Mr. Baseball - the sequel

I remember as an 11 year old watching the movie "Mr. Baseball" starring Tom Selleck, known for his mustache and work on Magnum P.I.

As a kid who was a huge fan of baseball, the movie was fascinating because it took something I knew and took it someplace I had no idea of, Japan! It was so exciting to watch the loud chanting, the calisthenics, the slurping of noodles, baths, discipline, people speaking Japanese, etc... combined with baseball in a dome, what else could an 11 year old boy ask for!!! Something I could only dream of.

25 years later, I got my chance!

I waited until we were already in Tokyo and purchased tickets from the Japanese stubhub, which were delivered to our hotel.

We took the subway to Tokyo Dome City, it was huge! We arrived right before the game started and Christie was craving Japanese food (of course). I was wondering how the hot dogs tasted, but thought "when in Rome" so we got Bento Boxes!

My bento box had "Sakamoto", the Short Stop on the cover and one of the best players on the team. My box was filled with noodles, rice, beef, chicken, and egg custard for dessert. It was delicious and I ate with chopsticks. It was tasty.

We actually had a difficult time finding our seats, as the ticket was entirely in Japanese so it wasn't clear which was the section or seat numbers. But, when we made it to our seats, in the 3rd level looking straight from home plate, we had a great view of the park.

I was worried I'd miss quite a bit due to the language difference, but I quickly assimilated, as the rules were the same as MLB. They had 9 innings, 9 players, 3 outs, etc... The pitch speed was in KM and they had astro turf and it looked like the defunct Astrodome, but otherwise nothing you wouldn't see at a MLB game on the field.

The game was everything I remembered from the movie. Loud chanting (not cheering) but chanting, bullhorns, shouting and towel waving with. The rival, Hanshin Tigers from Osaka were very courageous. They wore bright yellow shirts, all sat together in the left field bleachers, and chanted so loud the entire fully packed dome could hear. The Hanshin fans brought a marching band and cheerleaders too! It was great, and really fun, especially as it was a close game. The Giants fans got excited too, especially when the star player "Abe" was up.

We saw a group of about 8 Japanese salarymen in the row in front of us. They sat in order of hierachy, and it looked like the low man on the totem pole had to sit on the aisle and keep getting up to buy beers. Japanese salarymen love to drink, and they got absolutely hammered. It was fun to watch.

We were having a fun time too!

Around the 7th inning I got a little hungry, so we went looking for snacks. I found the best dessert possible, an ice cream sandwich in the shape of Tokyo Dome! It tasted terrible, like cold cardboard, but it sure was fun looking.

While walking around we saw the beer girls. They were college aged and probably making money for the summer. They carried around a small keg and raced up and down the stairs. Much better looking than the old fat guy with a mustache you typically see at Wrigley Field.

The Tokyo Giants came back to win the game beating Hanshin, which had an American player manning first base. Once the game was over the groundskeepers quickly assembled a stage and the media surrounded. Then they had the top player of the game "Abe" get on stage and he gave a very nice speech thanking his teammates. Very Japanese style, as they say, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered" a very collectivist and confirming society. All for one.

It was a great experience to watch baseball in Japan, one of my favorite things.