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Let the boys play

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If you’re familiar with Japan’s style of baseball, and thought its World Baseball Classic team was something of a departure, you are correct. As the tournament wore on, manager Hideki Kuriyama spoke of how his team might provide a boost to baseball in Japan. Of course, how that plays out is anyone’s guess.

Robert Whiting expressed some valid takes in his recent Substack post “WBC title is great for Japan, but NPB needs to concentrate on enhancing its product going forward.”

His points, as I understand them, were:

  • The lively individualistic approach exhibited by Japan in the WBC will not loosen Japan’s embrace of paint-by-numbers solutions to baseball situations.
  • The WBC is fun, but it’s just an exhibition and doesn’t prove which team is the best.
  • Japanese pro baseball could be so much better than it is, and that should be its focus to be better at marketing and building its product.

In my first post of this series, I addressed his principle argument that Nippon Professional Baseball must capitalize on the WBC title by remaking its business, while last time I examined whether anyone can objectively call this wonderful tournament “an exhibition.”

This time around I want to discuss the cultural structure of Japan’s game and whether the WBC, might put a dent in what often seems an impregnable monolith of orthodoxy.

There is no playing in yakyu

“Once the regular season starts we will be back to 3-2 counts on every batter and a succession of sacrifice bunts and grim countenances all around.”

–Robert Whiting on Substack, March 22, 2023

That’s an exaggerated view of Japanese baseball, although one with a grain of truth to it. Japan’s game has never been static, despite the efforts of managers Tatsuro Hirooka and Masaaki Mori to turn the pro baseball entertainment business into an industrial quality control infomercial.

Nothing alive stays the same long, but cultures are obstinate things.

Whiting’s comments about this Samurai Japan team’s style being different were dead on. When the team practiced in Osaka on March 5, it was nothing like watching an NPB workout. Instead of players exerting themselves in unison under coaches’ supervision, individuals and pairs went about their business while coaches were around to lend a hand when needed.

Continue reading Let the boys play →
Baseball, Commentary, News, Paid Content

The greatest exhibition

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Because it’s a departure from MLB’s primary product, the World Baseball Classic comes with a ready-made supply of detractors, often those who want to keep things the way they were when they were young, and who are liable to see enforcing the rules against fielders obstructing the basepaths without the ball as an affront.

Robert Whiting expressed some valid takes in his recent Substack post “WBC title is great for Japan, but NPB needs to concentrate on enhancing its product going forward.”

His points, as I understand them, are:

  • The lively individualistic approach exhibited by Japan in the WBC will not loosen Japan’s embrace of paint-by-numbers solutions to baseball situations.
  • The WBC is fun, but it’s just an exhibition and doesn’t prove which team is the best.
  • Japanese pro baseball could be so much better than it is, and that should be its focus to be better at marketing and building its product, and that the DeNA signing of Trevor Bauer is a step in the right direction.

In my last post, I addressed his principle point, that Japan’s baseball establishment needs to move forward from the WBC and not just celebrate. This time, I want to take on the question of whether or not the tournament is an exhibition.

“Just a series of exhibitions”

“It (the WBC) is just a series of exhibition games that in the end are just a series of exhibition games.”

–Robert Whiting on Substack, March 22, 2023

This is an “it’s not my idea of a real competition, therefore it isn’t one” argument. I have to believe what he means by this is that the WBC games are nothing little more than preseason exhibitions ahead of the regular season.

However, the main attribute of an exhibition game is that its outcome is less important than the training value the players take from it or the value derived from the game’s contribution to a charitable cause.

Kyle Schwarber and Tim Anderson were asked about the nature of the competition. You tell me if they think it’s an exhibition.

“You’re not really tiptoeing your way through a spring training at-bat. You’re coming in, and it’s competing, it’s time to win. It’s kind of like that regular season where you know what? You’re getting your work done in the cage and you’re competing in the game. This is straight competition, go out there, compete, and the best man wins.”

–Team USA’s Kyle Schwarber prior to the 2023 WBC final against Japan.
Continue reading The greatest exhibition →