Baseball players in their final year of high school will be presented with dirt from Koshien Stadium as a memento after two national tournaments at the ballpark were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Hanshin Tigers and the stadium operator said Monday.
The Tigers, who are based at the Hyogo Prefecture stadium, said they will create key chains containing the dirt and give them to seniors who missed out on this spring's national invitational tournament and the summer national high school baseball championship, which were both canceled in response to the virus.
Koshien is known as the mecca of Japanese baseball, and competing there at one of the two high school meets is a commonly held dream among young boys who take up the sport. Players scooping up dirt at the ballpark and putting it into small bags to take home as a memento is one of the iconic images of the tournaments.