Yesterday, I wrote about Nippon Professional Baseball’s professed “reason” for adopting a pitch clock: allowing the establishment to both publicly disrespect the players union and…

Nippon Professional Baseball announced recently it will adopt new technology for next year. In addition to making the designated hitter rule available in official Central League games 52 years afte…

Former big league manager John McLaren had his career planned from a young age, telling his schoolteachers, "I'm going to make a living in baseball.” But even the 74-year-old baseball lifer couldn't h...

In my last two posts dealing with the differences between baseball in Japan and the United States, I discussed the history behind Japan’s unwavering allegiance to one-run tactics, and its alm…

Yesterday, I wrote about the history behind how the styles of baseball in Japan and the United States have diverged so much over the years. Today, I’d like to write about how Japanese culture…

I was recently asked to give a presentation to a meeting of Tokyo’s Association of American Baseball Research. My topic was the reasons why Japanese and American baseball have diverged so muc…

I was saddened to hear of the passing of former baseball player Bob Horner this week at the age of 68 due to yet unannounced causes. Horner arrived on the scene just as my curiosity about Japanese …

As promised, here are the videos of last week’s live zoom chat featuring author Robert Whiting and former Japanese pro baseball star Leon Lee. Bob was gracious enough to share more than an ho…

Within hours of Shinnosuke Abe’s Monday arrest for domestic assault, the Yomiuri Giants manager submitted his resignation on Tuesday, presenting the organization with a monumental challenge. …

Rikuu Nishida made his MB debut with the White Sox today.  Nishida was born in Osaka, Japan but played college baseball in Oregon for Mt. Ho...

Starting Tuesday, batters in Nippon Professional Baseball games who lose control of their bats while swinging will be punished by warnings and automatic ejections. Any swing in which the bat leaves…

For the first time since 2021, baseballs have been flying out in Japanese parks at somewhat normal rates, causing Katsuhiko Nakamura, Nippon Professional Baseball’s secretary general, to issu…

The Eagles and Hawks matched up with first place in the Pacific League on the line, Masahiro Tanaka took the mound for the Giants for the first time at Koshien Stadium, and we got a taste for why i…

Masahiro Tanaka’s first time back at Koshien Stadium as a Giant was put on hold until at least Thursday, when his scheduled start was rained out. Still, there was a lot to see on Wednesday, w…

Kazuki Sugiyama’s temper tantrum on Saturday broke not only his own hand, but forced the SoftBank Hawks’ hand in their stalemated negotiations with the guy Sugiyama replaced as closer l…

Kazuki Sugiyama’s temper tantrum on Saturday broke not only his own hand, but forced the SoftBank Hawks’ hand in their stalemated negotiations with the guy Sugiyama replaced as closer l…