Dead Ball (JPN Baseball Thread)

[matsuki]

This does not look too good...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-l ... --mlb.html

[IparryU]

This does not look too good...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-l ... --mlb.html

I hate these types of news videos...

That and his future ex wife is white so he ain't getting away with nothing.

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk.

[IparryU]

Mizuno apologizes for ball defect in pro baseball

Japan’s professional baseball league was facing another ball scandal Tuesday as sports equipment giant Mizuno apologized for a defect that turned the nation’s top sport into a slugfest.

The firm blamed a manufacturing defect, after league officials said they detected a problem with game balls following the season opener last month.

“This happened because of Mizuno’s failure to control our operations,” company president Akito Mizuno told a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Last year, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) commissioner Ryozo Kato was forced to quit after it was discovered that the league and Mizuno conspired to tweak the balls to make the game more exciting.

After months of repeated denials and a huge surge in home runs, the league admitted that it had changed specifications of the balls to give them greater bounce off the bat.

The league also admitted that it had demanded its manufacturer keep quiet about the switch.

On Tuesday, Mizuno said there was no subterfuge this time around.

It said wool yarn wrapped around the balls’ inner core was too dry, requiring more material which ultimately created greater bounce than regulations allow.

Japanese media said there have been 131 home runs this season compared to 113 at the same time last year.
© 2014 AFP

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/mizuno-apologizes-for-ball-defect-in-pro-baseball

[matsuki]

If they can't do it on their own, make them look better than they are??

[Taro Toporific]

Bassbol Great Jaky Robeauchon:
Opposite word "impossible" is not "possible"? 's; "Challenge".
#dailyinspirations pic.twitter.com/zicMyOiwKO -- Kewn Son of Garyle (@shilkytouch)'s twitter June 7, 2014

closeup-quote-Jackie-Robinson.jpg

Click to embiggen the original.

quote-Jackie-Robinson.jpg

[dimwit]

Interesting arcticle in the Japan Times about the state of coaching in high school baseball in Japan

One of the main problems with youth baseball in Japan is the lack of coaching education or set rules designed to foster athletes’ all-round development. Neither the education ministry nor the Japan High School Baseball Federation require baseball coaches to actually study coaching itself.

snip

In Japan, youth- or university-level baseball coaches do not have to be certified. Connections, outstanding backgrounds as players and alumni status carry considerable weight when it comes to appointing coaches, not sports science credentials. It is up to the individual coach whether to keep up with the latest research or to interact with other coaches, sports scientists and educators for the sake of their own professional development.

Especially in high school baseball, intuition and “feeling” are often valued over research. High school baseball has its own governing body outside of the umbrella high school sports governing body. Baseball (hardball) also does not belong to the Japan Sport Association (JASA), which offers training to coaches in 50 sports and a high-performance certification program in 29 of these, including in swimming, softball and gymnastics.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... ien-dream/

My experience with junior high soccer in Matsuyama is instructive. When my son entered junior high their coach seemed to have studied coaching and was a very positive influence on all the players as he tended to give everyone a chance to play and as a result they went to the city quarter finals. The next year their teacher/soccer coach was hired by an private school and replaced by a teacher didn't seem to have any coaching experience nor did he seem to want any. He only played about 20 of the 60 players on the team, and rest including my son spent practices doing laps around te schoolyard. Since the new coach arrived they haven't gotten out of the first round of competition.

[matsuki]

If it's anything like hockey, they are still running the same drills from 20 years ago with some sort of overcomplicated twist. Same shit every week...zero improvement in game play.

[dimwit]

Having played hockey here, I just got so fucking frustrated with ice time being 80% really pointless drills (five on ones, etc.) and 20% scrimmage, that I eventually decided it wasn't worth the waste of time and effort.

[matsuki]

Having played hockey here, I just got so fucking frustrated with ice time being 80% really pointless drills (five on ones, etc.) and 20% scrimmage, that I eventually decided it wasn't worth the waste of time and effort.

I think ours is more like 70% drills and 30% scrimmage...which would be fine if the drills were modern and actually productive. We start with 1-0 passing in three lines half rink, then 1-0 passing full rink, and then the rest if usually filled with some sort of 2-1 full rink back and forth regroup and attack shit. I'm honestly tempted to bring in a modern drill book and pass it over to the current manager...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Japanese high school game spans four days and 50 innings

In a pitching duel to end all pitching duels, Chukyo High School and Sotoku High School were held scoreless for days — literally — during a semifinal matchup at the 59th National High School Rubber Baseball Tournament in Japan.

It wasn't until the 50th inning — which took place on Sunday morning, four days after the game had started — that Chukyo finally broke through for three runs. Fortunately for them, and pretty much everyone involved, that would hold up, allowing them to advance to the finals later on Sunday.

Amazingly and ridiculously, both starting pitchers went the distance during the marathon. Chukyo starting pitcher Taiga Matsui threw 709 pitches and allowed 26 hits over his 50 innings.

The coaches obviously don't give a fuck about their pitchers.

[matsuki]

Not that I'm following closely but after a close exhibition game, until the last game, yet another "SAMURAI JAPAN" team seemed to be slaughtering the "MLB Allstars." WTF??

