisa and me to a baseball game in Botchan stadium. Our local minor league team is the Ehime Mandarin Pirates. I never got a straight answer as to who we were playing against, but I think their name was the Fighting Dogs. The teams compete within the Shikoku minor league, which I believe only has six teams, one for each province of the island. Big stadium, seemed bigger considering the lack of crowd for the game. I wasn't too surprised, considering how hot it was in the stands. The baseball was marginal, both teams made some pretty huge errors through the game, but it was very entertaining to hear the audience's guided chants being supplemented by the elementary school band that was playing pep behind our seats. The guy yelling in the pictures above was the leader of the chants for the first three innings, then he switched off with someone else because his voice was getting tired. The chants continue non-stop for the entire time the home team was at bat. I'm pretty sure it's also an attempt to screw with the other teams pitcher. Another funny difference from US baseball, between the 6th and 7th innings, both teams had to come out on the field to rake the dirt. Can't imagine the Yankees or the Giants cleaning their own diamond. Oh yah, and Ultraman was there, and we all managed to get a picture with him after the game. At least I think it was Ultraman. Not sure if I would want to sit through an entire game again, but I would love to see the stadium filled with people chanting! Go Pirates!