Baseball_in_japan

The sport of baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and the first formal team was established in 1878. It has been a popular sport ever since. It is called 野球 (やきゅう; yakyū) in Japanese, combining the characters for field and ball.

History

Two Waseda University baseball players in 1921.

Hiroshi Hiraoka, who was in America studying engineering, introduced the game to his co-workers at Japan’s national railways in 1878. He and his co-workers created the first baseball team the Shimbashi Athletic Club and dominated other teams which popped up in Japan. However it wasn’t until the team from Tokyo University started playing when the sport took hold in Japanese Culture. In 1896 the team defeated an American team from the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club 29 to 4. It was the first recorded international baseball game in Asia. After that defeat several other colleges in Japan picked up the sport and it quickly spread throughout Japan. Since then teams from Japan have crossed the ocean to learn from their American counterparts. Waseda University was one of the first college teams to cross the ocean to improve their skills (SABR). In 1905 the team traveled to the United States where they played college teams from around the U.S. It wasn’t before long that several other universities in Japan started making similar trips. From that point on the baseball phenomenon in Japan was complete with U.S. baseball teams traveling to Japan for games.

In 1913 and in 1922, American baseball stars visited Japan and played games against university students. They also held clinics on technique. A retired major league player, Herb Hunter, made eight trips to Japan from 1922 to 1932 organizing games and coaching clinics.

It is played widely in junior and senior high schools. In March and August, two tournaments are held in Koshien Stadium for senior high school teams that win a prefectural tournament.

Basic Facts about the Game in Japan

Nippon Professional Baseball is the professional baseball league in Japan. Just like the American and National league, Japan has their own two leagues. The Central and Pacific leagues both hold six teams. Since Japan is considerably smaller than the United States, they only have twelve professional teams. The Pacific League uses the designated hitter style of play. The schedule of pro baseball in Japan is eight months long. Games begin in April and the Championship is in October. They play 135 games between the eight-month span, which is less than the 162 game season of the MLB.

Team names are one of the first things that are noticeably different in Japan. Corporations own all the teams in Japan. Their names come from the company that owns the team instead of where the team is home-based. Nippon Professional Baseball is the highest level of baseball played in Japan. It isn’t as high of level as the MLB, but close. The Japanese Baseball Leagues is considered to be a step up from AAA and a step down from the MLB. The range of skill in Japanese baseball causes the average skill level to about three and a half A.

Differences Between MLB and NPB

The rules of Japanese baseball are essentially the same as in America. There are a couple differences like a smaller ball and tie games are allowed. The ball used in the Japanese Baseball League is a little smaller and lighter than its American cousin. Although the ball is smaller, it is harder than an American baseball because it is wound tighter. A smaller ball allows for a bigger strike zone in Japan. The strike zone is said to be bigger near the batter and gets smaller the further away from the batter. Also, some of the teams have smaller fields than that of a normal MLB size. Five teams have undersized fields, four from the Central League and one from the Pacific League. A rule that causes controversy is that a team can only have four foreign players. Very unlike the MLB where anybody from anywhere that has talent, can play. This rule is in effect because it benefits Japanese players who want to play professional baseball without the competition of foreign players. Another reason for this rule is that foreign players usually cost more and this evens out the salaries between the players on a team.

Japanese Fans

Although they have fewer games, Japanese fans show just as much or even more enthusiasm than MLB fans. There is a fan section for die-hard fans where they beat drums, blow trumpets, play songs and wave flags. Japanese baseball games are anything but quiet. Most fans have self-held noisemakers and sing songs. Fans have songs for each player of the team and have even put their own spin on well-known tunes like Yankee-Doodle Dandy and Popeye the Sailorman.

Professional baseball

Main article: Professional baseball in Japan

The highest level of competition is Nippon Professional Baseball, started in 1920. It is called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball.

In 2005 the Japan Samurai Bears began play in the Golden Baseball League, becoming the first Japanese team in an American professional baseball league.

High school baseball

Main article: High school baseball in Japan

Upcoming Japanese Talent in The MLB

The upcoming year in the Major League Baseball system will bring many Japanese players who are veterans and also rookies. Last year, 40 percent of the teams in the MLB had a Japanese player present in their roster. There are a few main Japanese veterans who will have a good shot on making large contribution to their teams in the upcoming 2008 season in the MLB. The background information provided on Kosuke Fukudome, Hiroki Kuroda, Masahide Kobayashi, Yasuhiko Yabuta and Kazuo Fukumori give some good knowledge of how these players can contribute to the MLB.

Many baseball players from Japan are being looked at by scouts more because of the great impact Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, and Yankee’s star Hideki Matsui made in the United States. In the last World Series in 2007, there were three Japanese players present in it and six were also present throughout the whole post-season. This upcoming season there will be over twenty Japanese native baseball players in spring training. Some of them are already highly established in the MLB and some are just rookies looking to contribute to a team in any way. Mainly, MLB teams are looking for veteran players who have played in the Japanese Leagues and earned their way out to free agency. One of the players highly looked at is outfielder, Kosuke Fukudome.

