The Differences of American and Japanese Baseball

I’ve posted a lot on here about Japanese baseball players but little on the game of baseball in Japan.  But just what differences exist between MLB and Japanese Professional Baseball? The game itself is not as different as you think.  There are two leagues, one employing a DH (the Pacific League), the other having the pitcher bat (the Central League).  Teams represent a certain geographic area.  There are “faces” of a franchise that garner more admiration (and subsequently, cash).  But the presentation of the game is sure to turn a few heads.  Here are some key differences between the two:

1.) Small ball! – This one is pretty obvious and is usually the topic of conversation on American television or radio programs when referencing Japanese baseball.  In Japan, less emphasis is placed on home runs with players and managers instead focusing on small ball: walks, sac flys, stolen bases, bunts, and solid fielding.  Many credit Japan’s small ball approach with their win of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.  This does not mean that there are no big home run hitters in Japan, however, most of the them are foreign players, like Alex Cabrera or Tuffy Rhodes.  For a consistently good Japanese home run hitter, look up Yomiuri Giants star Michihiro Ogasawara.

2.) Ties are a possibility in Japanese baseball – In Major League Baseball, if it takes 20 innings and two days to break a tie, so be it.  You will never see a tie game in the Majors except under the most extreme of circumstances.  Ties in Japan are uncommon, but not completely impossible.  There is a rule in Japan that after 15 innings if the game remains tied, it will end as a tie.  This rule does not apply to the playoffs, of course.

3.) Hit a batter, tip your cap – In Japan, if a pitcher hits a batter, it is customary for the pitcher to tip his cap as the batter takes a base.  This is a sign of respect and proof that the pitcher did not intend to injure the hitter.  There are really no intentional hit batsmen or retaliatory pitches in Japanese baseball.  Good thing Roger Clemens never played in Japan.  He probably would have been deported.

4.) Six man rotations – Japanese baseball teams employ six man rotations.  Doing so gives the pitcher extra preparation (they only pitch once a week if there is an off day) and keeps their arms “fresh”.  I use quotations because the definition of fresh is highly volatile.  Many starters in Japan throw over 100 pitches on every occasion.  Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hiroki Kuroda, starters who have moved to MLB, have received extra care from trainers to ensure that the one day less of rest does not adversely affect their performance.

5.) The Japan Series is not the last series for the champs – The Asia Series, or officially, the Konami Cup, is a new playoff series that started in 2005.  Each November, the champions of Japanese Professional Baseball, Korean Professional Baseball, the Taiwan Baseball League and the Chinese Professional League play each other head to head.  The top two teams advance to a championship round and the best team is considered the champion of baseball in Asia.  Japan has won every year, with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2005, the Nippon Ham Fighters in 2006 and the Chunichi Dragons in 2007.

6.) Team names contain the company that owns them - The Boston Red Sox.  The New York Yankees.  The Philapdelphia Phillies.  American baseball clubs are named after the city or state that they represent (unless you’re the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in which case you have a stupid name).  Japanese clubs are named after the company that owns them.  Yomiuri is not the city in which the Giants play.  The Giants are a Tokyo-based franchise but are owned by the Yomiuri Newspaper and hence are named after them.  The Seibu Lions are from Saitama but are named after the Seibu Department Stores.  The Nippon Ham Fighters are from Hokkaido but are named after the meat company.  The Softbank Hawks are from Fukuoka but are named after the joint bank and cell phone company.  Only one team does not have a company listed in their name: the Yokohama Bay Stars, even though they are owned by TBS, a television station.

7.) Fan Cheering Sections – If you do ever manage to see a Japanese baseball game on TV, you will notice that there is almost constant singing and cheering.  This comes from the designated “cheering sections” for the two teams playing.  Fans sitting in these sections learn cheers for each individual player on their favorite team and sing them at each at-bat.  There are usually two or three people leading a section, complete with drums and a trumpet to maintain a beat and to alert the fans as to what cheer they will sing next.  What is most unusual is that the cheering occurs only in this section, with every other part of the stadium relatively quiet.

