夏の甲子園

In Japan every summer there's a nation-wide high school baseball tournament called 夏なつの甲子園こうしえん (the Summer Koshien), and the whole country goes wild for it. It's like March Madness and the BCS combined, but more so. It's going on right now and it's pretty fun to watch.

You can live stream every game here for free. Here's the schedule of today's matches in your time zone. The morning games in Japan are at a reasonable time for North Americans to watch, and the later games are good for when you can't sleep. The final is in a few days, on the 26^th.

All of the games are played at Koshien Stadium, built in 1924, the oldest and most loved stadium in Japanese baseball. It's their Fenway, and it's the home of my Hanshin Tigers.

The commentary is all in Japanese, but that doesn't matter—you understand the game, and you're watching these really skilled, really earnest high schoolers give it everything they've got. It's a great way to enjoy watching a sport you love.

I had trouble sleeping last night, so I watched the Yokohama - Chiben Gakuen game:

Yokohama's infielders, in particular their first and second basemen, made a number of butterfinger-y fielding errors in the early innings. Still, it was very fun to watch.