Cheering Carp

Last week my wife and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the Hiroshima Carp's final home game. We sat in the right field bleachers with the cheering section. What fun! The best time that I have had at a ballpark for 25 years. I thought I would share some pictures and videos.

Fans are allowed to bring food and drinks into the ball park so the streets around the stadium are lined with food stalls. Common foods include fried chicken, octopus, yaki soba, and a Hiroshima favorite grilled offal. Almost all the fans came by train. Only a few dozen cars entered the tiny ballpark parking lot.

Hiroshima Stadium. Notice all the red Carp jerseys. Probably 90% of the fans wore their jerseys.

The cheering section. They were MUCH loader in person than on the video.

With two outs in the top of the seventh inning everybody started blowing up balloons.

And then at the seventh inning stretch....

They have silly mascots in Japan too.

The Carp try to rally from behind.

Unfortunately the Carp lost the game and fell short of making the playoffs. After the game, the team lined up and bowed to the fans as the manager thanked the fans for their year-long support and apologized for not making the post-season.

And the manager was fired a day later.

But a great day at the old ball game.