Asian Baseball History and Culture is Our Passion
Posts
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How to Follow Asian Professional Baseball
So how can English speakers follow Asian baseball? There are now numerous ways to track professional baseball in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan even if you don’t read the native languages. Let’s look at each country in turn.
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Joe DiMaggio’s Last Hurrah: The 1951 Lefty O’Doul All-Star Tour
Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations. This week Rob Fitts writes about how Lefty O’Doul brought a MLB all-star team, featuring Joe DiMaggio, to Japan in 1951.
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The Japanese Baseball Card Industry. Video of the January 28, Zoom talk with Tatsuo Shinke, CEO of MINT Sports Cards in Japan
Please join SABR’s Asian Baseball and Baseball Card Research Committees as we host Tatsuo Shinke on Wednesday, January 28 at 8:30 pm EST. Mr. Shinke will discuss the current state of baseball card collecting and the rapidly developing sports card market in Japan.
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Manny Ramírez Saved Taiwanese Baseball
This year is Manny Ramírez’s 10th and final year on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. The general consensus is that he will not get enough votes to be inducted, even if he gets a final-year sympathy bump. He has the numbers to back up his legacy, and even though his performance-enhancing drug (PED) controversy…
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How baseball helped shape Japanese migrants’ experiences during the White Australia policy
SABR member Ray Nickson work on early Japanese baseball in Australia is featured on the website The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-baseball-helped-shape-japanese-migrants-experiences-during-the-white-australia-policy-270054?utm_medium=article_clipboard_share&utm_source=theconversation.com&fbclid=IwY2xjawPCDxZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeqkZf1iWEDmXcg8EgfSutogu9jru9R95JyIR20MsnnYEU4Ous-3srzC2N0uk_aem_8GbcdoQEwxjSikyRbfjwug
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The Greatest Piece of Diplomacy Ever: The 1949 Tour of Lefty O’Doul and the San Francisco Seals
Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations. This week Dennis Snelling focuses on one of the most important pieces of baseball diplomacy in history: the 1949 San Francisco Seals tour of Japan
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Women’s Baseball in Korea
This list pulls together some of the leading organizations connected to women’s baseball in Korea as a basic reference point. It’s meant for people who are curious about how women’s baseball is organized, where events and national teams are managed, and which institutions are involved, particularly readers outside Korea who may not be familiar with…
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Is Taiwan Arming Youth Ballplayers with AI?
The story of a Little League champion turned tech czar offers insights by Jerry Chen Originally published on The Taipei Gun, December 17, 2025 For a country widely known for its dominance in semiconductor manufacturing, Taiwan is actually quite behind in the integration of technology in baseball.1 So, no, while we are seeing “AI-powered” baseball camps and other innovations in…
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The 1935 Wheaties All-Americans: A Boxful of Global Ambition
by Keith Spalding Robbins Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations. This week Keith Spalding Robbins examines a little-known amateur tour from 1935. “Last year in the Guide it was the pleasure…
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The Light and Shadow of the Kiwoom Heroes, Called the MLB Academy
Kiwoom Heroes are a club with a unique character within the KBO League. In their history, they are the only self-sustaining team in the KBO without a parent corporation. Even so, they have produced as many as five Major League players in a short span of time. This article introduces Kiwoom Heroes and tells the stories…
