Ohtani and co.: Japan's way to baseball superstars

Ohtani and co.: Japan's way to baseball superstars

In 1934 an American team undertook with the best baseball players in the world-including Babe " Ruth , jimmie foxx -a barnstorming tour through Japan. They received over half a million Japanese fans in Tokyo before the team moved from city to city and competed against a team of Japanese all-stars. In a total of eighteen, the American team win .

The return of the American baseball to Japan

More than 90 years later there are now two other American teams-the Los Angeles dodgers Rel = "NOFOLLOW" TARGET = "_ blank" href = "https://www.cnn.com/2024/19/sport/sammysosa-sosa-chicago-cubs-welcome-back-spt/index.html"> chicago cubs in Japan, about the Tokyo Series that begins on March 18. Unlike in the past, many of the greatest stars, such as SHOHEI ohtani , yoshinobu yamamoto and Roki Sasaki , not to go on vacation. They return home.

The history of the baseball in Japan

baseball was in middle to late 1800s brought to Japan, but only in 1896 - when the first formal game between Japanese and Americans took place - sport began to thrive. A team of Tokyo's first higher school, also known as Ichiko, competed against a team from the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club, in which American business people and dealers played.

"Reporters of national newspapers were there. That was special, because Japanese were allowed to enter the premises of this club for foreigners for the first time. They played, and the Japanese won with 29 to 4", the Japanese baseball expert Robert Whiting smiled in an interview with cnn sports . "It was humiliating for the Americans. They wanted a rematch and said: 'We didn't train hard enough.' They lost again.

The cultural meaning of the baseball

diplomat and later Japanese ambassador in the USA, Tsuneo Matsudaira, later remembered the effects of these first games: "The game spread like a fire in a dry field and a few months later you could see children with racks and balls far from Tokyo. href = "https://books.google.co.uk/Books?redir_esc=y&id=jp4womsioC&PG=ra1-pa13&sig=acfu3u1hbzcnk374frusw9dejs550GFCPQ&focus=searchwithhinvolume&q=dry+field" Target = "_ blank"> he said in 1907 .

whiting explains that the importance of the game is closely associated with the time of the Sakoku, i.e. feudal isolation, which ended less than 50 years earlier. "It was a nationwide headline in Japan, big news, and that was exactly what baseball made a national sport because one thought Japan was hanging behind the other countries due to this feudal isolation," he told CNN. "The game took over a symbolic meaning."

Development of the baseball in Japan

Many Japan's players developed a special way of playing that differed from the American version. After the end of the Edo period in 1868, many Japanese feared losing their identity. That is why the philosophy of Wakon Yosai (Japanese spirit, western learning) developed, which says that concepts such as baseball should be imported, but should be tackled in a Japanese way. "The sport came from the west," said an Ichiko player. "We played sports at the Ichiko-Baseball, but we also brought in the spirit of Japan. ... Yakyu (baseball) is a way to express the samurai spirit."

In fact, the future of Japanese baseball, according to whiting, is partly shaped by the attitudes of the Ichiko players. "The majority of the students came from samurai families, so they took over the ethics of the martial arts in their training routine," he said. "While baseball was a spring and summer routine in the United States, it became a year-round sport in Japan. If you wanted to play it, you had to get involved completely."

The golden era of baseball in Japan

we jump forward into 1944, ten years after the tour of the American all-star team by Japan. Baseball was so part of the culture that some Japanese soldiers during the Second World War Troops stormed, "shit on it, babe ruth!" cried. At that time Japan already had his own professional league, the Japan Baseball League, the 1950 to the Nippon Professal Baseball (NPB). In the early 1960s, the Japanese players had their first real superstars with Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima.

"The two are like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in Japanese baseball," remarked Whiting. Sadaharu Oh is even the best player in the history of professional baseball thanks to its 868 Home Runs. But when Whiting moved to Japan in 1962, Nagashima was the star par excellence. "When I came here, you couldn't walk by on the street without seeing your picture somewhere, be it on a magazine hub or in an advertisement," he recalled. "The only professional game that Emperor Hirohito has ever visited was when Nagashima hit two Home Runs, including one in the last section. Many say that that was the greatest game that was ever played in Japan, so that was a big deal."

The influence of Japanese players in the MLB

Hideo Nomo was not the first Japanese in the MLB, that was Masanori Murakami, who played two seasons at the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s. Nomo, who became a rookie of the year in the National League in 1995, had the greatest impact on the increase in Japanese talents in the MLB in the past 30 years. "I think Nomo has definitely opened doors to many Japanese players who wanted to go there," Maeda told CNN. "He has raised awareness of the MLB in Japan through his success and achievements."

"He put the system to the test and opened the way for Ichiro and Hideki Matsui ", agreed. "This is historically important. I can remember how the Japanese TV reporter (the former home stadium of the Texas Rangers) stood during the all-star game in 1995 when Nomo should play. And he simply said: 'Can you believe that? Can you believe that?'"

today's dominance and its effects

The obsession for Japanese baseball has now turned into an enthusiasm for Japanese players in the MLB. Hardly anyone has impressed the league as much as the triple MVP, four-time all-star and 2024 World" Series champion ohtani. "You could cynically say that oh played for weaker pitchers in smaller stadiums," said Whiting. "But at ohtani you can't say anything negative. It is simply spectacular and hits home runs over 500 feet while throws the ball with over 160 km/h!"

in 2024, when Ohtani normally acted as a two-way player, he could not pitch due to Tommy John surgery. Instead, the 30-year-old made one of the biggest single season in the history of baseball and became the first player in the MLB who achieved 54 Home Runs and 59 stolen Bases in the regular season.

There are already serious discussions about whether he could be the biggest baseball player ever. His success was bitter sweet to fans of the NPB. "The obsession for professional baseball was replaced by the enthusiasm for Japanese stars in America," said Whiting. "Baseball is still a lively sport, but people don't look at their local games as it used to be."

The NPB teams currently work primarily as advertising space for large companies instead of successful independent businesses, which means that the talent outflow in the USA will continue in the next few years.

Although the opening game in Tokyo could possibly be the only opportunity for some fans to ever see Japan's best player live, you can be sure that the volume in the stadiums rises when ohtani will compete against Imanaga.