It was not even a particularly well played effort.
But you don't see a crowd of this size--Koshien was packed to the rafters--staying till the end of a five-hour game for nothing. No disrespect for the great fans who support the other 10 teams, but this was Japanese baseball at its best: Tigers and Giants, extra innings in a game where the Tigers could make a statement by preventing the Giants from rolling to the pennant in the middle of an eight-game winning streak.
The Tigers' 3-2 win in 12 innings ended the Giants' winning streak at seven. But even more, it stalled their dash on to the field to perform the "doage," the ceremony where they toss the manager up in the air.
The Giants players and coaches on the bench were coiled, ready to spring on to the field with the final out--only to be held in check when when Makoto Imaoka scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
Instead, the Tigers earned the right to storm the field in celebration as the Giants in the third-base dugout got to sit and bide their time until after the Tigers fans had finished serenading their pin-striped heroes with the Rokko Oroshi, the Tigers' fight song.
It was a classic moment in a 66-year-old rivalry packed with memorable games.
Giants manager Tatsunori Hara and his Tigers counterpart Senichi Hoshino both tried to capture the spirit of the evening at yakyu's mecca.
"We came here to win tonight, and that didn't happen, but we took part in a great game at Koshien, a shrine which has been hallowed by generations of baseball players before us," said Hara. "The teams and the fans of the Tigers and the Giants honored that tradition tonight.
"The Tigers fans, with their great spirit, helped make this special, and I am deeply moved."
With the Giants going into the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead and the championship in hand, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to take it easy. But easy is not a word that springs to mind when thinking of Hoshino.
Violence, yes. Bad temper, OK. Easy? Forget about it.
"That (the Swallows result) had nothing to do with us," said Hoshino when asked if he knew the score. "All I think about is winning today's game.
"Tonight's game was one that will go down in memory. After all, the pennant was decided in the tradition of this rivalry. And I still remember clearly when the Giants last did their doage here (in 1973)."
It was a result that stunned the Giants, but just momentarily. While few will forget Tuesday's drama, championships have a way of soothing the memories.
Besides, the Giants have bigger fish to fry right now: a date with the Seibu Lions on Oct. 26.
If the Tigers' season was a disappointment after the brilliant promise of spring, the result on Tuesday reminded everyone of how important this rivalry is--especially to the Tigers fans.
If the spikes were on the other foot and it were the Tigers with the title in their pocket and the Giants were out of the race, how many Giants fans would be on hand at Tokyo Dome to see the end of a five-hour game on a Tuesday night?
There would be too many to count on one hand, but you can bet that most of the people not bearing some sort of Tigers paraphernalia would be long gone before the game was decided.
Still, this was a great season for the Tigers, one in which they swept the Giants three games in their opening series.
When asked what it meant to beat the Giants, Hoshino answered, "That's our eternal theme, both mine and the Tigers.
"These games have a lot of different meanings."
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .