How Japan Took Over Baseball

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baseball in Japan has things that in America you will never see they have managers of the team being introduced on hovercrafts teams star players being zipline through the stadium hundreds of feet in the air before games and even ceremonial first pitches where players kiss the person throwing the pitch and even sometimes their own teammates based on this it’s somewhat hard to believe that Japanese baseball culture is one of the most Cutthroat in the world creating some of the most disciplined athletes on earth a system where High School coaches can make over 200 Grand a year at some schools kids are expected to practice 8 hours a day High School tournaments are so important players play through career-threatening injuries and after losing are expected to cry students go through months and months of intense training like this and these aren’t even baseball players this is the cheering section they are training to cheer for the baseball team who practices even harder according to Ichiro the training regimen he was put through as a child was so intense he only had 5 to six hours to hang out with friends in an entire year the most pitches thrown by a pitcher in MLB last season was 117 at an elite High School in Japan pitchers were expected to throw 200 pitches every other day life around baseball is so strict and regimented even professionals are expected to live in team dormitories full-time where in some past cases players who break curfew were even beaten by their own managers a practice that became so common throughout all levels of baseball in Japan that in 2021 the Human Rights Watch organization had to release a report just to address it but despite this insane dedic ation only a few decades ago an American team went to Japan and beat a team of Japanese Allstars so badly a Japanese player said himself quote we can never challenge the Americans we’re a team of little Leaguers playing adults today that is no longer the case in the past year Japan went undefeated in the World Baseball Classic winning it for the third time no other country has won it more than once all while getting viewership that baseball in America can’t come close to a Japanese player just became the highest paid baseball player in history a few weeks later another Japanese player became the highest paid pitcher in history and in total MLB teams have signed six Japanese players this off season alone for a combined 1.13 billion dollar all of a sudden Japan is taking over a sport that America has claimed for over a Century all while using training methods that many people in America might call child abuse but this quote unquote abuse also results in a level of honor and respect on the field that you won’t see anywhere else in the world like when this catcher lost his contact in the middle of a play instead of keeping the game going the entire team and even the umpires helped him look for it in the dirt Japanese baseball culture can seem like a paradox on one hand it’s extremely regimented tradition and even militaristic other aspects of it are the complete opposite like the ceremonial first pitches perhaps the most infamous is the bay stars who have a tradition where they invite an improv group called the ostrich Club the group does this dressed as gangsters as women as babies or themselves traditionally in Japan a member of the team goes to the plate and swings and misses at the first pitch but when the ostrich Club throws it the player always makes contact causing a fight between the pitcher and the batter which always ends in the two kissing each other it’s hard to imagine this ever happening in America or even this this is former major leager Su Yoshi sjo who was hired as a manager in Japan where he had the league officially change his name to Big Boss a former fashion designer he created multiple custom uniforms to fit his style he makes Grand entrances on cars has his own them song and notoriously entered 2022 opening day on a hovercraft rode it around the stadium for a little landed it then managed the game moments later with the hovercraft strange mascot fights cheerleaders and bizar skits can be deceiving because baseball in Japan is taken extremely seriously and it’s been that way for over a century when baseball was introduced in Japan in the 1800s the word sport didn’t even exist in Japanese the closest thing they had were things like SU wrestling Kendo horseback riding which were all extensions of military training so unlike in America the people who played were essentially treated as soldiers early baseball managers like suu tobido said quote if players do not try as hard as to vomit blood during practice then they cannot hope to win games he created a system called she no Renu which when translated to English means death practice and had players field ground balls until they were quote half dead motionless and had froth coming from their mouths in early versions of baseball in Japan if you got smoked by a pitch but tried to get out of the way you didn’t get to go to first because you lacked the courage to get hit by a pitch according to toa’s philosophy if players don’t cry after losing a game it means they don’t care enough which is why in Japan you will regularly see losing players balling their eyes out after losing because baseball is less about having fun and more about teaching discipline self-sacrifice dedication and having the fighting Spirit which results in things that to Americans seem absolutely insane like just last year when an Elite baseball School in Japan beat another school which got five of their players from the school’s music Club 82 to0 they hit 17 home runs and stole 36 bases yes they stole the entire game even stealing multiple times when winning 82 to0 they scored so much it took 3 hours and 13 minutes to play five innings the losing team was in the field so long a player literally had a heat stroke in the middle of the game they had no substitutions meaning him exiting would result in a forfeit so despite being down over 50 runs and having an actual heat stroke he and the team decided he must tough it out to avoid a forfeit the team would end up forfeiting in the fifth but even while losing by 82 runs they had their pitcher throw 200 and 25 pitches major league teams will rarely let their pitchers throw over 100 pitches in a game to protect their arms this high school student threw 225 in an 82 run blowout if this happened in a America both these coaches would have been fired but