Nobody moaned about his pitch counts

Yeah, it really is awful to question something that could seriously endanger the health of an 18 year-old

Of course, by this line of argument, one could very easily then say that St. Louis/Detroit wasn't the North American Championship either - the winner didn't play Tucson or Toledo.

Tucson or Toledo

They have teams in the top league of their country?

These kind of articles are tough. I agree with the general sentiment, but not with the specifics.

Last month, they finished something in Japan called the Koshien. It's a tournament that starts with 2,500 high school baseball teams and ran all summer. High school baseball in Japan is "Friday Night Lights" on steroids. The 2,500 are whittled down to a final 48 and August Madness ensues.

Koshien is the name of the stadium, and thus short hand for the tournament, which is actually called (wait for it) the "National High School Baseball Championship". It's pretty straightforward: all the high schools (2,500) have municipal tournaments, then regional tournaments, and then prefectural tournaments, with Tokyo and Hokkaido getting two representatives each (hence, 49 teams, not 48).

Nobody moaned about his pitch counts, however. Instead, they saluted Tanaka's incredible grasp of wa, the genetically encoded national instinct to keep on keeping on.

Uh, no, wa is harmony of the group. The genetically encoded national instinct to keep on keeping on is gaman.

Anyway, a week from now the second Asia Series will start: NPB champions Nippon Ham Fighters, KBO champions Samsung Lions, CPBL (Taiwan) champions La New Bears, and CBA (China) champions Tianjin Lions. If it continues to do well, I imagine it's only a matter of time before MLB wants a piece of the action.

I like the idea of a "World Series". But I think it'll require a lot of changes. Possibly drop the biannual NPB-MLB series (set to start in a couple of days), and probably really need a whole change in MLB's regular-season and playoff structure. The players can't play all year round...

When you say Conlin spans the globe, you mean he literally spans the globe.

Ugh, Conlin can be insightful but he can also be a petulant and show-offey 13 yo.

What's Japanese for "his shoulder hurts, but we're not sure why"?

Roto-ohno?

Conlin gilds the lily a bit. Tanaka threw three days in a row, not four; pitched only the last 12 2/3 innings of the 15-inning tie game (and pitched 7 1/3 in the makeup final the next day). In another game, Tanaka entered in the second inning after the team "rested" him by having someone else pitch the first.

In any event, he's a piker compared to Yuki Saito, pitcher for the winning Waseda Jitsuygo team. Saito did pitch the entire 15-inning champioinship game, which ended in a 1-1 tie, and all nine innings of the makeup game the next day. In two days, he threw 294 pitches in what became a 24-inning championship showdown. For the tournament, he threw 948 pitches in seven games.

I'm thinking the whole pitching paradigm may be just a tad different in Japanese youth baseball.

They have teams in the top league of their country?

So, MLB champions have to play Turkmenistan and Zimbabwe as well?

MLB is not a national league, it's a world league made up of the best players in the world but just happens to plays its contests in a couple of countries, for practical reasons. Japanese baseball is great, as is minor league baseball, but there's zero reason to think that a MLB victor needs to face off against the best of either in order to be the world champion.

When you say Conlin spans the globe, you mean he literally spans the globe.


If only he would clear his orbit.

"A 17-0 flogging by that baseball powerhouse, South Africa, was followed by ignominious losses to Canada and Mexico."

Uh, way to word that pretty shittily. We BEAT SA 17-0, but its written as if SA beat us 17-0...which would be about as an embarassing thing as i could ever think of

"A freewheeling bunch of Cubans, many of them unknowns flying under the scouting radar, emerged from behind the Sugar Cane Curtain to shock a good Puerto Rican team and a Dominican Republic powerhouse."

Uh, Cuba was hardly flying under the radar...im sure they were favored over the Puerto Ricans and they were seen as at least about even with any other team at the WBC.

"Bud, if the St. Louis Cardinals want to have a "world champion" modifier next to their names, they need to prove it against the incumbent world champion, Japan. Or, Bud, just call your WBC the Spring Baseball Classic or sell the naming rights to Bud Light or Toyota."

Wow...way to make an insanely illogical comparison. The team comprised only of Americans couldn't beat a team of only Japanese so thus American professional teams composed of players from all over are now comparable to Japanese teams of mostly, but not entirely, Japanese origin?

And honestly, does anyone think a league that Andy Sheets, Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera can be all-stars of is at all comparable the the Majors?

