I Think I'm Turning Japanese

In light of the recent Tsunami, I realized just how much influence America has had on the baseball culture of Japan, and the plethora of players that come from that island and turn out to be stars in the major leagues including: Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Ichiro Suzuki. In fact, the all-time home run leader in the entire world was a Japanese player named Sadaharu Oh.

                                       Image: www.truestar.com

Baseball was introduced onto the Japanese islands in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and the establishment of a formal team came six years later. Because the game was considered a pastime in Japan, it was  shameful for the players to take money for something they enjoyed doing, and the games were all free until 1906 (when I guess they decided it was no longer shameful). 

In 1908, professional teams from the United States began touring through Japan,  playing against several university teams that were made up of amateur players. It wasn’t until 1920 that Japan founded the first two professional teams in an attempt to help spread knowledge and wide-spread acceptance of baseball as a sport in Asia. However, due to financial strains, the professional league disintegrated only three years later, and all attempts at reviving its standing were formally dropped when the league disbanded. 

However, this termination did not last long because in 1934, the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club was founded, followed by Osaka Baseball Club  in 1935. In later years these teams would go on to become the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers. The success of the professional baseball revival was legitimized in 1936 when five more teams began and the Japanese Baseball League was official. 

In 1986, a group of American Major League All-Stars began making a tour through Japan at the end of their normal season. During this time they played exhibition games against those players and teams who were involved in Japan’s professional league. They continue to do this tour today and play in what is now known as the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series.

Although the Japanese greatly admire American teams like the Cubs, Red Sox, Mariners, Yankees, and Twins, their style of baseball has sometimes been classified as a different than what most people see in the United States. It is often referred to as Samurai baseball, some say that it is different because the Japanese way of life and cultural identity is different. There is a stress on not just the sport or the superstar individuals that may play within the game, but also on the group identity as a whole, and a sense respect for those who are older and have come before them.

                                       Image: www.axisblog.com

Whatever differences may have arisen between the way that the Japanese and the Americans see the sport, baseball is still a game that binds the two cultures. It is a game of skill and determination, and sometimes watching a game is the perfect way to kick back and relax no matter which continent you are on.

Baseball on the Go

The top-grossing app on iTunes last year wasn’t Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Words With Friends or any of the other cheap games guaranteed to be on any iPhone you find. Instead, it was a $15 app, MLB.com’s At Bat which is designed for those fans who prefer to watch games instead of play them.

At Bat 11, which is available on Apple devices, Android and BlackBerry, includes a handful of new features  for the opening of the 2011 baseball season. The biggest improvement will only work this month, and only for Apple devices: free live video of every out-of-market game. (The feature costs $100 for the remainder of the season.)

At Bat 11 is much better than the previous versions in many ways, depending on what device you use and where you use it. Android users get the biggest upgrade, in that the app finally displays live video. All season they can watch one free game daily. For fans at the ballpark, At Bat is also much better than last year's version because of a new set of features meant specifically for them.

Those who actually go to the games with an iPhone,  iPod Touch or Android phone get a bonusn in the form of the app’s At the Ballpark feature. Apple users receive detailed maps of the site, video highlights and, depending on the ballpark, even discounts on concessions (which we all know can be outrageously expensive).

IPad users of the app miss out on the ballpark-related perks, but they’ll see other improvements in the appearance and quality of information. Take, for instance, the field view, where you can watch an animated, pitch-by-pitch version of every game as it progresses.

Like last year, the screen shows the play from the home-plate umpire’s  view. This year, MLB.com used images from the Sony PlayStation 3 game, MLB 11 The Show, to display a more realistic view of the stadiums. Later this season, those life-like graphics will extend to the batting stances of individual players. The improvements are not limited to look only, though; one of the app's landmark features is the pitch-location feature, which gets a big improvement.

                                         Image: www.lootninja.com


Each pitch still arcs toward viewers in the same path, likewise, the ball’s path is color-coded to denote the pitch type, but when the pitch reaches the plate, a label appears (e.g. 78 MPH Curve Ball). If you click on that label, the screen shows a side view of the pitch, the pitcher’s release point, where the pitch broke and how many inches it broke.

                                         Image: www.geardiary.com

Because of the advancements in technology and the convince they provide, we are able to constantly be in contact with our team, and it will keep improving without a doubt. Perhaps one day there will be an app that works in 3D and will allow you to feel as if you are sitting at the ball park while you are actually at work.

Opening Day

All across this country, many Americans are waking up with the promise that the 2011 baseball season will begin tomorrow. Many fathers will throw the ball around with their son, and afterwords wrap their gloves up in a big rubber band in preparation for their favorite team's home opener. Others will tell stories of their favorite teams greatest triumphs, or perhaps their greatest let downs.

Opening day means a lot of different traditions for a lot of different people. One thing it represents to fans everywhere is a fresh start. The beginning of a new season represents the chance for their team to win a pennant, and for fans to feel like champions for lending their support.

Ask any die hard baseball fan out there what his or her favorite memory is concerning the game, and many will respond with the answer of the first game their parents ever took them to. They will be able to describe the account with some of the most particular details that only a true fan could remember. Whether is be how green the grass was, where they were sitting, what player may have hit the first home-run they had ever seen, or any other countless memories.