in Japan both teams trying their hardest despite the extreme skill Gap is the ultimate form of respect the losing coach said quote it was just a blessing the players were able to play with smiles on their faces and the comments on the video in Japanese seemed positive with people congratulating both teams on fighting to the end and giving it their all in Japanese baseball losing this badly is suffering and suffering without quitting should be celebr celebrated and this philosophy goes back well over a century in the early 1900s Japan’s most popular team had a motto that urged players to practice until they urinated blood students would start training at 4:00 a.m. and the coach believed a team needed two to three years of practice before they were ready to play their first game their methods heavily influenced by Samurai teaching still influence youth baseball today it’s normal for Little League teams to train 10 hours a day every single Saturday and Sunday according to One account from an American kid who moved to Japan his coach would take the team to lunch then immediately put them through an intense drill that would only end once a certain amount of players threw up their lunch and in a famous case in 1986 an 11-year-old boy died because practice was that hard his coach had their team do 20 160 yard dashes a tw- mile run another running drill where players ran full speed for several minutes trying to catch a ball toss in the air followed by a Fielding session of 100 ground balls players were not allowed to drink water during this and this was their pregame warm-up the team ended up losing so the manager ordered a postgame workout with 10 30 yard dashes 10 60 yard dashes 10 laps around the field 10 Sprints up and down the stadium stairs and three 60 yard dashes to wrap it up in all they ran an estimated 10 Mi these kids were 11 years old and one of them tragically passed away shortly after but taking these extreme examples and dismissing Japanese training philosophies altogether ignores the massive amounts of success that it’s brought them and to see that all you have to do is watch this this is a High School baseball tournament called the summer Kion that is so so important the hashen Tigers a professional baseball team is forced to leave their home stadium for 2 weeks just so they can play it during those two weeks an insane 500,000 people come to see this tournament live in terms of viewership High School baseball might be the most popular sport in Japan in fact the summer cion has the same per capita viewership as the Super Bowl does in America to get to this tournament Players dedicate everything like this kid who dislocated his shoulder went to The Dugout in agony had his manager pop his shoulder back into place and even while in extreme pain ran onto the field to play players dedicate everything just for a chance to play in this tournament most teams force their players to shave their heads Elite schools eat sleep and live with their team year round in America the NCAA only allows College athletes to practice 4 hours a day in Japan it’s not uncommon for high school teams to practice 7 hours a day as well as 12-hour practices on holidays at Elite schools teams often have over 100 players on a team while only 20 of them are allowed to be in The Dugout meaning most players go through this extreme training schedule for all 3 years of high school and even if their team makes it to the Kion they just have to watch from The Stance but this is still considered Ed an extreme honor because making it is almost impossible it is a single elimination tournament meaning it’s essentially a March Madness style bracket with over 4,000 teams a single loss ruins their dreams which is why it’s normal to see things like this this player got destroyed and needed a stretcher he refused the stretcher and came back 2 minutes later this player got smoked in the head was carded off the the field but refused to leave the game and still played and this catcher got nailed in the face with a ball so hard he knocked out multiple teeth stayed in the game and hit a double a few hours later to really understand how dedicated these players and schools are about this tournament all you have to do is look at their cheering sections they have cheer teams made up of the school students these teams practice throughout the year and go through intense training just like the players do in order to cheer better and help their school go further in the tournament and just like the players when they mess up there are consequences get they do coordinated and rehears chance throughout the game some take it so seriously that they will actually continue to cheer in the rain even when the game is in a rain delay when a team loses it is a sign of respect for a cheer team to conduct their final cheer at the opposing team to show their gratitude before ending their [Applause] season and just like the players losing in this tournament is an extremely tragic event it is normal and pretty much expected for players and cheer members to cry when losing and given how much training and sacrifice is required to get there this is understandable but some losses are harder than others perhaps the hardest happened in 1971 okato High School made it to the kosan and were traveling to the tournament when news broke that a fight between two students at the school left one of the students hospitalized even though neither of these students were on the baseball team and no one on the team had anything to do with it the school decided that since such an ugly incident happened at their school it would be shameful to have their baseball team represent them at such an honorable tournament they withdrew the team from the tournament and had them turn around while they were already on their way ending their dreams even though they did nothing wrong punishment has always been a massive part of high school baseball in Japan and strict coach is what made their High School baseball teams the most disciplined respectful and talented in the world but when taken to extremes it can be extremely abusive incidents like this which surface in 2018 show a coach repeatedly kicking slapping and punching multiple members on the team this was apparently punishment for their players not leaving their phones at home when they went to class historically things like this were not uncommon leading up to the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo the humans Rights Watch organization released a 57-page report on child abuse in sports in Japan in it