Professional baseball in Japan
Encyclopedia
Professional baseball in Japan first started in the 1920s, but it was not until the was established in 1934
that the modern professional
game had continued success.
in 1872 by Horace Wilson
, and its first formal team was established in 1878. For almost 30 years, until 1906, a game could be viewed free of charge, as it was considered shameful to take money for doing something the players liked.
was necessary to improve, two professional teams were established in 1920. In the same year, teams held exhibition tours in Korea
and Manchuria
to spread baseball. This first professional league disintegrated in 1923 for financial reasons, and after repeated attempts to revive a professional league, it formally disbanded in 1929.
and the latter became the Hanshin Tigers
. In 1936, five other teams also formed, and the Japanese Baseball League
was started. Briefly forced to stop playing for a year beginning in 1944, it restarted on November 6, 1945, and a full season was played the next year.
Fumito "Jimmy" Horio became the first American to play professional baseball in Japan when he joined the Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu (Tokyo Giants) in December 1934, touring with them in 1935.
Jimmy Bonna, Kiyomi "Slim" Hirakawa, Fumito "Jimmy" Horio, Kazuyoshi "George" Matsuura, Andrew "Bucky" Harris McGalliard (Japan's "Bucky Harris"), Herbert "Buster" North, Yoshio "Sam" Takahashi, and Tadashi "Bozo" Wakabayashi became the first Americans to play in Japan's professional baseball league in 1936.
The four-team played a 30-game summer season in 1947. The monopolistic practices of the dominant Nippon Professional Baseball Leagues helped bring an end to the new rival league. The Kokumin League disbanded after a few games into the 1947 fall season.
The Japanese Baseball League was disbanded in 1949.
All-Stars has made a biennial end-of-the-season tour of Japan, playing exhibitions games against the Nippon Professional Baseball All-Stars in the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series
.
Starting in 1992 and continuing intermittently, several Major League Baseball teams have played exhibition games against Japanese teams. American teams popular in Japan include the Chicago Cubs
, Seattle Mariners
, Boston Red Sox
, and New York Yankees
, at least in part due to Japanese players on those teams.
2005 marked the first Asia Series
, pitting the champions of the Japanese, South Korean
, and Taiwanese
leagues along with the Mainland China All-Stars.
Style is different." While others have objected to characterizing the sport in these terms, many Japanese players and managers describe themselves this way.
The 1992 film, Mr. Baseball
, stars Tom Selleck
as an aging hitter who goes to Japan and finds a different approach to baseball and to life.
1934 in baseball
-Major League Baseball:*World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Detroit Tigers *All-Star Game, July 10 at Polo Grounds: American League, 9-7-Awards and honors:*Most Valuable Player:**American League: Mickey Cochrane, Detroit Tigers, C...
that the modern professional
Professional baseball
Baseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....
game had continued success.
History
Baseball was introduced to JapanBaseball in Japan
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. It was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. Baseball has been a popular sport ever since...
in 1872 by Horace Wilson
Horace Wilson (professor)
Horace Wilson was an American expatriate educator in late 19th century Empire of Japan. He is one of the persons credited with introducing the sport of baseball to Japan.-Biography:Wilson was born in Gorham, Maine...
, and its first formal team was established in 1878. For almost 30 years, until 1906, a game could be viewed free of charge, as it was considered shameful to take money for doing something the players liked.
Early attempts
In 1907, the first game was held that had a fee to watch. From 1908, several United States professional teams toured Japan and played against amateur teams made up mostly of university students. Realizing that a professional leagueSports league
League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...
was necessary to improve, two professional teams were established in 1920. In the same year, teams held exhibition tours in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
to spread baseball. This first professional league disintegrated in 1923 for financial reasons, and after repeated attempts to revive a professional league, it formally disbanded in 1929.
Japanese Baseball League
In 1934, was established, reviving professional baseball. A second team, was established in the following year. The former became the Yomiuri GiantsYomiuri Giants
The are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
and the latter became the Hanshin Tigers
Hanshin Tigers
The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...
