17 replies to this topic

[Return of the Dewey]

Great article by Wright Thompson on ESPN.com explaining some of the hurdles that Japanese players encounter, on a cultural level.

http://sports.espn.g...s...&id=2766690

Reading the article, you come to understand why many of the "fringe benefits" were given to Dice-K in his contract.

Edited by Return of the Dewey, 27 February 2007 - 04:21 PM.

[Number45forever]

That was a very good article. I love that part about Ichiro being frustrated about the Mariners making mental errors, and feeling that if they just practiced more these could be elimanted. It is militaristic, and you can already see it with Matsuzaka: the long and seemingly daily bullpens, the extra long-toss, the dedication to each pitch of his practice sessions. It's a refreshing attitiude to bring to the modern American pro sports scene. I can't wait to watch him pitch.

[satyadaimoku]

Great article on a number of levels.

That was a very good article. I love that part about Ichiro being frustrated about the Mariners making mental errors, and feeling that if they just practiced more these could be elimanted. It is militaristic, and you can already see it with Matsuzaka: the long and seemingly daily bullpens, the extra long-toss, the dedication to each pitch of his practice sessions. It's a refreshing attitiude to bring to the modern American pro sports scene. I can't wait to watch him pitch.

Have there been any sabermetric studies on the effect of all this extra throwing on pitching injuries in the NPB? I wonder whether the Japanese total disrespect for resting arms going back as far as early high school might actually benefit NPB pitchers in the long term (that is, benefit those pitchers whose arms don't burn out at 15 years old) - or at least, provide some benefit that mitigates the harm done to them later.

[Let it Flo]

On his blog, Rob Bradford mentioned this article by CJ Nitkowski, who's now playing in Japan. It's pretty illustrative of just how different Spring Training is over there than it is here:

One of the first things an American player would notice to be drastically different is the daily meetings the Hawks hold. Each morning at 7:40 all the players, coaches and staff meet outside of the team hotel in Miyazaki. Unlike in the U.S., all the players in major league camp stay at the team hotel.

With temperatures hovering around 38 degrees, not counting the wind that's coming from a couple of hundred yards off the Pacific Ocean, we begin with what amounts to a 2-to-3-minute stretch. Then one or two members of the team place themselves in the center among us and yell at the top of their lungs what their goals are for the season.

This ceremony, dubbed "the pep rally" by one of my American teammates, creates a serious level of accountability. The entire press corps, approximately 40 to 50 members, also is present at the ceremony, which is captured on video for the television stations back home in Fukuoka and around Kyushu Island.

When the players have concluded their declarations, we go back into the hotel and must be ready to board the buses to the spring training complex by 9:20. This type of tradition would certainly draw moans and groans and be dismissed as useless by many American players, but I have to be honest, it really isn't all that bad and the purpose behind it only benefits team chemistry.

Before you board one of the buses, you have a very important decision to make. This decision is one no American ballplayer in my generation has ever had to make -- get on the smoking or nonsmoking bus.

I was caught a little off-guard when I was presented with such an option. Around 40 percent of the players smoke, so separation is necessary.

Interestingly, Bradford's take is that Matsuzaka and Okajima are having a better time because it's a bit more loose in Fort Myers. I've certainly been struck by how much they seem to be smiling and laughing.

Both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima seem to be having more fun with this spring training than anybody. Okajima's former teammate Bryan Corey said that Okajima has talked and smiled more than the entire four months they were together in Japan.

Edited by Let it Flo, 27 February 2007 - 06:56 PM.

[GriffinDoerr]

Excellent article, thanks. I especially liked this from Papelbon:

"Man," he drawled, "I couldn't speak Japanese if my life depended on it."

Just the thought of Paps trying to articulate in Japanese is hilarious.

I have heard some complaints (thankfully not many) on EEI from some who think Matzusaka is getting too many perks, and it annoyed me even before I read this article. Adjusting to baseball and pitching in the AL is going to be difficult enough; the cultural change is even worse. I'd like to see any typical New Englander relocate to Toyko and not have any problem at all. The stress must be incredible, even if it's so-called "good" stress.