I'm thinking the whole pitching paradigm may be just a tad different in Japanese youth baseball.

It's a good point. Is there an agreement in place that prohibits unsigned Japanese youth from signing with MLB teams out of high school? Cooperation is nice, but if you need innings eaters, that looks to be the place to go.

How long is the typical Japanese pitching career?

MLB is not a national league, it's a world league made up of the best players in the world but just happens to plays its contests in a couple of countries, for practical reasons. Japanese baseball is great, as is minor league baseball, but there's zero reason to think that a MLB victor needs to face off against the best of either in order to be the world champion.

No, MLB is a national league which contains most of the best players in the world. It does not "happen" to play its contests in a couple of countries for practical reasons, it is essentially an American league which has grown organically in America (although it has had two Canadian franchises). NPB is another national league, which has grown - equally organically - in Japan. Because of economics, accident of history and whatever else, MLB is a clearly superior league in terms of quality. But that's its sole claim to superiority - playing quality. MLB is no more a "world league" than is NPB. And perhaps one day NPB will have higher playing quality than MLB.

"It's a good point. Is there an agreement in place that prohibits unsigned Japanese youth from signing with MLB teams out of high school? "

Yes. MLB teams do not sign Japanese players who are eligible for Japans amateur draft. The loophole, rarely used, is the ELIGIBLE FOR JAPANS DRAFT bit. Your high school or college, IIRC, has to have a baseball team for you to be draft eligible. The Braves recently signed a HS catcher who went to a HS without a baseball team, they were able to do this because he was not part of Japans draft process.
Then theres guys like Kaz Tadano who was eligible to come over here (again IIRC) because he went undrafted following his little filmmaking escapade and having gone undrafted he was a free agent free to be signed by any team in any league in any country- though, he didn't have all that much of an option as to what country he was to go to as the Japanese wanted no part of him

Im pretty sure thats how it works but im going off memory..someone correct me if i messed somethig up

I don't think this article would have been written if it had been the Phillies who had won the World Series.

And yes, I'll call it the World Series until it's called something else. And even then, I'll STILL call it the world series, just like I continued to call 3Com Park Candlestick Park, and Cinergy Field Riverfront Stadium.

AO

MM1f,

I don't know all the rules either, but Tanaka was quoted when he was drafted in Japan this fall as saying he wasn't interested in going to the U.S. now because his English isn't good. I took that to mean he's not yet ready for a huge cultural adjustment, but I also took it to mean that the option was available if he thought differently.

Uhh... I think its Monster park now... not 3-com

Uhh... I think its Monster park now... not 3-com

I meant when it was 3Com Park.

Regardless of what it is now, it's still Candlestick Park.

AO

Have Japanese/Asian pitchers been especially durable in the major leagues? I don't think they have.

MLB is no more a "world league" than is NPB.

With the limits on foreign players on Japanese teams, this is of course simply not true. MLB is signifcantly more of a "world league" than NPB.

Actually, at the post-game thing, Selig did say "World SERIES Champion" more than once, no doubt thinking of the WBC.

Complaining about "sportswriter" giving superficial and inaccurate information???? Some people must have a lot more free time for me, and I spend the off-season reading Hungarian phone books aloud.

Complaining about "sportswriter" giving superficial and inaccurate information???? Some people must have a lot more free time than me, and I spend the off-season reading Hungarian phone books aloud.

It's a good point. Is there an agreement in place that prohibits unsigned Japanese youth from signing with MLB teams out of high school?

The problem with this is that since MLB will not give too many chances to a foreign prospect who hasn't gotten a big signing bonus and hasn't already proven himself at a college or NPB level...and said prospect would have difficulty fitting in in places like Bluefield, West Virginia...it would only appeal to Japanese players who really don't see a future for themselves in the Japanese system. Examples include Tadano, and Tomo Ohka who was considered a big troublemaker and blackballed to a certain extent, according to the great book "The Meaning of Ichiro". (I think that was Ohka)

Otherwise they would find it difficult to justify burning their bridges with Japanese team owners in order to chase a dream that has a low probability of ever being realized. Minor-league salaries in MLB are lower than the equivalent in Japan, too, I believe.

there is a certain hucksterism to the "world" thing,but mr.green is where the action is and i don't see the harm in that

Don't know the precise background of his case, but Mac Suzuki was one who came from Japan to the U.S. at a tender age.

So is Dusty Baker coaching in Japan now?!