Yokohama BayStars fans on Monday celebrated their team’s win over the Yomiuri Giants after their three-game series at Tokyo Dome to advance to the final stage of the Central League Climax Series.
“This was by far the best first stage ever in the 10 years the Climax Series has been played,” said a 24-year-old diehard BayStars fan from Yokohama. “It’s not a question of the BayStars or the Giants. I’ve never seen such a tough battle in the first stage.”
Yokohama won the first game 5-3 on Saturday, Yomiuri tied the series with a 2-1 win the next day and the BayStars took the last game 4-3 after a dramatic 11th-inning RBI single by unheralded reserve Hiroki Minei.
On all three days, BayStars fans flocked to the Giants’ home stadium, filling nearly half the seats in the packed ballpark and roaring with joy every time Yokohama players performed well.
After Monday’s game, BayStars skipper Alex Ramirez and his men went out to the outfield to greet their fans.
“We just wanted to show our appreciation to the fans. They’re losing with us, they’re winning with us. They’re very faithful to us,” Ramirez said, adding that their cheers were so loud “it felt like they were on top of our dugout.”
Yuki Endo, a fan of the BayStars, also expressed surprise at the “majesty” of the cheers for the visiting squad.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in a game with the BayStars at Tokyo Dome,” said the 21-year-old from Saitama, who came to watch the series’ first and third games.
Another fan, 36-year-old Tsuyoshi Tachibana from Yokohama, said he felt the BayStars, who had long been a foil to the Giants, have finally been able to stand above Yomiuri.
Yokohama was the last of Nippon Professional Baseball’s 12 teams to reach the postseason since the current Climax Series format was introduced in 2007. Over the previous 10 seasons, the BayStars had finished last in their six-team league seven times.
Their chances of beating the Giants, who played in the Climax Series for the 10th straight year, appeared glum at first — until the Yokohama-based club won the opener.
In the past nine CL first-stage series, the Game 1 winner advanced to the final stage eight times.
“The odds were for us and I just knew the BayStars would deliver,” said an elated Shoko Tanaka, a 45-year-old fan from Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Yokohama now faces the Hiroshima Carp at Mazda Stadium in the final stage starting Wednesday in a bid to become the CL representative in the Japan Series starting Oct. 22.
“I think the Carp are the stronger team,” one 24-year-old Yokohama fan said. “But I hope our players will make them work hard for their wins and if at all possible somehow make it to the Japan Series.”
And if the BayStars do get that far, the odds may be for them — the franchise has made it to the final championship series in 1960 and 1998 and won both times.
Yokohama slugger Yoshitomo Tsutsugo told reporters, “Our fans are waiting for us to come back to our home stadium (for the Japan Series) so we’ll do our best in Hiroshima.”
No comments:
Post a Comment