Letter from Fukuoka: Take me out the ball game (and I don't mean rugby)

It is not just sumo that occupies the hearts and minds of Japanese sports fans, as this year’s Rugby World Cup is proving on a rapidly increasing basis.

The Brave Blossoms are continuing their march towards a historic first quarter-final appearance and Saturday’s 38-19 win over Pool A rivals Samoa, a week on from their epic 19-12 victory over Ireland, sent Jamie Joseph’s team top of the group and leaves them needing a victory over Scotland in their final game next Sunday in Yokohama.

Japan, it seems, is following every glorious moment of their team’s success on home soil with the cheers that erupted from the pub in downtown Fukuoka on Saturday night reminiscent of any celebration in Ireland at a Six Nations win or major championship success for the Boys In Green.

As worrying as Ireland’s loss to the hosts the previous weekend was for followers of Joe Schmidt’s team, it will go down as a defining moment for the first Rugby World Cup on Asian soil.

Yet whatever the attention rugby is receiving right now, the concern remains that a failure to reach the knockout stages in seven days could leave the oval-ball sport as something of an also-ran in the affections of the Japanese.

That is not to say this a tough market but as we made our way out of Kobe last Friday en route to Fukuoka, not even the sight of the Kobe Vissel FC squad processing through Shin-Kobe station with Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Thomas Vermaelen in their midst could cause a stir.

They were catching a Bullet Train for Saturday’s J1 League fixture at Hiroshima Sanfrecce, from which they would return with a 6-2 win, and one could only imagine the kerfuffle caused by such a scene on a European railway platform.

No, what really gets Japanese sports fans going, aside from sumo, is that grand old American institution of baseball.

This may be a brave thing to commit to print but having spent a few years living Stateside and being a regular visitor to ballparks from sea to shining sea, Saturday’s visit to the Fukuoka Dome was the most enjoyable baseball experience yet.

Perhaps it was the host city, a welcoming metropolis which pulls off the trick of possessing small-town charm with its riverside yatai (street stalls) serving delicious food straight from the grill to tourists and locals alike, while boasting a population in excess of 2.5 million people.

Like the Major League in the United States, we’ve reached the post-season in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Three teams survive from the Pacific League and three from the Central League.

Step one on the road to the season-ending, title-deciding Japan Series came this past weekend with Pacific League runners-up Fukuoka Softbank Hawks hosting the third-placed Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in a best of three series to decide which of them meets the table-topping Saitama Seibu Lions.

And what a fun afternoon it turned out to be at the Dome in the company of 38,000 baseball nuts.

The first thing that hits you as very different from the MLB is the large number of visiting supporters.

Japan is smaller than the USA and those bullet trains make traversing it much quicker and more efficient than criss-crossing the States but the Golden Eagles are more than 1,400km removed from Fukuoka and there were at least 2,000 of their fans in the south-west of the country, comprising a section more like a European football away end than anything at a US ballpark.

Also striking is the way Japanese baseball fans get behind their teams.

In America, attending baseball games can sometimes feel like the action is something of a backdrop to the main business of eating junk food, drinking beer and getting your face on the giant screens punctuated only by intermittent bursts of action.

Here in the Fukuoka Dome, with tickets in the sizeable home cheering section behind the outfield, there was evidence close at hand as to how rallying behind your team is a wholehearted and seriously choreographed effort.

With the visiting team always batting first, there was little indication of this other than further around the perimeter where the Golden Eagles supporters were giving it socks.

As soon their batters were out though, and the home team was at bat, the massed ranks of Hawks’ fans rose as one and swung into action.

Led by a man at the front of the section and equipped with a megaphone, the fans had a song for each of their batters and also a routine of hand movements with which to bang together the small plastic, hollowed-out bats each one appeared to have in either hand.

They stood, sang, banged, motioned and swivelled throughout all nine innings when the Hawks were batting.

It was quite something to be amidst it all, even when a couple of errors in the infield saw the Golden Eagles nick the game at the top of the ninth for a 5-3 win.

At least that losing feeling is universal, although Hawks fans everywhere will be delighted to have seen their heroes level the series yesterday with a 6-4 win.

And so to game three, back at the Dome today.

Go Hawks!

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