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The Lost Finals: How a Forgotten Era Denied Ibaraki High School Baseball Teams Their Koshien Dream
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Ibaraki,Japan – July 27,2025 – As Ibaraki Prefecture prepares for the championship final of the high school baseball tournament,a engaging and little-known chapter in the region’s sporting history is resurfacing.For a decade spanning the mid-1960s and early 70s, Ibaraki high school baseball teams were denied the chance to compete in a prefectural final – a crucial stepping stone to the prestigious Koshien national tournament.
This means for ten years, Ibaraki didn’t crown a clear champion, leaving talented players wondering “what if?”
A Unique Tournament Structure
Today, each prefecture sends one champion to Koshien, the national high school baseball tournament held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium. But the rules weren’t always so straightforward.In the 1960s, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures competed for a single spot in the East kanto regional tournament, which then determined the Koshien representative.
though, during commemorative tournaments – like the 50th anniversary event – the format shifted to one school per prefecture. This change, ironically, led to a surprising outcome: the elimination of a final game within Ibaraki itself.
According to records from the Ibaraki Prefectural High School Baseball Federation, from the 43rd (1961) to the 54th (1972) tournaments, and during the 45th and 50th commemorative tournaments, the competition ended at the semi-final stage. The top two teams woudl then advance directly to the East Kanto Tournament, competing against schools from Chiba for a coveted place at Koshien.
Ryugasaki’s Repeated Near Misses
The impact of this system was particularly felt by Ryugasaki First High School. Ace pitcher Yanagimachi Isamu, now 69 and a commentator for LuckyFM Ibaraki Broadcasting, remembers the frustration vividly. “We won the semi-finals six times during those ten tournaments,” he recalls. “But facing the strong chiba teams in the East Kanto tournament was a huge hurdle. We only made it to Koshien once.”
In the 54th tournament (1972), Ryugasaki First and Toyo University Ushihisa both won their semi-final matchups, but never faced off in a final.both teams headed straight to the East Kanto tournament, where Ryugasaki lost to a Narashino team, dashing their Koshien dreams.
“looking back,” Yanagimachi says,”I think my seniors felt they could have gone further with a proper prefectural final. Watching the finals as a commentator now, it feels especially poignant knowing we never had that possibility.”
Why the change?
So, why was the final game eliminated? Yoshihiro Ando, a former editorial commitee member for The Asahi Shimbun and a historian of high school baseball, explains the reasoning.
“The concern was that a runner-up team from Ibaraki could potentially reach koshien if the prefectural tournament had a final