Twenty minutes from the Tokyo Dome sits another of Japan’s most revered ballparks, the 99-year-old Meiji Jingu Stadium, one of the few fields still in use that can claim Babe Ruth as a batter. Jingu’s home club, the Yakult Swallows, held a spring exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers, creating a crosstown doubleheader opportunity for fans lucky enough to also have tickets for the Dodgers-Cubs season opener at the Dome that night.
Swallows fans bob small umbrellas at their seats during coordinated cheers – an umbrella dance – and unlike at the Tokyo Dome, a contest at Jingu is open-air, a gorgeous scene on the right day. But what Jeff Shimizu of Los Angeles enjoyed most was the gameplay. When a batter pretended he would bunt and then pulled back to swing, something rarely seen in Major League Baseball anymore, the 70-year-old Shimizu called it out in the stands: “That’s a slash play!”
I love how Japanese baseball is so much more fundamentally pure, said Shimizu, who spent many years as a youth baseball coach. It’s a big difference. I watch major-league games, you see them make really rookie mistakes frequently. You don’t see that out here.
Shimizu arrived in Tokyo as part of a tour run by JapanBall, a business founded in 1999 that arranges travel for fans interested in seeing the country’s top league, Nippon Professional Baseball.
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