Batters Hit in the Head?

To answer the first part of your post, it is an automatic ejection to hit a batter in the head in the Central League, it's situational at the umpire's judgement about intent in the Pacific League.

Seibu's 19 year old starter, Wakui, had some serious control problems to start the game on the 7th. He walked two Hawks in the first, then hit Honma to lead off the second, and walked two more batters including Matsunaka to load the bases for Zuleta. Wakui did not intentionally hit Zuleta. (With such lack of control, I'd have certainly changed pitchers then and there in the second inning, but it appears that hitting Zuleta woke Wakui up and he pitched very well from that point on.)

As for the second part of your post, I don't believe that foreigners are singled out to be hit by pitches. (And it's odd that you didn't mention that Honma, a Japanese player, was hit in the game before Zuleta.)

Some batters have a weak spot for inside pitches. The clearest example is Kiyohara, who has been hit 196 times in his career, more than anyone else in Japanese baseball history. (And is currently out after being hit by a pitch by Darvish.)

Here are the top 10 hit batsmen for 2005:

+----------+------+------+
| Name     | Team | HBP  |
+----------+------+------+
| Johjima  | FSH  |   16 |
| Zuleta   | FSH  |   15 |
| Miyamoto | YS   |   12 |
| Ohmura   | FSH  |   12 |
| Cabrera  | SL   |   11 |
| Imae     | CLM  |   11 |
| Murata   | YBS  |   11 |
| Nakajima | SL   |   11 |
| LaRocca  | HC   |   10 |
| Kiyohara | YG   |   10 |
+----------+------+------+

Even though Kiyohara missed a good chunk of the season, he still made the top 10. Break this down by country and you get:

+--------------------------+---------+------+
| Country                  | Players | HBP  |
+--------------------------+---------+------+
| Japan                    |       7 |   83 |
| Panama                   |       1 |   15 |
| United States of America |       1 |   10 |
| Venezuela                |       1 |   11 |
+--------------------------+---------+------+

I don't see a conspiracy against foreigners here.

Does this excuse pitchers from hitting batters? No. It's regrettable that that Kiyohara and Alex Cabrera are both on the DL due to being hit in the hand (both of them) by a pitch. And unless the pitcher has better control, he really shouldn't be going too far inside to any batter. And I certainly see merit in the Central League's "hit a batter in the head and you're out of here" rule - intentional or not. (I'm not saying I totally agree with it, just that I see its merit.)

Nonetheless, pitching inside is a batter-by-batter strategy. Not a country-of-orign strategy. Argue for rule reform whereby pitchers are punished for hitting batters. But I don't see this as an anti-foreigner conspiracy.

Great. Thank you for the information!

[Chuckle]

That conspiracy theory sure had a short life.

It is funny (chuckle) (chuckle) how everyone seems to be so hush hush about it.

Hmm. QED?

I'm still all about the pitchforks and torches if anyone wants to join me (chuckle*cough*chuckle).

Numbers can be looked at many different ways. Your stats show that 36 of the 119 "most times hit" were foreigners (30.2%). I would understand all of the chuckles, etc. if 30% of NPB players were foreigners. Clearly that's not the case. We're looking at 30% of the hit batsmen coming from about 5% (just a guess) of the total player population.

Foreigners actually accounted for approximately 17% of total plate appearances in 2005. No, it's not the 30% of the top 10 hit batsmen, but with a sample size this small, I'm not buying that foreigners are over-represented.

Please feel free to check my math.

Plate Appearances by Country
+--------------------------+---------+-------+
| Country                  | Players | PA    |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+
| Unknown                  |       4 |   322 |
| Australia                |       1 |     2 |
| Brazil                   |       1 |   151 |
| Colombia                 |       1 |   505 |
| Dominican Republic       |       7 |  1216 |
| Japan                    |     402 | 53989 |
| Korea                    |       1 |   445 |
| Mexico                   |       1 |   390 |
| Panama                   |       3 |  1129 |
| Puerto Rico              |       1 |    22 |
| Taiwan                   |       2 |    17 |
| United States of America |      27 |  5446 |
| Venezuela                |       3 |  1159 |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+

You're right, of course. Numbers can be used to prove pretty much anything. I just hope that concrete numbers can help make more rational, informed guesses as to what all of this means.

Also got to remember that foreigners get a lot more at bats than the average young Japanese player.

Some more fun with numbers:

2005 PA vs. HBP by Country for all players with at least 1 PA
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+
| Country                  | Players | PA    | HBP  | HBP/PA |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+
| NULL                     |       4 |   322 |    1 | 0.0031 |
| Australia                |       1 |     2 |    0 | 0.0000 |
| Brazil                   |       1 |   151 |    3 | 0.0199 |
| Colombia                 |       1 |   505 |    4 | 0.0079 |
| Dominican Republic       |       7 |  1216 |    9 | 0.0074 |
| Japan                    |     402 | 53989 |  525 | 0.0097 |
| Korea                    |       1 |   445 |    1 | 0.0022 |
| Mexico                   |       1 |   390 |    0 | 0.0000 |
| Panama                   |       3 |  1129 |   25 | 0.0221 |
| Puerto Rico              |       1 |    22 |    1 | 0.0455 |
| Taiwan                   |       2 |    17 |    0 | 0.0000 |
| United States of America |      27 |  5446 |   43 | 0.0079 |
| Venezuela                |       3 |  1159 |   18 | 0.0155 |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+

2005 PA vs. HBP by Country for all players with at least 1 PA (Pitchers Excluded)
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+
| Country                  | Players | PA    | HBP  | HBP/PA |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+
| NULL                     |       3 |   301 |    1 | 0.0033 |
| Brazil                   |       1 |   151 |    3 | 0.0199 |
| Colombia                 |       1 |   505 |    4 | 0.0079 |
| Dominican Republic       |       3 |  1171 |    9 | 0.0077 |
| Japan                    |     275 | 52595 |  523 | 0.0099 |
| Korea                    |       1 |   445 |    1 | 0.0022 |
| Mexico                   |       1 |   390 |    0 | 0.0000 |
| Panama                   |       3 |  1129 |   25 | 0.0221 |
| Taiwan                   |       1 |    14 |    0 | 0.0000 |
| United States of America |      15 |  5259 |   41 | 0.0078 |
| Venezuela                |       2 |  1157 |   18 | 0.0156 |
+--------------------------+---------+-------+------+--------+

Make of them what you like.

Just like the game the Swallows played against Seibu last week when LaRocca had the first pitch hit him. Even though the pitcher had thrown stright the inning before, and that inning, and then after he hit two more home runs had a pitch thrown behind his legs. I've been watching games this year and foreigners have been getting targeted no matter what happened in past years.

- I've been watching games this year and foreigners have been getting targeted no matter what happened in past years.

Oh boy, this again? We can't get over this cant we? Let's take a serious look at this with a certain Jim Allen story [May 11, 2006 Daily Yomiuri], that's very credible to this situation:

The Fighters, and the league overall, are hitting few batters throwing inside this year. As of the time of this article, there was only 1 hit batsman in every 100 plate appearances), only a 1% rate. Despite the belief that foreigners are being targeted by pitchers, it just isn't the case, as hit by pitches have been so low.