Japanese Traveling Team?

The team will be managed by Warren Cromartie. The team will consist of 24 players from Japan, a coaching staff, trainer, and interpreters. The team will play all 90 of their games on the road. [Link - Golden Baseball]

The Samurai Bears of the Golden Baseball League will be coming to L.A. sometime in early May. This is the 100th year of relationships between Japan and the U.S. The Japanese team will have Spring training in Yuma, Arizona, since they will be a traveling team with no home field for 90 days.

This team is looking for corporate sponsors and media help. They will travel up and down the coast of California and the western part of Arizona. This is perfect to expose your company or market your items from Japan. Anyone interested on jumping on board, contact me. Donations will be accepted.

Japans Samurai Bears Professional Baseball Club
garce7 at juno d0t com

Haiiroguma Bufu Jigun's schedule actually begins at Surprise, Arizona on May 26-29, 2005 at 7:05PM (Arizona time). It is not until June 13-15, 2005 at 7:05 (PST) they will play at Cal State Long Beach's Blair Field and at Cal State Fullerton June 21-23, 2005 with a doubleheader June 22, 2005 at 1:05 (PST). See GoldenBaseball.com for more details.

What bothers me about this "traveling team" is that what is the appeal? Don't get me wrong, I'm planning to go see this team at least once whether I'm dead or alive. What makes a "Japanese" game is the "Japanese" culture, the onedan, the fight songs.A Colonel Sanders being thrown in the river. The Homerun girls giving out prizes to the batsmen who hit homers. There is a miriad of other things that separate us fans from them and it is those elements that make up Japanese Baseball. Will those elements be there? As far as style of play, is that coming along with these guys? Remember that the games for this team WILL COUNT for whatever championship they offer! For those who still don't get it, imagine that the Boston RedSox or Yankees moved to your town. There will be fans guaranteed but the atmosphere will be different. Ask any older Dodger fan from Brooklyn who goes to the Mets or (now)Yanks to see the Blue Crew and it just isn't the same as at Chavez Ravine Dodger Stadium and Vice Versa when they came from Brooklyn to play at the Olympic Colessuem in Downtown L.A. The BEARS need our support, true, but just don't get disappointed when you notice the atmosphere is sterile and you are watching just another US style game.Unless they got a stadium. But yet again who knows how long this league is going to last. In my opinion this league is already sinking because Long Beach is still asking for host families for their players and I see NO real attempts at promotion, no good souvenirs, ticket sales aren't up yet in the net, individual tickets aren't for sale yet and the Bears games are almost sold out according to them. Buyer beware if you go to those games!

Appearantly the hitters who hits HRs will get flowers and teddy bears and each batter will be gonged/drummed in. Let's see! I doubt it!

The Samurai Bears will open up in Arizona on May 26. Thanks to The Sports Entertainment Agency of Los Angeles to make this happen.

This league doesn't come to play up in Northern California at all, right?

The Samurai Bears will be playing in Chico, CA. June 17, 18, and 19. The league is called the Golden Baseball League.

Any word on how the Japanese baseball team got there visas to play professional baseball here in the States, when other independent teams could not? What kind of working visas did they get?

Ladies and Gentlemen, your beloved Japan Samurai Bears are 2 and 12 in a rock bottom baseball league. Maybe if the gods of the mountains and winds are with me I'll see them here in Long Beach, at my Alma Mater (CSULB) and they will regail me with autographs on my NPB stuff and have my luck rub off on them and beat the snot of the GBL! But if I don't get tickets, oh well! I've lived this long without the Japan Samurai Bears, a couple more days won't hurt.

Okay, people, I went to Blair Field. I got a gang load of autographs, but when I got Cro-san to sign my Yomiuri Giants commemorative 2000 World Champs jersey. Wow! The Armada gave away Bears' caps commemorating the series.

Going into the stadium I had to buy my ticket first and then stand in line. After two security searches, I went in. I brought several NPB and MLB caps in which both the local Armadas team and DA BEARS gleefully signed. Let me tell you, at first the Bears players were hesitant to sign my caps with the exception of two or three players that played in the minors over here (their names escape me right now), and then that got the ball rolling.

I bought a drum with the Bears' logo on it and banged away as I purposely sat in the Nichi-Bei side. The game was interrupted by the Long Beach Police who requested the fireworks show be immediately after the 7th inning, at which time the score was tied 4-4. Randall Shelley of the Armada hit a double over the head of Kaz Kono and drove in the winning run for Long Beach, 5-4. The Bears are 2-13.

The "authentic" Japanese culture that the GBL promised:

• two beautiful Japanese women in Happi coats gave away lays to fans;
• teenagers in Happi coats danced a "traditional dance" on the field as drummers drummed away;
• and balloons were passed out by the Armada junior cheerleaders to release during the 7th inning stretch.

