It doesn’t help that Takada puts Matsuoka, Igarashi, and Lim in even when we have a five run lead (a la last Wednesday’s rout of Yomiuri), but he’s not solely to blame. Just mostly.

Key point.

Yes the visitors seats are limited to way up there. And while the view up there is restricted, I kind of liked the uniqueness of the visitors section. It’s directly opposite the Hiroshima “performance area” so it felt like there was some friendly competition between the two sections. Plus everyone in the stadium can see the away fans up there in their “pen”, and so when the Swallows scored and the umbrellas came out you did kind of feel like you were “performing” to the rest of the stadium.

The rest of the stadium is pretty much 100% Hiroshima, and I think they do encourage all visiting fans to go in their own area (and likewise discourage Hiroshima fans from sitting in the visitors section) though if you’re not too vocal in your support you should be fine.

Tickets for weekend games seem to sell out everywhere in the stadium except for the visitors section (for Swallows games at least). I got my tickets for Sunday way in advance, and was seated towards the back of the section with most of the hardcore Swallows fans. For Saturday’s game we got the tickets from a Lawsons near Hiroshima station a couple of hours before game time and were sitting toward the front of the section, which seemed to be where all the last minute tickets were located. The view was better there but it was a lot quieter.

When I go again I’ll probably do a game in the visitors section and then one elsewhere to sample a better view. From my walks around the stadium concourse, it seems pretty much all the seats have an excellent view of the action.

All in all, highly recommended. Love the city, and while the old stadium had it’s character, the new one is in a different class. Oh, and great atmosphere too. The people of Hiroshima sure like to represent their team and city.

Hey so how is Zoom Zoom? I am planning on visiting there in September, with the Swallows. Are visitor seating limited to those way up there?? Will I get smothered by some people in red, if I get infield seating (of course by third base)? Were tickets hard to get?

In order to keep the pressure off of the bullpen, we need many more seven inning (plus) starts from our rotation, and more run generation from our lineup.

For starters, it might be helpful if our catcher stopped hitting into double plays.

Furthermore, protecting a two-run lead isn’t something you want to leave to our backup middle inning relievers (although I wouldn’t mind seeing future starters Muranaka and Katoh getting some time in that capacity), so as always–something’s gotta give.

It doesn’t help that Takada puts Matsuoka, Igarashi, and Lim in even when we have a five run lead (a la last Wednesday’s rout of Yomiuri), but he’s not solely to blame. Just mostly.

Hopefully Ishikawa can replicate these results against a lineup with a bit more depth.