Wayne Graczyk’s Japan Pro Ball Media Guide Those of you out there who follow Japanese baseball in English have probably heard the name Wayne Graczyk. And if you’ve heard his name, you’ve probably also heard about his tragic passing last Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. Here are a few interesting articles written as reactions to his…
Having read only one Katsuya Nomura book prior to this one (and not liking it much), I picked this one up only because of the man’s reputation as a great thinking player and manager. His obnoxious octogenarian rants, I can do without. Well, this book contains a mix of wisdom, history, and crusty criticisms, but…
Last year, I had the pleasure (and sometimes pain) of digging deep into team history to learn about some of the all-time greats. The fruits of my labor are an entire section of the website dedicated to legendary players and elite (and notorious) imports. Among the last of the legends is the author of this…
The Japanese title of this book is 眠れないほど面白い野球の見方 – How to watch baseball, so interesting you won’t be able to sleep. I bought it thinking that it would give some insights into what to watch while a baseball game is going on. Things outside of the usual pitching, hitting, base running. You know, maybe catcher’s…
There just aren’t a lot of good books out there (in English) about Japanese baseball. But for anyone wondering what the game was like 25 years ago, this primer by Brian Maitland is a decent way to spend a couple of hours in the offseason. Written in 1991, the book covers everything you would want to…
My worst subject in school was history. By a long shot. I could memorize the numbers and dates without a problem, but I couldn’t get excited about what people did centuries before I was born. Masaru Ikei’s book 白球太平洋を渡る (White Ball Crosses the Pacific) is a history book in the truest sense. I bet if…
Sometimes books come to my attention through you, the reader. Someone in America sent me an e-mail a couple of months back, asking if I knew of any good books about Hanshin that were either in English, or were picture-heavy. I had no proper answer for him, but he then sent me a link to…
What if you had been able to befriend Ichiro Suzuki in Seattle back in 2001? You, a regular guy who had spent 7 or so years in Japan and knew the language, and could help him adjust to the new league, culture and country. And after his historic season, you got this idea: I could…
I am an educator. Truth be told, it’s not by choice anymore. But because the world of sports journalism is about who you know, and my window of opportunity to enter that world seems to have faded into oblivion in my rear view mirror, I do what I must to provide food, clothing and shelter…
As a relative newcomer to Nippon Professional Baseball, it has been a lot of fun learning of ex-pats who have come to know the game and its history well. Among those I look to for wisdom that extends beyond my time in Japan (and even my entire life, for that matter) are Robert Whiting, Jim…