were accounts of baseball players being hit in the face by their coaches until they bled from their faces managers kicking players throwing baseballs at players and hitting them with bats many are calling on teams in Japan to shorten practices stop Corporal punishments and make Youth Baseball less militaristic in some ways it has for example last year’s cion winner won it while having long hair they were one of at least seven teams in the tournament that did not require their players to shave their heads which has been a universal practice Forever at least four schools were suspended from high school play in 2023 because coaches were physically abusive while punishing players on one hand it shows they’re cracking down on abuse but it also shows it’s still happening this video which surface recently shows a coach dragging a player to the ground in a classroom he was eventually fired for this which is a sign of progress of a problem that without a doubt used to be a lot worse in 1987 a similar incident happened when a coach hit multiple players in the head with the butt of a baseball bat leaving them bleeding from their Scout Not only was he not fired and only got a one-year suspension one of the players who got hit in the head said quote I don’t blame the manager it was our fault at the most elite schools High School coaches can make up to $200,000 plus dollars a year at some schools they control all aspects of players lives including when they eat what they eat when they sleep and how much they practice for pitchers this can mean throwing up to 300 pitches a day in America this may be considered more abusive than hitting a player the state of California has a law that bans pitchers from throwing over 110 pitches in a week in 2013 this pitcher threw 318 pitches in 2 days he won both these games sending his team to the Kosen where he had so much arm pain he was given a painkiller injection when that didn’t work he was given stimulants he labored through the first game and won in the second round the pain was even worse his velocity was only reaching 57 mph but he refused to quit and in obvious pain lobbed ball after ball over the plate he struck out the only batter he faced then was taken out of the game the next year he was only able to pitch in two games he ended up going to college where in his first three seasons he wasn’t able to make a single appearance due to injury this painful video is used as an example to criticize coaches who put their young pitcher future at risk for Success at the Kos but years later the pitcher puts zero blame on the coach saying that it was his decision and at the time he thought quote I don’t care about my future even if I can’t compete in the future I just want to play in the Kos this is a common mindset surrounding the tournament and has created Legends in Japan you say Kikuchi who has gone on to have a major league career first became a celebrity when he was 17 in the Kion when he ped despite having severe back pain and a broken rib according to him he pitched that day thinking it would be the end of his baseball career before dice K matu zaka went to the Red Sox he pitched a 148 pitch shut out in the round of 16 at the Kosen this is more pitches than any MLB pitcher has thrown in a game all season he followed It Up by pitching the very next day where he not only pitched but pitched a 17 inning complete game where he threw 250 pitches the next day he came into the game again pitched the final inning and sent his team to the finals where one day later he threw a nine inning no hitter to win the Kos in one of the best pitching performances in baseball history he threw 500 pitches three complete games and threw 36 innings in four 4 days this cemented him as a legend and celebrity in Japan at 17 years old but in terms of pitch count and wear and tear on a pitcher’s arm even that doesn’t compare to the famous matchup between Masahiro Tanaka and Yuki these two met in the 2006 finals to get there Yuki Sato threw a complete game in the quarterfinals the very next day he threw a complete game in the semifinals the day after that he faced Masahiro Tanaka’s team in the finals and threw another complete game but this one was 15 Innings long after 15 Innings the score was tied one to1 according to the kosan rules at the time if a game went longer than 15 Innings tied the game would restart and be replayed the next day from the first inning and even though Sato who had just St three complete games in 3 days the third one being 15 Innings long where he threw 165 pitches he started the very next day Tanaka also pitched all nine innings for his team on zero days rest but in the end in arguably the most legendary moment in koshen history in a 4 to3 game satto struck out Tanaka to get the final out winning the kosan in the end Tanaka who was battling the flu through 52 Innings and 742 pitches in in 11 days while satto the Undisputed star of the tournament pitched seven games in 2 weeks through 69 innings in an insane 948 pitches the most Innings and pitches thrown in the 100 plus year history of the Kos in 2023 Sandy alcantra threw three complete games all season that was the most in Major League Baseball Sato threw four of them in four days he became an instant celebrity while pitching he would constantly wipe his face with a handkerchief earning him the nickname the handkerchief Prince which became such a popular nickname it was awarded the new word buzzword award given to the term that captured the Public’s attention the most throughout the year the specific brand of handkerchief at one point were being sold for $3 but due to Sato they were selling for $70 his opponent Masahiro Tanaka went on to become a star in mpb became became a success in MLB for the Yankees and cemented himself as one of Japan’s most elite pitchers satto wasn’t as successful he pitched 11 years in mpb battled shoulder injuries and put up a career erra over 4.5 yet he remained a household name According to some satto remained an mpb despite bad performances just based on the revenue the team received from merchandise and commercials he shot for the team even today after retirement he’s on TV commercials and has become a commentator his gutsy performance as a 17-year-old led to notoriety that lasted his entire life so it’s no surprise players will risk their future to pitch in this tournament even if it seems like child abuse to Americans in 2013 a pitcher who had a similar performance made headlines in America Tomah hero and Raku had carried his team to the finals pitching almost