Bobby V Lends a Helping Hand to Japan
Bobby Valentine may have left Japan at the end of the 2009 baseball season, but it’s obvious that the former Chiba Lotte Marines manager’s heart is still with the country. The ESPN baseball analyst has been involved in relief and fundraising efforts to aid in the recovery of the decimated Tohoku region. His collaboration with […]
Marty Kuehnert: A Lifetime in Japanese Baseball
“Everything with Japan started in the toilet.” When Marty Kuehnert speaks of the serendipitous event that led to his first trip to Japan, that’s usually how he begins. “Spend the summer in Japan!” the flyer above the urinal beckoned. Kuehnert, then a freshman at Stanford, noticed the sign while he was, er, in the toilet […]
A Whirlwind Tour of Japanese Baseball
For the third year in a row, I joined JapanBall, run by Bob Bavasi and Mayumi Smith, on a weeklong tour to watch baseball games in Japan. It was a whirlwind event, covering a lot of ground to see five baseball games in six cities over the course of seven days. If the name Bavasi […]
Japanese Baseball Books
It takes dedication to make a career out of writing about a niche topic such as Japanese baseball. One of those writers is Rob Fitts, an award-winning author who wrote Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005) and Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball (University of […]
The Eclectic Flavors of BallPark Food in Japan
Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out to the crowd. Buy me some squid legs and takoyaki. When we see the Carp, we’ll have okonomiyaki. Squid legs? Tako what? What about peanuts and Cracker Jack? We’re talking baseball, but Japanese baseball, and the food at ballparks in Japan is a force to be […]
The Oendan: The Japanese Baseball Fan Club
“What I was amazed, bewildered, and never, never surprised at was the love that the Japanese people have for the game of baseball. It’s mindboggling. It’s not to be understood . . . in a normal way. It’s abnormal.” When Bobby Valentine made the above remark about Japanese baseball fans at an event at New […]
