Category Archives: International

(BLOGATHON ’16!) International Baseball Culture: Mitsuru Adachi’s “Touch”, Part 1, which ironically doesn’t have much baseball in it

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This post is part of the 2016 Baseball Continuum Blogathon For Charity, benefiting the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. The Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is the charitable arm of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and funds raised will be “put to immediate use to increase the pace from research trials into improved clinical care, to ensure state-of-the-art facilities, and to help improve the quality of life for patients and their families.” Please donate through the Blogathon’s GoFundMe page.

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In International Baseball Culture, I look at baseball-related entertainment from outside the USA that isn’t bizarre, but is interesting, perhaps learning some new things along the way!

In 2005, the Japanese television station TV Asahi held a special on the 100 most popular anime (animation) in history, as voted on by Japanese viewers. While many of the most popular programs were fantasy, adventure or science fiction, such as the Gundam series of giant robot programs (at number two) or Dragon Ball (at number three), the top ten also had a baseball anime: Touch, which was seventh.

What is Touch? Well, to put it in simple terms, it’s a tale of two stories: the baseball one and the off-the-field one. It’s about three teenagers (twin boys and their girl-next-door neighbor) who navigate high-school, relationships and their pitfalls while trying to bring their school glory on the diamond as they try to reach Koshien, Japan’s national high school baseball tournament, which is like March Madness and a Friday night in Texas combined.

Needless to say, it struck a nerve with Japanese audiences, and the 2005 program’s polling was not that out of the ordinary: A follow-up list that included votes from after the TV Asahi special was aired also had Touch in the top ten, at number nine. Nor was this a recent phenomena, either: during it’s original run in the 1980s, it was, according to some sources, the most watched anime in the history of Japan. Ever.

The series was, in itself, adapted from a manga (comic) of the same name, written and illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi, that saw it’s volumes sell over an estimated 100 million copies. Just to put that in perspective, in 2010 the population of Japan was around 128 million. Of course, that doesn’t mean over three out of four Japanese people owned at least one copy of a volume of Touch… but it does mean that those who did liked it very much, buying every volume.

From what I’ve read about the series, it’s not hard to see why it would have such broad appeal, as it apparently has something for everyone. It has baseball action (and also some detours into boxing and other sports) for the boys, romance for the girls, and drama and comedy for everyone. And apparently all of those things are done well enough where even people who normally can’t stand stuff like that seem to like it- I’ve come across several reviews that include lines like “I don’t even like baseball but I was enthralled by the game episodes” or “the romance plot is actually realistic and well-handled.”

And yet, despite the fact that Touch is one of the most successful anime and manga in the history of Japan, it has never seen official release in the United States, and it’s unlikely that it will anytime soon, either (the anime and manga import market is mainly focused on recent releases, and what old ones that do happen are usually Sci-Fi or Fantasy). However, there is apparently a unspoken agreement between the Japanese entertainment industry and it’s English-speaking fans that they won’t sue anybody who translates and distributes translated versions of the show/book, so long as they stop doing it if an actual agreement to distribute them in the USA is made, so I was able to find copies of both the anime and manga online.

But anyway: a baseball-centric story that is one of the most popular and well-regarded anime/manga in Japanese history, and it’s almost completely unknown to American audiences? What better way to start International Baseball Culture? (after the jump)

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(Blogathon ’16) WBC News for January 29, 2016

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This post is part of the 2016 Baseball Continuum Blogathon For Charity, benefiting the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. The Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is the charitable arm of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and funds raised will be “put to immediate use to increase the pace from research trials into improved clinical care, to ensure state-of-the-art facilities, and to help improve the quality of life for patients and their families.” Please donate through the Blogathon’s GoFundMe page.