every inning of five games in nine days while nursing fatigue and a hand injury but in the finals ended up losing 17-1 he lost all of his Effectiveness out of nowhere and despite the blowout was only removed from the game after his 772nd pitch of the tournament this made headlines in America a scout interviewed in one piece said he was the number one Prospect in Japan but after the final his career was in Jeopardy UD dar’s agent described the Chatman as nothing less than child abuse and Raku didn’t pitch again for months due to injury he made his professional debut 2 years later where his fast ball was 4 mph slower than it was in high school he has since battled injuries throughout his young career it’s easy to blame his high pitch count for the injuries and dismiss Japanese pitching methods as dangerous however if that was true you’d expect to see Japanese pitchers getting hurt way more often than American pitchers which isn’t the the case the only research available on this studied an ml organization and an mpb organization and found M Mo players get injured 3.7 times more frequently than players in Japan the study also found no significant difference in injuries between pitchers in MLB and in mpb there is real reason to believe that throwing more pitches even at a young age builds more endurance and strength and actually protects a pitcher’s arm but even in Japan this is open for debate the koshan just implemented a new rule that bans pitchers from throwing more than 500 pitches in a week in order to protect them but this is still two to three times more pitches than any major leager would ever throw in a week the real danger for pitchers isn’t necessarily throwing a lot of pitches it’s throwing a lot of pitches while injured which happens all the time in the kosan because playing in it to many is a bigger honor than even playing in the pros but for players who do want to play in the pros it’s just as important because it’s the number one place for amateur players to get scouted and seen players like show Otani Ichiro dice K Matsuzaka Hideki Matsui U darish and many many more had their careers jump started at the Kosen then went on to become Japan’s biggest baseball Legend so there’s no surprise why high schoolers will play through injuries live strict regimented lives go through 7 hours of practice a day and often times in actual physical abuse for a chance to play in it and improve their chances of going pro but once they leave high school and do go to the pros the training and lifestyle there is shockingly similar Warren Kamari described playing professional baseball in Japan as quote serving in the Japanese Imperial Army Charlie Manuel says the coaching was so strict and regimented his coach was in charge of when he was able to change his socks for Americans professional baseball and Japan results in major culture shock just ask Rod Allen who after being targeted by a pitch charged the mound but instead of the pitcher defending himself on the mound ran away he chased him dodging multiple people while the pitcher ran across the infield into the Outfield being chased by Rod Allen and dozens of other players the fight ended without any punches but Rod Allen was still exhausted this would probably never happen in America but the major difference between professional baseball in Japan and the US is that it’s probably three times more work the mpb has a long history of famously strict managers in 1977 Giants manager tetsu Hara kawakami forbid his players wives from requesting sex from his players so that they would be able to conserve their energy the team also banned players from Reading comic books in public to protect their image the Sabu Lions had a rule that Bann players from from being in commercials tetsuro Hoka once banned his team from drinking soda he also didn’t let his players see their girlfriends during the season because he thought it was a distraction and put every player on a strict diet of fish soybeans brown rice tofu and soup he would even call his players at night to make sure they were in bed by 12:00 after a disappointing season in 1984 he ordered a postseason camp that lasted 3 months instead of going home for the off season players were required to do 8 hours of drills a day take 600 swings every day and pitchers were made to throw 430 pitches a day when they didn’t do baseball he had his players do other things like swimming and a Kido this was an Infamous training camp and not normal even in Japan however fall camp like this but less intense is a thing that team still do today Major Leaguers end their season in October then go home until spring training in February in Japan players are expected to report for more practice as soon as the season ends it typically lasts a month followed by spring training which starts on the 1st of February so many mpb players off season is just one month when spring training does start it is not relaxed like it is an MLB it’s common for mpb pitchers to do Naga Comey sessions essentially throwing as many pitches as physically possible in 2014 takuma Aria threw 341 pitches in one Bullpen it’s normal for players to take part in the 1,000 Fungo drill a famous drill in Japan where a coach hits ground balls to a Fielder until they quit get sick pass out or field 1,000 balls a young infielder for the Giants passed out doing this in 2014 requiring a cardia massage from a trainer spring training in Japan is about building strength and mental will like like this infielder who was recorded taking swings relentlessly for hours until he was on the brink of exhaustion and his hands were covered in blisters this would never happen in the US where spring training usually consists of a few hours of instruction then players basically left to their own devices to slowly build themselves up for a long season in Japan they can go through an intense 7-hour practice followed by hours of studying all enforced by the organization players are so used to this when American Bobby Valentine was hired to manage a team in Japan and put the team through a more relaxed American style training camp with less running less intensity and more rest the players literally revolted and held their own secret practices behind the manager’s back so they could get more practice in the players are used to strict regimented lives each team has their own dormitories where young players are required to live they have a dormatory direct whose job it is to wake them all up at the same time make sure they all eat make sure they’re all eating healthy and even