Its time for Koshien!
Welcome to the NeoGAF discussion thread for Summer Koshien 2017, the Japan National High School Baseball Championship.
The tournament starts at 8pm ET tonight and will be streamed live at Asahi's site (http://www.asahi.com/koshien/). The first game is at 9:30ET tonight.
The National High School Baseball Tournament of Japan (referred to in shorthand as Koshien or Summer Koshien because it takes place at Koshien Stadium) is an annual high school baseball tournament organized by the Japanese national high school baseball federation in partnership with Asahi Shinbun.
This year is the 99th tournament.
The Japanese baseball nationals are pretty much the hypest thing ever. Its a single elimination tourney Its a single elimination tourney and for the seniors on the team, a loss means the end of their high school careers.
Every player on the field has been dreaming of getting to this stage and as a result the games are high drama with lots of emotion. Plus youre pretty much guaranteed to see players who will be drafted out of high school to play pro ball in Japan and eventually make it to the US (like current Yankee ace Masahiro Tanaka).
In the first few rounds, there are three games per day. You can see the full schedule here (start times are local Japan time).
You can watch all the games at Asahi's Koshien site: http://www.asahi.com/koshien/
Asahi has apps for watching on your phone. (Links to be added later)
If you want to watch a full game replay, go to:
(Links to be added later when we confirm if they are available)
Your absolute best source for information about the tournament is @eigokokoyakyu on twitter + blog at https://eigokokoyakyu.wordpress.com/
Also, YakyuDB.com will have full schedules, results, and stats for the tournament. The broadcasts will be in Japanese, but its not too hard to follow.
When youre looking at stats, some quick things you can look for:
打率 = batting average
打点 = RBI
本塁打 (likely abbreviated in stat lines as 本
= home run防御率 = ERA
2年 or ３年 = second year or third year student
Some things youll hear during the broadcasts:
Sanshin = strikeout
Karaburi sanshin = swinging strikeout
Tsu base = two base, e.g. double
Haitaa! = home run call, its gone
Douten runnaa = tying runner on base
Straighto or massugu straighto = fastball
Kaabu = curveball
Forku = forkball
Slidaa = slider
For position players the broadcasts tend to use equivalents to the US terms rather than the native Japanese, so I wont list those because its pretty easy, like sentaa is the Center Fielder and shorto is the Shortstop.
if you want to participate on twitter, use the hashtags #高校野球 (high school baseball), ＃センバツ (Senbatsu) and #甲子園 (Koshien).
Sadly I haven't had time to do a "teams to watch" preview this year. I have my eye on Yokohama and, of course, Osaka Toin. As always, I'll be rooting for the Hokkaido teams as well.
But never fear: eigokokoyakyu has put together an extensive preview and a tier list to help you out!
(More resources to come via edits.)
Enjoy the tournament everyone!
