1w ago

Japan high school baseball team banned from smiling, waving in tourney entrance march - The Mainichi

4 comments

Wait so the tradition was normally for teams to march in lockstep quietly with straight faces? They know it's baseball right?
This is a case where I find trying to preserve "tradition" just incredibly bizarre. Like, what does this even add?
- The entrance march at the summer National High School Baseball Championship began during the third edition in 1917, held at Naruo Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. According to tournament history, the march was inspired by the Olympics and the third Far Eastern Championship Games' opening ceremony in Tokyo in May 1917. Records show that high school players "marched to the music played by the 4th Division's military band and lined up."
  A link to World War I culture, I guess.
The whole Koshien tradition is downright bananas considering how hot it gets in summer.