is in charge of making sure they all bathe players live in these dormitories throughout the entire season and have to request permission every time they want to leave they have a strict curfew that if is broken results in a fine and in some cases even worse like the famous story of sun no huchi according to him he was beaten by his legendary Co coach Sahara o in a bathtub because he broke curfew too many times most of the players in dormitories are in the organization’s minor league team but many teams require all players to live in dorms for their first several years no matter how good they are meaning there are legitimate Stars worth millions in Japan who still live in small dorm rooms sharing a space with dozens of other minor Leaguers most players leave the dorms as soon as possible to gain their freedom but the most dedicated players are known to stay as long as possible for example sh Otani had won League MVP and was already the most famous athlete in Japan while still living in the team dormatory Ichiro elected to live in the dorms into his sixth season even though he was League MVP in order to live closer to the batting cages in one extreme case a pitcher named shagi noguchi became the best pitcher in the organization won an mpb Championship a league MVP an RA title and had a salary of $1 million he still voluntarily lived in the team dorm all year so he could solely focus on baseball after his 11th year in the dorm at 28 years old he finally left after his team strongly recommended it was time to get his own place it’s hard to imagine any Star athlete in America living in dormitories especially by choice but in Japan athletes are much less individualistic and are essentially seen as employees of their team in fact most players don’t even really own their own likeness if a player gets an endorsement it has to be organized through their team who has to approve it and even takes a cut in the past some teams have even banned their players from doing commercials because they were seen as a distraction costing players tens of thousands of dollars by comparison mpb players have significantly less rights in fact it was illegal for professional baseball players to have their own agents until 2001 even today player agents have to be a licensed lawyer and are only allowed to have one baseball client since only having one client isn’t enough to have a lucrative business baseball agents in Japan still aren’t really a thing holding out or even haggling management for larger contracts is frowned upon and looked at as selfish in Japan despite this in the 75e history of npb there has only been one player strike the fans were so angry and players felt so guilty that during the strike they still agreed to play games during the weekday while they were on strike on days they didn’t they agreed to sign autographs at the stadium for the entire day and the strike only ended up lasting 2 days on the complete opposite side of the spectrum MLB players have been involved in nine work stoppages have seen player salaries multiply regularly through negotiations with ownership have strong armed the team and League to provide a ton of luxury for players and have created one of the strongest unions in the world where it’s actually considered selfish not to negotiate and do whatever you can to get the biggest contract possible so based on this individualistic mindset which is common in America it’s no surprise that when MLB players have come to Japan they’ve become some of the most hated players in the country just ask Kevin trabber who was targeted and hit by this pitch three times the third time he charged the mound the pitcher ran away all the way into the Outfield trabber chased him across the field caught up to him tackled him then was apparently kicked in the face by the opposing manager upset about this Traer went back to the Dugout pretended to calm down then Beed for the manager to get revenge he pushed the catcher out of the way but lost his balance and fell on his face then got kicked in in the face by the same manager for the second time historically foreign players haven’t necessarily been accepted and dozens of them have stories and incidents just like this but before we get to that a quick word from today’s sponsor we all need a little financial help from time to time especially when we’re low on cash but usually your bank isn’t any help in fact with overdraft fees they actually make things worse that’s where today’s sponsor Dave comes in handy Dave is the banking app that’s leveling the financial playing field field Americans pay Banks billions of dollars in overdraft fees every year but unlike traditional Banks 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altogether these players often get paid more than Japanese players have agents aren’t used to the demanding practices and depending on their status might do their own training regimen away from the team in the 80s the commissioner of npb himself said that foreigners were quote overpaid underproductive and generally annoying this was the commissioner of the league often times foreign players have said just as disrespectful things about Japan Kevin Mitchell came to Japan only to quit 2 months later saying quote the Japanese are dirty I really dislike them this was after he suffered a knee injury wanted to rest but the team was insistent that he play through the pain probably hoping to return to MLB one day it’s understandable that he didn’t want to risk further injury but in Japan if you’re the highest paid player on the team it’s pretty disrespectful not to do everything you can to get back on the field to help them just 7 years earlier Choi marada tore his UCL an injury that requires Tommy John and takes over a year to heal desperate to get back on the mound he continued to throw 100 or more pitches every single day with a torn UCL his arm supposedly swelled two to three times its normal size but he continued to throw and heal his arm through sheer will doctors didn’t know what was wrong trainers didn’t help he tried acupuncture massages and even attempted electroshock therapy he eventually went to a remote island where he practiced Zen meditation did extended fast swam in ice cold water tried putting hot wax on his arm to heal it and even wrapped his arm in snake skin that had been soaked in whiskey for 8 years hoping it would suck out the poison at one point his arm became so deformed from throwing every day with a torn UCL his team had to give him a cease and desist letter that forbid him from throwing Choi was