Don’t get me wrong. I’m not not into novels. It’s just that most of the reading and reviewing I have done on this site is for non-fiction books written about (or by, or both) Japanese baseball players and teams. This genre of book comes out of right field in some ways. In fact, although baseball…
This is the first book review I have ever written for a book that I did not originally have any intention of reading. In fact, I knew nothing of its existence until just a couple of days before it was sent my way by mail. Allow me to explain. A few months back, one of…
All of us have hobbies that have been around for longer than we have. Some hobbies have clear, linear histories, but others meander a lot more. Baseball has been around for a couple of centuries already in America, but how did it come to Asia? Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia…
Reference articles found here and here For the first time in half a decade, the Hanshin Tigers have field representation on the all-Japan baseball team. It was announced on Tuesday (2/20) that Yusuke Ohyama (23) would be a member of the team that would play Team Australia in a couple of friendly matches on March…
The book’s full title is Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan. Prior to buying this book, I had heard of Robert K. Fitts and had even read parts of one of his other books, “Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game.” This title came highly recommended…
When I was looking for a good book to read around this time last year, I happened to also hear about (and soon thereafter, befriend) former Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles GM Marty Kuehnert. I checked his site, saw that he had written a bunch of books, and found a couple of titles that caught my…
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…
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…
“I was a big baseball fan in Japan and found that looking at the different way the Japanese approached the game provided a window into the Japanese culture as a whole. Friends encouraged me to write a book about it and so I did. Took a year to write 100,000 words. The result was The…
Guess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away… Thin Lizzy had a smash hit in 1976 with their celebration of reunification. The Hanshin Tigers were hoping for something similar these past two days but first baseman Mauro Gomez experienced a smash of his own. Scheduled to leave his home country of…