The New Age Of Japanese Baseball-Player Media Coverage

I had the opportunity to speak with philosopher/psychiatrist/author/baseball enthusiast Dr. Ron Leifer, who, growing up in the Bronx in the '40s, had the distinction of watching Jackie Robinson play at Ebbets Field. He likened the slow progression of integrating Asian players into the Major Leagues to the struggle African-Americans went through to gain recognition in baseball.

“Before Jackie broke into the Majors, you never heard of anyone from the Negro Leagues. Maybe Satchel Page, but that’s it. The only media outlet in the area that even reported Negro League games was the local Harlem newspapers. When people like Hideo Nomo and Ichiro came over to the United States to play baseball, it was the same kind of situation. I had never heard of these guys until they were here making headlines. That’s just about where the similarities end though. The new players coming into the game today aren’t facing the brutal facts of racism that Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Roy Campenella had to face. I didn’t realize the blind racism that was occurring in those times until I was 11. I was walking on the sidewalk with a few friends from Polo Grounds, and a distinguished, well-dressed African-American man in his 60s was walking toward us. He stepped off the sidewalk and walked through the gutter to pass us. I was dumbfounded. We were nothing but 11-year-old children. I remember thinking, ‘Why would he give way to the sidewalk and walk in the gutter for a bunch of kids?’”

So while Asian baseball players don’t have to face the bigotry and hatred African-Americans faced, they instead have to face more indirect hurdles.

Before we can get into the hurdles facing pitchers like Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hiroki Kuroda, we first must look into the beginnings of their journeys in Japan.

Dice-K grabbed the attention of Japanese media early on, separating himself from not only Hiroki Kuroda, but also from all Japanese pitchers that came before him and that will follow him for years to come. In Japan, high-school baseball is just as popular, if not more popular then their professional league. There are even two manga cartoon series in Japan that are set around high-school baseball, “Touch”, and “Major”. In fact, “Touch” holds the record in Japan as being the highest rated anime television show ever, with a 34 percent share.

There are two major high-school baseball tournaments in Japan: The National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament or "Spring Koshien", and The National High School Baseball Championship or "Summer Koshien". The qualifying games are often televised locally, and each game of the final stage at Koshien is televised nationally on NHK, Japan’s national public broadcast network.

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