Hanshin Tigers: Japan’s No.1 baseball team after 38 years of hard work! The “Golden Era” is about to begin!
Celebrating the Japan Series victory! An "Old General's Love" and "Five Fierce Tigers" defeated the ever-victorious Orix!
After Hanshin won the first game 8-0, Orix took the next game 8-0, and from then on, the score remained the same. 59 years ago, the “Kansai Series” went into the final game with a 19-19 tie score, and after six games, the total score was 23-23, a five-way tie.
It was truly a gripping four-way tie. It was “the love of an old general” and “five fierce Tiger warriors” that led the two sides to victory in the Japan Series, in which neither side was willing to give an inch.
The starter for Game 7 was Koyo Aoyagi (29) of the Hanshin team, who was making his first post-season start, and whose season batting average was 4.57. The Orix starter was Hiroya Miyagi (22) of the Japan WBC team, whose batting average was 2.27.
Miyagi, who completely shut down the Tigers’ batting lineup in the second game, looked like a big boss standing in the way of Japan’s first victory in 38 years, according to the desk of a sports newspaper as well as Hanshin fans.
However, Sheldon Noisy (28), who had hit only nine home runs all season, smacked a three-run shot into left field to lead off the game.
In the first half of the season, when our batting average was hovering around .200, manager Akinobu Okada (65) was criticizing us, saying that we were always getting out of bats the same way and that we couldn’t hit because we were swinging at balls all the time,” said Okada. Even so, manager Okada patiently continued to use him. He recognized Noisy’s ability more than anyone else. He saw the video and immediately said, “Get it! He was the one who instructed me to get him immediately after seeing the video. He didn’t want to be asked to play defensive positions, and in an effort to blend in with the team, he asked around, “What do you do that is popular in Japan? His hard-working personality is also to the manager’s liking. After the first three runs, I wonder who taught him how to do Stan Hansen’s ‘longhorn’ pose, and the reporters were laughing at him.
