Spring/Summer Champions
Known in Japanese as 春夏連続優勝, haru-natsu renzoku yuusho or Spring-Summer Consecutive Champions, this signifies the winning of the senbatsu (Spring) and natsu (Summer) tournaments in a calendar year. To date there have been 6 instances of such a feat:
| Year | School | Spring | Opponent | Result | Summer | Opponent | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Sakushin Gakuin (Tochigi) | 34th | Nichidai-san (Tōkyō) | 1 - 0 | 44th | Kurume Commercial (Fukuoka) | 1 - 0 | |
| 1966 | Chūkyō Commercial (Aichi) | 38th | Tosa (Kochi) | 1 - 0 | 48th | Matsuyama Commercial (Ehime) | 3 - 1 | Now known as Chūkyōdai Chūkyō |
| 1979 | Minoshima (Wakayama) | 51st | Namishō (Osaka) | 8 - 7 | 61st | Ikeda (Tokushima) | 4 - 3 | Namishō is now known as Daitaidai Namishō. |
| 1987 | PL Gakuen (Ōsaka) | 59th | Kantō Ichi (Tōkyō) | 7 - 1 | 69th | Jōsō Gakuin (Ibaraki) | 5 - 2 | |
| 1998 | Yokohama (Kanagawa) | 70th | Kandai Ichi (Ōsaka) | 3 - 0 | 80th | Kyōto Seishō (Kyōto) | 3 - 0 | Daisuke Matsuzaka finishes the feat with a no-hitter in the final against Kyōto Seishō. |
| 2010 | Kōnan (Okinawa) | 82nd | Nichidai-san (Tōkyō) | 10 - 5 (12) | 92nd | Tōkaidai Sagami (Kanagawa) | 13 - 1 | |
| 2012 | Osaka Tōin (Osaka) | 84th | Kōsei Gakuin (Aomori) | 7 - 3 | 94th | Kōsei Gakuin (Aomori) | 3 - 0 | This is the first time two teams have had a rematch in consecutive finals, and the 3rd time a team (Kōsei Gakuin) has reached 3 consecutive calendar finals (they are the only ones to lose all 3). |
Read more about this topic: High School Baseball In Japan, Notable Episodes
Famous quotes containing the words spring, summer and/or champions:
“A brook that was the water of the house,
Cold as a spring as yet so near its source,
Too lofty and original to rage.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“That night was the turning-point in the season. We had gone to bed in summer, and we awoke in autumn; for summer passes into autumn in some imaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of “the rat race” is not yet final.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)