Foz's New Project: The Koshien!

[David Yellope]

What is the Koshien, you might ask?

The Koshien refers to two National High School Baseball tournaments, held in Japan.

1) National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament, known as the "Spring Koshien", is an invitation-only tournament that pits 32 of the best Japanese High School Teams against each other.

2)The National High School Baseball Championship This is a tournament open to every high school team playing in Japan. It takes two months (from June to Early August), to get down from the thousands of high school teams to the 49 teams (from every prefecture in Japan, except from Hokkaido and Tokyo, which send two teams.

These nationwide tournaments enjoy widespread popularity, arguably equal to or greater than professional baseball. Qualifying tournaments are often televised locally and each game of the final stage at Kōshien is televised nationally on NHK. The tournaments have become a national tradition, and large numbers of frenzied students and parents travel from hometowns to cheer for their local team. It a common sight to see players walking off the field in tears after being eliminated from the tournament by a loss.

One American writer, living in Japan, said "The Koshien is like College Basketball's March Madness, with the volume turned up to 20, and with younger kids."

Daisuke Matsuzaka became famous in the 1998 Summer Koshien, by pitching a complete 17-inning game, throwing 250 pitches in a quarterfinal. The next day he pitched in relief and won when his team erased a six-run deficit. And, the following day he threw a no-hitter in the championship.

This release, will have 80 or so teams, champions and finalists alike, from the history of the Summer Koshien, teams like Komadai Tomakomai, who have made the last three Summer Koshien finals, and become national champions twice, and Akashi Central High School, one of only two teams to make both the Spring Koshien invitational, and the Summer Koshien finals three years running.

[kagnew35]

Real players or fictional?