[Rough Carrigan]

Great article on a number of levels.
Have there been any sabermetric studies on the effect of all this extra throwing on pitching injuries in the NPB? I wonder whether the Japanese total disrespect for resting arms going back as far as early high school might actually benefit NPB pitchers in the long term (that is, benefit those pitchers whose arms don't burn out at 15 years old) - or at least, provide some benefit that mitigates the harm done to them later.

A while back, when Will Carroll was doing a chat at BP, I put in a question asking him if he thought the Sox should change the way Matsuzaka trains other than what's necessary to go from a 6 man to a 5 man rotation. But Will didn't answer that one. (In all fairness, he's amazingly quick and responsive about answering questions out of the blue that I send via their site)

Chan Ho Park was partly a creation of Dodger Stadium, but he supposedly had an unusual stretching regimen that the Rangers' pitching coach had him stop doing whereupon Park had back and other trouble and failed miserably in Texas. I don't know how straight line a causal connection it was but it has to give you pause about wanting to change Matsuzaka's training habits.

I think Tek also has a big adjustment to make. Bobby Valentine said, in an interview, that Matsuzaka might actually have better control of his breaking pitches than of his fastball. If this is true, it presents tremendous opportunities to pitch backwards, to start off with breaking pitches early in the count and to throw them even down in the count. Matsuzaka might be such an unusual pitcher that a lot of Tek's usual expectations for how to work hitters can be thrown out the window.

[Noah]

I think Tek also has a big adjustment to make. Bobby Valentine said, in an interview, that Matsuzaka might actually have better control of his breaking pitches than of his fastball. If this is true, it presents tremendous opportunities to pitch backwards, to start off with breaking pitches early in the count and to throw them even down in the count. Matsuzaka might be such an unusual pitcher that a lot of Tek's usual expectations for how to work hitters can be thrown out the window.

Varitek has always struck me as a guy who loves to call breaking balls, especially when he knows it's the pitcher's best pitch. I mean, look back at his pitch-calling for Arroyo. Sometimes it seemed like he went entire games without throwing any fastballs.

This is actually one of the reasons I think Varitek will be great for Matsuzaka.

[Tokyo Sox]

Just awesome. This is potentially the most accurate, most well-written article on this subject that has ever appeared in the mainstream US sports press. Incredible how aware of it all the Sox have been, apparently for a very long time. Color me very impressed with the front office.

I'm always wary & somewhat disdainful of the Japan cultural stereotypes that you hear bandied about here & elsewhere, in part because they're so loosely thrown around & often very exaggerated -- I would argue that the "in Japan, even the janitors are considered as important to team success as the clean-up hitter" quote might be an example of that; otherwise the article is bulletproof.

Whiting is mentioned; any of his solo books are highly recommended for anyone who wants to read more about Japanese baseball/ball players in general, and about the differences between the 2 games as well. He co-wrote an older book with Warren Cromartie called Slugging It Out in Japan ...a little dated on the one hand, but for us perhaps never more topical.

Maybe not the right thread for this but while I'm here, I have to say the hype & excitement for MLB as a whole has never been greater in Japan than it is right now -- greater than any of Nomo & the "Summer of the Tornado", Ichiro's first season, and when he broke the hits record. Everyday NHK leads their sports news with updates from Spring Training, with NPB news taking a back seat. It's not just Matsuzaka either, as everyone from DM down to Kuwata has been getting camera time. In the last 3 days they've had long interviews with Ichiro and Matsui. To paraphrase parts briefly, with Ichiro:

Interviewer: "Matsuzaka has said he's really looking forward to facing you, what do you think about that?"
Ichiro: (playing the senpai) "I think it's cute. I haven't faced him in a long time, and there are a lot of great hitters in this league. I think it's cute that he wants to face me the most."

With Matsui:
Interviewer: "What are your goals for this season?"
Matsui: "To reach 2000 hits (for his career NPB+MLB); I'm only a few away, that will be an unbelievable dream come true."
Interviewer: "What about facing Matsuzaka? Will you hit his fastball?"
Matsui: "When he throws me a good fastball...I'll swing...it will go deep...into the Red Sox bullpen...and into Okajima's glove, as he's warming up."