It’s time for a World Baseball Classic update! With the first qualifiers coming up, more news has started to come out. Let’s take a look at some of the news:

Sydney Qualifying Pool Rosters and Schedules released:

On Wednesday, the rosters and schedules for the Sydney qualifying pool came out. They can be found over here on Baseball America. I’ll have a more thorough preview as we get closer to the event, but it’s definitely a case where Australia should be considered the heavy favorite, full of players with experience in MLB or the Minors. After Australia, it’s a fight for the second spot to face them in a winner-take-all game to get to the main tournament. Clay Rapada is probably the most notable player outside of the Australians, as he will be playing for the Philippines, the country of his father’s birth, before retiring. Former All-Star Jason Bartlett, also of Filipino descent, was also expected to play, but I don’t see him on the roster.

News from other qualifying pools:

As I mentioned last time, the qualifiers, unlike the main tournament, are not events where MLB teams are required to allow 40-man roster players to take part if there’s an overlap with official team acitivites. This will most hurt a team like Mexico, where the Blue Jays are unlikely to allow their three Mexican players from taking part in the March qualifier in Mexicali.

Jon Morosi, one of the best people to follow for WBC news, had information on his Twitter feed on the German team, who will be managed by Garth Iorg (yes, that Garth Iorg). Depending on what difficulties Mexico has, they could be a threat in Mexicali, even with Max Kepler likely skipping as he tries to win a spot on the Twins, they will have Donald Lutz, one of the few Germans with MLB experience.

Bruce Chen, who retired last season, is apparently willing to pitch for Panama.

Other WBC News:

Ozzie Guillen is totally up for managing Team Venezuela in 2017.

 

And that’s it… for now.

Keep an eye out for more WBC news on the Baseball Continuum as it occurs.

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At 9 AM: International Baseball Culture

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This post has been part of the 2016 Baseball Continuum Blogathon For Charity, benefiting the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. The Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is the charitable arm of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and funds raised will be “put to immediate use to increase the pace from research trials into improved clinical care, to ensure state-of-the-art facilities, and to help improve the quality of life for patients and their families.” Please donate through the Blogathon’s GoFundMe page.

Coming later this month: “International Baseball Culture”

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Bizarre Baseball Culture is perhaps my most popular segment on the Baseball Continuum. In it, I, as I say: “…take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.” It’s seen comic books, video games, novels, TV episodes, animated shorts, a radio drama, and even a full-length movie. They’ve ranged from the well-known to the hyper-obscure, leading Michael Claire to dub me the “Indiana Jones of baseball comics“, which I guess isn’t the worst thing to be put on a tombstone.

Anyway, in search of good material, I have recently began to look overseas. Some of my favorite Bizarre Baseball Culture posts have been from elsewhere in the world. The Pokémon episode, for example, was pretty popular. Mr. Go might have been the most fun I’ve ever had doing Bizarre Baseball Culture (well, until you see what the 50th installment is). My most recent installment was, of all things, an episode of an Ultraman TV series.

However, here’s the thing: it is stupid to assume that everything foreign is bizarre. Oh, to be sure, plenty of it is, just like how the American-made works of fiction I’ve covered here on the Continuum have been bizarre (intentionally or not). I mean, no matter what country it was made in, a movie about a gorilla playing baseball would have been bizarre.

But to say it is all bizarre, simply because it is foreign, would be highly ignorant and also disrespectful. These are places with their own traditions, not only in baseball but in their popular culture. To immediately dub a fairly mundane (i.e. no baseball-playing gorillas or evil glove monsters) baseball comic from Japan or a baseball film from Korea “bizarre” would be like being the baseball entertainment equivalent of the crotchety old columnist who claims that Latin American players aren’t playing the game the “right way” despite the fact that that’s the way they’ve played all their lives. And, guess what, I am not a crotchety old columnist, although I wish I was being paid like one.

So, with that out of the way, I am proud to announce that, starting with a piece in this year’s blogathon, there will be a new recurring feature on the Baseball Continuum: International Baseball Culture. It will cover baseball entertainment from outside the United States and sometimes Canada* that isn’t “bizarre”. Now, there will continue to be foreign-sourced baseball works in Bizarre Baseball Culture, but they will only be those that would qualify for the series due to their content. If it turns out that there’s a Mexican movie in which luchadores play baseball against mermen from Atlantis, that’s still going into Bizarre Baseball Culture. But if it’s a serious drama about a baseball team called the “Luchadores” who are playing a team called the “Mermen”, that would be International Baseball Culture.

