Day 12 — How to Enjoy The Intercity Baseball Tournament/都市対抗野球
This year’s 2020 Japan Series attracted a lot of attention with HENNGE ad, but there was something different this year. The 2020 Japan Series was held in Osaka Dome instead of its usual venue, the Tokyo Dome. Do you know why Yomiuri Giants decided to change the venue?
That’s because the Intercity Baseball Tournament/都市対抗野球大会 was held at the Tokyo Dome from Nov 22, 2020, to Dec 3, 2020!
Have you ever heard of the Intercity Baseball/都市対抗野球?
I’m sure not many people know about it. But once you know its appeal, it is rather more interesting than the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB)!
What is the Intercity Baseball Tournament?
The Intercity Baseball Tournament is an annual adult baseball tournament held every summer. This year, due to the COVID-19, it was held in the fall. Corporate and club teams from each district qualify for the tournament, and the team that wins the right to represent participates in the tournament.
The first step for qualifying to represent their city itself is a very hotly contested tournament. The teams that participate in the tournament are labeled with a unique “City name and Team name”. For example, Sayama City’s representative Honda/狭山市代表Honda, or Kadoma City’s representative Panasonic/門真市代表パナソニック, and so on. Moreover, there are many deep-rooted fans (I am one of them) of the unique “reinforcement system/補強選手制度” and as well as the cheering matches with local color.
Each region and this year’s participating teams
There are mainly corporate teams, as follows
- Hokkaido (JR Hokkaido)
- Tohoku (TDK, Nippon Paper Ishinomaki)
- Hokushinetsu district (Fushiki Kairiku Unso)
- North Kanto district (Hitachi, Nippon Steel Kashima)
- Southern Kanto district (Honda, Nippon Express, Hanamaui)
- Tokyo (East Japan Railway, NTT East, Sega Sammy, Saginomiya Seisakusho)
- West Kanto district (ENEOS, Toshiba)
- Tokai district (Toyota Motor, Honda Suzuka, Yamaha, Toho Gas, J Project, Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki)
- Kinki district (NTT West, Panasonic, Osaka Gas, Nippon Shinyaku, Nippon Life)
- Chugoku district (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Hiroshima, Mitsubishi Motors Kurashiki)
- Shikoku district (Shikoku Bank)
- Kyushu district (Honda Kumamoto, Saibu Gas)
Attractive Point 1
A hotly contested game played by adults and club teams in each region
各地域の社会人・クラブチームが繰り広げる熱戦
Baseball is enjoyed by all ages in Japan but not many are able to continue playing it professionally once they enter the working society. Those who are able to continue playing baseball into adult baseball are very high-level players because they are one level below the level of Nippon Professional Baseball. Many players in their early twenties aspire to play in NPB by showing off their skills in the Intercity Baseball Tournament, and many of them actually go on to play for NPB. But, not all of them are able to go to NBP. These people would have had outstanding success in high school and college baseball/野球エリート, and they end up in adult baseball such as the intercity tournament, but if they find out they won’t be able to play for NPB, they make an effort to play all out in the adult baseball tournament. The reason is that retiring from adult baseball would mean that they retire from their own beloved baseball career (even if it’s not on the same level as NPB). While there is competition with new players joining and retiring every year, they try their best to play each game with the desire to play baseball with their team for as long as one year. It’s Koshien for the middle-aged /おじさんの甲子園, so to speak.
Attractive point 2
Gorgeous and Japan’s native color cheering competition
華やかで日本らしい郷土色豊かな応援合戦
The cheering team is more spectacular than that of Nippon Professional Baseball. Cheerleading teams and brass bands provide a spectacular display of support, and people from their community or employees of companies come to cheer on the team. In the case of a corporate team, the employees who come to cheer for the team get very excited when a baseball player they usually work with come out. Especially in the finals, the stands are filled with people. Usually, in Nippon Professional Baseball, only the outfield seats are used for cheering, but in the case of the Intercity Baseball Tournament, the entire stands are used for cheering, and the cheering for a chance to score is so powerful and unified that you can hear the stadium shaking.
By the way, when I was in my twenties, I played the drums in the corporate cheerleading team. I played the drums in front of a big crowd at the Tokyo Dome, so it was a great feeling!
Attractive point 3
Reinforcement player system/補強選手制度
The unique system of the Intercity Baseball Tournament is the Reinforcement player system/補強選手制度. This is a time-limited system for Intercity Baseball Tournament. Players from the eliminated team in the district qualifiers can be acquired as helpers. This is a very unique system. By acquiring a helper, the team can compensate for their team’s weaknesses and further strengthen their team’s strength. For example, it would be like Yomiuri Giants, who won the Central League this year, being able to get a helper from the losing team in the Central League for a limited time in Japan Series. In Major League Baseball, it would be like the Dodgers, who finished first in the National League West this year, being able to get a helper from the losing team in the West for the duration of the World Series. In Intercity Baseball Tournament, one of the conditions for winning a championship is that the helpers play a prominent role.
Thank you for reading till the end!
Try to go to Intercity Baseball Tournament/都市対抗野球 next year when the stands are full of people!
This article is part of the HENNGE Advent Calendar 2020. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. HENNGE Advent Calendar 2020 presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2020.
