ESPN has a *very* long article on 21-year old pitching phenom Yu Darvish. It covers his interesting background (his Iranian father met his Japanese mother in the U.S.!), impresssive ability, and celebrity status.
The article discusses whether (or when) Darvish will go to the U.S. to play and then pivots to discuss a lot about Japanese […]

U.S. baseball card maker Topps has announced that it played an April Fools joke on baseball card collectors.
On February 6, Topps released a card for a Japanese high school pitcher named Kazuo “The Uzi” Uzuki, who boasted some pretty amazing stats.
Although listed at only 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds (1.8 meters and 75 kilograms), “The Uzi” […]

The NPR sports program (an apparent oxymoron, I know) Only a Game, has a nice story (audio) on Japanese baseball. It covers some of the differences between the U.S. and Japanese fans and game including practice and training, the A’s/Red Sox series, Matsuzaka, and the view of MLB in Japan.  There’s also a second story […]

 The Washington Post is among the bevy of news outlets running articles on baseball in Japan corresponding with the opening of the MLB season at the Tokyo Dome.  This article is long, expansive, and meandering, but interesting nonetheless.  It covers such disparate topics as yesterday’s baseball game, a history of Japanese players in the U.S. […]

The United States baseball world has invaded Japan to start the 2008 season with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s.  A byproduct of the corresponding wave of sportswriters is this entertaining piece via ESPN.com (the U.S. sports juggernaut).  In 7 months here it has become apparent by all of the ads which feature them […]

Have you ever noticed that when two groups occupy a similar space, rivalries emerge? Whether you’re talking about Mac vs PC, Coke vs Pepsi, or the national rugby teams of Australia and New Zealand, each party will try as hard as they can to win against their hated rivals.
The top two private universities in […]

Remora writes in to point us in the direction of The Official Online Shop of the Boston Red Sox, where they are selling a complation of Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka’s favorite inspirational tracks by both Japanese and American artists, from R&B and Hip Hop to Rock.
Music they claim will “get you pumped up for […]

Once disgraced Japanese pitcher Kizuhito Tadano is poised to return to Japan . . . as a pitcher. He’d been banned in the past for having performed in a gay porn video.
He’s been in the US which, as stated before, seems to be the new way that Japanese embroiled in scandals “go to rehab.” […]

If you are wondering how the Japanese are viewing the recent Boston Red Sox sweep of the World Series, here is a shot of three major Japanese sports dailies that I picked up at the local train station yesterday.

All three of the papers feature a large photograph if Daisuke (Dice-K) Matsuzaka with the headline Matsuzaka […]

A baseball batting centre in Kitakyushu has unveiled a pitching machine it calls the Super Monster.
At the Mihagino Batting Center, until November 4, you can try to lay bat on a pitch coming at you at a staggering 200km/h (or 125mph).
[A spokesman for the centre] says the Super Monster Machine is the fastest artificial pitching […]

EAST WINDUP CHRONICLE (EWC) has a post that is highly critical of Seibu Lions pitcher Jason Johnson, in which they say he is personification of the Ugly Gaijin in Japan - those who think Roppongi is Japan, complain that things here are so different from the U.S., etc.
Some of the commenters to the piece […]

Boston Red Sox Japanese player Daisuke Matsuzaka (14-12) found out that life ain’t all peanuts and Cracker Jack in the Big Leagues when he was shelled mercilessly by the Balitmore Orioles in a recent game.
The $103 million Matsuzaka lasted only 2-2/3 innings during which he gave up eight runs on six hits and gave […]

Rick Guttormson, an American pitcher with the Pacific League Softbank Hawks has become the first player in the history of Japanese baseball ever to have failed a drug test.
According to the league’s commissioner, Rick Guttormson tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended for 20 days. Guttormson’s team, the Softbank Hawks in Japan’s […]

The Chicago Cubs organization finally has won the right to use its trademark logo in Japan.
Last September, the Japan Patent Office ruled that the Cubs could not register the trademark because it was “not familiar in Japan,” and because they feared people would be confused into thinking it was the trademark of UBS AG, a […]

It looks like Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher Yu Darvish has outgrown smoking and pachinko, and has moved on to more grown up pursuits with announcement that Yu and his actress girlfriend Saeko are very much in love and very much expecting.
Though the two just met in May, Saeko is already three months pregnant and […]

Now that Barry Bonds has surpassed Hank Aaron on the all-time home run list, pundits are again talking about who is the true home run king and which records really “count”. Here is a pretty good article that discusses the career and home run hitting achievements of Sadaharu Oh.

“Jaa, nihonjin pitchaa, gaikokujin catchaa…”
SMAP member Masahiro Nakai’s sensitive and thoughtful comment on a play during Friday night’s Boston Redsox game against the New York Yankees, live from Fenway Park. The ‘foreign’ catcher in question was American Jason Varitek.

There is no baseball figure more revered in Japan than Shigeo Nagashima. The former Tokyo Giants third baseman was a teammate of Sadaharu Oh during the 60s and 70s and helped to lead the famous club to 9 consecutive Japan Series titles. Nagashima hit a home run in the first game attended by the Emperor, […]

I saw the most interesting thing the other day, and wondered if anyone knows what this is all about. I was watching a Japanese high school team play a Taiwanese high school team at a baseball tournament the other day, and after the game, the usual “thank you” to the opposing team was down with […]

Sometimes it seems as if Japan has an association for just about everything.
The other day when walking around Tokyo, I came across the headquarters for something called the Japan Rubber Baseball Association.