I got a story about that: you can't take Dodger fans anywhere because, well, since the first inning these people (my people) were howling for blood as the Dodgers/MLB reared their ugly head as a major team sponsor of the league during the opening ceremonies, as luminaries such as Peter O'Malley gave speeches and awards to GBL staffers. No one was spared a stupid comment - the Armada were booed upon arrival on the field, and it went downhill from there! So when these scantly dressed teens came to the stands with the balloons there were balloon fights, water/beer balloons, and pandemonium which was actually fun when then the benched players and the police/security (?) joined in the balloon chaos.

The visiting Japanese tourists looking at their nisei cousins were at first horrified, and then they had balloon fights also. Fun was had by all. No racism was evident, where I was anyway. Anyway it was fun. I doubt tomorrow's game would be as fun or exciting. I'm still mulling over if I should go, or wait until Wednesday's game, or see them in Fullerton next week. I threw away $50 ($30 cheaper than the Dodgers), and I need shoes for work.

I'm sorry to say that I instead went to the Fullerton Flyers' home opener, and the Samurai Bears actually won as Rentaro Seki struck out six in a row and only gave up two hits in seven innings to help the Bears win 5-2. Bummer!

Hooray for our side, though!

I missed today's game because I plan to go see Rickley Henderson's return to So Cal with the San Diego Surf Dawgs (that's the way they spelled it). For more BEARS material go to SamuraiBears.com.

Here's something to tide you over:

Possible Nicknames for your Samurai Bears:

Warren Cromartie - Cro-san
Satoshi Akimoto - Achy Breaky
Fumimasa Ishibashi - Basher
Daisuke Ikenaga - Daisy
Naoki Komatsu - Coma
Yasmuichi Minami - YAZ
Yuji Nerei - YUGI-OH!
Kenichi Miura - Kenny
Takahisa Motono - Tuxedo Mask
Shinichiro Uchino - Mini Ichiro or Ichy
Takashi Miyoshi - Taker (as in Undertaker)
Shintaro Kawakami - Swami
Kazuhiro Kono - Kono
Toshitaka Shimada - Toshi
Atsushi Suyama - Big Soosh
Hiroshi Yamauchi - Great Hero
Yuichi Nomura - Ouchi
Takaaki Igarashi - Iggy
Masaharu Inoue - Senator (after U.S. Senator Inoue)
Tomoyuki Kizu - Kisser
Satoshi Morita - Mr. Myagi or Arnold (actor Pat Morita's famous roles on Karate Kid and TV's Happy days)
Hideki Nagasaka - MOTHRA! (If Hideki Matsui can be Godzilla, Hideki Nagasaka can be MOTHRA!)
Rentaro Seki - Hamtaro
Keisuke Ueno - Vegas (his last name sounds like Reno)
Kouske Yonezawa - Yowza!
Masanori Yajima - Yaya
Wesley Yazzie - Wild Wes

It's up to you if you want to call them that. Maybe because of the nickname the player might get noticed.

You forgot one, the Samurai Bad News Bears. This team is awful. The team plays scared and tired and the manager doesn't have a clue. Who ever put this team together should be shot. I heard the INS is after the team?

Being on a season long road trip must be the worst thing you can do to a team in any league. The players are bound to get even more fatigued as the season goes along. Differences in team strength are not too unexpected in a new league without a draft.

I know it's late, but here's the scene from Fullerton.

The Bears split the series 2-2 with a big win on Thursday June 23, 2005. Yuji "YUGI-OH" Nerei called up the dark magician card and pounded the Fullerton Flyers team with a 3 tripper in that game. This guy is flaming hot!

I love the new outfield of Aoki, Muranishi, and Takamura! Morita has a nasty hanging curveball. Yikes!

I hated the balloon thing again, I guess it's not exclusive to Dodger fans to fight with balloons. I also saw a wierd mixture of several fight songs from the NPB teams along with several mostly Asian fans (not just Japanese) and mostly pretty girls (woohoo!). The cheering still needs work, but the horn is cool. The iceberg known as Cro-san is melting, and now even more accessible to the fans! He played with children chosen for games which involved the mascots!

I'm sorry to say that attendance was lagging, especially on Thursday. So if you are from/in Japan and can go to the games in person, come on over to help us support this league!

I agree with you totally. The fatigue factor is taking effect already. You can't put rookie players in a league like this. It shows up right away in the pitching and hitting. Plus the team needs better players thru stronger scouting. This league will never have a draft because the attendance is way down and the league will not survive. The school boys that own the league are learning the hard way. It takes years of baseball knowledge to make a league run smooth. Tell them to hit the books again. This team needs prospects not suspects.

The Bad News Bears are traveling South of the border to Mexico on August 30th to finish up there games with the Yuma ballclub. I hope the Bears keep on going. They really stink. The league should be shot for doing this.

