Watching baseball game

This weekend, I visited Tokyo Dome to see the baseball game.

I seldom watch baseball because I am not so interested in watching sports. This time, I got a ticket for a good seat by chance, so I went to Tokyo.

In the game, Yomiuri Giants and Yokohama DeNA Baystars were fighting. The former is one of the oldest team in Japanese professional baseball, whereas the latter was established because DeNA bought the stock of Yokohama Baystars in 2011.

In the beginning, DeNA gained two points, but in the middle Giants overcame DeNA with two home-runs. Finally, Giants won the game with 6-3. If the final batter of DeNA had made a home-run, the result of the game would have been uncertain.

Japanese like baseball very much. A professional baseball player is one of the popular dreams of boys at elementary school. Although soccer is also popular in Japan, professional baseball games seem to attract the public attention of Japanese more. For example, more than 22 million people visit a stadium to see the baseball game in a year, while 5 million to soccer.

This difference is due to the history of both sports in Japan. J-league, the professional succor league began 30 years ago. In contrast, professional baseball league has been continuing for 80 years. Especially elder people love to see baseball more than soccer.

I think, however, younger people are fond of playing soccer. In the world view, soccer is more global sport compared to baseball. More than 200 countries participate in the soccer World Cup while only less than 30 countries took part in the World Baseball Classic. In the UK, soccer is quite popular, but baseball is not well known, in spite that some people are fascinated in cricket.

I prospect soccer will be more popular in Japan. On the other hand, baseball has a unique character that there is a definite distinction between the offense and defense. This rule makes baseball strategic and fun.