Hiroshima Carp baseball

Today (this evening in Japan) was something very big for people in and from Hiroshima. We have a professional baseball team called Hiroshima Carp. But they were bad for a long time and haven't won the league since 1991. Well, it happened today after a long quarter of a century! They were far better than the other 5 teams in the same league. Hope they will win the Championship with the other league winner too!

I couldn't help myself from searching on youtube to find various clips about todays match and the subsequent news broadcasted.

Hiroshima people are proud of their baseball team. It was formed in 1950 which gave hope to the Hiroshima people after the city was completely destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945.
They don't have a sponsor company and never had plenty of money to buy good players (like Tokyo Giants).
Hiroshima people have donated money into their team in the early days to maintain the team. The second series of donations were made in mid 2000s to help the team build a new baseball stadium which now has become a tremendous success and revenue source for the team.

Since the team was never rich, their strengths have been good scouts that look for unknown but good potential players (both in Japan and outside Japan) and the coaching staff to train them hard to become competetive players.

Veteran players have also come back to the former team (including a NY Yankees pitcher) to play and to lead the young team.

Recently female staff done a tremendous job in marketing. New uniforms and events were designed with their ideas which created many fans (especially female fans) in and outside Hiroshima. The team is now a nationwide popular team.

Anyway, congratulations to Hiroshima Carp. I'm so excited!!