                                         Image: www.csmonitor.com

There are no real words which can describe the feeling of opening day, the best to do it in my opinion is Don Angel in his poem entitled Opening Day. Within the poem he describes his anticipation for his team's season to start and the drama that ensues with his team coming out on top and resolves by stating that because of the victory he will go to another game that season.

Like Angel, I also get excited for opening day; I look forward to the promise that my hometown team, the Houston Astros could make a run for the championship. One thing is for sure though, opening day will bring excitement and energy to ballparks around the country and to me, signifies the true first day of spring.

Below are some highlights from this years opening day.

                                        Video: www.youtube.com

JUICED

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons,  and Alex Rodriguez all have one thing in common...not that they are all prospective Hall of Fame-rs, but that they have all tested positive for steroids. 

In recent years, Major League Baseball has suffered through widespread use of steroids among its players. Some of baseball's most cherished story lines of the past decade have been tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, including the accomplishments of record-setting home run hitters and dominating pitchers.

Fay Vincent, baseball's commissioner from 1989 to 1992, tried to crack down on steroids in his last year in the job. In June 1991, he sent every major league club a memo saying all illegal drug use was "strictly prohibited" by law, "cannot be condoned or tolerated" and could result in discipline or expulsion.

The next year, Bud Selig became commissioner and through the 1990s, Selig and the players union acted as if steroids were not a big deal. "If baseball has a problem, I must say candidly that we were not aware of it," Selig said in 1995.

Baseball first tested for steroids in 2003. If more than 5 percent of players failed the tests, penalties would be imposed starting in 2004, which is what subsequently happened. Roughly 100 players tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. The penalty for a first offense was treatment, and for five violations, a one-year suspension.

The results from that season were supposed to remain anonymous. But for reasons that have never been made clear, the results were never destroyed and they have come to be known among fans and people in baseball as "the list." Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui are just a few of the superstars.

In late 2005, baseball toughened its penalties, and by early 2006 appointed George Mitchell (the Mitchell report) to conduct an investigation of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.

Through the 2007 season, that inquiry loomed over what should have been one of the great moments of baseball history: Barry Bonds's overcoming Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. In 2007, Bonds was indicted on federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges related to his  testimony in a steroids case and now is awaiting trial.

                                                                         Image From: Google

With all of the attention that steroids has gotten over the last decade and more recently with the Bonds trial coming up, one can't help but wonder what the big deal is. Steroids have become a part of baseball whether we like it or not as fans, but how can fans really be mad when our sports heroes are doing exactly what we want them to do?

Because of steroids, players pitch faster, and hit the ball harder which makes the game more exciting, not to mention it gives them the competitive edge to win. The fact that steroids are not even more rampant is simply because of the harsh penalties that are handed out now. Besides, since when are we as a people opposed to enhancing our bodies; you can't turn on a TV without seeing an ad for better sexual performance, creams that make skin look better, hair loss solutions, etc.

If we as Americans are allowed to take a pharmaceutical aid, why shouldn't professional baseball players?

He was safe! Or was he?

Thinking back to last season, there is only one play that still stands out among baseball fans across America as controversial. The final play of the Tigers, Indians match up on June 2 leaving Armando Galarraga with an almost perfect game, keeping him out of the record books.

The botched call on what would have been the 27th out of the game offers the strongest possible evidence for proponents of expanding the role of instant replay in baseball. Is there anyone who wouldn't have wanted to see Galaragga make his mark on history, and make that season which in the first two months had already featured two perfect games and a no-hitter that much more special?

Video: www.mlb.com

What's more, Jim Joyce, who has been a distinguished umpire for Major League Baseball since 1986 will always be remembered for this one blown call. After watching the post-game agony on Joyce's face, why deny the next erring umpire the chance to watch the play over on a monitor and make the whole thing right?

This is not the first time a lack of technology has potentially changed the course of history, in the ninth inning of game six of the 1985 World Series, first-base umpire, Don Denkinger, called Jorge Orta of the Kansas City Royals safe at first base. Replays later showed that St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Todd Worrell had touched the bag, before Orta got there. This play inevitably sent the Cardinals into a downward spiral in which they lost the series in game seven.

All of this considered, there is a reason that the only real comparable mistake was Don Denkinger's missed call from back in 1985 -- blown calls of this proportion are few and far between. The proposed system of replay would feature something of a football style format where managers would get one to two challenges per game. Not only would this affect every game throughout the regular season but it would lead to overturning minor bad calls, which quite frankly make the game more entertaining. It doesn't seem worth it to change an entire system for the chance of a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Sure, not having replay took away Galaragga's perfect game and probably should have been corrected by Major League Baseball but the thing about our national past time is that baseball is filled with a history of bad calls. They are a part of the triumphs and shortfalls that parents tell their kids about; no one will ever tell a story about how their favorite player got a botched call overturned to win a perfect game.

The issue of replay is something that will be discussed around baseball for years to come, but the fact remains...sometimes the best part of going to a baseball game is yelling an expletive out two at the top of your lungs at an umpire and talking about it with fellow fans for days to come.