So, please join me during the Blogathon when I begin my International Baseball Culture travels with the beginning of a series of articles on Mitsuru Adachi’s Touch, a baseball dramedy/romance manga and anime that won awards, set viewership records in the 1980s, and was in 2005 named one of the ten greatest anime ever… and yet has never seen an official release in North America.

*I’ll be taking Canada on a case-by-case basis. For example, you could argue that the works of W.P. Kinsella are Canadian because Kinsella is from Canada, but you’d be ignoring the fact that most of his baseball stories are set in America and deal pretty specifically with American baseball. But if somebody were to make a French-language drama about a man and a woman who fall in love over their shared longing for the return of the Montreal Expos, that would probably fall under International Baseball Culture.

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Ultraman 80 vs. An Evil Baseball-Glove Monster

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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

(Note: The following is different from what I previewed last time, because, well, I couldn’t just ignore such great material as this.)

Baseball is a hard game. A game of failure. A game where even the slightest mistake can have horrible consequences for your team.

It is also a game of much superstition. What a player eats or what rituals they perform may affect their performance. And they may even believe their equipment- their bats and gloves- may be what decides victory and defeat. It is not that uncommon to see somebody slam a glove or a bat if they fail or have just been ejected from a game.

But, perhaps you should consider that maybe those seemingly inanimate-objects have feelings too, and that all of that negative energy (mixed with pollution) will cause them to become GIANT EVIL BASEBALL GLOVE MONSTERS, as happened in the 47th episode (“The Evil Glove. Be Careful What You Throw Out!”) of the Japanese documentary science fiction show, Ultraman 80!

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Yes, buckle up, everyone, because I may have finally found something weirder than Mr. Go!

(Go below the jump for more)

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And now, a random picture of people playing baseball dressed as astronauts

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baseballspacemenSometimes, you come across random things online. I’m not sure where, exactly, I found this picture- I think it was on a blog about Godzilla (as happens sometimes), especially given the fact that the pitcher in this picture appears to be Japanese.

Anyway, consider this picture a nice dose of whimsy into your dreary Boxing Day.

World Baseball Classic News for 12-17-2015: Catching Up

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It’s time to catch up on some World Baseball Classic news!

 

Lincoln Holdzkom passes away

First off, though, there is tragic news out of California, where New Zealander-American pitcher Lincoln Holdzkom has passed away after a car accident. Holdzkom, the brother of John Holdzkom of the Pirates organization, was expected to be the team captain for New Zealand in the WBC Qualifiers. Our thoughts are with him and his family and friends.

Mexico’s roster starts to take shape

Jon Morosi has an article on the Mexican National Team that has begun to take shape. Edgar Gonzalez will be the manager for Team Mexico in the WBC Qualifiers and presumably the main tournament as well if they qualify. His younger brother, Adrian Gonzalez, will be on the roster. The team could be pretty deep in pitching, Morosi writes:

Mexico’s preliminary roster will be especially deep in pitching, with Yovani Gallardo, Marco Estrada, Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Miguel Gonzalez and Dodgers prospect Julio Urias among the notable arms certain to be included on it. Pitchers Jorge De La Rosa, Joakim Soria and Olivez Perez also are eligible to play for Mexico, as is Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier, who is Mexican-American.

However, there are some problems that could trip up Mexico. For one thing, while MLB teams are very strongly encouraged to allow players to participate in the qualifiers, they are not required (unlike the main rounds of the WBC, where they are only allowed to officially block player participation if they are coming off an injury or there are too many players being picked from their roster). In addition, there is an ongoing feud between the Mexican League and Mexico’s national baseball federation that will make the participation of Mexican Leaguers iffy.

Edwin Rodriguez will begin recruiting for Team Puerto Rico

In a Spanish-language article on Elnuevodia.com, there is the news that Edwin Rodriguez will soon begin to recruit for Team Puerto Rico. While the article mentions how he will try to make an effort to get players of Puerto Rican descent (like Jake Arrieta) to take part, I personally think it’s more likely they’ll have to rely upon native-born Puerto Ricans like Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran, Angel Pagan, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, and the like. All of them are mentioned in the article. Puerto Rico came in a surprising second in the 2013 WBC.