These boys have been on the road for 90 days plus spring training (LA Times article) and are having a hard enough time adjusting to American life style. Now Mexico. I hope they pay the boys extra for doing this.

Like I have always said before, some ugly Americans really know how to screw up a nice culture like Japan. This GBL will never last.

- Like I have always said before, some ugly Americans really know how to screw up a nice culture like Japan.

I don't know if I'd go quite that far. While the "ugly American" can be blamed for a number of cultural mishaps, I'd just say that this was an entrepreneur experiment that failed. Like the "dot com" bubble.

If their business plan is going to bear any fruit, then what will they need to do next year? Have a home park? Or just disperse the players throughout thet league?

The problems with this league are (1) attendence is a problem for all the teams, (2) the founders didn't really study the economic hardships of starting a baseball league, and (3) we have a team (Japan Samurai Bears) who lack a home stadium. The lack of a home stadium has to be getting to the team now. Also, the cultural difference is probably playing a small part, too.

The problem with most independent leagues in the United States, except a very few, is that there very poorly run economically and they collapse after a few years.

It is rumored that Cromarti-son was let go recently. Does anyone know if this is true.

Was the pressure of being on the road for 100 days (including spring training) too much? Or was it because the Bad News Bears were selected by the fantasy league school boy owners. A bad product on the field at any level will make you go bonkers.

Good luck Cromarti-son, I hope it's not true. They took advantage of Blair Sly, now you?

- It is rumored that Cromarti-son was let go recently. Does anyone know if this is true.

I still see Warren Cromartie listed as manager, so I take it that he still with the team as manager. [Team Roster]

- Was the pressure of being on the road for 100 days (including spring training) too much? Or was it because the Bad News Bears were selected by the fantasy league school boy owners. A bad product on the field at any level will make you go bonkers.

I think the fatigue of being on the road every single day without a home park gets to the team. The team is on a bus or in a hotel room every day. Another thing is the culture barrier is a big problem here, one that's has been hard to overcome. Like adapting to food and customs, many players complain about the food and carry rice cookers with them. It's a stressful situation for a lot of the players. [More Info - Sign on Stan Diego] [More Info - Mercury News via Google Cache]

This new league, like many other independent leagues, was poorly developed and doesn't look like it will last much longer, in my opinion, espically when a lot of the teams are in the state of California competing against MLB teams and minor league teams.

I couldn't comment on the other names, but I can comment on Wes' nickname.... He isn't so wild...
Hi Wesley, you know I love you! -your Italian Princess.

I'll be flying from Seattle to Orange County to visit a friend. We are going to see the Bears at Fullerton for a double-header on Tuesday, July 19th. I'll post a report when I return.

Looks like the Bad News Bears will not be playing in the States 2006. The GBL has decided no Japenese team this year. Does anyone have info on why? They will have only 6 teams in the league. How boring.

I wish these young men well. Sounds like they were taken advantage of their hopes and dreams of playing here in America. The league owes these young men something in return.

I flew down from Seattle to Orange County to visit friends and attend a Samurai Bears doubleheader versus the Fullerton Flyers on July 19, 2005. My first impression was very dissapointing.

We arrived at the Cal-State/Fullerton sports complex parking lot about an hour before game time. The parking lot attendant did not know where the baseball stadium was located despite the stadium clearly visible behind her. She took our money and directed us hesitantly to the left. Not a good sign.

There were about a dozen cars in the parking lot. We chose the least expensive tickets because we didn't think we would have difficulty picking our choice of seats. I started a conversation with a young Japanese man who stated that his brother was a pitcher with the Samurai Bears. His brother played with an independant Northern League team in 2004 and he acknowledged that the Golden League was clearly below Northern League talent.

The first thing we saw after entering the stadium was a tent with two tables that contained Fullerton Flyers and Samurai Bears souveniers. The inventory was very limited and overpriced. There were no scorecards, programs, yearbooks, baseball cards, or anything bearing any pictures and names of the players. The food concessions were surprising good.

Since game time was 5:00pm, I chose a shaded area beneath a tree to block out the California sun. I sat next to a Japanese student attending CS/Fullerton. We shared information on where we were from and which MLB and NPB teams were our favorite. He said his dad played in NPB.

There were maybe 20 fans in the stands for the first game of the doubleheader with loyalties split half and half for the Flyers and Samurai Bears. I was able to scrounge up a sheet of paper with Samurai Bear stats and info all in Japanese.

I moved down to a spot behind the Samurai Bears third base dugout where more Japanese fans gathered as the game progressed. By the second game, possibly 20 to 30 Japanese fans were in the Samurai Bears "oenden" section. Another 20 Fullerton supporters were scattered throughout the 4,000 seat stadium. Most of the Samurai Bears fans were college students; others were relatives or friends of the players; and some were Japanese locals.