apparently so embarrassed he wasn’t able to pitch he even gave his wife permission to divorce him but after all of this Choi met with a doctor who suggested a new procedure called Tommy John surgery he became the first Japanese player to ever get the surgery and after 827 days he returned to the mound at 63 years old he could still throw 84 mph the complete and utter dedication to the team is hard to Fathom for MLB players coming to Japan according to Scott Anderson in his first year in Japan he witnessed his manager gather the entire team to watch him slap the team shortstop in the face until he was red because he made two errors Anderson was shocked he approached the player told him he shouldn’t let the manager do that and even offered him to take him to the police station and testify on his behalf the player responded by saying quote no it was an honor to have such a great man educate me to say this is an extreme culture shock is an understatement Clyde Wright says that after losing two straight games in Japan his team suggested he send his wife back home to America in one tragic example Randy bass and npb Legend had to return to his home in Oklahoma in the middle of a season to take care of his son who had a brain tumor when he did not return to Japan by the agreed upon date fans questioned his loyalty to the team and he was dropped from the organization to make matters even worse the Tigers tasked their GM to try to get bass to return to the team while negotiating a deal that would prevent the team from having to pay bass’s son’s medical bills when bass turned this offer down the general manager felt so stressed from the high expectations and embarrassed for not being able to get bass back to Japan he committed suicide this is an example of how seriously Japanese culture takes the duty of being dedicated to your profession putting work in front of family and health is normal and even respected so for hardcore Japanese fans players like bass refusing to make the same sacrifice for the team is extremely disrespectful because it means they’re not taking Japanese baseball seriously and are just there to get a check Japan has always been known as a isolationist country in fact in 1981 a study found that 64% of Japanese people didn’t want to associate with foreigners when Leon Lee came to Japan he was forced to sell his Mercedes because the team banned players from driving foreign cars and a trade war and Rising tensions between the US and Japan in the80s made things even worse for American players who often complained that despite their great numbers it felt like the country and League were actively rooting against them and in some cases this was actually true when Daryl Spencer was about to become the first foreign player to win the Triple Crown he got walked over 20 times in a row to prevent him from hitting another home run he even went to the plate with his Bat upside down and they still walked him to prevent him from getting the triple crown for decades when a foreign player challenged an important record they would get this treatment Randy bass only needed one home run with two games left to tie the single season home run record in Japan ironically these two games were against a team managed by sadaharu o the man who held the record to prevent Bass from getting a chance to tie the record pitchers on the team were threatened with $11,000 f LS for every strike they threw to Bass he got walked six times in two games and never got the record in 2001 Tuffy rhods tied the record with three games left to play he also had to play against a team managed by sadara o they attempted to walk him four straight times rhs got mad swung anyway grounded out twice and never broke the record the next year Alex Cabrera was one Homer away from tying the record with 13 games left according to him in his last 20 at bats he got one strike including a game against sadara O’s team where he got walked twice and got hit by a pitch while a hawks catcher was seen smiling in approval of the walks he apparently got Revenge by running over a catcher while coming home and said after the game that o refused to let him break the record but sadara o and others on the team maintain that the team refused to let these players challenge the record on their own against the manager’s wishes eventually This Record was broken by by a foreigner and O was congratulatory in fact many foreign players have been embraced by Japanese fans and as time goes on it’s become more common Randy bass himself became a celebrity becoming so recognizable he got paid $185,000 to shave his beard in a marketing campaign Brad Leslie became beloved for his insane Antics like slicing players after strikeouts entering the mound on a golf cart and punching his catcher as hard as possible after getting saved he was nicknamed the animal for his psycho behavior and even recorded a hit song in Japan this led to Decades of stardom and a game show career in Japan well after he retired American players who failed in MLB were becoming stars in Japan so the perception in the US was that Japanese players were significantly worse than MLB players which made sense America had been playing baseball for half a century longer than Japan the US started sending teams to face Japanese teams in exhibition games in 1908 by 1955 the US teams were 71 and one against the Japanese in 1971 the Orioles faced what was considered the best Japanese team of all time and beat them eight times in a row in 1981 the Royals faced the Japanese All-Star team while having a case of beer in The Dugout and still went 97 and one the 1984 Orioles claimed that the Japanese host actively tried to take them out after each game and get them drunk so that they would play worse the next day they still went 85 and one after a team of Japanese Allstars went 1 and six against a team of MLB allstar in 1986 a Japanese player said quote we’re a group of little Leaguers playing adults we can never challenge the Americans but however true this was at the time it was about to change by 1995 there hadn’t been a single Japanese player in MLB in 30 years this was due to the reserve Clause a policy that had been deemed illegal in American baseball in 1975 was still around in Japan 20 years later it basically states that when a team drafts a player that player is property of that team their entire career there was no free agency so the only way a player can play for another team was to get traded or released no mpb team was going to release a player good enough to play an ML and a trade with an