If I had to choose a favorite NPB team, it would be the Swallows. I have a largish soft spot for the Tigers and the Giants because their fans and rivalry are so prolific, but there’s a certain authenticity about the Swallows that I deeply enjoy.
Giants are big and tigers are fierce. The Giants are owned by an enormous media concern and the Tigers parent company runs a good chunk of the railroads in Osaka. Big money, big influence, big trains, big history.
Swallows are tiny birds that are found everywhere except Antarctica. Yakult deals in yogurt. This delights me.
The Swallows play at Jingu Stadium which sits in central Tokyo about halfway between Shibuya and Shinjuku. The stadium was built in 1925 and is known for having hosted Babe Ruth and a cavalcade of American Allstars during an exhibition tour of Japan in 1934. Although the stadium has gone through renovations to modernize it, Jingu feels every bit its age in the best way.
The closest station is Gaienmae on the Ginza line. Should you happen to arrive to the neighborhood via subway, expect a frenetic scene as soon as you reach the street. Yalina, Clint, and I had spent a few hours shopping in Harajuku and were able to steel ourselves for the mayhem as we approached from a few blocks away.
With nowhere else to gather, the streets were swarming with yellow-clad Tigers boosters and pinstriped Swallows faithful. The usual quietude and order one experiences while walking the streets of Tokyo had evaporated as hoards of fans loaded up on snacks and beer from sidewalk vendors. Fans are allowed to bring as much food and drink as they’d like into the stadium and there’s no shortage of noodles, bentos, and sushi on offer.
In order to get the most out of the one game that we would attend as a threesome, we split up to gather resources. Yalina took to the streets to select the finest snacks as Clint and I dove into the FamilyMart for the liquid refreshment. The queue stretched outside the door, but that gave us time to examine the goods.
In Japan, convenience stores like FamilyMart, Lawson, and 7/11 are as incredible as they are ubiquitous. When it comes to pre-packaged food and booze, nothing comes close as far as quality, selection, and price. Delicacies like salty soft-boiled eggs, Capri Sun-like soft serve, seaweed wrapped onigiri, hangover preventing vitamin gel, and hangover inducing chu-hi populate every shelf. You can buy baseball tickets from the copy machines and a transparent umbrella if it starts to rain. As an improbable bonus, the bathrooms are always pristine.
Laden with bags of chu-hi and beer, we reconvened on the street and made our way into the stadium. As we crammed ourselves into our tiny outfield seats, the full force of the Tokyo summer heat bore down on us. We were all pouring sweat as we attempted to cool off by alternately drinking our cold beverages and pressing the cans against our faces. There would be no escaping the oppressive sun until it dipped below the skyscrapers on the Shinjuku horizon.
The one thing that distracted from the heat was the hideous swallow mascot that was making its way through the stands:
Extensive research has revealed that this horrible beast is called Torukuya. Apparently, Torukuya is the younger, more polite brother to the older, brasher Tsubakuro. For his part, Tsubakuro is a bit of a mixer. One of my favorite clips features him perpetrating a gangland style execution of SoftBank Hawks mascot, Fu-sen, with a tee-shirt cannon. The embed looks weird, so check it out here. Apparently, Tsubakuro is from the school of hard-knocks and takes what’s his.
As for the contest at hand, the home squad was at a low point. In their previous fifteen games, the Swallows had gone 0 for 7, managed a tie, and then gone another 0 for 7. Things had been grim for the yogurt birds, and the home fans were desperate for a strong showing.
The Tigers supporters had really come out of the woodwork. They completely dominated the third base side of the field and had enough drummers and horn players to start a dozen ska bands. Scanning through their section, we could see white-gloved ringleaders calling out cheers and keeping the boil up.
In the first inning, the home team struck first with a two run dinger by Tetsuo Yamada. Charmingly, whenever the Swallows score a run, fans deploy tiny umbrellas and and brandish them as they sing the umbrella song. I’m told that the umbrellas are a signal to the opposing pitcher that it’s time to hit the showers. We had received our own umbrellas the first time we’d visited Jingu, but we’d left them back home. A quick trip to the gift shop resolved that little problem.
The top of the second inning saw the Tigers fire back with a couple of runs of their own to tie things up. In the bottom of the second, the Swallows got two more men across and we went in for two more rounds of umbrella songs and high fives.
Things quieted down a bit for the next few innings and that gave me a chance to walk around the confines a bit. In the office building across the street, several people were gathered in the window watching the game unfold. I was struck by this simple scene. It didn’t look like anyone was particularly animated and it reminded me of how fans passively take in a ballgame at home.
I made my way back to my seat and passed by several of the Swallows’ cheer conductors. They didn’t quite have the same authoritarian presence as their Tigers counterparts, but they had laminated flashcards that they’d hold aloft before each batter stepped into the box.
The between innings celebrations were all over the place that evening. Between about half of the innings, Tigers fans were featured on the jumbotron. The sixth inning featured a fireworks show which was rendered rather unimpressive by the dusky light. Lucky 7 came and went without a single balloon jet whizzing through the sky.
The bottom of the sixth inning featured a complete collapse of the Tigers pitching corps. A strikeout, double, walk, walk, and fielder’s choice left the bases loaded for the Swallows with two outs. Takahiro Araki entered the box and got plunked. As he took first base, Yuhei Nakamura trotted home and the crowd erupted and the parasols flew. Next, the big man, Wladimir Balentien, stepped into the box and worked another walk. As he sauntered down to first, Naomichi Nishiura crossed the plate to the usual fanfare. The Swallows would leave the inning with a four run lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
The fifteen game skid had mercifully come to an end. A sense of relief permeated the crowd as we headed into the station. The Tigers fans we passed didn’t seem too perturbed by the outcome, but the Swallows fans were soaking it in a bit. Who could blame them? When your team is in last place and you have a good showing, it’s totally appropriate to take what you can get.
7/22/17 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6, Hanshin Tigers 2. Box Score
On deck Japan Ball Game 5: Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles vs. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