A Japanese fan and her friend brought their trumpets to lead cheers with a different song and chant for every Samurai Bears batter. The fans made improvised clapping devices by putting coins into empty plastic water bottles to accompany the cheers. The decible level was very high in or near the "oenden" section. Many of Fullerton fans were perplexed and some annoyed by the exuberance of the Samurai Bear fans. Some of the Japanese donned kimonos and others wore homemade Samurai Bears t-shirts.

I experienced a funny exchange with the Samurai Bears manager Warren Cromartie. "Cro" was pacing the third base coaching box when he spied that I was wearing a Hanshin Tigers hat. Warren was a star with the Yomiuri Giants. He pointed at me and yelled out: Hanshin Tigers - damai." I responded with: "Kyogin - damai, Hanshin Tigers - ichiban." He reluctantly smiled and nodded his head because the Tigers were on top of the Central League. Cromartie then reached into the dugout and tossed a baseball in my direction which another fan grabbed.

The staff of the Samurai Bears and Golden League were clearly working doubly hard for the fans and players. The interpreter was also the PR and all around everything for the team and league. All the staff were doing their best, but were not given resources for a good product.

The Golden Baseball League promised innovative and a different approach to baseball. I saw nothing new that I haven't seen at many levels of professional baseball with better outcomes.

I would have been dissapointed with my visit if not for the many Japanese fans that I met and their creativity and energy. The last impression I was left with was the Samurai Bears on their team bus. The players and staff were chowing down on "bento" dinners that were provided by a fan and friend of Warren Cromartie. "Cro-san" was digging into his bento with his ohashi (chopsticks).

Here is a link to a LA times article republished on the GBL site: [Link. I had the opportunity to interview and be interviewed by Ben Bolch, the LA Times reporter.

Let's talk Samurai Bears' souvenirs at the stadiums. We have several visor type hats which are popular with the ladies. The replica/official caps are, in my opinion, a pale imitation of the Hanshin Tigers' caps. The kanji on those caps seems suspect if it really reads "samurai." The logo gear from balls, bats, flags, T-shirts, and fashion caps lack personality; the logo looks like someone put two bear ears on it at the last minute. The stuffed beanie baby bear (which is given to the players who hit homers), is ugly and looks nothing resembling a bear. They also sell a foam sword which looks more like a pirate's sword than what a samurai may use. I personally enjoyed the plastic drums they had sold at Long Beach.

While I have your attention, let me critique the team's appearance/aspect. Again the kanji writing on the cap and "home" uniform (yes they do have one) is suspect. On this jersey, I like the Yankees-like pinstripes and the alleged "samurai" kanji with the romanji "bears" on the bottom of it. The "road" uniforms are gray with pinstripes and have the words "Samurai" and "Bears" written out in romanji, which is kind of cool.

The name bothers me. A lot! They should either be the "Samurai" or the "Bears."

Again the Bears failed to make a dent in the GBL in Long Beach and don't look too good vs. Fullerton. But the good news is that the league has announced its all star teams. It's not known if they'll have an All Star game, one was not scheduled before!
Here's your All Star Bears in their division:
First base: Yuji Nerei
Utlity: Shinichiro Uchino
Pitcher:Hideki Nagasaka, Taakai Igarashi, and Rentaro Seki
Honorable mention:Toshitaka Shimada, Tomoshi Aoki, Satoshi Morita, and Masanori Yajima
Complete roster for those interested go to www.goldenbaseball.com

There goes the Bad News Bears again, they have just released the Buttermaker of the team, Blair Sly, the director of Japan Operations. Who's next, the Cro-man? Why are the owners taking advantage of good people who work for them? Is it the greed of money?

Or maybe due to no money.

I can't see how an itinerant, low minor league Japanese basball team can make money here. The successful teams have cozy and family oriented stadiums with roots in the community.

[Link 1 - Mainichi Interactive - in Japanese] [Link 2 - Asahi My Town USA - in Japanese]

Interestingly, after wrapping up the Golden League season in last place, the Samurai Bears came back to Japan as the Samurai Firebirds and played some exhibition games against the Hanshin minor league team and other teams.

The team has put down its roots in Kyoto and are now known as the Kyoto Firebirds, and will compete in the shakaijin Industrial League next season.

Team plans on playing some exhibition matches against American minor league teams in the pre-season next year as well.

- The team has put down its roots in Kyoto and are now known as the Kyoto Firebirds, and will compete in the shakaijin Industrial League next season.

It's great now that they have a home base, instead of moving on the road day in and day out. Plus now being in Japan, will also alleviate a lot of the stress the team had last year, too.

I just saw the GBL press release that Keisuke Ueno, Samurai Bears 19 year old pitcher, has been acquired by the Texas Rangers last week! Looks like the league has made at least one player's dream come true.