Japanese Baseball

[edit] High School Baseball

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at High school baseball in Japan. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with ArmchairGM, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

In Japan, high school baseball (高校野球: kōkō yakyū) generally refers to the 2 annual baseball tournaments played by high schools nationwide culminating at a final showdown at Hanshin Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan. They are organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation in association with Mainichi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in the spring (also known as "Spring Kōshien") and Asahi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Championship in the summer (also known as "Summer Kōshien").

These nationwide tournaments enjoy widespread popularity, arguably equal to or greater than professional baseball. Qualifying tournaments are often televised locally and each game of the final stage at Kōshien is televised nationally on NHK. The tournaments have become a national tradition, and large numbers of frenzied students and parents travel from hometowns to cheer for their local team. It is a common sight to see players walking off the field in tears after being eliminated from the tournament by a loss.

The star players of the championship team achieve a degree of celebrity status. For the players, playing at Kōshien is the door to playing at the professional level. Due to the recruiting practices of Japanese high schools, top prospects often play on strong teams that are able to reach the final tournament at Kōshien. Several professional baseball players first made their mark at Kōshien, including Sadaharu Oh, Suguru Egawa, Daisuke Araki, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and Daisuke Matsuzaka.

[edit] Professional Baseball

The top tier of baseball in Japan, Nippon Pro Baseball has consisted for a long time of 2 leagues, the Central League and Pacific League, which in turn each contain 6 teams. The Central League is comparable to the National League of Japan, as it plays its games with no designated hitter, while the Pacific League is more comparable to the American League, as it uses a DH. Many American fans refer to Nippon Pro Baseball incorrectly as the Japanese League.

At the end of the NPB season, the top teams in each league face off in the Japan Series. Prior to 2005, the only other interleague confrontation came in the form of two All-Star Games played about two-thirds of the way through the season. In 2005, NPB began to incorporate interleague play.

Major differences between NPB and MLB include the much smaller farm system in Japan (only one minor league team per franchise), shorter seasons (usually ranging between 130 and under 150 games), multiple All-Star Games per year and less player mobility. There are far fewer trades in Japan than in the majors and free agency starts later in a player's career.

[edit] Prominent Stars (incomplete)

• Hiromasa Arai, OF
• Ralph Bryant, DH
• Randy Bass, 1B
• Alex Cabrera, 1B
• Orestes Destrade, DH
• Yutaka Enatsu, P
• Kosuke Fukudome, OF
• Yutaka Fukumoto, OF
• Atsuya Furuta, C
• Adrian Garrett, OF/C
• Isao Harimoto, OF
• Hiromitsu Kadota, RF/DH
• Masaichi Kaneda, P
• Hideji Kato, 1B
• Tetsuharu Kawakami, 1B/MAN
• Sachio Kinugasa, 3B
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara, 1B
• Leon Lee, OF
• Leron Lee, OF
• Charlie Manuel, OF
• Hideki Matsui, OF
• Kazuo Matsui, SS
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, P
• Shigeo Nagashima, 3B
• Norihiro Nakamura, 3B
• Hideo Nomo, P
• Katsuya Nomura, C
• Hiromitsu Ochiai, IF
• Michihiro Ogasawara, 3B
• Sadaharu Oh, 1B
• Tuffy Rhodes, OF
• Bobby Rose, 2B
• Kazuhiro Sasaki, P
• Eiji Sawamura, P
• Daryl Spencer, IF
• Victor Starfin, P
• Ichiro Suzuki, OF
• Boomer Wells, 1B
• Wally Yonamine, OF
• Yoshio Yoshida, SS
• Koji Yamamoto, OF
• Yu Darvish, P