8.) FIght Songs – Every team has a fight song.  You can’t call yourself a diehard fan if you don’t know your teams song! Often sung during the 7th or 8th inning at the home team’s stadium, these songs are meant to inflict pride and give the home team extra strength to get the win.  These songs are even available at karaoke centers for any fan to sing.  The most famous fight song is the Hanshin Tigers’, with such lyrics as:

Powerful hits and skillful pitches achieved a thousand times
Trained with every discipline here at Koshien
Crowned with constant victory, glorious, matchless feats
Always proud, invincible “Hanshin Tigers”

(Source: http://everything2.com/e2node/Hanshin%2520Tigers)

9.) Food – Hungry at the ballpark? How about a nice hot dog and a soda? Or a juicy burger? How about breaded pork with curry and rice or fried octopus balls? Food at Japanese ballparks ranges from your standard hot dog to a complete obento, a boxed meal that usually has a main dish like sushi or curry, rice, Japanese pickles, and a small portion of cabbage.  The unfortunate part? You have to get out of your seat to buy any of it.  Don’t fret yet, because in Japan, there are…

10.) Beer Girls!! – While you do have to get up to buy food at the ballpark, you don’t have to move a muscle for drinks.  Baseball stadiums employ beer girls who walk around the park with about a keg of beer on their back that is constantly kept cool.  They pour your beer straight from the tap and hand it to you in your seat.  The best part? It’s twofold.  There is no strict beer licensing at ballparks like in America, meaning you can get three or four different choices of what to have.  Also, tipping is not customary in Japan, so no scrambling to find a dollar in quarters in your wallet or purse.  The bad part? It’s expensive, with higher end beers like Asahi Super Dry sometimes costing $9 or $10.

Friday’s News and Notes

• MLB will not penalize anyone named in the Mitchell Report thanks to a new agreement between Commissioner Selig and the Player’s Association. In exchange, there will be more frequent drug testing. Selig then got down on his knees and thanked the Player’s Association, calling them “Master”.
• The A’s Rich Harden is on the disabled list once again. His goal to appear in more than 7 games looks grim.
• Prince Fielder of the Brewers has 0 homers so far. He had 50 last year.
• Mike Lowell of the Red Sox and the Yankees’ Derek Jeter are both hurting, with Lowell going on the DL. Their numbers? Jeter has .208 average and only 1 RBI. Lowell is even worse, hitting .200 with no homers and no RBI. Still, its early.
• Rays reliever Al Reyes was tasered by police last night after being uncooperative in a bar.
• A construction worker on the new Yankee Stadium who happens to be a Red Sox fan supposedly buried a Red Sox shirt in the basement of the visiting clubhouse to jinx the Yankees. Red Sox fans are praying it wasn’t an Eric Gagne shirt.
• The Tigers are only 1-7 after losing two of three to the Red Sox. Too early to pack it in?
• Arizona quietly has the best record in baseball at 7-2. Young stars Chris Young and Justin Upton have been driving the hitting while Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Micah Owings have been excellent.
• Finally, tonight is the start of the best rivalry in sports, Sox and Yanks. So now we can truly say baseball season is in full swing.

Reasons to Be Excited in KC

How ’bout them Royals?

Honestly, when was the last time anybody could say that? In their last two games, the Royals have made the free-spending Yankees look silly, blanking them last night 4-0 and winning the night before 5-2.  Even Alex Rodriguez, the all-but-crowned future home run king, struck out four times to the Royals relatively unknown staff.  So how excited should Royals fans be over their 2008 club?

Simple answer: very excited.

