Starting in 1915, the annual High School Baseball Summer Tournament began attracting an exponential number of fans to the Osaka suburb of Nishinomiya. Within five years, it was clear that a new ballpark with an enormous seating capacity had to be constructed to accommodate the games and the tens of thousands of spectators they attracted. In 1922, work began on what would become the largest stadium in Asia.

Completed in 1924, Hanshin Koshien Stadium remains Japan's oldest and most traditional baseball shrine. Site of the renowned tournament since the ballpark opened, thousands of boys have carried home a few grains of Koshien soil to remember the most important moment in their life.

Pitching for his team almost forty years ago, a young southpaw hurler named Sadaharu Oh reached down on the mound and rubbed Koshien's sacred dirt into the blisters of his bleeding fingers so he could continue pitching.

When Babe Ruth and a group of Major League all-stars toured Japan in 1934, 75,000 people turned out at Koshien Stadium to watch the Sultan of Swat. To commemorate the event, a monument with Ruth's bust was erected outside the ballpark's ivy-covered brick facade.

Surviving the Second World War more-or-less intact, the ballpark was slightly modified for professional use. In an effort to boost home run production, the "lucky zone," a shallower outfield fence several meters in front of the regular wall, was created. After the creation of the Tokyo Dome and Green Stadium Kobe in the late 1980s, both with "Major League" dimensions, the lucky zone was removed.

Today, Koshien's outfield wall falls just a few feet short of the standard American ballpark: 96 meters (315 ft.) down the foul lines, 119m (390 ft.) in the power alleys, and 120m (394 ft.) to straight-away center field.

Because of its size, however, Koshien may not be the best place to view a game. The Tiger's home ballpark features more posts than any other Japanese stadium. While the low infield seating does bring fans close to the field, the large foul territory removes fans far from the action.

The visible bullpens and natural grass outfield are nice traditional touches, but the all-dirt infield becomes airborne on windy days. It's a real eye-closing experience. The "iron umbrella" above the infield grandstands heats up the ballpark during summer games. To keep drunk fans from interrupting games (Hanshin fans have the worst reputation for that sort of thing), tall chain-link fences girdle the playing field.

Fortunately, tickets to Hanshin games are among the cheapest in Japan. And despite Koshien's shortcomings, it is still one of the few must-see ballparks in Japan.