Koshien Heroes

“…Oh, the joy of baseball in summer! And especially the joy of baseball that summer. There was never anything like it, nor will there ever be again. As the nation watched, eighteen young boys, strong and handsome, as fast as greased lightening, and in love with the sport they call yakyu, played the greatest game in all of baseball history. No one will dispute this claim; who would even try? And that summer brought with it a whole new slew of Koshien Heroes. And so that’s why…if you ever make it down to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, N.Y., you’ll find a little corner dedicated to a Japanese High School baseball game played by Waseda of Tokyo and the Koshien Heroes of Amami-Kansas. Oh, the joy of baseball in summer! And especially the joy of baseball that summer.” Koshien Heroes is a story built around the history and tradition of baseball in Japan, where, at the high school level, the sport is even bigger than it is in the U.S. The story pits the Kawabata Boys, a family of Okinawa-born, Kansas-bred brothers and cousins, against the Tokyo champs, Waseda—a real juggernaut of a team. Koshien Stadium, the home of the national tourney and birthplace to a whole slew of baseball heroes over the years, is the perfect place for the title game. Fans of baseball are not disappointed as the Kawabata Boys battle Waseda in what Ted Williams called “the greatest game ever!”