Game. On.

[Philip Jeff Frye]

Varitek has always struck me as a guy who loves to call breaking balls, especially when he knows it's the pitcher's best pitch. I mean, look back at his pitch-calling for Arroyo. Sometimes it seemed like he went entire games without throwing any fastballs.

This is actually one of the reasons I think Varitek will be great for Matsuzaka.

Of course, when Arroyo started throwing to somebody other than Jason Varitek last year, he had by far his best season ever. Just saying...

Edited by Kevin Mortons Ghost, 28 February 2007 - 09:07 AM.

[SaveBooFerriss]

With Matsui:
Interviewer: "What are your goals for this season?"
Matsui: "To reach 2000 hits (for his career NPB+MLB); I'm only a few away, that will be an unbelievable dream come true."
Interviewer: "What about facing Matsuzaka? Will you hit his fastball?"
Matsui: "When he throws me a good fastball...I'll swing...it will go deep...into the Red Sox bullpen...and into Okajima's glove, as he's warming up."

Game. On.

TS, is it unusual for a Japanese player to engage in this type of trashtalking? My uneducated impression is that Japanese players would normally not say something like this. Is this a faulty stereotype. I also assume Matusui said he would take DM deep in a playful manner.

[JakeRae]

TS, is it unusual for a Japanese player to engage in this type of trashtalking? My uneducated impression is that Japanese players would normally not say something like this. Is this a faulty stereotype. I also assume Matusui said he would take DM deep in a playful manner.

Put yourself in Matsui's shoes. You are a major league hitter, and a pretty good one at that, and someone just asked you if you would hit a pitcher's fastball. There is no serious way to answer that question. Well, I guess you could say sometimes (or maybe). But, the question was begging for a flippant remark along the lines of what Matsui gave. Especially considering the remark about Okajima, it's hard to take this comment as anything other than a joke.

Of course, I'll defer to anything Tokyo Sox has to say on the issue.

[gcapalbo]

Regardless of how well they actually execute all of the things they are trying to do for DK, the important thing for him and is family is this: because the Red Sox are going to these lengths they are showing great respect for Matsuzaka and that is the key thing.

The thing I get from watching this guy is that he is very calm and driven by an inner confidence and a focus to succeed in US baseball. Given that he has succeeded on every big stage he has played on, high school, college, the Olympics, WBC, professional baseball in Japan, etc., coming to America, and pitching in the AL East-- this is really the last big stage for him to conquer.

He's got the tools and drive to do it. All these things the Red Sox are doing allow him to focus on that-- obviously the common goal for both Matsuzaka and the Red Sox.

I think Papelbon nails it with this quote:

"Baseball is a common language," reliever Jonathan Papelbon said. "We all speak the same language, and it's baseball."

[Tokyo Sox]

Matsui's whole interview was very lighthearted & playful. It wasn't anything along the lines of "I'm taking that punk deep" or anything like that. But, within this same context of cultural adjustment, it was a pretty interesting answer. If everyone was still in Japan it's safe to say Matsui's answer would have been something more along the lines of "He's a very good pitcher. I'll do my best to get a hit and help the team." That he was this playful at all is likely due to his years in MLB and the different culture that that entails.

As for Daisuke, gcapalbo is right (except for the college part, since he went straight to NPB from high school):

The thing I get from watching this guy is that he is very calm and driven by an inner confidence and a focus to succeed in US baseball. Given that he has succeeded on every big stage he has played on, high school, college, the Olympics, WBC, professional baseball in Japan, etc., coming to America, and pitching in the AL East-- this is really the last big stage for him to conquer.

He seems remarkably at ease with the press, and that poise is part of what will help him excel while making this adjustment.

[LTF]

This is potentially the most accurate, most well-written article on this subject that has ever appeared in the mainstream US sports press.

I would love if anyone could track down an online version of a piece S.I. did back in the late 80s/early 90s on the many differences between Japanese and American pro baseball. (I have the issues down in my cellar, but neither the time nor the desire to sift through them.) The angle was different, in that it was talking about Americans making the adjustments over there, but it was definitely as accurate and well-written as the story ESPN ran yesterday.

