Binoculars Focus Problems

It's easy to say the earth!

I mentioned earlier, and perhaps many who read me will know already. For the third year players who participate in the land of Koshien represents the end of their adventure in the high school baseball. In theory represents a symbol that announces that ended the summer of their adolescence. In practice, although this last grain falls in the hourglass, that bag of land will be a treasure, a relic, a kind of bravery that will witness a tangible experience that will stay with them for life ...

Players of the school that is eliminated before the finals have a habit of filling a bag of potting soil with dark cloth lying inside the diamond Nishinomiya. An image that is repeated time and that marks the end of each match in the final. This is also why the Koshien are never frowned upon those who spit saliva on the ground (a common practice to foreign players who played in the Japanese professional league).
to take the soil is a tradition that dates back to the semifinals of 28sima edition (which was held in 1946, the first since the end of World War) and was introduced by a Mr. Sasaki, high school coach Tsukuba Daifuzoku of Tokyo. His school was defeated in the semi final with a 9 to 1 from Osaka's Naniwa shogyo. At the end of game the coach asked his kids to return to their defensive positions and collect all a bit 'of land. " You must promise me you will do everything to get back here next year and return the land to the stadium. It will be your solemn promise with Ko shien. Each Looking at these land you must remember this defeat and to redouble their efforts to come back. And I promise you that we will return! .

In fact it is said that the first idea was to have had the Tetsuharu Kawakami, pitcher at the time of Kumamoto Kogyo, which later lost the final in 1937 thought it well to get into pocket a bit 'of soil that had soiled his uniform and riportarselo in Kyushu. But that precious land not held them, but the pitch around the school where he and his comrades were training. A sort of protective amulet auspicious . Evidently impressed by that gesture generous spirit (kami ) of Koshien turned a blind eye to the theft. Contrary to how things went, probably locked them both! Not only is the soil made the fortune of Kawakami, but directed him toward a career first as a player, then as a coach in the ranks of the Tokyo Giants. Ironically, the Giants are the sworn enemies of the Hanshin Tigers, the team that plays home to Koshien. Kawakami then became professional in 1938 with the Giants and earned so much respect in the environment to come nicknamed "God of joke." In 1957 he devoted even a black and white film entitled " Kawakami Tetsuharu monogatari sebangō 16 "(" History of Tetsuharu Kawakami, number 16, "which I put the poster of the time).

Another curious episode was linked to the holy land in 1958. The story we have designed well as a serialized manga, but I will talk about this later. The story is simple: to that edition of the Koshien, the fortieth, also attended the high school Shuri Okinawa (to the left while parading during the opening ceremony). By the way is the old name Shuri in Naha, the capital and main city of the prefecture of Okinawa. At that time, the archipelago was still a kind of American protectorate and was the home bases military veterans from the Korean War. Defeated in the first round, the high school of Shuri, before embarking back to the archipelago, thought it best to recover the bags of earth as a memory of that brief but memorable adventure in the Japanese homeland. But unfortunately for them things did not go as planned.

In fact, the laws prohibiting the United States, and I guess that still forbid, to introduce in their territory and land plants are unknown and apparently from a foreign country, unless after thorough scientific analysis. The head of the school reluctantly warned his players that they had an obligation to deliver all their bags U.S. military authority, because it enjoined the law. The precious land was seized and was thrown to the incredulous students without restraint in the waters adjacent to the port of Naha. It seems that two brave boys managed to hide a few grams of the same sacred soil. Become aware of the episode, some of hostess Japan Airlines decided to gather in small white stones on the beach nearby the stadium in Nishinomiya and send them to school Shuri as partial compensation for the wrongs they have suffered.

These stones were collected and went to adorn the monument called Yu to no ishibuni " (" stone of brotherhood ", pictured above), erected to commemorate the participation of school at Koshien. The stones were arranged to form a small diamond at the word yu to , meaning "brotherhood" (photo left). It seems that the story hit especially Japanese public opinion and became one of the symbols that were challenged by the movement of liberation from the hegemony of the American archipelago. For the history, Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972.

returned to the soil. That is the Koshien Call Kurotsuchi , that black earth. It comes from a special blend of dark loam from Kagoshima Prefecture, Okayama, Tottori, Oita, plus a percentage of white sand that goes so far as the Chinese coastal province of Fujian .
In spring, the percentage of black earth lying on the diamond during the Senbatsu is 55% offset by a 45% white sandy China. While during the summer Koshien latter figure is 40%. The mixture was studied in order to drain the frequent spring rains that often Senbatsu hammering the course of March and also to resist the deadly August all'arsura Japanese. It seems that the first mix used were added to earth from Awaji, a small island off the coast of Shikoku, which is connected to Honshu by the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (the longest suspension bridge in the world) and the other bridge to the island of Shikoku Onar. But it seems that this land too resembled the color of the ball and then decided to change the mix to stand out more phases of the game. It appears that the black current, allowing viewers to better follow the bouncing balls in the infield angles. At Koshien well as people working the land, the so-called keeper ground, those who endeavored to obtain a view of the event and covering the holes after each game.

About ... But what did the high school Tsukuba Daifuzoku ? He managed to return the following year to return the borrowed land with the symbol of the promise Koshien? Unfortunately not. Clearly the spirit of this time there was really bad Koshien. It must have been a gesture to the limits of theft, has been the presumption of coach, no one knows. The fact is that the kami of Koshien (watch the Japanese are convinced that there!) Prevented the school to set foot inside the stadium not only for the following year, but even to this day. Over time the school had to even change name.