Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers this offseason for a head spinning, MLB record $700 million, and yet somehow, he has managed to live up to expectations. Even as elbow surgery last season prevents him from pitching this season, he’s still one of the early favorites for the NL MVP award due to his scorching hot bat. He’s off to one of the best starts of his career at the plate, with a slash line of .330/.395/.615 to go along with 14 home runs in 55 games. Oh, and he’s stolen 13 bases and hasn’t been caught once.
Ohtani’s star has risen even higher on a perennial contender (the Dodgers are once again in first place) and the city of Los Angeles recently announced May 17th would officially be Shohei Ohtani day for as long as Ohtani wears Dodger blue. His bobblehead night led to the largest MLB crowd of the season, and caused massive traffic jams (LA’s other most beloved past time ❤️) leading to Dodger Stadium. Clearly, he is MLB’s biggest star, and he is fully deserving.
Lesser known is his fellow countryman, Chicago Cubs 30 year old rookie pitcher Shōta Imanaga, who is taking the league by storm, going 5-0 with a MLB-leading 0.84 ERA; the lowest mark in MLB history through a player’s first 9 career starts (he actually got roughed up last night against the Brewers, but he’s still having a great year…). Thus, Imanaga is one of frontrunners for the NL Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards.
Suddenly, two of the best players in MLB are from Japan- and that’s without mentioning Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the biggest free agent of the offseason behind Ohtani, who signed a $325 million contract also with the Dodgers. This all on top of Japan’s victories in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and in last year’s World Baseball Classic (their third WBC title, the most of any country), clearly heralds an unprecedented era of success for Japanese baseball. But how did we get to this moment?
First look at baseball’s beginning’s in Japan.
Baseball’s Origins in Japan
Baseball was introduced to Japan in the 1870s, by a New Englander named Horace Wilson. Wilson was recruited by the Japanese to teach English during the Meiji Restoration, when Japan sought to modernize and integrate with the West after centuries of isolationism. On top of teaching English to his students at Kaisei Gakko - a forerunner to the University of Tokyo - he also taught them baseball.
By the end of the 1800s, baseball was popular across Japanese universities, encouraged by the government which, once again, was intent on adopting Western practices - and what is more American than baseball?
However, Japan quickly developed its own style of baseball, a style that embodied the nation’s values; this became known as “samurai baseball” - as many of the principles highlighted in the samurai, or bushido, code transferred onto the baseball diamond.
Loyalty to the team over the individual players is a core component of samurai baseball, along with perseverance in the face of adversity, and a strict training regime to hone one’s skills. Overall, these core tenets emphasized the mental components of the game over the physical ones, as the prevailing wisdom contended that mental excellence was essential to success on the field, more so than physical skills.
Had the Japanese forged a new, superior approach to the game? Before long, we’d get our first glimpse of how they fared against big leaguers from the US…
Banzai Babe Ruth!
The first major interaction between MLB and Japan occurred in the 1934, when Japanese media mogul Matsutaro Shoriki invited the stars of MLB to Japan to play a series of exhibition games across the country against Japan’s best players. In part this was to gin up interest in baseball and sell copies of Shoriki’s newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, but the barnstorming tour also had another more serious purpose.
In the 1930s, ultra-nationalism was on the rise across the globe - in fascist Europe, but also in Japan, where the country was becoming increasingly militant and expanding its empire across the Pacific. This caused friction with the US, and many feared war would break out between the two nations. Thus, this baseball tour was encouraged by both governments as a way to ease tensions, and draw attention to the countries’ mutual love of baseball.
While the National League forbade their players from going, the American League gave their blessing, and everyone agreed that the one player who simply had to be a part of the tour was America’s biggest star, Babe Ruth. Once he signed on, other famous players quickly followed, like his teammates Lou Gehrig and Lefty Gomez, Red Sox slugger Jimmy Foxx, along with legendary manager Connie Mack.
The “All-American Baseball Team Tour” was a huge hit in Japan, drawing over 100,000 onlookers as the Americans paraded down the main street in Tokyo. And even at age 39 - well past his prime - Ruth’s charm and charisma delighted the Japanese crowds, and he was easily the most popular player on tour.
The games themselves were rarely close as the Americans won all 22 games they played, outscoring their Japanese opponents 250-45. Some highlights included Lefty Gomez striking out 18 batters in 7 scoreless innings in Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Stadium (Japan’s oldest stadium still in use, home now to the Yakult Swallows) and Jimmie Foxx hitting the longest recorded home run at that same stadium a week later (though it’s important to take these longest home run records with a grain of salt).
Still, there were some bright spots for the Japanese squad, most famously when 17-year old pitcher Eiji Sawamura struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx in order (á la Pedro Martinez in the 1999 All Star Game). Word of Sawamura’s feat quickly traveled across the country, and he became a national hero, proving that Japan could go toe-to-toe with America’s best, and prevail. Japan’s top pitching award is the Sawamura award, named in his honor.
In all, while the tour was a huge success - Connie Mack even said that the tour did “more for better understanding between Japanese and Americans than all the diplomatic exchanges ever accomplished” - there is only so much a sport can do to relieve mounting geopolitical tensions. In December 1941, the US and Japan went to war, and baseball was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.
Last At-Bats
Baseball’s quick adoption in Japan and the success of the 1934 tour made it clear that Japan’s passion for the sport rivaled America’s, but it was also clear that at the end of the day their players were amateurs going up against professionals. Before Japan could really compete, they would have to invest in a proper Japanese baseball league. And they would.
The All-Nippon team that Shoriki put together stayed intact after the tour, and even barnstormed the US in 1935. Then in 1936, they would form the core of Japan’s first professional, and most famous, baseball team - the Yomiuri Giants.
What was less clear, though, was how samurai baseball truly stacked up against the American style - which ran counter to the Japanese way in prizing brawn and big personalities over brains and a team-first mentality.
If both styles received similar resources, which would prove to be superior? This question would hang over baseball for decades, and the comparison between the two still remains a huge part of any discussion whenever there is a new Japanese player set to join MLB.
Next week, in Part II, we’ll examine this discussion further by looking at the postwar period of Japanese baseball and how samurai baseball evolved with the rise of Japan’s preeminent league - Nippon Professional Baseball.
Thoughts on the early days of baseball in Japan? Anything I missed?
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