Between May 30th and June 1st, I went to “Escon Field HOKKAIDO” where Nippon Ham is located from this year. Yakult, who I usually cover, will hold the opening card of the interleague game at this new stadium, so I tried to follow the theme of the natural grass ballpark with a retractable roof from the perspective of the players and spectators.
Esconfield HOKKAIDO, home of Nippon Ham, opened in March this year
See the photos associated with this article
[Parth budr hynod gul]
All three games started at 18:00, but many fans spent time at the airport at 11:00 (open from 9:30 to 14:30 on night match days). During this time, you can enter without a match ticket, and if you’re lucky, you can see the players practice early.
When you look at the stadium from the spectator seats, the first thing that catches your eye is the 70-metre high glass wall behind the outfield seats which encourages the growth of grass. The expansive scenery of Hokkaido spreads beyond it. Looking at the stadium, the outfield fence has a distorted shape like a triangular zone, and the foul line of the outfield is also quite narrow.
Nippon-Ham’s Ryota Taniuchi said.
“When I first entered the stadium, I thought it would be difficult, but now I feel it’s right to have different types of stadiums.”
Taniuchi was traded from Yakult to Nippon-Ham in 2019 and has contributed to the team as a utility in the outfield.
“Basically, the image of a dome is white, but the roof here is black. The style and atmosphere was completely different to the domed stadiums we have seen so far.”
As for the parking lot that Taniuchi is guarding, he continued, “It’s natural turf and dirt, so you might have to be careful.” By the way, the turf in the Escon field is long and the soil hard.
“At the moment, it feels like the ball hits the grass dead, but when it hits the ground, it sometimes accelerates.”
