Fight songs

One of the big things in cheering the Tigers on as part of the Oendan are the Fight Songs. These are meant to encourage individual players and are only sung when the player is batting. For regular team members they are personalized otherwise they use a standard format with the player's name inserted. There is also a standardized pitchers song, two chance marches (special songs sung when the team is in with a good chance of scoring) and of course Rokko Oroshi - the Tigers victory song. Uniquely (though Dragons fans have recently started doing it as well) there are the closer chants ato hitori - one more batter and ato ikyu - one more ball. Normally fans keep quiet when the opposition is batting and the Tigers fans are considered a bit rude in this respect.

Fight songs are an indication of the player's status - to have your own fight song is a sign you have arrived. A player can be on the regular roster and make regular appearances but will not have the same status as one who has his own fight song. Sometimes the player has to wait a few years to get one and some never get one. They are composed by fans and approved by the Tigers fan club. A few years back a Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) linked cheering club claimed royalties by saying they composed the songs. As a result of the fraud being exposed all the songs were changed except Hiyama's which pre-dated the claim.

Currently the following players have fight songs
1. Toritani
3. Sekimoto
5. Hirano
6. Kanemoto
7. Imaoka
8. Asai
9. Fujimoto
24. Hiyama
25. Arai
31. Lin Wei Tsu
33. Katsuragi
39. Yano
51. Sakurai
53. Akahoshi
55. Ford
99. Kanoh

The songs stay with the player and are sung whenever they appear on the top team. So a player who does not get much playing time will still retain the song and it will be sung whenever he plays. They only stop being used when the player leaves the team or retires. Songs themselves are generally repeated four times on a standard two-three beat. This doesn't mean that they are easy and some are quite complex - the Fujimoto song involves breaking the pattern in the middle. The washoi chance march is also quite complex especially after a few beers.

Other chants used by Tigers fans are the standard sore ike ike sung at the start of each innings and a ganbarre chant to encourage a pitcher. There is also the out chant at the end of the opposition innings and finally old lang syne (in Japanese of course) when Tigers batting forces the opposition pitcher to leave the mound. Rokko Oroshi itself is sung after scoring shots, in the seventh innings and at the end of winning games .

[Edited by: Christopher on Mar 26, 2008 6:10 PM]