Articles
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2004
OPENING DAY SPECIAL ISSUE
2003
OPENING DAY SPECIAL ISSUE
2002 OPENING
DAY SPECIAL ISSUE
The Death
of Japanese Baseball Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Reds
#1 Draft Choice to Tryout for Orix
North
Koreans Finding a Taste for America's Pastime
Missing Body
Parts Report: Carlos Castillo's Head
Japanese
Exhibition Season Opens
Teams Interested
in Hideki Matsui?
Did Ichiro
Sell out Japan? Eight Players Named to Japan's HOF
Whatever
Language You Speak It's Baseball (China Pro League to Start in June
2003 and more...)
Note
to MLB: There is no "Next Ichiro"
Thousands of articles!
Gary Garland /
the
japanese insider
About the Author
I grew
up in Orange County, CA following the Dodgers and Angels from the time I
was in elementary school. I have a B.A. degree in History from Cal State
Fullerton (Mark Kotsay played at that school while I was going there), where
I also learned to speak and read Japanese. Of course, being a baseball fan,
when I started to aquire reading ability in Japanese, I used Shuukan Baseball,
the Japanese baseball bible, as reading practice along with Japanese newspapers
and rock magazines. I then went on to live in Japan for a while, though I
had time to see just a couple of games there during that time. The Yakult
Swallows are my favorite Japanese team and they repaid that loyalty by winning
the Japan Series this past season. Meiji Jingu Stadium is one of the few
old ballparks left in Japan and a bandbox to boot, so it has an atmosphere
you can't find in MLB or among the newer generation of domed stadia that
have been erected in Japan in the last couple of decades or so. So I heartily
recommend it to any real baseball fan. Not a bad seat in the house.
When I was in Japan, several
of my friends asked me who among the Japanese players could succeed in the
majors. Having seen quite a number of players on the nightly baseball shows
as well as in televised games, I posited that Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Yokohama
Bay Stars could do very well, as would a namesake for the Seibu Lions named
Makoto Sasaki, an outfielder.Obviously, Kazuhiro aquitted himself very nicely,
but Makoto was too old by the time Nomo came on over and he's now retired.
Koji Akiyama, a great outfielder who some think was the first true five tool
player in Japanese history, could have been a star in MLB, I believe. But
Now Akiyama-san, after over 400 homers and hundreds of steals, is on his
way to retiring soon with the Daiei Hawks. I remember reading about Hideo
Nomo when he was still with the Kintetsu Buffaloes and thought that he would
make a good major league pitcher. Of course, when he came to L.A. I followed
nearly every pitch and was thrilled that he did so well initially, especially
for my boys, the Dodgers. Then when I got a gander at Ichiro on Japanese
television in 1994, I remember saying to myself that he could be star in
the majors. And now that I live in Washington I'm glad I was able to follow
his inital big league campaign. For the record, I predicted that he would
hit .320, steal 50-60 bases, play great defense and hit 12-15 homers. Except
for the power numbers, he exceeded all of my expectations for his first shot
at MLB. The fact that he took home the MVP still seems unbelievable to me
in a Frank Merrywell kind of way. I remember the webmaster of the Japanese
Baseball website, Michael Westbay, was effusive in how he thought Ichiro
would do and I thought he was going a bit overboard, but Michael was largely
spot on. What a year.
Wow! None of us believed that Tsuyoshi Shinjo would make the kind of showing he did, however. Now I'm waiting eagerly for Kazuo Matsui to move in as the Mariners shortstop in 2003 or 2004 and who else might decide to come over. With Ichiro coming over, it's been a lot easier getting stateside fans interested in the Japanese game and I have to admit being on a bit of a crusade to fan the flames of that interest. With Japanese players now contemplating MLB careers, the history major in me is also waiting to see what the long range effects of that will be. I hope that the Japanese leagues can continue, though the hidebound Japanese baseball establishment may have to change its ways for that to happen. Let's see how things develop.
Personal Endorsements
Japanese
Baseball Daily - Baseball Guru's sister site for Japanese Baseball.
Sign up
for the baseball mail list that I post articles to. Baseball@apple.ease.lsoft.com
- It's not Japanese only, but it has a preponderance of Japanese baseball
enthusiasts. To subscribe: email
Listserv@apple.ease.lsoft.com
and put "subscribe baseball" as the body of your message.
Finally, a Note to the Media:
I was plagiarized in a big way by a REAL MAJOR media outlet and it was
upsetting. You may only use the material I put on Baseball Guru with my explicit
permission.
Contact
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Garland
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