Hanshin Tigers

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. This is true of both the city of Osaka and its favorite team, the Hanshin Tigers. Naturally, the bride represents Tokyo and the Giants. In fact, no fewer than 16 times in Central League history, the standings have ended with the Giants in first and the Tigers in second. Nevertheless, the Tigers and their fans hold a strong, angst-filled, scrappy, never-say-die attitude towards their superior rivals.

Formed in late 1935, the Tigers are the second oldest team in Japanese Professional Baseball history, and have the second-largest following as well. They are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway, though they were bought out by Hankyu Holdings in 2006. With a brand name as popular as Hanshin’s, the team name remained as-is despite the buy-out.

Hanshin is not known for success on the field, with just two Japan Series championships (1985 and 2023). Featuring one of the fiercest lineups in the history of baseball in Japan, the 1985 squad tore through the nation like a tornado: here and gone in the blink of an eye. In the years following that miraculous run to the top, the Tigers finished in last place in 10 of the subsequent 16 seasons. Their inexplicable failure gave birth to the Curse of the Colonel, a story that has been spread especially in the English-speaking baseball fan community. Connecting American slugger Randy Bass and the founder of KFC (Colonel Harland Sanders), baseball in Japan, and losing streaks, it defies fiction and is an enjoyable urban myth, though it does not hold up when measured against the facts.

In the decades since their Dark Ages (1986-2002) ended, the team experienced something of a revival with two CL pennants (2003 and 2005) and a recharged fan base. The team finished in the middle of the pack for the better of the next two decades, with just one last-place finish but also just a single Japan Series appearance (in 2014). However, the drought, the curse, and years of mediocrity came to a halt in 2023 when the team put together a season for the ages, winning the Central League by 11.5 games and then defeating the defending champion Orix Buffaloes in the Japan Series.

Koshien Stadium is not only bursting with yellow and black, it also reverberates with more jeering for the home team than any other park in Japan does. Known as tsukkomi or yaji, picking apart one’s partner’s flaws is the essence of Japanese standup comedy, which also thrives in Osaka more than anywhere else in Japan. At least Osaka has a leg up on Tokyo in something!