Thinking man’s game
When Ichiro Suzuki debuted in the majors in 2001, he was a joy to watch, a speedy highly-skilled, athletic antithesis to the performance-enhancing drug revolution, a player who bucked the…
Spring break
I want to apologize for the lack of posts these past few weeks. I was just hyper busy since coming back from the States, finishing one assignment for Kyodo and…
The months matter
A recent discussion in the "Hey Bill" feature in billjamesonline discussed why some players do better than others and brought up the topic of relative age effects. I did a…
One happy camper
It's been a while since my last post. I just came back from spring training in the Cactus League, the highlight of which was probably my interview with Los Angeles…
Fanning Japan’s flame
Just a small sample of the Chicago Cub's Japan contingent in Arizona this spring, pitchers Tony Barnette, Junichi Tazawa and Yu Darvish. Good cheer and good hustle Chicago Cubs pitcher…
Maeda learns to change
Kenta Maeda speaks of how he learned to deal with change in the big leagues.
Ichiro, Shohei, Japan and the Negro Leagues
One of the winter meetings' highlights was meeting Bob Kendrick, the president of Kansas City's Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. At the mention of Shohei Ohtani, Mr. Kendrick's face lit up,…
National body shoots down Japan’s 1st high school baseball pitch limit
On Wednesday the Japan High School Baseball Federation asked Niigata Prefecture's high school federation to reconsider the pitch limit it announced for this year's spring prefectural tournament. The rule, announced…
Getting to the root of the problem
This is the second part of a series centering around my interview with a leading Tommy John surgeon in Japan, Dr. Kozo Furushima. Dr. Kozo Furushima Amid all the talk…
Elementary steps in war against injury
This past week, the civil war brewing within Japanese baseball over rules to protect pitchers' arms heated up. On Thursday, the Japan Rubber Baseball Association adopted 70-pitch limits for the…
