THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHIHAB RATTANSI, CNN ANCHOR: In Japan, baseball is appreciated across age groups.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: And enthusiasm for this well-loved pastime is echoing way beyond the boundaries of the ballpark. Channel J takes us to the Tokyo Dome for a look at some major league cheering.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHAN RI, CHANNEL J CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) Tokyo Dome. Local baseball team the Omiori Giants (ph) take on the Hitoshimaka (ph). But in Japan, baseball fans seem to enjoy cheering almost more than actually watching the game.
North American fans tend to support with their applause and voices alone, but here there is lot more noise. Dedicated fans have formed themselves into support groups, and self-appointed leaders of these take turns in encouraging other spectators to cheer their team with chants, drums and noisy maracas for nine innings of almost nonstop cheering.
The biggest of the these group, supporting the Giants, is the G- Freaks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): While we value our own way of supporting and cheering, we also feel there's something about the way the U.S. fans give support that we should learn from, but I still think that it's OK that we are passionate. We love this place, and our hearts are the same as the U.S. fans. The only difference is our way of cheering. We don't practice what makes good support is our feelings, which come from the heart.
RI: But there are some who are slightly critical of this passion.
ROB SMALL, SPORTS WRITER: You know, it's nonstop chanting, it's nonstop sort of militaristic style chanting, and it's just not -- it's more of a job, it seems, to a lot of the fans in Japan. It's not really a place to go and relax.
The action seems to be irrelevant to the cheering. Last year, one of the players for the Giants tried to organize a couple games at the Tokyo Dome between the Giants and Basters (ph), where he wanted -- you all it the sounds of baseball, so he wanted the fans to leave home the horns, the trumpets, the drums, the megaphones, and just watch the game, listen to, you know, the sound of the ball hitting the bat.
So, they tried it. And I was out there, and some of the fans said they found it really difficult to sit on their hands, basically, the whole game. And they gave it a shot, but I don't think it's going to catch on. It's going to be noisy.
RI: I'm Shan Ri (ph), Channel J, Japan, for the CNN WORLD REPORT.
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