ml team was impossible so the second a player got drafted in Japan their MLB chances were over until hideo Nomo he was the best pitcher in Japan and in 1994 hired an agent which was illegal in mppb however this notorious agent Dom namura discovered a loophole noo wanted out of Japan but was property of the buffalos until he was released traded or retired so in an extremely risky move devised by his agent he retired at 25 years old the move essentially prohibited Nomo from pitching in Japan ever again instead he took a pay cut to sign a minor league contract with the Dodgers a decision that caused so much backlash in Japan his own father who said he was embarrassing his former team stopped talking to his son all together at first Nomo was seen as an enemy for turning his back on Japan then he started pitching he shocked the World by immediately dominating the league but what was even more shocking was the media frenzy he created and insane 15 camera Crews showed up to his press conference camera Crews would follow him into bathrooms his wife had to stop leaving the house Al together because the media attention was too much Nomo was a rookie and getting 10 times the attention ention as anyone on the Dodgers all of a sudden he was a hero in Japan the Dodgers got massive spikes in attendance every time he pitched sold millions in noo merch and even put a sushi restaurant in Dodger Stadium to adhere to the influx of Japanese fans when he pitched in the All-Star Game 15 million people in Japan watched that’s twice the number of people who watched the MLB All-Star Game this past season just in Japan alone Nomo led the league in strikeouts won Rookie of the Year finished third inside Young voting and perhaps most importantly each game he pitched was broadcasted in Japan and watched by millions MLB realized that Japan not only had players who could dominate they also had players who could bring the league millions in revenue from the massive Japanese Market a new system was quickly implemented that allowed Japanese players to go to an MLB team as long as that MLB team paid a posting fee to the Japanese team MLB teams began paying Millions to mpb teams for their players and the mpb teams happily took the massive amounts of money by 2000 MLB went from having one Japanese player in their 100-year history to Having Eight at one time even having opening day in Japan to take full advantage of the new massive market then the very next year Ichiro showed up he was not only rookie of the year he was MVP of the league was an All-Star won a Silver Slugger and a gold glove people were so confident that Japanese hitters could never have success against MLB pitchers commentator Rob Dibble said he would wear a g string thong in Time Square if Ichiro won the batting title that year Ichiro also won the batting title and Rob Dibble had to wear a thong he not only became the most famous baseball player in the world he likely became the most famous person in Japan so famous that his own father created an Ichiro Museum next to to his childhood home which displayed a bunch of items he kept from Ichiro’s childhood including Ichiro retainer the museum was not only a hit it still runs and operates today Ichiro inspired an entire generation of Japanese players and by 2008 there were 18 Japanese players in MLB and sometimes their philosophies confused Americans like when Ichiro reportedly passed up on $22 Million worth of endorsements in one season because he thought they were a distraction to his duty of playing baseball Hadi Matsui got injured during a game while diving for a ball then apologized to fans for breaking his wrist and even more perplexing to Americans was when mitsui not only admitted to having a porn collection of over 50,000 movies during a press conference but also promised to give some of them to the writers between Ichiro Matsui and Nomo Japan had MLB stars but they also had MLB failures and nobody outside of Japan genuinely believed they had talent that came close to the skill level of America or Latin American countries but in 2006 they had a chance to prove it and it almost started a war the First World Baseball Classic in 2006 is one of the most pivotal moments in Japanese baseball history on paper they were extremely outmatched they had two major league players Team USA had 30 of them with a combined 117 All-Star appearances six MVP awards and three Hall of Famers but their toughest competition ended up being Korea centuries of conflict and political turmoil between these two countries almost guaranteed this matchup would get personal and it did Ichiro became Public Enemy Number One in Korea after previous comments about how he visited the country and said it smelled like garlic also saying that he wanted to beat Korea Korea so bad they wouldn’t have a chance for the next 30 years when they matched up Korea instantly sent a message by throwing a fast ball directly at him Korea won the first game but they played again a few days later in the next round where once again Korea upset Japan in what Ichiro described as quote the most humiliating loss of his entire life after the game Korea celebrated by planting a Korean flag on the mound as each looked on in complete and utter rage team Japan saw this as the ultimate sign of disrespect and got a chance at Revenge again in the semifinal Ichiro was booed relentlessly by Korean fans later the Korean third baseman caught a popup and tossed it towards Ichiro’s feet and pitcher kimon hun even nailed a Japanese batter after they hit a homer off him Japan ended up getting their Revenge they beat Korea went to the final and and defeated Cuba to win the first ever WBC this final game was watched by 60 million people in Japan alone that’s more than any World Series in history likely making it the most watched baseball game of all time as well as perhaps the most watched sporting event in Japanese history it was a cultural event and a legendary team if you search the 2006 WBC in Japanese you will see clips of this team with millions and millions of views if you search it in English you’re going to find basically nothing in America this tournament is completely forgotten despite the Stacked roster they finished seventh and most people dismissed it as an exhibition that by no means proved Japanese baseball was anywhere close to American baseball a team with basically no major league Talent winning the tournament felt like a fluke but 3 years later they won it again this time time beating the United States head-to-head and once again reaching viewership