How did Koshien become an ideal holy place for Japan’s young generation?

The slogan on the signboard at Koshien subway station is "98 high school players are defeated here and become stronger." Internet pictures show hordes of crew-cut teenagers riding bicycles on the streets of Japan. They each carried a big backpack, their faces were covered with sweat, they were laughing and playing with each other, exuding endless youthful squandering. They are Japanese wild ball boys aiming for Koshien. Yabo means baseball in Japanese. Koshien is the abbreviation of Hanshin Koshien Baseball Stadium, located in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, Kansai. It is the hometown of the Japanese professional baseball team Hanshin Tigers. But for this group of wild baseball teenagers, Koshien is a holy place where they devote their blood and pursue their dreams, and Koshien (abbreviation for the Japan National High School Baseball Championship) in summer is the home of their youth. Koshien of Wild Football Boys "The high school players of 1998 were defeated here and then became stronger." This is the slogan on the signboard at Koshien subway station. The percentage of "98" in the slogan is not nonsense. The Koshien Summer Finals are held at the Koshien Baseball Stadium. The competition system adopts a one-place, one-place system (Tokyo and Hokkaido each have two places due to their large number of schools).

The total number of teams participating in the summer Koshien preliminaries can reach more than 4,000 every year, but only 49 teams can enter the finals. This means that if a team wants to set foot on the black soil of Koshien (general baseball fields in Japan are made of red soil, but the baseball fields of Koshien are black soil), they must win the regional preliminaries in order to qualify. Furthermore, in the summer, Koshien uses a single-elimination system, which means that if you lose a round, you will not be promoted to Koshien. Koshien is extremely hot in summer. This year, since the 2018 High School Baseball Conference is the 100th commemoration of Japanese high school baseball, the organizer "Asahi Shimbun" has made every effort to promote the touching moments of previous conferences before the start of the conference. After the meeting began, the media also searched for "touching" moments based on various information in the database.

Finally, a "dark horse" appeared and regained the attention of the meeting. Jinjiao Nong, an under-appreciated public agricultural school in Akita Prefecture, went all the way and defeated several traditional "strong schools" one after another, and finally reached the finals. This school's baseball team only has 9 players who can play, and only one of the real pitchers is injured and cannot play. However, they represented a remote rural area in northeastern Japan and reached the finals, making the whole country excited. The main pitcher Yoshida became the favorite of all parties. "The God of Koshien". Before the finals, almost everyone hoped that they could defeat Osaka Tongyin High School in the finals and write a new miracle for a century of high school baseball. Therefore, a team that can enter the Koshien finals said that it has not conceded a goal since the regional preliminaries in order to compete with the other 48 teams.

There are 50 teams, but there is only one championship, and the winning rate is only 2, so "98 high school players have lost here." Koshien in summer has a long history and tradition. The competition began in 1915 with a national high school winning baseball championship sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun. The first game was held at Osaka Hochu Baseball Stadium. From then on, the history of the Japan High School Baseball League began. Koshien has been closed for four years so far, so this year (2018) is the 100th summer Koshien.