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World Baseball Classic

March 23 - As a baseball fan, I have been enjoying watching the World Baseball Classic games on television in Japan. My hometown of San Diego hosted the semi final round of games, and it has been a thrill to see some of my favorite Japanese players like Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, and Ichiro Suzuki thrilling San Diego fans with their baseball skills. I appreciated that the Japanese television announcers showed Japanese fans some of the unique features of San Diego's Petco Park such as the old brick warehouse just beyond the left field foul line, the grassy hill just beyond the center field fence where families can enjoy a picnic under palm trees, and also "the beach" - a giant sand box where a team constructs a new sand castle every time the San Diego Padres (my home team) play a Major League Baseball game there. San Diego enjoys wonderful weather so it is always a treat to attend a baseball game at Petco Park and enjoy the outdoor air.

Seeing the American fans cheering on the Japanese players reminded me of when I first came to Japan in the spring of 1973 as a high school student. I only knew a very few words of Japanese so it was a struggle for me to communicate with my Japanese host family and at first I was very homesick. However, once baseball season started, I could enjoy cheering the Yomiuri Giants together with my Japanese host brothers. Although my Japanese was very bad, I very quickly learned baseball vocabulary in Japanese - words like "Sutoraiku" for strike and "Foa Boru" for a walk. In those days the Giants had many stars but my favorites were the first baseman Sadaharu Oh and the third baseman Shigeru Nagashima. Even though my Japanese host brothers and I would struggle to communicate, we could celebrate together when Sadaharu Oh hit a "Sayonara Hoomu Ran" to win the game. I remember thinking that both Oh and Nagashima could have become big stars in the United States.

Since that time, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Japanese baseball players like Hideo Nomo, many Japanese baseball stars are performing in the United States professional baseball leagues. Millions of American baseball fans are now cheering their favorite heroes including players like Hideki Matsui, Kosuke Fukudome and Ichiro Suzuki. Cheering on my favorite Japanese baseball players so many years ago helped me learn Japanese and also helped me make new Japanese friends, so I am glad to see so many players from the United States, Japan, and other baseball-loving nations playing together in this year's World Baseball Classic.

Until next time,

Jim

COMMENTS

Nicholas in Mongolia writes:

Nice entry. Here in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, few care about the WBC, but I'm hoping that changes. Mongolians do track sports in Japan - sumo bashos are splashed across about four different stations. There's a single baseball diamond, paid for by the Japanese government. Maybe by 2012 ...

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