numbers that no baseball game in America could come close to these players were unknown to the rest of the world and stuck in mpb but many of them would go on to come to America and have amazing M Mo careers on top of that at the Youth Level Japan also excelled in littley going on to win four of the next seven World Series but despite dominating International competition Japan’s reputation still lagged behind the United States the Dominican Republic and perhaps even several other Latin American countries in 2017 there were only eight Japanese players in MLB this gave Americans the impression that there were only eight Japanese players good enough to play an MLB in reality there were dozens and this is why unlike countries in Latin America and Taiwan and even Korea many Japanese players can actually make more money in Japan where they are stars in fact npb is the second highest attended Sports league in the world in 2019 NPP surpassed MLB in average attendance per game they have 15 less teams and 400 less games a year than NBA yet draw 5 million more fans than NBA does every single season to put into context how massive baseball has become in Japan this past season 32 million people watched game seven of the Japan series that’s more than the average 2023 World Series game NBA Finals game and Stanley Cup Finals game combined the league is so popular and important in Japan that players grow up dreaming of npb success many have no desire to play an MLB at all Ichiro’s stardom and success in America had inspired an influx of Japanese talent in the the 2000s but by the late 2010s the number of Japanese players dwindled the ones in MLB weren’t coming close to the production and star power of Ichiro Japan was likely better at baseball than ever but with their talent staying in npb there was no way for them to prove it against the best competition in the world then shohi showed up in Japan Otani voluntarily lived in the team dormatory even while being the most famous athlete in the the country despite making $2.4 million a year he gave his mother complete control of his finances and lived off an allowance of $1,000 a month in the dorms his rent and food were covered by the team and all his free time was taken by baseball training so during this time Otani spent $4,000 over a span of two entire years he cared so little about money he gave up a potential contract worth over $200 million to come to MLB in 2017 where he signed for 3.5 million meaning he gave up $196 million just to come to MLB 2 years sooner Otani didn’t even get a driver’s license until he was in his mid-20s and a national hero the Rabid Japanese Paparazzi has been trying to catch him with a girlfriend for years and have still yet to do so and when he did a 10 things he couldn’t live without video for GQ they were literally all baseball or training items otani’s obsessive and borderline unhealthy Devotion to baseball is the epitome of Japanese baseball training philosophy and Otani quickly becoming arguably the greatest player ever proves this philosophy is extremely helpful by 2023 the world knew the greatest and most famous player on Earth was Japanese what the world didn’t know was that several other of the world’s best players were also Japanese but nobody outside of Japan had ever heard of them but in the 20123 WBC they had a chance to change that with stars like Otani Legends like UD darish and upand cominging phenoms like Roki Sasaki all on the same team this was heralded as potentially the greatest team ever assembled in Japan but with only three players with any MLB experience the rest of the world heralded Team USA and the Dominican Republic as significantly stronger in Japan this quickly became the most popular team of all time with so much hype surrounding them that 36 million people watched their exhibition game each game during pool play was watched by at least 40% of the entire country their game against Korea was watched by 55 million people in Japan and their final game in Japan was watched by over 60 million people once again breaking the record for the most watched baseball game game of all time then in a matchup to win it all they defeated the United States for another WBC Title the magnitude of this tournament was so big in Japan an economist estimated that the 3-week long tournament generated 484 million for the Japanese economy the sheer numbers in viewership makes it hard to deny that right now baseball is significantly more popular in Japan than it is in America not only did they beat America in a head-to-head matchup they marched through the entire tournament going undefeated Japan has been overlooked due to their lack of representation in the majors for decades but now more than ever that is changing showy otani’s insane star power is having the exact same effect Ichiro had on Japanese players in the 2000s the amount of Japanese players in MLB has already increased by 66% in the past two seasons this offseason Otani signed the biggest contract in history a a few weeks later his Japanese teammate yoshinobu Yamamoto signed the biggest pitching contract in baseball history the highest paid hitter and pitcher ever are now both Japanese kod senga made the switch to ml and dominated the National League last year two other pitchers from Team Japan also signed contracts with MLB teams this off season and more are coming Roki Sasaki threw a perfect game while striking out 19 batters if that happened in MLB it’d be considered the most dominant performance in history he followed it with eight more perfect Innings the next game before getting pulled he did this at 20 years old Sasaki has already requested to be posted and will likely come to MLB next season munaki morakami who sent team Japan to the WBC final with a walk-off double broke the single season home run record in Japan at 22 years old he also made his attentions to come to MLB clear and will likely come within the next 2 years even Japan’s top high school Prospect raro Sasaki who hit a mind-blowing 140 home runs in high school is enrolling in an American University in order to get to MLB sooner likely becoming the first top Japanese High School Prospect to skip mpb all together for the first time maybe ever MLB has become the end goal for players in Japan not only are more players coming to MLB the best players in the country are doing it in a few years there will be more Japanese players in MLB than and these players will have a chance to prove to everyone that once and for all Japan has become the best baseball country in the world