This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu.
Happy new year, everybody.
2004 saw the beginnings of change in Pro Yakyu.
2005 promises more changes as several new owners come in with new ideas about how to promote Japanese baseball. It promises to be an interesting new year.
On the web front, I will continue with the Game of the Week this season. I'm not sure that Sunday nights are best as coverage of the Pacific League seems to get left out completely. And I intend on covering more Pacific League games this season.
There are a number of people who have contributed a great deal to the site over this past year who I would like to thank. Long time contributors like Albright-san, Torakichi, Kiyoshi, CFiJ, Timmermann-san, 1908, and even Steinbrennernot have provided great insight into Japanese baseball, Asian baseball, and the game in North America. The occasional comments by Japan Baseball Daily's Garland-san are always greatly appreciated. And celebrities like Robert Whiting and a number of former NPB ball players making appearances here have given us all insights to Japanese baseball that we don't normally have access to. And there have been two recent contributors who I would especially like to thank: John Brooks who combs the Internet for articles related to Japanese baseball and posts timely links, and Michael Eng for his incredible collection of data on Japanese baseball.
And speaking of data, incorporating Eng-san's data set into mine, as well as work I'm doing with the SABR Baseball-Databank, should result in a swell of data that I plan on making available to you all. I strongly feel that the more data made publicly available with easy access, the more likely such data will get corrected and more data contributed back. It's the Open Source model for database building.
Open. If any word can describe my hopes for 2005, it's that word, "open." I'm working on opening up more data about Japanese baseball to non-Japanese speaking fans. The owners are going to have to be more open with their books and dealings thanks to the 2004 contraction fiasco. And with the entry of two Internet companies to NPB, it's my sincere hope that access to Japanese baseball broadcasts opens up to the whole world via the Internet.
Open data, open dealings, and open broadcasts. Such would make a great 2005.