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The story
On August 29, a send-off match was held between the U18 national team (Japan’s high school all-star squad) and the university national team, and a live-commentary thread went up on 5ch’s Newsoku VIP board. True to the board’s famous “Mamono Koshien” bit (a longtime 5ch tradition of comparing current players to legendary stars of past tournaments), commentators got a kick out of likening the players on the field to standouts from past Spring and Summer Koshien tournaments. The thread also covered pitchers’ form, the game’s special rules (nine innings, no mercy rule, wooden bats), and whether it was even being broadcast.
Saturday, August 29
6:00 PM — first pitch
Thread wasn’t showing up in the list, so re-posting
Source: news.web.nhk / Original article here
What people said
Don't sell yourself short, you're Chiben Wakayama (2024).
No but seriously, nice work.
Well, chalk it up to bad luck — hope you'll start another one.
That's the one — Sakai grounded into an out and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but then the next batter came up and thanks to "sunaipo," Sakai came right back in as a special pinch-runner.
You gotta properly tag the year — (2026).
Watanabe Kai (2022 Chiben Wakayama)'s Chiben Wakayama 2026
Is that even right…? I'm losing track of what's going on.
A gem of a player (his name literally means "treasure/gem") who captivated thread regulars with his rare defensive skill at the spring 2021 tournament.
His hitting at Senbatsu was middling, but in this tournament's opener against Hokkai he ripped three doubles, turning himself into a two-base-hit factory.
In the second round he pulled off two more flawless defensive plays and showed plenty on offense too.
And of course, his wide defensive range is as sharp as ever — a gem-like performance on both sides of the ball. Please, never leave us.
Oh yeah, I remember him, I remember him!
Didn't look off to me. I think the college team's monster hitters just got fired up to teach him a lesson.
He wasn't that bad, but he did give up a couple of hits that made you go "wait, you're swinging at that?" Feels like he's got some kind of tell.
Apparently the U-12 squad Kuwata used to manage also had a really hard time with the food.
Nope, so if you can't get J Sports 2, watch it on Virtual Koshien (high school baseball livestream)
https://sports.yahoo.co.jp/livestream/vk/hsb/2021049311
Thanks, thanks so much!
Tournament rules: nine innings, no mercy rule, no extra innings, DH allowed, wooden bats.
Or are the high schoolers using wood too?
Everyone's using wood.
Wood bats are mandatory for international tournaments.
The U-18 squad might just not be calling up big sluggers anymore.
Mabuchi went all-in on small ball, left Rintaro off the roster, and still won the world title with it.
Looking at the lineup, seems like Okada's following that same playbook.
Honestly even watching it live I couldn't tell you why he got hit around like that.
Well, there's no rival school left in the prefecture anymore.
Your (5ch) ID looks like it pairs well with booze lol
* Nakayama Yuzuki (Chiben Gakuen — pitcher/shortstop)
Chiben Gakuen's last line of defense. On a team whose fielding is basically Chiben-Wakayama-grade shaky across the board this year (thread shorthand for "sloppy defense"), Nakayama is nearly the only one holding it together. Word was that without him, both the infield and outfield would fall apart.
Also, on a team whose bullpen is a dumpster fire pretty much everywhere this year, he's nearly the only one pitching consistently. It was said that if he doesn't take the mound, the game falls apart.
Which leaves thread regulars in an agonizing bind: put Nakayama on the mound and the defense collapses, but leave him at shortstop and the pitching staff gets torched instead.
Yes, this, exactly this lol
Man, that takes me back lol
I work remote so I can join if there's a thread,
but it's probably gonna be pretty dead.
I might be laid up sick in bed, so I could actually make it.
Leave it to me.
Work? Never heard of it.
Background and Talking Points
A send-off match is a tune-up game where Japan’s younger national squads get real-game reps against strong opposition ahead of an international tournament; this time it was the U18 team (Japan’s high school all-star squad) against the university national team. The tournament rules — nine innings, no mercy rule, no extra innings, DH allowed, wooden bats — follow international tournament standards. What really got the thread going was 5ch VIP’s signature “Mamono Koshien” bit, where posters compare the players on the field to past standouts from Senbatsu and Koshien — a shortstop who made his name on defense, an ace who single-handedly carried both the fielding and the pitching — in-jokes that are hard to follow unless you were around for the original threads’ buzz. At the same time, there was plenty of practical back-and-forth too, on pitchers’ form, tournament rules, and broadcast info (no terrestrial TV, but streaming on Virtual Koshien) — so the thread worked not just as nostalgia bait but as a genuine live-commentary thread for following the game.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Newsoku VIP) thread “[Mamono Koshien] U18 Send-Off Match: U18 vs. University Japan National Team.”
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