The icing on the cake is Sakamoto coming out (literally?) to "Let it go."



http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/11/16/ ... lk-up-song

"Samurai" indeed

[Taro Toporific]

J-Baseball opener

enn1603301156014-p1.jpg

zakzak.co.jp/entertainment/ent-news/news/20160330/enn1603301156014-n1.htm
"Rina Ikoma is giga-cute in the ceremonial first pitch for Softbank Fukuoka"

[Coligny]

Is that a wabbit ?

FJIB5JUFCZDYR3V.MEDIUM.jpg

[matsuki]

It's baaaaaaack....

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/com ... 900_pm_et/

Something like 80% viewership in Japan, not even a % in the US....

[Mike Oxlong]

It's baaaaaaack....

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/com ... 900_pm_et/

Something like 80% viewership in Japan, not even a % in the US....

It's kinda understandable if we look at the general public perception. Here, it's believed to be a true world championship tournament; there it's seen more as a pre-season all-star break.

[matsuki]

It's baaaaaaack....

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/com ... 900_pm_et/

Something like 80% viewership in Japan, not even a % in the US....

It's kinda understandable if we look at the general public perception. Here, it's believed to be a true world championship tournament; there it's seen more as a pre-season all-star break.

Indeed, still fun to watch though. US vs. PR....maybe for the last time since by the next WBC, PR will be a state?

I'm just happy Japan was defeated because modesty gets lost every time they win this tournament.

[Mike Oxlong]

It's baaaaaaack....

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/com ... 900_pm_et/

Something like 80% viewership in Japan, not even a % in the US....

It's kinda understandable if we look at the general public perception. Here, it's believed to be a true world championship tournament; there it's seen more as a pre-season all-star break.

Indeed, still fun to watch though. US vs. PR....maybe for the last time since by the next WBC, PR will be a state?

I'm just happy Japan was defeated because modesty gets lost every time they win this tournament.

Yeah, I enjoy the games, as long as I can stream them from an overseas English language broadcaster. I mean, even Canadian broadcasters are far more even in their tone and speech when we have a team in the Stanley Cup finals than the local broadcasters are when they have a team in, well, anything.

[matsuki]

Amen to that. Last year I bounced around from feed to feed and some of the local guys are just insane.

Not sure if you watched the WBC feed above but the uploaded was throwing in Coach's Corner segments like this:

Is Don Cheery speaking Canuckistani?

At the end of the day, I'm just happy I don't have to hear やっぱりニッポン野球「　　　　　」！

[Mike Oxlong]

Canuckistani jock talk, fer sure!

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

It's baaaaaaack....

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/com ... 900_pm_et/

Something like 80% viewership in Japan, not even a % in the US....

It's kinda understandable if we look at the general public perception. Here, it's believed to be a true world championship tournament; there it's seen more as a pre-season all-star break.

This isn't the World Series?

[Mike Oxlong]

Only if words having meaning...

[wagyl]

maybe for the last time since by the next WBC, PR will be a state?

Maybe not. I mean, how can you tell them from Mexicans, who are, as we know, "not our friend, believe me. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people?"

[matsuki]

bad hombres? [FEARFUL FACE]

Sent from my SO-03H using Tapatalk

[Coligny]

Only if words having meaning...

Welcome to hell... Please have a seat...

[matsuki]

Only if words having meaning...

Welcome to hell... Please have a seat...

Of course you can always スルーして while you climax off with some アイス

[matsuki]

horeeeee shit, America is spanking America Jr. pretty bad. How will I ever refrain from the やっぱりアメリカの野球が。。。 comments?

[matsuki]

The second oldest baseball stadium in Japan, Meiji Jingu Stadium is one of the few professional stadiums still in existence where Babe Ruth played. In 1934, Ruth joined several other famous baseball players from the U.S., such as Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, in a 22-game tour of Japan. (Matsutarō Shōriki, popularly known as the father of Japanese professional baseball, organized the American tour; he survived an assassination attempt for allowing foreigners to play baseball in Jingu Stadium. He received a 16-inch-long wound from a broadsword during the assassination attempt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Jingu_Stadium

[Takechanpoo]

Annoyed Shohei Ohtani Had Hoped U.S. Baseball Players Wouldn’t Be This Bad

ANAHEIM, CA—Frustrated with the level of play he has encountered during his first week of competition in the American major leagues, Japanese baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani told reporters Monday that he’d hoped American players wouldn’t be this bad. “When I decided to leave Japan to sign with the [Los Angeles] Angels, I thought I’d have to push myself to compete at the next level, but this has all been way too easy,” said the 23-year-old after a dominant performance on the mound and the batter’s box, adding that his new peers were hardly a step up from the lowly Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. “At first, I thought the guys were just messing with me, but when I homered three times in three days and took a perfect game into the seventh inning the day after that, well...Turns out I’m just better than everyone else. This honestly wasn’t even worth the money.” Reporters confirmed Ohtani seemed bored and listless throughout the interview, answering questions while tossing 94 mile-per-hour warm-up pitches in the bullpen with his off hand.

https://sports.theonion.com/report-dez- ... 1825243714

you kidding me? huh?

[TennoChinko]

It's the Onion .,,,

Here's my Ohtani prediction:

When the Angels play the Yankees from the 27th, Ohtani is either going to be welcomed with a beanball or very very aggressive brushback pitch...