There was a passage discussing spring training, and drills that involved running from the leftfield line to the rightfield line and back again -- all while coaches sat near the foul poles, screaming all drill sergeant-like at the passing players. I also remember a long discussion about a particular star pitcher from that time and how his team's solution for his shoulder troubles was more off-day throwing, which naturally excaserbated the problem. One team solution had him visiting a temple, where, among other things, he had ice-cold water continually poured over his shoulder; finally, he made a trip the States to get it surgically repaired.

Edited by LawTown Fool, 28 February 2007 - 12:20 PM.

[stiffysboss]

I would love if anyone could track down an online version of a piece S.I. did back in the late 80s/early 90s on the many differences between Japanese and American pro baseball. (I have the issues down in my cellar, but neither the time nor the desire to sift through them.) The angle was different, in that it was talking about Americans making the adjustments over there, but it was definitely as accurate and well-written as the story ESPN ran yesterday.

There was a passage discussing spring training, and drills that involved running from the leftfield line to the rightfield line and back again -- all while coaches sat near the foul poles, screaming all drill sergeant-like at the passing players. I also remember a long discussion about a particular star pitcher from that time and how his team's solution for his shoulder troubles was more off-day throwing, which naturally excaserbated the problem. One team solution had him visiting a temple, where, among other things, he had ice-cold water continually poured over his shoulder; finally, he made a trip the States to get it surgically repaired.

In looking for the SI article (which I couldn't find), I did find this:

Link

There's a lot of irrelevant (to this discussion) stuff, but it's easy to scroll through and get to the meat.

Tobita created a system of training called shi no renshu, or death training (Whiting 1988: 38). His system included back breaking drills that would last for hours only to be followed by more vigorous drills that tested the physical and mental toughness of his players. He is known to have said he wanted his players to practice “until they were half dead, and motionless” (Whiting 1988: 38). Even though these methods may seem to be somewhat barbaric, they worked and Tobita produced many championship teams including one undefeated season in 1925.

There are a lot of examples of the workouts expected.

Tobita left a lasting impression on Japanese baseball and the philosophies toward it. He actually laid the foundation for the Japanese baseball mentality which is the main cause of the differences between the game in America and Japan. Today the same sort of drills are used, now called gattsu or guts drills. In 1984 a 38 year old player named Koichi Tabuchi, pushed himself to the limit by fielding 900 consecutive ground balls for nearly three hours, when he finished he couldn’t move and simply fell to the ground (Whiting 1988: 60).

Pitchers may throw up to 300 pitches in a practice session while infielders and outfielders are hitting up to 200 balls each followed by a few more hours of fielding practice (Obojski 1975: 122).

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Just awesome. This is potentially the most accurate, most well-written article on this subject that has ever appeared in the mainstream US sports press. Incredible how aware of it all the Sox have been, apparently for a very long time. Color me very impressed with the front office.

Also wanted to say how great this article is; I think that one thing that a lot of fans and writers don't take into account is how much of a role the environment can play on an athlete that is trying to get to peak physical performance at certain times. Whether it be sleep or food or entertainment or the level of stress in a player's life, that even what we might consider minor things might cause a player to have a bad day or even a bad week or month of performance.

Sounds like the Red Sox and Dice-K are very cognizant of all of this. Kudos to them.

[StatGeekNY]

I thought the business card thing was a nice touch. I just got back from my first business trip to Asia, and the whole exchanging business cards thing is such a big deal there. I think I gave out more cards there in 4 days than I have in 4 years in the US. Everyone collected the cards and spread them out on the table looking them over during the meetings. It is also a big no-no to put the cards in your pocket because then it is like you are "sitting" on the person.

Like gcapalbo said, whether or not all these changes and perks actually help Matsuzaka, just seeing the effort put in has to score a lot of points and put him somewhat more at ease.

Thanks for posting--great read.

[Bleedred]

Seems like he already loves the Boston fans:

http://www.theonion....s_eagerly_await