Other Notes:

So, until next time, this has been a WBC update!

The Offseason at The Baseball Continuum: Bizarre Baseball Culture, Breaking OOTP, WBC, Features, Blogathon?

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With the postseason over (ironically, the World Series MVP, Salvador Perez, didn’t actually win the Mr. October of any games in the World Series, he was just consistently good), it’s now time to go over what will be going on here at the Baseball Continuum during the offseason.  For the most part, it will be stuff I’ve been meaning to do, but which I have been unable to do so due to lack of time, other commitments, or simply because I forgot. In general, there might not be as many posts during the offseason, but the posts that will happen will on average be of a higher quality and longer length.

  • By the end of the week, you can expect a new Bizarre Baseball Culture, which will be a weird “Ultimate Sports Force” comic involving the early-aughts Cleveland Indians.
  • The new Breaking OOTP, long in development, will be Mario characters vs. Backyard Baseball characters. It should be out by the end of next week, unless I get so sucked into Fallout 4 that I just jump straight into doing a Bizarre Baseball Culture on it’s apparently surprisingly-high level of baseball elements.
  • Lookbacks at old Rochester Red Wings programs.
  • I’ll have my first World Baseball Classic roster projection for Team USA (and, later, Team Dominican). Of course, it’s a long while before the 2017 tournament so it likely will end up being vastly different, but that’s part of the fun, I guess. Expect these within the coming weeks, certainly before the end of November. You can also expect WBC News Updates when applicable.
  • There will be both Famous For Something Else installments (with one today!) and a new feature, Somebody Related To Somebody Famous For Something Else. Those features are basically what you’d think they are.
  • There will, of course, continue to be “Wisdom and Links” at Hall of Very Good.
  • You can expect some SABR-related stuff as well, such as “first references” in Sporting News and such.
  • During the Winter Meetings, if time allows, I’ll do the “Winter Meetings Tweets Of The Day” again.
  • And, of course, you never know what else might pop-up. I’m considering, for example, possibly doing a “Blogathon”, in the tradition of Michael Clair’s old “Old Time Family Baseball” blogathons that he did for charity. I’ll let you all know a bit about that later, maybe.

So stay tuned!

Headlines From Around The Continuum (November 2, 2015)

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A sampling of baseball-related headlines from the Newseum, elsewhere, and occasionally some websites, with the occasional note from me on what they are talking about:

Headline: Royals win first World Series title since 1985, outlasting Harvey and Mets in Game 5

(Note: So that I don’t have a thousand papers from around the country that just say something along the lines of “Royals win World Series”, I focused on the hometown papers and papers that went a different route in their headlines.)

Kansas City Star: ROYALTY

Daily News (front): THE DARKEST KNIGHT (“Mets Amazin’ season comes crashing down in 9th, Royals take crown in 12”)

Daily News (back): CRUEL HAND LUC (on Lucas Duda’s bad throw)

NY Post (front): AMAZIN’ DISGRACE

NY Post (back): NIGHTY KNIGHT!

Newsday (front): YA GOTTA BEREAVE

Newsday (back): A ROYAL SHAME

El Diario- La Prensa (Brooklyn): Los pecados de Collins (“The sins of Collins”)

News-Leader (Springfield, MO): TOOK THE CROWN

St. Joseph (MO) News-Press: WORLD RENOWNED ROYALTY

Joplin (MO) Globe: WORLD CHAMPIONS

Hutchinson (KS) News: THEY DIDN’T QUIT

Lawrence (KS) Journal-World: NEVER-SAY-DIE ROYALS WIN WORLD SERIES

Salina (KS) Journal: CHAMPIONS!

