As I wrote before, I’ve never been a big baseball fan. In fact, I hated it because I didn’t want baseball to take over my channel. My husband loves watching sports, especially baseball, so I started to like baseball because of that. That sounds good, but I have to watch baseball every day during the season, even though I don’t like it, so if I continued to hate it, it would be too much pain every day. I told myself that if I was going to watch it anyway, I might as well like it, and then I started to really enjoy it, so I’m a corrective baseball fan (lol).
My favorite baseball team is the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, whose home base is in Fukuoka, my wife and I. Although I’m just a casual fan, I’ve been a fan for over 10 years and I’ve been a fan club member for 7 years, so I think I can call myself just a baseball fan now (laughs).
Television broadcasts aren’t bad, but watching a game at the stadium is something special. The sense of realism, freedom, and unity – even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ll be excited by that atmosphere, and once you’ve been there, you’ll be hooked. That said, it’s unfortunate that you can’t watch games that often, since their home base is in Fukuoka. But once a year, the SoftBank Hawks play at Tokyo Dome. At this festival-like game, matching replica uniforms are distributed to all attendees, and the stadium is filled with the uniform colors, which is an overwhelming sight. Because it’s a popular game, tickets are always sold out.
Although we were excited and said “Let’s go again this year!”, we accidentally forgot when the tickets went on sale, and were late in purchasing them. There were no seats available next to each other, so the only tickets we managed to get were for separate seats for the couple. We had talked about how it would be nice if the people sitting next to us who were there alone could somehow replace us for a beer or so, but since we are both the type of people who can go anywhere alone, we thought “Oh well,” and didn’t really mind. We prepared snacks that we usually pack together in separate lunch bags this time.
One of the joys of watching baseball is drinking beer and eating snacks while watching the game. Each stadium sells local gourmet foods, as well as drinks and food produced by the players, so it’s fun to eat gourmet foods that can only be bought there, but because I’m an impatient person, I don’t like waiting in line to buy food. When I’m waiting in line and hear a loud cheer from the spectators, I get nervous and think, “Huh? Did I just miss the good part!?”
Furthermore, the expenses at the stadium are extremely high. I get so excited that I end up spending a lot of money on the merchandise I buy every year, and on top of that, the drinks are expensive! At Tokyo Dome, a glass of draft beer costs 900 yen. I thought, “What? Wasn’t it 800 yen?”, but it seems that the price had already been revised since March last year. For this reason, we often make snacks and take them with us. This time, we had egg sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, and fried chicken.
On the day of the game, after finishing my work from home, I packed up some snacks that I had prepared and left the house with my husband. I didn’t have time to prepare cheering goods or favorite goods, so I thought I could buy them locally, and I only put on a team hat and took almost nothing with me. Considering the time I left the house, I’m sure I’ll arrive by the time the third inning starts. As I was passing through the ticket gate at the subway station and heading to the platform, I heard the sound of a train coming in, so I shouted, “Hurry up!” and ran up the stairs. I wonder how many years it’s been since I skipped a step despite my age. I got excited (lol).
I hurried to the dome, and people who looked like they had just come after work were drawn into the dome with a light step. The excitement was palpable without words, which was great! Before entering the venue, we browsed around the special goods shop. In the end, I bought one towel for myself and two as souvenirs. I thought about buying a megaphone, but this time I wasn’t in a position where I could cheer loudly, so I decided not to buy one.
I said goodbye to my husband at the entrance and we entered separately. In the end, there was no room for me to take over because the people next to me were families, so I decided to enjoy watching the game alone. I was in the middle of a row of about 15 seats. It wasn’t that wide, so I had to say “Excuse me. Excuse me” and ask them to make room for me to walk. When I go to watch baseball, I’m always impressed or moved by this spirit of compromise. Everyone quickly stands up without a single frown and makes room for me, and when I buy beer from the vendor, everyone carries the beer and money like a bucket relay. When I handed over my smartphone to use cashless payment, they handed it over to me as if it was natural, and they held up the barcode, and I started to feel like a friend who came to watch the game with me, even though I don’t know their name (laughs).
It was a special experience watching baseball at the stadium for the first time in a while. I was excited when my teammate reached base, and I celebrated by high-fiving strangers when a point was scored. The expensive beer was also delicious (lol). Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but my memory is getting worse every year, so I was a bit shocked to see that there are fewer players who can sing the individual cheering songs (lol). But thanks to the cheering songs, I was able to have a lively conversation with the person next to me, and it was a lot of fun! Professional baseball is both a sport and entertainment!
I was so energized and my energy was recharged, and I felt like, “I’ll do my best again!” Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I haven’t been going to games here and there as often as I used to, but this year I want to go on an expedition somewhere again! Until then, I’d like to overwork this old brain and prepare for the cheering songs (laughs).
2024-07-05 02:00:34
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