Asian Baseball History and Culture is Our Passion

SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee will host a virtual Zoom meeting at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 22, 2026. Our special guest will be Jee-ho Yoo. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.

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.

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…

by Robert K. Fitts 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 Babe Ruth and the ALL Americans’ 1934 visit to Japan. Katsusuke Nagasaki’s breath billowed as…

by Taein Chun Gwangju Jeil High School, known as Gwangju Ilgo, is located in Gwangju Metropolitan City in the southwestern region of Korea and is the school that has produced the greatest number of Major League Baseball players in the country. In the early 2000s, Jae Weong[c1] Seo of the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers,…

by Dennis Snelling 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 tells us about the 1931 Major League tour of Japan. It was a tour initially framed by…

This 1982 documentary on Gary Carter’s visit to Japan is dated and at times cringy by today’s standards but is nevertheless interesting and contains some great footage of Japanese baseball from the 1982 season.

By Carter Cromwell DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Birthed just three and a half years ago, Baseball United took a major step toward adulthood this November. Formed to bring professional baseball to a region with little exposure to the game, Dubai-based Baseball United had staged a two-game showcase in November 2023 involving several former Major League…

by Tom Hawthorn 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 Tom Hawthorn tells us about Ty Cobb’s visit to Japan. On an off-day on the road in Cleveland, Tyrus…

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 Bill Staples Jr discusses the Philadelphia Royal Giants 1927 visit to Japan.

Author Robert Fitts will talk about his new book In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball and highlight key differences between the American and Japanese games. A cocktail reception and book signing will follow. Fitts is the author of 11 books on Japanese baseball and is the curatorial consultant to the…