Playback ’05] “Reverse Photography” and “Skirt Flipping”…A Frenzied Night in Ginza, Where the Tiger Nine Turned into Big Tigers.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. In this issue, we will look back at the October 21, 2005 issue, which was published 20 years ago, and report on the following topics: “Reverse heat shots” of the magazine, sitting in front of a convenience store, skirt-flipping, and other foolish revelry! The following is a complete coverage of the Hanshin V victory party, in which the Tiger Nine became big tigers.

On October 25, the first game of the “SMBC Japan Series 2025” between the Hanshin Tigers and the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks will start at 18:30 at the Mizuho Pay Dome in Fukuoka. The Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Series two years ago, but it was 20 years ago in 2005 that they won the league championship. The following is an article on the victory celebration that took place in Ginza when the team won the league championship in 2005 (descriptions in parentheses are quotes from previous articles).

The crowd was like tourists on a Hato Bus tour.

October 2, 2005 On October 2, a little past 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday night, a sightseeing bus was driving through Tokyo. We thought it was a long-distance bus heading for a regional destination, but it was headed straight for Ginza, the most exclusive entertainment district in Japan. A sightseeing bus in Ginza at this hour?　I thought to myself, “A sightseeing bus in Ginza at this time of the day? Yes, the Hanshin Tigers’ V-Nine team had arrived in a luxury club for a victory celebration.

The sight of the players, who were swallowed up by a building in a corner of Ginza, behaved like passengers on a Hato Bus tour, was a bit comical. The building where the Tigers group arrived contained about 10 high-class clubs, some of which were frequented by famous baseball personalities, including Kazuhiro Kiyohara, the baseball player of the year. The model-like Ginza ladies who were waiting for the group in front of the building also boarded the elevator one after another.

After an hour or so, four figures emerged from the back entrance. They were Osamu Hamanaka (now called Osamu Hamanaka), Atsushi Fujimoto, Takashi Toritani, and a popular young fielder from Taiwan named Wei-Tsu Lin, who had just been promoted to the first team.

It’s obvious.”

They approached our car, tipsy and grinning, and began pointing and laughing at us. They pointed and laughed, and finally started “hot-shotting” us with their cell phone cameras. The magazine, not to be outdone, got out of the car and tried to interview him, but Hamanaka was the first to open his mouth.

Where are you?　Friday?

The other three answered, “Yes, but ……,

The other three answered, “Whoa!　Take a picture, take a picture!

They all seemed to be in high spirits, perhaps aided by their drunkenness. Toritani also said, “It’s obvious (the car).

The car is so obvious. We have to do it in a way that is less obvious!

For some reason, he was warned, but his pitch selection was superb. The former top hitter at a six-year university is different. Just as I was about to continue the interview, the team’s public relations manager suddenly interrupted me.

He said, “Yes, you can’t continue the interview. Everyone get back here. The players who returned to the building voiced their disappointment, saying, “We don’t mind, do we?

But after that, Hamanaka, Fujimoto, and Hayashi wandered out of the building. They entered a nearby convenience store and appeared, each with a can of beer in his hand, sitting in front of the convenience store drinking beer and talking about something.

Time passed, and it was around 4:15 when some of the players were already on their way home. Jeff Williams, a left-handed reliever nicknamed “JFK,” appeared. Jeff also showed his strong arm here. While waiting for a cab, he suddenly lifted up the miniskirt of a hostess. The hostess’s buttocks were exposed, and her bright red thong was on full display. The woman glared at Jeff , but he just smiled mischievously at her.

At 6:10 in the evening, the party seemed to have come to an end. The party seemed to be over, and about a dozen Hanshin Nine came down to the hall on the first floor. I could see “big brother” Tomonori Kanemoto, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, Yutaka Nakamura, Atsushi Kataoka, Kentaro Sekimoto, and others. Shimoyanagi, who had clearly turned into a big tiger, was yelling something at the magazine’s car, but was soon pinned down by his teammates and put into a cab.

It was a night when the entire Tiger Nine must have been fully energized for the Japan Series, which was only two weeks away.

The Japan Series was a “record-breaking defeat

In May 7, 2005, the Hanshin team was five games behind the first-place Chunichi Dragons, but in the first Central/Pacific League interleague tournament of the year, the team overtook the struggling Chunichi team to take the top spot and won the championship on September 29, 2005 without surrendering the lead once. They never relinquished the top spot and won the championship on September 29.

The three relievers who were selected as the “formula for victory” were Jeff Williams, “JFK,” Kyuji Fujikawa, and Tomoyuki Kubota. Also notable were Norihiro Akahoshi, who became the stolen base leader for the fifth consecutive year; Makoto Imaoka (now Masahito Imaoka), who became the batting champion with 147 runs batted in, a new team record; Shimoyanagi, who won the most games despite not reaching the minimum number of innings pitched; and Kanemoto, who won the MVP award.

However, the Japan Series against the Chiba Lotte Marines, which they were fully prepared for, turned out to be a disappointing affair. The pitching staff went down in flames, giving up 33 runs in four games, and the batting lineup failed to spark once, losing four straight straight games. Since then, 18 years had passed without a single league championship until 2011.

In 2013, the Hanshin Tigers came out on top in May and won the championship as quickly as possible. Will they be able to win the Japan Series and win the top place in Japan for the third time?