For starters, the Royals have some outstanding young pitchers.  Their ace, Gil Meche, scoffed at for the hefty 5-year $55 million deal he signed during the 2006 offseason, silenced some critics last year.  Meche had a 3.67 ERA last year with 156 K’s, but his most impressive stat, and one that the Royals see as invaluable to have again in 2008, was his 216 innings pitched.  Brian Bannister, who finished third for rookie of the year in 2007, can straight up pitch.  He has a nasty 12-6 curveball that is sure to lead to a huge number of strikeouts.  And Zach Greinke, a man who once left baseball because of social anxiety, has shown no anxiety so far in 2008.  Armed with a plus fastball and an excellent curve like Bannister, he helped blank the Yankees last night, pitching 8 shutout innings.  Joakim Soria, their closer, has great mound presence and a killer mentality that combines well with his fastball and slider.  Heck, even Brett Tomko is a decent number 5 guy.

Their hitting is not that bad either.  The Royals are stacked with some great hitters that you’ve never heard of simply because they play in KC.  Third baseman Alex Gordon, a former minor league rookie of the year, can hit for power and average and is ready to look past his disappointing 2007 campaign.  DH Billy Butler is a patient hitter who will hit for high average and get on base.  Tie those guys in with great hitters like outfielders Mark Teahen and Jose Guillen and this club is going to be strong offensively and defensively.

But nobody gets excited about stats, unless they just play fantasy baseball all day.  Fans get excited for wins, and the Royals are going to do plenty of that this year.  Their top of the rotation pitchers in Meche, Bannister and Greinke are too talented to not help the team win.  I could see each one winning 15 games, if they stay healthy, physically and mentally.  Also, they are led by the best manager to have never managed a single game in Major League Baseball.  I cannot say enough good things about Hillman, who spent the last 5 years managing the Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese Professional League.  In 2006, he won the Japan Series (Nippon Ham’s first in 40 years!) and returned to the Series the following year, losing to the Chunichi Dragons.  Hillman is a no-nonsense, play-til-its-over type of manager.  He demands respect and consistent effort.  The Royals have lacked that fire to push them to win every game in previous years, and Hillman will bring that back.

This team is going to be above .500 and that is just the minimum of what I see them accomplishing.  You can quote me on this, the Royals will finish above .500 and not be the last place team in the AL Central.

But will they make the playoffs?

The short answer is no, but the long answer requires much more thought.  The main roadblock to them making the playoffs is their division.  In order to get even close to contention, they are going to have to win a lot of games against the Indians, White Sox, Tigers, and Twins.  On paper, all of those teams, except the Twins (and possibly the White Sox), appear to be more suited for playoff contention.  But Detroit has already shown that even the best offenses take time to click and Cleveland is going to need a lot out of Sabathia and Carmona again to win in such a tough division.  Because there is no real pressure on the Royals and because they are winning under the radar, they could sneak in and grab a Wild Card spot of even the Central Division, but it would require more of a sputtering of the other teams than an enormous explosion from the Royals.

In all honesty, the Royals are at least two big bats away from the playoffs.  Because they play in the AL, they are going to need to outslug the other AL teams sometimes, and right now, Jose Guillen isn’t the answer.  Whether they go out and get those bats is up to the ownership, which has shown signs of a desire to improve, signing those big contracts to Guillen and Meche.  Had the owners not still not shown the money by now, I would have a completely different viewpoint.  Unfortunately in today’s game, you gotta have the green to make the scene.

So, the Royals may not make the playoffs this year.  They may not have the star power of the Yankees or Red Sox or the huge wallets that accompany those teams.  They may not have the media coverage of a big market.

But be excited Royals fans, be very, very excited.

Bill Buckner’s Return to Fenway was a necessity

For the first time since 1990, Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park yesterday for Opening Day.  As the 2007 World Series banner paraded down the Green Monster, Buckner walked out, wearing a Red Sox jersey with his old number 6 on the back, to a huge standing ovation.  Waving to the fans, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a strike, to former teammate Dwight Evans.  The crowd roared, Buckner smiled, the Red Sox won.  And then Hell froze over and the world ended.

But that already happened in 2004, so what was the big deal about yesterday?