Wichita Eagle: ROYALS RALLY FOR WORLD SERIES TITLE

The Record (Bergen County, NJ): Mets’ magic runs out

Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ): It’s all over

The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa): Royals are champs

Alaska Dispatch News (Anchorage): Royals crowned champions after another late meltdown by Mets

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock): Kings of 2015

Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA): BASEBALL CROWNS ITS ROYALTY

Ventura County Star (CA): ROYAL THRONE

Denver Post: ROYALS REIGN

Idaho Press-Tribune (Nampa): CROWNED ROYALS

Decatur (Ill.) Herald & Review: Royals flush

Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press: ROYALS GET THEIR CROWN

The Sun (Lowell, Mass.): ROYALS!

St. Paul Pioneer Press: K.C. MASTERPIECE

Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star: CROWN ‘EM

Omaha World-Herald: K.C. BRINGS BACK THE CROWN

Morning Call (Allentown, PA): BASEBALL ROYALTY (This headline was also used at the Edmonton Journal in Canada)

Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA): MIGHTY K.C.

Daily Herald (Provo, Utah): ROYAL CORONATION

USA Today: ROYALS RALLY, WIN WORLD SERIES

Winnipeg Free Press: ROYALS ARE WORLD SERIES KINGS

El Heraldo (Baranquilla, Colombia): Reales de Kansas City, campeones de la Serie Mundial (“Kansas City Royals, World Series Champions”)

Novedades de Quintana Roo (Mexico): Reales se corona 30 años después (“Royal crown 30 years later”)

Milenio (Guadalajara, Mexico): REALES, CAMPEÓN (“ROYALS, CHAMPION”)

Reforma (Mexico City): Se coronan Reales (“They are crowned Royals”)

Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): VUELVAN A LA GLORIA LUEGO DE 30 ANOS (“TO GLORY AGAIN AFTER 30 YEARS”)

El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua): !REALES CAMPEONES, EN CASA DE LOS METS! (“Royals champions, in the home of the Mets!”)

El Universal (Caracas, Venezuela): Kansas City campeón (“Kansas City champion”)

Virgin Islands Daily News (Charlotte Amalie): WORLD CHAMPIONS- Baseball royalty

Headlines From Around The Continuum (October 22, 2015)

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A sampling of baseball-related headlines from the Newseum, elsewhere, and occasionally some websites, with the occasional note from me on what they are talking about:

 

Headline: Mets head to first World Series since 2000, sweep Cubbies

New York Times: Suddenly Invincible, Mets Are in World Series

Daily News (Back): ALL WORLD

NY Post (Front): WORLD CLASS!

NY Post (Back): DANIEL BROOM

Newsday (Front): YA GOTTA BELIEVE!

Newsday (Back): HOW SWEEP IT IS!

AM NEW YORK: BELIEVE IT!

Metro- New York: SWEEP

Staten Island Advance: The new Mr. October? (Murphy)

Chicago Tribune: MAGIC RUNS OUT

Chicago Sun-Times (Cubs Extra e-paper): BACK TO THE FUTURE (here meant to mean “Back to the drawing board”)

Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago): TIP YOUR HAT TO THEM

Hartford (Conn.) Courant: NEXT STOP, WORLD SERIES

The Record (Bergen County, NJ): UNSTOPPABLE

News-Gazette (Champaign, Ill.): They’re gone

Jersey Journal (Jersey City): METS HEAD TO WORLD SERIES!

Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ): HOW SWEEP IT IS! (This was used by other papers as well)

Panama City (FL) News Herald: MVP Murphy leads Mets to World Series

Times Union (Albany, NY): Mets move on

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.): CLEAN SWEEP

Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY): METS MANIA

Augusta (GA) Chronicle: MOVING ON

Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA): SWEEPING SUCCESS

USA TODAY: CUBS SWEPT BY METS IN 4 (A ironic echo of how the Back To The Future 2 USA TODAY said “CUBS SWEEP SERIES IN 5”)

Journal-Star (Peoria, Ill.): CHICAGO HOPE VANISHES

Naples (FL) Daily News: FOR CUBS, IT’S DO OR…. NEVER MIND

Daily Southern (Tinley Park, Ill.): Met their match

Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa): Wait until next year

Omaha World-Herald: Cubs’ dream swept away

El Vigia (Ensenada, Mexico): No se cumplió la profecía (“The prophecy is not fulfilled.”- not doubt referring to the Back To The Future Cubs joke)