. In 1936, five other teams also formed, and the Japanese Baseball League
Japanese Baseball League
For the current Japanese Professional League, see Nippon Professional Baseball. was a professional baseball league in Japan.It was established on February 5, 1936 as "Japan Occupational Baseball League". Then it was renamed "Japanese Baseball League" in 1939. It was run until 1949. There was no...
was started. Briefly forced to stop playing for a year beginning in 1944, it restarted on November 6, 1945, and a full season was played the next year.
Fumito "Jimmy" Horio became the first American to play professional baseball in Japan when he joined the Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu (Tokyo Giants) in December 1934, touring with them in 1935.
Jimmy Bonna, Kiyomi "Slim" Hirakawa, Fumito "Jimmy" Horio, Kazuyoshi "George" Matsuura, Andrew "Bucky" Harris McGalliard (Japan's "Bucky Harris"), Herbert "Buster" North, Yoshio "Sam" Takahashi, and Tadashi "Bozo" Wakabayashi became the first Americans to play in Japan's professional baseball league in 1936.
The four-team played a 30-game summer season in 1947. The monopolistic practices of the dominant Nippon Professional Baseball Leagues helped bring an end to the new rival league. The Kokumin League disbanded after a few games into the 1947 fall season.
The Japanese Baseball League was disbanded in 1949.
International play
Since 1986, a team of Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
All-Stars has made a biennial end-of-the-season tour of Japan, playing exhibitions games against the Nippon Professional Baseball All-Stars in the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series
Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series
The Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series is a set of games between All-Star teams from North America's Major League Baseball and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. The series takes place every even numbered year in the Tokyo Dome and other NPB home stadiums...
.
Starting in 1992 and continuing intermittently, several Major League Baseball teams have played exhibition games against Japanese teams. American teams popular in Japan include the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
, Seattle Mariners
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are a professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in , the Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Safeco Field has been the Mariners' home ballpark since July...
, Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
, and New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, at least in part due to Japanese players on those teams.
2005 marked the first Asia Series
Asia Series
The Asia Series is an international baseball tournament in East Asia that was first held between November 10 and November 13, 2005, in Tokyo. The tournament was sponsored by Konami corporation from 2005 to 2007 and was known as the Konami Cup in that period.It is played among the annual champions...
, pitting the champions of the Japanese, South Korean
Korean Baseball Organization
Korea Professional Baseball is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The Korean romanization is Hanguk Peuro Yagu , a league title which mirrors Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. Korea Professional Baseball was originally founded with six teams in 1982 and currently has eight...
, and Taiwanese
Chinese Professional Baseball League
The Chinese Professional Baseball League , or CPBL, is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 2003...
leagues along with the Mainland China All-Stars.
Samurai baseball?
The American writer Robert Whiting wrote in his 1977 book The Chrysanthemum and the Bat that "The Japanese view of life, stressing group identity, cooperation, hard work, respect for age, seniority and 'face' has permeated almost every aspect of the sport. Americans who come to play in Japan quickly realize that Baseball SamuraiSamurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
Style is different." While others have objected to characterizing the sport in these terms, many Japanese players and managers describe themselves this way.
The 1992 film, Mr. Baseball
Mr. Baseball
Mr. Baseball is a 1992 American film that starred Tom Selleck and was directed by Fred Schepisi.-Plot:Jack Elliot is an aging American baseball player put on the trading block by the New York Yankees in favor of a rookie first-baseman , and there's only one taker: the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of...
, stars Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
as an aging hitter who goes to Japan and finds a different approach to baseball and to life.
See also
- Baseball in JapanBaseball in JapanBaseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. It was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. Baseball has been a popular sport ever since...
- ŌendanOendanAn , literally "cheering squad" or "cheering section", is a Japanese sports rallying team similar in purpose to a cheerleading squad in the United States, but relies more on making a lot of noise with taiko drums, blowing horns and other items, waving flags and banners, and yelling through plastic...
- List of Japanese baseball players
- Nippon Professional Baseball
Further reading
- Fitts, Robert K. Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005. ISBN 0809326299, ISBN 0809326302.
- Graczyk, Wayne. 2007 Japan Pro Baseball Fan Handbook & Media Guide. Tokyo: Japan Pro Baseball Fan Handbook & Media Guide, 2007. ISBN 4901178815. Annual since 1976.
- Holway, John. Japan Is Big League in Thrills. Tokyo: Tokyo News Service, 1955.
