The Japanese professional baseball Hanshin Tigers are attempting to win their first championship in 38 years. We even had the good fortune of playing all postseason (PS) games at home.굿모닝토토
The Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes will clash for the Japan Series (JS) championship with 4 wins out of 7 starting on the 28th. Hanshin, who won the Central League championship, easily passed the Climax Series (CS) final stage (4 wins out of 6, 1 win advantage for 1st place) with 3 consecutive wins against Hiroshima Carp. Orix, who reached the top of the Pacific League for three consecutive years, won games 1, 3, and 4, defeating Chiba Lotte Marines with a series record of 4 wins and 1 loss.
The two teams are based in the Kansai region, including Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Hanshin was founded under the name Osaka Tigers. The team name was later changed to Hanshin Tigers, which was a letter from the names of Osaka and Kobe. The Orix Buffaloes have been one team since 2005, when the Orix Blue Waves, based in Kobe, and the Kintetsu Buffaloes, based in Osaka, were integrated.
It has been 59 years since teams from the Kansai region played a Japan Series. In 1964, Hanshin and Nankai Hawks (predecessor of Softbank) faced each other. Nankai used Osaka as its home base until moving to Fukuoka in 1989. Naturally, fans in the Osaka and Kansai regions went into an uproar. Tickets for the Japanese series are sold second-hand for more than 10 times the price.
Hanshin, who met Oryx in the Japanese series, is smiling inwardly. This is because all postseason games this year will be played at home. Hanshin’s home stadium is Koshien Stadium located in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture. However, when high school baseball competitions are held in the spring and summer, Orix’s home stadium, Osaka Kyocera Dome, is used as the second stadium. This year, 9 games, including exhibition games, were played at Kyocera Dome.
Hanshin played all three matches at Koshien with the privilege of being first place in the CS final stage. Then, in the Japan Series, games 3, 4, and 5 will be played at Koshien, the first stadium, and games 1, 2, 6, and 7 will be played at the second stadium, Kyocera Dome. Hanshin is more popular in Osaka than Orix, so it is expected to receive a lot of support from fans throughout the seven games. This is good news for Hanshin, which has not won the Japan Series since 1985.