El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua): Los Mets en la Serie Mundial (“The Mets in the World Series”)

Primera Hora (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico): Los Mets en la Serie Mundial (“The Mets advance to the World Series”)

Headline: Blue Jays send ALCS back to Kansas City for Game 6

Globe and Mail: ESTRADA GEM KEEPS BLUE JAY HOPES ALIVE

National Post: JAYS NOT DONE YET

Toronto Star: EXTRAORDINARY ESTRADA

Kansas City Star: Coming home

St. Joseph (MO) News-Press: BLUE JAYS FORCE GAME 6 AT KAUFFMAN

Calgary Herald: JAYS WIN TO FORCE GAME 6

Junction City (KS) Daily Union: Volquez struggles as Blue Jays force Game 6 in ALCS

Calgary Sun: Going back to K.C.

Lawrence (KS) Journal World: 3-2

Canada’s Metro Papers: 1 DOWN, 2 TO GO

Wichita (KS) Eagle: Royals’ bats silent as Blue Jays win Game 5

Edmonton Journal: JAYS FORCE GAME 6

Guelph Mercury: Jays still alive after 7-1 win over Royals

Chronicle-Herald (Halifax): Kansas City, Here We Come

Hamilton Spectator: Blue Jays win keeps World Series hopes alive

Waterloo Region Record: Still in the game

La Presse (Montreal): Les Blue Jays S’accrochent (“The Blue Jays hang on” or “The Blue Jays cling”)

Ottawa Citizen: JAYS FANS A LITTLE LESS BLUE

Prince George Citizen: Estrada gets it done for Blue Jays

El Nacional (Caracas, Venezuela): Los Azulejos no se entregan (“The Blue Jays do not surrender”)

 

World Baseball Classic News for 9-17-2015: Qualifier Pools Announced!

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Well, I told you that more news was probably coming, and today it was confirmed, as the World Baseball Classic qualifying pools have been announced! They are (all qualifiers in 2016):

 

Qualifier 1 (Sydney, Australia on February 11-14th):

Australia

New Zealand

Philippines

South Africa

Qualifier 2 (Mexicali, Mexico on March 17-20th):

Mexico

Czech Republic

Germany

Nicaragua

Qualifier 3 (Panama City on March 17-20th):

Colombia

France

Panama

Spain

Qualifier 4 (Brooklyn on Sept. 22-25th):

Brazil

Great Britain

Israel

Pakistan

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As you can see, they’ve mixed up the locations (only Panama is a return qualifying host), the pools (no pool has more than two teams that were in the same individual pool last time), and also teams (Pakistan has replaced Thailand). Some things to note here:

  • MLB players will be able to participate in Qualifiers 1-3, but not Qualifier 4.
  • It is again a modified double-elimination, meaning it’s double elimination until there are only two, at which point it’s a winner-take-all championship game. I’ve always had a problem with this format and feel a straight-up double-elimination would be better, but I understand how the organizers would like the drama of a winner-take-all game.
  • Qualifier 4, in Brooklyn, is clearly meant to be a pool of teams that don’t have pro-worthy stadiums in their countries. It’s likely Brooklyn was picked due to New York’s diverse nature, with MLB and the other WBC organizers no doubt hoping that the city’s large Jewish population will turn up for Israel games.
  • Looking at this right now, I’d say that Qualifier 2 will probably have the highest level of talent, Qualifier 3 will be the hardest for any one team to get out of, and Qualifier 4 will be the hardest to predict. Qualifier 1, by contrast, looks like it should be a fairly easy draw for Australia.
  • I’m somewhat surprised that the Philippines is in Qualifier 1. I had a feeling they might make it an All-Commonwealth pool and have the Philippines be in New York City. At least, that’s what I thought after reading Jon Paul Morosi’s original post before it was official.

 

So, look in the coming days and no doubt more news will come out and I’ll take a look at some of the teams and other aspects of the qualifying tournament- like Pakistan’s baseball program.