Origins of Following Pro-Yakyu

I saw this site and I just had to share my little story in regards to Japanese baseball. I have gone back to following the game in Japan a bit this summer partly because of Tuffy Rhodes, who is from my hometown of Cincinnati.

For most of my youth life baseball was my favorite sport and I followed it immensely. In the February 1990 edition of Beckett Baseball Card Magazine, there was an article called "BASEBALL: JAPAN'S NATIONAL PASTIME." My curiosity was sparked especially with the Americans that were featured in the article.

Around that time, the Kao Corporation took over my mother's company in Jergens and she had brought home Japanese newspapers which would further fuel my liking. Then came "Mr. Baseball," the movie, but before that was the book(s) that sold me on Japanese baseball and culture: Slugging It Out In Japan and You Gotta Have Wa.

Sadly for some to hear, the 1994 World Cup got me into soccer, and the start of MLS and J-League was/is my new love. But today I have gone back, looked at YouTube clips, and watched some of the matches, albeit Pacific League ones.

Seeing those historic clips I call the "glory years of gaijin ballplayers," from 1983 to 1990-something. I tell you, there were some characters back in the day! I'm not sure how the foreigners now compare, maybe Tuffy fits the mode.

Simply by reading about Japan, I have been influenced quite a bit by the culture, especially when it comes to work ethic, and gambatte spirit. I have never been to Japan, but I live by my saying "Yokohama, watakushi-no yume" (Yokohama, my dream).