Kyocera Dome Osaka (Mainichi)

OSAKA -- Seven ambulances were called to a professional baseball game here on the evening of June 6 after fans who had purchased all-you-can-drink tickets claimed they were suffering symptoms of acute alcohol poisoning, it has been learned.

The game was between the Orix Buffaloes and the Hanshin Tigers at Kyocera Dome Osaka in the city's Nishi Ward. Sales of the all-you-can-drink tickets are limited to only certain games, and buyers can enjoy free refills of draft beer and "shochu highballs" until the bottom of the seventh inning.

A total of 1,200 of the special tickets -- four times the usual amount -- were available for the Buffaloes' home games against the Tigers running from June 6 to 8 alone, and on June 6, the Tigers beat the Buffaloes 11-4.

According to the Osaka Municipal Fire Department and other sources, the ambulances were dispatched during the course of the game which began at 6 p.m. Of the seven men and women aged from their 20s to 70s taken away by ambulance, five were suspected to be suffering from acute alcohol poisoning. Other spectators were also reportedly taken to the hospital by taxi.

"I've never heard of this many cases of ambulances being called," stated a representative of Kyocera Dome Osaka.