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The Importance Of Baseball In The United States

Decent Essays

According to Forbes.com, the MLB brought in around nine billion dollars last year. It has become evident that these numbers aren’t new for the league. This revenue amongst other things has made the United States into what appears to be the zenith of baseball; but Japan’s national baseball league, the Nippon Baseball League is alive and well. According to WorldBaseballClassic.com, Japan’s national team is ranked as the third best baseball team in the world, trailing only the powerhouses of the United States and Cuba. The team made the semi-finals in the last World Baseball Classic. Even as many people see baseball as only truly catching on in the United States, baseball in Japan has created a very different, but equally legitimate league, especially …show more content…

In the United States when pitchers are batting, it is common for them to bunt to attempt to advance the runner, but in Japanese baseball there is much more strategy going on than just having a team’s pitcher bunt. If the time is right, a team’s best hitter will bunt if it is better for the team. A Japanese player will do whatever it takes to push his team forward. Analysts say that Japanese teams form a family. One of the most exciting times of the American baseball offseason is the winter meetings, when all of the General Managers meet and essentially exchange players. This practice is unheard of in Japanese baseball. In most cases, once a player is on a team in Japan, he will stay on the team. In both leagues the fans are very passionate. Fans in both leagues are loyal to the end. There’s chanting from before the game begins, to well after it is over. Another similarity between the two leagues is the practice regimen. Players in both leagues have very large practice loads. They spend hours each day weight lifting, conditioning, and watching …show more content…

Hanshin is a large electrical railway system. Teams in Japan are generally used as vehicles of advertisement for a company. This is seen in the MLB, but not to the same degree.

Japanese baseball can be seen as a foreign game being shaped and molded by their own culture. The league has been highly successful and is gaining steam. The MLB plays a yearly series against the Nippon Baseball League, and recently the tides have been turning. The Japanese have been topping the MLB more and more often. This is a testament to the quality players that the league produces. Even though it might appear as if baseball has only become a major sport in the United States, baseball has been molded and diversified by the Japanese league in many ways. This molding creates an altered and valid

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