YES Network.com

TOKYO — Ah, baseball. The trumpets blaring, the cheerleader waving his giant flag in center field as the members of the fan club chant and play drums, the pompom girls dancing on the field, the beer girls with kegs strapped to their backs, the yakitori skewers....

You're probably wondering, "Huh? That's baseball?" That's right. Baseball in Japan, that is. After watching games with a tour group in Japan last year, I decided that I needed to return. Call it an annual rite of late summer.

This week an eclectic group of 25 baseball fans from all parts of the states — and three who currently live outside of London, England — gathered to travel throughout Japan and watch our American pastime played the Japanese way.

Our first game was a matchup between crosstown rivals Yomiuri Giants and Yakult Swallows at the Tokyo Dome. At times it felt as if I were watching an American League contest of epic Yankees-Red Sox proportions because of the length (5 hours, 27 minutes), hit batsmen (3), pitching changes (13) and number of total players used (43). The two balls that hit the Tokyo Dome's puffy, quilt-like ceiling to fall for hits were reminiscent of strange plays that happen at Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field.

The second of those hits allowed the tying run to score for the Giants in the bottom of the ninth. There were even a couple of former Major Leaguers who made key contributions to their respective teams: Aaron Guiel, who spent five seasons with the Royals and a portion of one with the Yankees, went 3-for-5 with two runs for the Swallows. Guiel is Canadian, so Yakult's fan club plays "O Canada" during each of his at-bats. He hustled from first base on a double to score his second run, giving the Swallows a 3-1 lead. Bronx native Marc Kroon struck out three in two strong innings of relief for the Giants.

There was something distinctly Japanese about the game, however. It ended in a 3-3 tie after 12 innings. While it may seem highly unusual for teams to stop a game before a logical conclusion (i.e., one team prevails as the winner), ending a game in a tie makes perfect sense to the Japanese. Ties are common in soccer and hockey, so why not baseball? Also, the Japanese train system stops running at 12:30 am. Thus, a 17-inning affair could leave many fans who live in the outer reaches of a city's sprawling metropolis stranded for the night.

My impression is that the casual Japanese baseball fan would rather not sit through more than 12 innings of baseball. Many fans bolted for the doors once it became evident that extra innings were imminent. The Japanese couple seated next to me left before the start of the 10th inning because they needed to catch a train to their home in Chiba. The man was a Yakult fan and seemed to be enjoying the game, but I noticed his wife checking out a pocket train schedule when the Giants scored the tying run. (Plus, she confessed to me that she was a fan of the Chiba Lotte Marines, so I'm sure she felt comfortable leaving this contest regardless of how dramatic the outcome may have been.)

My row-mates notwithstanding, a good portion of the crowd — a mix of both Swallows and Giants fans — remained and cheered strongly throughout. Trumpets were still blaring and flags were still waving until Yoshimoto Tani sent Kazuki Fukuchi to the warning track in left field for the final out.

As the fans filed out of the aisles of the Tokyo Dome, most of them took their trash and deposited it in the recycling bins on the concourse and walked to revolving doors, which were pushed by stadium workers who thanked each fan for attending the game. Something else about the game that was distinctly Japanese.

For the next game on the tour, I'll take the bullet train to Kobe to see the aforementioned Chiba Lotte Marines play a day game against the Orix Buffaloes. What other distinctly Japanese things will I discover there? Kobe beef?