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The story
On October 3, 2026, the Hanshin Tigers clinched their second consecutive Central League pennant. Kansai TV stations scrambled to put together special programming into the late night, with Sun Television and ABC Television among those arranging special broadcasts and emergency live radio programs. On 5ch threads, alongside voices celebrating the title, talk turned to the different ways baseball is received in Kansai versus Kanto, and wariness about people jumping into the Dotonbori canal — the thread was dominated by chatter about the regional gap in excitement.
2026-10-03 22:18
Professional baseball’s Hanshin Tigers clinched their first-ever back-to-back Central League pennant on the 3rd. Kansai TV stations hastily moved into special-programming mode into the late night of the same day.
■Sun Television
Source: oricon.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Guess he's not heading back to Ibaraki, huh
We're not even that strong this year 😢
They did beat the Dodgers and the Cubs back-to-back last spring
Sato even hit one into the right field stands off Cy Young winner Snell
136 Anonymous (much obliged) 2026/10/03 (Sat) 21:38:13.12 ID:Gp09dZrn0
Dotonbori
https://sp.live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv351513884
Wanting to be best friends with a toilet for a week — now that's real 'V yanen' spirit (a Kansai-dialect catchphrase for celebrating a win)
Rough.
Honestly it's not that hyped lol
The morning greeting here is literally 'how'd the Tigers do yesterday' lol
Sounds like a living hell
Glad I live in Kanto
You went out of your way to come to this thread too, clearly curious
Just be honest with yourself
Classic Kanto guy lol
ABC is also doing emergency live radio
*From midnight for one hour it's the SixTONES show
Well, it pulls better ratings than the Japan national soccer team
Four hours straight and always on top — it's a cash cow
Winning too much kind of cheapens the value of winning, doesn't it lol
Say that after they win the Japan Series too
They've got fewer Japan titles than Yokohama anyway
Hiroshima's already faded out
That's only ever been true when they're winning
Tokyo MX does technically air Hawks games on a sub-channel, for what it's worth
Oct 4: DeNA vs Hanshin, Yokohama, 18:00
Oct 5: No game
Oct 6: Hanshin vs Hiroshima, Koshien, 18:00
Tomorrow on the 4th, they'll probably do the player toss after the Yokohama game, then the beer-pouring celebration at a Yokohama hotel.
Since there's no game on the 5th, they can party until morning.
It's happening right now
Background and Key Points
It’s easy to overlook that what Hanshin clinched was the league pennant (regular-season title), a separate honor from being crowned Japan’s best by winning the Japan Series. The thread shows some mixing-up of the two, but what comes over the next few days is the player toss and beer-pouring celebration — the fight for the Japan Series crown is still ahead. It’s also not unusual for Kansai local stations to pull strong ratings with championship specials; in many teams’ home franchise regions, terrestrial broadcasts of the local club’s games are still the norm. Regional baseball culture that doesn’t translate well to national broadcasts can be hard for people in Kanto to grasp, which is why the thread kept circling back to how differently the moment ‘looks’ depending on where you live. At the same time, the annual frenzy — like people jumping into the Dotonbori canal — also came up, blending the joy of the title with the chaos surrounding it.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinosupo Sokuhou+) thread “[V yanen!] Hanshin Tigers Win the Pennant — Kansai TV Stations Scramble Into Special Programming Mode, Including ABC TV’s ‘Tora-ban SP: Oh No, Oh No, Hanshin Went and Won Back-to-Back!!’ and More [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★].”
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