Kosuke Fukudome is an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs. He is the first Japanese native player to join the Chicago Cubs at the age of thirty. He is a long time veteran already from playing nine years in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, which is the main professional baseball league in Japan. Usually the players in Japan have to play in Japan for a few years before they can be released as a free agent. The general manager of the Chicago Cubs greatly likes Fukudome as he states, “We feel he\'s a high-average guy, high on-base percentage, well-above-average base runner, Gold Glove-caliber fielder with a great arm.” Fukudome bats lefty, and while playing in Japan he won two batting titles, one of which he beat out Hideki Matsui in batting average .343 to .334. Fukudome also has a .305 batting average over the span of his career with twenty-nine homers over the span of four years, which is good for a Japanese player since they usually hit for contact instead of power.

Another great aspect for the 2008 baseball season is right handed pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. Four other right handed pitchers who could do well in 2008 include Masahide Kobayashi, Yasuhiko Yabuta and Kazuo Fukumori. Kuroda has caused by far the biggest commotion with twenty teams showing interest in him for the upcoming season. Kuroda is a thirty-two year-old starting pitcher who has a fastball the reaches the upper 90’s and great off speed pitches all with excellent control. Another great right-handed closing pitcher who is thirty-three years old is Masahide Kobayashi. In seven straight seasons Kobayashi has saved over twenty games is a great closer after Betancourt pitches for the Cleveland Indians. In Japan, Kobayashi ranks at 277 in the Golden Player’s Club. The club is for players who have 2,000 hits or 250 saves or 200 wins. Yasuhiko Yabuta is another right-handed Japanese native baseball player who is ranked ninth among Royal Prospects by Baseball America. He has mainly been a long relief pitcher in Japan but sometimes he would start or close the games with a era at .270 over the last four seasons. He is a veteran player at the age of thirty-four, but in 2006 at the World Baseball Classic he pitched great striking out a quite a few great MLB players. The Texas Rangers got a hold of another Japanese native veteran, right-handed reliever Kazuo Fukumori. Fukumori is still giving the Rangers some backup in their bullpen at the age of thirty-one. Over his career in Japan he was not that impressive but he proved to the Rangers that he can get the job done and that’s what they need.

When the MLB was first impressed by Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, both from Japan, teams started scouting for more players to add to their roster who were Japanese native. Now almost half of the Major League Baseball teams have Japanese native players on their roster. Stretching from Florida to Arizona, there will be over twenty Japanese players present in the spring training camps. Some of them will continue to shine in the MLB as in previous years and the other players will try to make a name for themselves.

Amateur baseball

Various amateur baseball leagues exist all over Japan, with many teams sponsored by companies as in professional baseball and other sports. Amateur baseball is governed by the Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA).

Other

Several manga have baseball as their subject matter, including Touch and Major.

The Strike of 2004

On September 18th and 19th of 2004, the Professional Japanese players struck for the first time in over seventy years. The strike was performed because the Nippon League threatened to merge two teams to create more revenue. The players did not approve of this move, so they went on strike. The strike only lasted for two days because the Nippon League removed its threat of merging the teams.

The Japanese formed their first professional league in 1936, and by 1950, the league had grown big enough to separate into two leagues: the Central League, which was the already established teams, and the Pacific League, which was the new teams and players. Both leagues had 6 teams by the 1950s, and they adopted a playoff system, much like the American one, and had a head-to-head game between the winners of each league: the Japan Series.

The reason for the strike, the threat of two teams combining, was brought on due to the fact that both teams were having financial hardships, and the executives of the league thought it would be a good idea to combine the teams to turn a profit. The big question came when the Japanese Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) heard that the leagues were planning on re-expanding the league to twelve, or even fourteen teams. Many of the players and owners were wondering why they would combine two teams and then expand the league. “We have twelve teams now. If you want to expand, why go to ten when you have twelve to begin with? Cutting teams will result in a reduction of fans. How is that moving forward?” (Atsuya Furata of the Yakult Swallows)

The league tried to propose having a committee to discuss the merger, but the attempt when unnoticed. In September of 2004, the owners and the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) held a meeting to discuss the merger of two teams in the league. Prior to this meeting, the JPBPA decided to strike on the weekends for the remainder of September. They were trying everything in their power to avoid another strike, and continued talks with the owners and with the JPB. They met in consecutive days after the September 8th meeting, and gained some ground. The owners decided many things to help the players. First, they could reduce the “entry fee” to join the league. Second, they guaranteed that the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, both of the Pacific League, and the two leagues would remain, the Central League would have six teams, and the Pacific League would have five. Third, they put the merger between the Buffaloes and Blue Wave on hold. They put into researching to see if interleague play would enhance the financial status of the Buffaloes and the Pacific League. The players withheld their strike for a week to further discuss the issue with the owners and the league, but they had not gotten over their main concern of the merger between the Buffaloes and the Blue Wave reducing the number of teams to five in the Pacific League.

After all of this, the players decided to strike anyway, due to the fact that there was not enough time left in the season to discuss the problem. The fans of the league highly supported the players, and this made the owners review the idea of finding another team for the following season.

On September 23, 2004, the players and owners finally reached an agreement to end the strike. The Tohuku Rakuten Eagles would enter the league at the beginning of the 2005 season, and the leagues would embrace interleague play, which would make the game more eye-catching to fans and help the Pacific League gain exposure by playing the Central league teams, which were more popular due to their longer existences. In December of 2004, Southbank Corporation, an internet service provider, purchased the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to also help with financial hardship in the Pacific League.

Sources of Information

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080129&content_id=2359029&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

International Journal of Employment Studies 14.2 (Oct 2006): p19(17). (5318 words)

http://www.baywell.ne.jp/users/drlatham/baseball/news/essays/japanbb.htm

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