SABR Asia Newsletter

It is my pleasure to announce that the first SABR Asian Baseball Committee Newsletter has been released [Link - PDF file]. This issue has summaries of the Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Mainland China seasons as well as news on nisei baseball in North America. You can find my contribution duplicated below. Feel free to discuss any and all of the topics in the newsletter.

News of Our Demise has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Since Nomo crossed the Pacific and started a wave of Japanese players heading to the Major Leagues, there have been too many misinformed reports in North America that Japanese baseball was doomed - doomed to lose their fans to MLB, and doomed to lose all of their stars to MLB. Ichiro's posting fueled such speculation to greater heights, putting MLB on the front page of the sports dailies more often than Japanese baseball. With the Giants' Matsui heading to New York for 2003, there was no reason to expect anything but another MLB media blitz. It didn't happen.

Sure, Matsui had a great year. But NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) saw record attendance, especially with increases in the less popular Pacific League.

                  2  0  0  3             2  0  0  2
  Team      Games    Att.    Avg.  Games    Att.    Avg.   Diff
  Daiei       70  3,228,000 46,114   70  3,108,000 44,400  +3.9%
  Seibu       70  1,664,000 23,771   70  1,682,000 24,029  -1.1%
  Kintetsu    70  1,433,000 20,471   70  1,350,000 19,286  +6.1%
  Nippon Ham  70  1,319,000 18,843   70  1,260,000 18,000  +4.7%
  Orix        70  1,275,000 18,214   70  1,099,000 15,700 +16.0%
  Lotte       70  1,225,000 17,500   70  1,210,000 17,286  +1.2%
  ========== === ========== ======  ===  ========= ====== ======
  PL Totals  420 10,144,000 14,152  420  9,709,000 23,117  +4.5%


                  2  0  0  3             2  0  0  2
  Team      Games    Att.    Avg.  Games    Att.    Avg.   Diff
  Giants      70  3,763,000 53,757   70  3,783,500 54,050  -0.5%
  Hanshin     70  3,300,000 47,143   70  2,678,000 38,257 +23.2%
  Chunichi    70  2,336,500 33,379   70  2,404,000 34,343  -2.8%
  Yakult      70  1,741,000 24,871   70  1,797,000 25,671  -3.1%
  Yokohama    70  1,434,000 20,486   70  1,535,000 21,929  -6.6%
  Hiroshima   70    946,000 13,514   70  1,046,000 14,943  -9.6%
  ========== === ========== ======  === ========== ====== ======
  CL Totals  420 13,520,500 32,192  420 13,243,500 31,532  +2.1%

Hanshin pretty much dominated the Central League from the start, killing other teams' hopes pretty quickly. But wherever the Tigers went, fans came out in droves, celebrating the team's first pennant in 18 years. The Giants drew their usual sold-out home games with or without Godzilla, only having a net loss in attendance due to venue changes in the third-party home games they played. Other attendance fall out was pretty much respective to how quickly the teams were eliminated.

But the real attendance story was in the Pacific League. The Pacific League has suffered the most from losing stars to MLB and the Central League. Challenges the past couple of years by Kintetsu's Tuffy Rhodes and Seibu's Alex Cabrera to break the home run record of 55 (both tied Sadaharu Oh, now managing the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks) had lifted attendance for the two teams, but not the league overall. It's hard to say what brought out so man fans to Pacific League games. Daiei, Seibu, and Kintetsu were each in the thick of things to the end, while the Central League was pretty much decided before the All-Star break. Whatever the reason, let's take a look at some of the highlights of the 2003 season.


Year of the Cycle

Out of 62 cycle hits, the first one hit by Fumio Fujimura on October 2, 1948, five were hit in 2003. Orix's Jose Oritz was the first to hit for the cycle, doing so against Seibu at Seibu Dome on May 3rd. Chunichi's Kosuke Fukudome hit for the cycle on June 8 at home in Nagoya Dome against Hiroshima. Then, for one of the rarest records in the books, Yakult's Atsunori Inaba (vs. Yokohama at Matsumoto) doubled up with Daiei's Arihito Muramatsu (vs. Kintetsu at Osaka Dome) both hit for the cycle on July 1. Hanshin's Shinjiro Hiyama then hit for the cycle the next day at Koshien against Chunichi.


Takatsu Surpasses Sasaki

Yakult's Shingo Takatsu closed his way into the record books, surpassing Yokohama's Daimajin (Kazuhiro Sasaki - now with Seattle) by a good margin in both saves (260 to 229 respectively) and save points (289 to 269). While it took Takatsu 13 seasons to surpass what Sasaki did in 10, Takatsu started off his career as a starter for his first two seasons, whereas Sasaki became Yokohama's closer at the end of his first season.


Hitting Pitchers

With pitchers batting in the Central League, it's always a treat to see a pitcher come through and contribute to his own cause. Three pitchers with 30 or more plate appearances batted over .300 this season, Masumi Kuwata (.333 - Giants), Trey Moore (.326 - Hanshin), and Chris Brock (.318 - Hiroshima). This is in sharp contrast to Yokohama's Domingo Guzman who struck out 17 consecutive at bats (a new world record) before fouling out. He did manage to get 5 hits in on the season, ending with a .094 batting average.


Switch Hitting Power

Yokohama's Tatsuhiko Kinjyoh set a new Central League record for hitting home runs from both sides of the plate in two games in a single season. On August 13 at Sapporo Dome, Kinjyoh hit a solo home run left handed in the 4th inning, then another solo shot in the 9th from the right side, becoming the first Central League player in 20 years to hit home runs from both sides of the plate. On August 16 in Hiroshima, three days later, Kinjyoh did it again, hitting solo shots in the 3rd and 4th innings from the left and right sides respectively. The Pacific League (and Japan) record is held by Fernando Seguignol who hit home runs from both sides of the plate for Orix in 3 games in 2002.


Perfect Pinch Hitting

Lotte's Kiyoshi Hatsushiba went a perfect 7 for 7 as a pinch hitter between September 13 to October 4. This matched Yokohama's Makoto Matsubara who had 7 consecutive hits as a pinch hitter in 1980, but with a walk sandwiched in there. Hatsushiba did it in 7 consecutive plate appearances.


Michael Westbay
Writer/System Administrator
http://www.japanesebaseball.com

Resources:

• Shukan Baseball, 2003 vol. 56, Baseball Magazine Sha
• 2003 Baseball Record Book, Baseball Magazine Sha, ISBN4-583-03724-4