The Differences that Make Japanese Baseball
The Differences that Make Japanese Baseball
This report will talk about and explain the history of Japanese baseball. This paper will go into detail about the date of establishment of Japanese baseball and where the first teams were played. The paper will compare the terms of Japanese baseball with the terms of American baseball. The paper will also discuss the founders of the Japanese leagues and different teams. I will give background of some of the famous Japanese baseball players, and will also tell about some of the greatest moments from in Japanese baseball. Finally, it will name some baseball players who played in the United States and continued their career in Japan.
The Japanese began playing baseball around the 1870s. They learned the game from missionaries and American teachers. Albert Bates, a teacher, organized the first game in 1873 (Whiting, 27). The team Bates got together consisted of station workers, technicians, and a railway engineer. They used make shift gloves and run in sandals. The Japanese liked the game because of the statistics, rules, and regulations that were parts of the game. Horace Wilson, also brought baseball to Tokyo while he was a teacher from 1867 to 1912. He gave his students a bat and ball and taught them the fundamentals of the sport (Whiting, 27). As Japan became more interested in the world, western sports became popular. The Japanese thought that the battle between the pitcher and the batter was like the battle in martial arts sports. There was mental and physical strength needed for baseball and that is what the Japanese liked. Baseball became known as the sport of the upper class and teams in the high schools and colleges grew.
Tokyo’s “Big Six” Universities were where the most competitive baseball was played. The universities were Rikkyo, Waseda, Meiji, Keio, Hosei, and Tokyo Imperial. In the spring of 1905, Waseda University sent its Varsity Nine to America to play a series of games against high school and college teams. An American professor at Waseda promoted the tour. The Japanese government was interested enough to pay for the trip! (Obojski, 33)
Albert Goodwill Spalding, was a pioneer of baseball. He was a pitcher for the Boston Red Stockings. He said that once people saw two good teams play, that game would be popular around...