- Johnson, Daniel E. Japanese Baseball: A Statistical Handbook. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1999 (reprinted 2006). ISBN 078640678X, ISBN 0786428414.
- Maitland, Brian. Japanese Baseball: A Fan's Guide. North Clarendon, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0804816808.
- Miike, Fred N. Baseball Mad Japan. Tokyo: 1955.
- Obojski, RobertRobert ObojskiRobert Obojski is a writer of over 50 books on baseball, coin and stamp collecting and memorabilia. He is a numismatist. Obojski grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Western Reverse University ; he graduated with a BA in History in 1951, a MA in English in 1952 and his Ph.D in 1955 in...
. The Rise of Japanese Baseball Power. Radnor, Pa.: Chilton Book Co., 1975. ISBN 0801960614.
Biographies and players
- Bauer, Carlos. The All-Time Japanese Baseball Register: The Complete Statistical Record of All the Great Japanese & American Players. San Diego, Calif.: Baseball Press Books, 2000. ISBN 189339204X.
- Cromartie, Warren, and Robert Whiting. Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield. New York: Kodansha International, 1991. ISBN 4770014236, ISBN 0451170768 (reprint: Signet, 1992).
- Fitts, Robert, and Gary Engel. Japanese Baseball SuperStars: Hall of Fame and Meikyukai Profiles. Lauderhill, Flor.: Prestige Collectibles, 2001. ISBN ?. Spiral bound.
- Ivor-Campbell, Frederick. "Sadaharu Oh's Place in Baseball's Pantheon". The National Pastime, no. 12 (1992), pp. 35–36. ISBN 091013748X.
- Leutzinger, Richard. "Lefty O'Doul and the Development of Japanese Baseball". The National Pastime, no. 12 (1992), pp. 30–34. ISBN 091013748X.
- Leutzinger, Richard. Lefty O’Doul, the Legend That Baseball Nearly Forgot: The Story of the Hall of Fame’s Missing Star. Carmel, Calif.: Carmel Bay Publishing Group, 1997. ISBN 1883532035.
- Oh, Sadaharu, and David Falkner. Sadaharu Oh: A Zen Way of Baseball. New York: Times Books, 1984. ISBN 0812911091, ISBN 0394741056.
- Puff, Richard. "The Amazing Story of Victor Starffin". The National Pastime, no. 12 (1992), pp. 17–20. ISBN 091013748X. "A Russian ace in the Land of the Rising Sun".
- Stanka, Jean, and Joe Stanka. Coping with Clouters, Culture and Crisis. Ouda-cho, Uda-gun, Nara Pref., Japan; Wilmington, Del.: Dawn Press, 1987. ISBN 0933704577.
- Uhlan, Edward and Dana L. Thomas. Shoriki: Miracle Man of Japan. A Biography. New York: Exposition Press, 1957. About Matsutaro ShorikiMatsutaro Shorikiwas the father of Japanese professional baseball. Born in Daimon, Toyama, he was a media mogul, owned the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's major daily newspapers, and founded Japan's first commercial television station, Nippon Television Network Corporation...
, the founder of Japanese professional baseball. E-book at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
.
Books about international baseball
- Gmelch, George (Editor). Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2006. ISBN 0803271255.
- McNeil, William F. Baseball's Other All-Stars: The Greatest Players from the Negro Leagues, the Japanese Leagues, the Mexican League, and the Pre-1960 Winter Leagues in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2000. ISBN 0786407840.
- McNeil, William F. The King of Swat: An Analysis of Baseball's Home Run Hitters from the Major, Minor, Negro and Japanese Leagues. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1997. ISBN 0786403624.
- Reaves, Joseph A. Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2002. ISBN 0803290012.
Japanese baseball cards
- Engel, Gary. Japanese Baseball Card Checklist & Price Guide, 6th edition. Lauderhill, Flor.: Prestige Collectibles, 2005. ISBN ?.
- Gall, John, Gary Engel, and Steven Heller. Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006. ISBN 0811849457.
External links
- Jim Allen's Japanese Baseball Page
- Japanese Baseball Bibliography (June 1995)
- JapanBall.com - The complete guide to Japanese Baseball
- The Japanese Baseball Insider at The Baseball Guru
- Baseball In Japan, a WBGU-PBS documentary