Top Stories - Baseball

Bobby Valentine, manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan is currently in Las Vegas looking to sign at least a half-dozen big league players.

Valentine feels justified if he can steal his imports off big-league rosters, since he contends pitchers Masahide Kobayashi (Cleveland) and Yasuhiko Yabuta (Kansas City) were swiped from his bullpen before last season.

Many Japanese baseball officials are outraged that U.S. teams are courting 22-year-old Junichi Tazawa, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, because they insist it is long-established practice for amateurs like him to be strictly off-limits to major league clubs.

A New York Mets fan site provides a rundown on Japanese players who came to the Mets with great expectations but did not produce, plus a number that got away from the Mets only to crash and burn elsewhere.

Something to ponder the next time someone tries to tell you that Japanese baseball is on par with U.S. MLB.

The one big black mark on Sadaharu Oh's reputation was, of course, the unsportsmanlike behavior of the pitchers on his team whenever foreign batsmen threatened his single season home run record of 55.

is this possible? that would be like Sir Alex or Jose being a striker/manager

"Maybe we should just let Ichiro be a playing manager," Nomura was quoted to say on the Nikkansports website Friday.

*Also please forgive me my ignorance on this sport, but I'm keen to learn and I wish we had more Baseball Stories on Japundit*

thanks

remora

as I've mentioned before I'm still a novice with Baseball but my kids are keen on Japanese Sports so in order not to appear ignorant its in my interest to keep up a bit with whats going on...I havent got a hope trying to get them interested in Cricket so this is the next best thing.

remora

In 1985, Hanshin Tigers beat the Seibu Lions and won their first Japan Series, thanks much to Randy Bass who was the Tiger MVP). Fans were celebrated in the streets. At the Ebisubashi Bridge in Osaka, they would yell out the name of one of a Tigers’ players, and someone who resembling that player would jump off the bridge into the canal. Since there was no white dude resembling Randy Bass they took the local KFC’s Colonel Sanders statue and chucked it into the river. The Tigers have not won the Japan Series since.

Here is a video of a "4-shake ball," which is reportedly a new pitch created by Satoru Komiyama of the Chiba Lotte Marines.

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Japan Olympic baseball manager Senichi Hoshino complained Saturday about new changes to the extra-inning rules for the Beijing Olympics.

A great piece by Wayne Graczyk who kindly takes us back in time to remind us of how much things have changed since Nomo went over to the Majors.

Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo, who paved the way for the current crop of Japanese baseball stars currently playing in the U.S. has announced his retirement. Nomo's 123 wins are the most in the majors by a Japanese pitcher. Good-bye to a true superstar.