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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Newly Identified Newspaper Article Pushes Earliest Date of Japanese Baseball Back to July 1869
A newly discovered newspaper article shows that baseball was played as early as July 1869 in Kobe.
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Firsts in Japanese Baseball
Bows are seen everywhere on Japanese baseball grounds. Probably the most well-known ground bow is seen during the annual spring and summer Koshien high school tournaments. Players from each team line up on the both sides of home plate and bow facing each other before and after the game. It is a ritual in Japanese…
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MID-DECADE MILESTONES IN U.S.–JAPAN BASEBALL RELATIONS (1875–2025)
I thought it would be fun to use Ichiro’s 2025 achievement as a springboard to explore key mid-decade milestones (years ending in five) in the U.S.–Japan baseball journey. Let’s look at how the sport evolved from a foreign curiosity into a shared national passion—and ultimately, a bridge between two nations.
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Solving the Mystery of Togo Hamamoto
In mid-January 1911, an intriguing article ran on the sports pages across the United States. On January 17th, New York Giants manager John McGraw announced that Togo S. Hamamoto of Tokyo would be joining the team at Marlin Springs, Texas, to observe American “scientific baseball.” Who was this man?
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The First Japanese Professional Game Took Place in …. Kansas?
The first Japanese professional baseball game took place not in Tokyo, not in Osaka, or even in Japan, but in a tiny town in Northeastern Kansas.
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Interview with Takeshi Koba
In October 2003, I had the pleasure of interviewing former Carp manager Takeshi Koba before an oldtimers’ game at Tokyo Dome. Koba played for the Carp from 1958 to 1969 but is more famous for managing Hiroshima during their famous Akaheru (Red Helmet) era.
SABR Asian Baseball Research Committee Blog 