Catch Me at the Ballpark! (Japanese: ボールパークでつかまえて!, Hepburn: Bōrupāku de Tsukamaete!) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsurō Suga. It began serialization in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning in September 2020. An anime television series adaptation produced by EMT Squared aired from April to June 2025.
Contents
Plot
Murata is an office worker who regularly visits Chiba MotorSuns Stadium to take his mind off the stress from work. One day, he meets a gyaru beer vendor girl named Ruriko. After he becomes her first regular customer, they slowly develop a friendship with each encounter.
Characters
Main
Ruriko (ルリコ)
Voiced by: Fairouz Ai
A beer vendor girl who works for Yuuhi Beer at Chiba MotorSuns Stadium. She is a gyaru who has a snaggletooth. While she does not know a lot about baseball, she still enjoys her job.
Kōtarō Murata (村田)
Voiced by: Satoshi Inomata
An office worker who is a fan of the Chiba MotorSuns. He visits the ballpark to take his mind off the stress from work. He becomes Ruriko's first regular customer.
Vendors
Aona (アオナ)
Voiced by: Ikumi Hasegawa
A fellow vendor girl and colleague of Ruriko's. She retires alongside her boyfriend Omatsu to follow her dream as a teacher.
Kokoro (こころ)
Voiced by: Momoko Seto
A fellow vendor girl and colleague of Ruriko's.
Sara (サラ)
Voiced by: Mayu Sagara
A fellow vendor girl and colleague of Ruriko's. She is the youngest of the group as she is in high school.
Kohinata (こひなた)
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida
A fellow vendor girl and colleague of Ruriko's. She is the oldest of the group.
Kazuki Omatsu (大松 かずき)
Voiced by: Satoshi Tanaka
A checker of the vendor girls. He's currently dating Aona and quietly retires on the same day as her.
Nakaizumi (中泉)
Voiced by: Yōji Ueda
A leader of the vendor girls' checkers.
Chiba MotorSuns
Kojiro Takino (コジロー, Takino Kojirō)
Voiced by: Hiroki Tōchi
A veteran right fielder for the MotorSuns and Yuki's husband and eventual father of their child. He was close to Mitsuteru Tsubaki, a former MotorSuns player, with the two being called the Double-T Duo.
Dennis Young (デニス・ヤング, Denisu Yangu)
Voiced by: Kentaro Tone
An American slugger from Chicago who is the third base and cleanup hitter for the MotorSuns. He develops a crush on Ruriko.
Anthony Bryan (ブライアン, Buraian)
Voiced by: Kō Bonkobara
An American player who is the designated hitter of the MotorSuns. He is married to a Japanese woman and they have opened a Puerto Rican restaurant in Tokyo.
Reto Mitsui (三井烈斗, Mitsui Reto)
Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakaya
A starting pitcher for the MotorSuns and Kisa's boyfriend.
Kazuma Shishio (獅子尾一磨, Shishio Kazuma)
Voiced by: Chiaki Kobayashi
The talented and popular shortstop and leadoff hitter for the MotorSuns.
Ken Nokogirimiya (鋸山剣, Nokogirimiya Ken)
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama
Left fielder for the MotorSuns.
Others
Sun-Shiro (サン四郎, Sanshiro)
The team's mascot in the form of a salamander. He wears uniform number 346, the individual digits sound like his name when read aloud in Japanese. He is later revealed to be the other half of the Double-T Duo, Mitsuteru Tsubaki.
Nagisa Satō (佐藤なぎさ, Satō Nagisa)
Voiced by: Kiyono Yasuno
The MotorSuns' PA announcer. She has a crush on Nokogiriyama, whom she teases when she announces the lineups.
Marie Mori (森 まりえ, Mori Marie)
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame
A 40-year-old cook for the MotorSuns who likes to dote on the younger players.
Natsuno Yamada (山田夏乃, Yamada Natsuno)
Voiced by: Ayumi Mano
A young woman who works at Atsumori, a stall selling boxed meals in the ballpark. She develops a crush on Murata.
Atsumori's Manager (厚盛の店長, Atsumori no Tenchou)
Voiced by: Reigo Yamaguchi
The manager for the food stall Yamada works at.
Ryuichi Igarashi (五十嵐 龍一, Igarashi Ryūichi)
Voiced by: Jin Urayama
A veteran security guard at the ballpark.
Reiji Takimoto (滝本)
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Tatsurō Suga, Catch Me at the Ballpark! began serialization in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning on September 3, 2020. Its chapters have been compiled into twenty tankōbon volumes as of August 2026.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on November 14, 2024. It was produced by EMT Squared and directed by Jun'ichi Kitamura, with series composition and screenplays by Shigeru Murakoshi, character designs by Fumio Iida, and music composed by Monaca. The series aired from April 2 to June 18, 2025, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates. The opening theme song is "Hurray!!", performed by GENIC, while the ending theme song is "Ballpark de Shake! Don't Shake!" (ボールパークでShake! Don't Shake!) by Fairouz Ai, Ikumi Hasegawa, Maaya Uchida, Mayu Sagara and Momoko Seto as their respective characters. Crunchyroll is streaming the series.
Reception
By January 2024, the series had over 200,000 copies in circulation.