Buckner’s return to Fenway Park was not only a nice gesture, it was a necessary one.  He didn’t just deserve to come back and throw out that first pitch, he needed to.  Yesterday was not about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, or an error at first base, or hatred, anguish, despair, frustration or even redemption.  Yesterday was simply about honoring a man who had a great baseball career.  That’s why he needed to come back.  To officially end a dark era in baseball where a man is judged on a single mistake rather than a career of accomplishments.  His warm reception showed that life is not about the single thing you messed up, but the millions of things you did right.

Bill Buckner deserved every bit of that ceremony yesterday.  He was an outstanding ball player.  Few remember that the Sox relievers had already blown a two run lead by that point in Game 6 to tie the game up.  And even fewer remember that it was Game 6 at all, giving the Sox a whole other game to win the Series.

Until yesterday, nobody remembered the career .289 batting average, the batting title he won in 1980 and certainly no one remembered the .992 career fielding percentage at first base.  All of that had been lost in the chaos of angry taunts, useless threats and broken hearts.  Emotion conquered logic and for years Buckner had to pay the price.

Too often do we as fans focus on a single mistake.  We let that mistake infuse within us, let it drive what we think of a person’s entire career, or worse, his character.  And in turn, we forget that we too make mistakes, big mistakes, costly mistakes, mistakes we wish we could take back.  But when we let one mistake be the basis for what we think of a person’s overall character, we lose.

When Bill Buckner walked off the field after throwing out the first pitch yesterday, he sent a message to fans everywhere.  Careers are called “careers” because they are meant to be viewed as a whole.  People are more than just a single mistake.

who is kosuke fukudome?

Baseball fans, especially those die-hards in Chicago, must have noticed the explosive beginning to the season for new Cubs right fielder Kosuke Fukudome.  As of April 8th, Fukudome (pronounced foo-koo-doh-may) is hitting .458 with a homer and 6 RBI.  He’s stolen 2 bags and walked 7 times.  After an abysmal spring, expectations were low for the Japanese rookie, but for those who have seen what Fukudome could do in Japan, his fast start should be an indication of great things to come this season.

So who is Kosuke Fukudome?

Fukudome is a soon-to-be 31 year old former outfielder for the Chunichi Dragons of Japanese Professional Baseball’s Central League division.  The Dragons are the home squad for the city of Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, west of Tokyo.  A first round pick in the 1998 amateur draft, Fukudome played seven seasons with Chunichi, compiling a .305 career average, 192 home runs and 647 RBI.  In 2006, he won the Central League MVP award and he was a part of last year’s team that won the Japan Series, taking the 4 game series from the defending champion Nippon Ham Fighters.  He also was a member of the champion Japan national team in the first World Baseball Classic.

Fukudome has a chance to become a major cog in both the offense and defense of the Chicago Cubs.  In addition to being a consistent contact hitter and a threat on the basepaths, Fukudome has an outstanding eye at the plate.  In 3,852 career at bats in Japan, he walked 571 times and his career OBP was .397.  He is patient, methodical and unselfish, willing to sacrifice or bunt should need be.

Defensively, Fukudome was an outstanding outfielder, compiling a .990 fielding percentage in Japan.  Interestingly, he was originally an infielder, able to play mostly shortstop and third base but was moved to the outfield.  The Cubs will rely on him to to use his range to patrol a spacious right field at Wrigley and his strong arm to get a few put-outs at the plate.

The question with Fukudome lies only in his ability at the Major League level.  He has shown he can hit and field already, but can he be consistent beyond the first week of the season? Akinori Iwamura of the Tampa Bay Rays had a similar start last year and turned many heads with his stellar offense and speed.  But injuries and a struggle to remain consistent with major league pitching suggested his stellar start to be nothing more than a fluke.

Still, Fukudome has the skills to succeed within all of Major League Baseball.  Whether he keeps it up or not, only time will tell.  For now though, he is the hottest hitter in baseball.

Source of all statistics and draft information: http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=1064&Year=2007&Part=1