【Seasonals】High School Baseball still alive even in ‘’cancel studded’’ summer

【Seasonals】High School Baseball still alive even in ‘’cancel studded’’ summer

Cancel studded summer

This summer nothing will be held. Fireworks displays and grand summer festivals should have been held throughout Japan. The government calls for us to refrain from traveling extensively and going back to one’s hometowns to see grand parents.

Above all this year should have marked the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which is postponed one year.

But last week rainy season has let up and the sun came up to us. This unchangable sun is so troublesome this year.

As for me, as a summerist, I want to feel an summer atmosphere even at home. This is a special summer for High School Baseball. . .

High school baseball exhibition game

Every spring and summer in Japan high school baseball game in Koshien Stadium is televised nationwide and make enthusiastic not just baseball viewers but people who are not always keen on it.

This summer the nation wide tournament has been completely called off, citing players lack of training and the risk of infection as reasons. But the spring game was cancelled due to COVID after the candidate teams had been determined.

In order to make up for cancellation of the spring game, the High School Baseball Committee has announced that this summer exhibition games will be held by the teams that should have participated in the spring game. Thirty two 32 teams were supposed on the ground of Koshien Stadium.

Why just for Baseball?

Japan has a system of high school nationwide game for all of the competition, soccer, basketball, tennis, . . . All. All have been cancelled due to COVID, making 3 grade high schoolers fallen depression. Oh practices so far went up in smoke. Why just for baseball? Or why it has been televised, from the 1st matches in the tournament to the final. . .

First Japanese people basically love baseball. Especially High School Baseball has 100 year history to attract people over the years, making the popularity range from younger to older.

Second the fighting spirits of high schoolers can attract the heart of people. Struggling with hard works and overcoming uncertainty, they chase a ball and run to the next base. Japanese people have an affinity to these kind of mentality.

Third the popularity has collected so many sponsors and an amount of money. . . It’s a bit adult story.

How to enjoy High School Baseball

Exhibition games consist of 16 games during the summer vacation season from August 10th to 12th and 15th to 17th. This year NHK, or Japanese national broadcasting channel will have programs to televise all the games. Especially for the 3rd graders it will be the final game in their high school hood. They won’t take into consideration how they are the next day, no game, no practice. We can enjoy their full-throttled plays.

Never will come Autumn without seeing off high schoolers playing in Koshien Studium.

[Schedule]

The Chinese Characters show the name of high school.

※①10:00 ②12:40 ③15:20 10th （Mon） ①大分商業 vs 花咲徳栄 ②鳥取城北 vs 明徳義塾 11th （Tue） ①天理 vs 広島新庄 ②平田 vs 創成館 ③県立岐阜商業 vs 明豊 12th（Wed） ①智辯学園 vs 中京大中京 ②加藤学園 vs 鹿児島城西 15th（Sat） ①星稜 vs 履正社 ②国士舘 vs 磐城 ③仙台育英 vs 倉敷商業 16th （Sun） ①桐生第一 vs 明石商業 ②健大高崎 vs 帯広農業 ③日本航空石川 vs 鶴岡東 17th （Mon） ①大阪桐蔭 vs 東海大相模 ②尽誠学園 vs 智辯和歌山 ③山梨学院 vs 白樺学園