March 08, 2005
Setting Sun
Via Athletics Nation, baseball in Japan appears to be in trouble.
Baseball's popularity has fallen as other sports, like soccer, which kicked off here in 1993, draw more fans.
"Considering its long history both before and after World War II, its power of influence has become relatively small because of a multiplication of [other types of] entertainment," says Mr. Nagai.
As top homegrown talent like Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki have moved on to US teams, empty stadium seats have become more obvious. While Matsui has won acclaim with the New York Yankees, his old team, the Yomiuri Giants, recorded last year their worst average TV ratings since 1965.
The decline in Japanese baseball also stems from the public's weariness with the Nippon Professional Baseball administrative organization, which is seen as stifling change. A number of bribery scandals have led to calls for reform of the draft system, while problems with the free-agent system and inflated attendance figures at ball parks have also hurt the game's image.
Some new owners are suggesting internet polls be used to help decide when to pull the pitcher. I think that's ripe for abuse, but I do like this idea:
And the Rakuten Golden Eagles - which debut this year as the first new team to join Japan's pro leagues since 1954 - may allow viewers to watch players off-field in the dugout, the bullpen, or the locker room, simply through a click of the mouse as part of plans to webcast games live.
I really like the idea of being the director. Watching old games on ESPN Classic, I'm reminded of how much we don't see anymore. Directors used to stay on the centerfield camera between pitches, so you saw batter, catcher and pitcher preparations. Now, we get lots of cuts to the dugout, where we see the manager's stone cold stare. I'd like to watch the preperation between pitches. Or go to a shot that shows me the positions of the fielders. Better yet, have all the cameras recorded, and give the audience the ability to go back and watch replays from all the different angles. After all, disk space is cheap, and just keeps getting cheaper.
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Posted by David Pinto at
09:38 AM
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Using internet polls to determine when to pull pitchers? That's insane! Why don't they have polls for which pitch the batter is allowed to swing at, too.
great idea. the biggest frustration about being a baseball lover is having to endure the inept direction of baseball on teevee. why do they think tape of a middle-aged white guy sitting in the dugout is dramatic? i don't care who is in the damn crowd, what his moronic sign says, or even if there is a damn crowd. give me the game.
There are so infinitely many problems with baseball over here in Japan.
- All the teams are named after companies, rather than cities (Yomiuri Giants, Rakuten Golden Eagles, Softbank Hawks, Hanshin Tigers, etc.).
- There's a stifling 4 foreigner rule per team.
- Only Giants games are showed nationwide, in many cases pre-empting games by local teams.
- The training in Japanese baseball tends to be brutal (and in some ways pointless), and that turns off a lot of pitchers to Japan.
- The fans and regular laws of economics have absolutely no bearing on business decisions here, meaning that nobody is happy, and the teams just lose money.