The Japanese Hall of Fame

There is no 5 year eligibility deal in NPB. Actually, its better than for example 15 years ago. Many great players got in to the NPB Hall of Fame post-humously.

Lefty O'Doul as you might know was the man who named Tokyo "Giants" after the most popular team in NY. Why not Yankees? Tokyo Yankees? oh no!

I read the figure "13 years" recently. But I don't recall if that was the time required to get in or to cast a vote.

The Hall-of-Fame induction process is one of the many things that bothers me about Japanese baseball. In MLB, a player has to be retired for 5 years before he's eligible, but here you have to be out of baseball altogether for 5 years or something like that before you can be considered. That's why Wally Yonamine didn't get inducted until a few years back because he had been managing or coaching for so long after he had retired. This process had to change.

Also, I hate to rant, but I'm sick and tired of Japanese players copying their MLB counterparts in every which way.
There was Matsunaga of Hanshin who copied Benito Santiago and wore the number 02 with the Tigers. How original!
Then there was Komada of the BayStars (who I like by the way) wearing a batting helmet when playing 1st base, a la John Olerud.
Then the thing that really bothers me is when players on the Giants, namely Kiyohara, imitate Sammy Sosa with his heart thump and kiss. Sosa did that to tell his mother watching the games back in the Dominican Republic that he loved her! Kiyohara definitely needs some originality. He got a buzz cut in order to look like his favorite singer Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi and recently he shaved his head to look like K-1 fighter Jerome Le Banna.

Lastly, the practice of having players on the same team wear both number 0 and 00 really bothers me. They're the same number, aren't they?

- There was Matsunaga of Hanshin who copied Benito Santiago and wore the number 02 with the Tigers.

Can you say when this was? I only have two Matsunaga's in my database, both from 1996-7. (That's as far back as it goes - for now.) Hiromi Matsunaga wore #3 for Daiei and Yukio Matsunaga wore #27 and then #56 for Chunichi before retiring.

- Then there was Komada of the BayStars (who I like by the way) wearing a batting helmet when playing 1st base, a la John Olerud.

I never had the impression that he was imitating Olerud. But have you watched Komada with foul flies? He needed the batting helmet.

- Then the thing that really bothers me is when players on the Giants, namely Kiyohara, imitate Sammy Sosa with his heart thump and kiss.

This one I agree with you on, so far as the annoyance factor goes. And you can add Motoki to that list. They both are doing it in immitation of Sosa, plain and simple. But isn't immitation a sincere form of flattery?

- He got a buzz cut in order to look like his favorite singer Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi and recently he shaved his head to look like K-1 fighter Jerome Le Banna.

I thought he got the buzz cut to remind him of his glory high school days. Did he say he was immitating them? In something other than ToSpo or Friday?

Remember, those buzz cuts are very popular to high school ball players to show loyalty to the team. When many players hit a slump they pull out the hair trimmers. That's very common and has nothing to do with singers or K-1 fighters. I find Kiyo annoying in many ways, but shaving his head isn't one of them.

- Lastly, the practice of having players on the same team wear both number 0 and 00 really bothers me.

Ah, it sure would be nice if I could put numbers in my database as numbers! But due to 00, I can't.

The big immitation that you forgot was the Giants not having names on the back of uniforms last season, like the Yankees. Then Hanshin jumped on the bandwaggon just before the season started, so as not to be upped the by the Giants.

Really, though. Is immitation that bad a thing? Yokohama is considering building a domed stadium with a retractable roof and real grass ala Safco Field. Would that not be a Good Thing for Pro Yakyu? It sounded like you would support the redoing the eligibility requirements for the Hall of Fame as it's done in the Majors. Many would like to see umpires here get more education as is done in the Majors. And wouldn't marketing teams as an entertainment service rather than as a company marketing department be good for Pro Yakyu as well?

I'm not going to rant about the Confusious-type bows that some of the ball players made to the Japanese players after a fine play, good hit, or winning pitching performance. Hey, they're trying to be polite and don't know how to bow properly. But they weren't raised in a bowing environment. It's not their fault they look insulting.

And I'm not going to condone Little Leaguers for immitating Ichiro's stance and lifting of his sleave. Everyone has heros that they'd like to be like. That includes professional ball players and administrators. That so many want to be more like what they seen on TV isn't an insult, it's a complement to MLB.

> And I'm not going to condemn Little Leaguers for
> immitating Ichiro's stance and lifting of his sleave.
> Everyone has heros that they'd like to be like.

Imitation aside, I find this is a good thing to do. Taking some cuts at the local batting center, I sometimes had really bad swings because my movement was restricted by the shoulder of my sleeve. But when I imitate Ichiro's move, I always get good, free swings.

When it comes to uniforms, I think it's all in how it's done. Orix changed their uniforms to more of a MLB-style, but retained the originality of their uniforms. That was good. The Tigers blatently copied the Yankees' away uniforms. That was stupid. The Dragons' uniforms are obviously copied from the Dodgers, and the Carps' from the Reds. I'd like them to copy more from the Blue Wave than from MLB teams.

As for Kiyohara and Motoki, I think it's the Kansai sense of humor coming out. The whole boke-tsukkomi thing. They are playing the boke by doing the Sosa stuff, and you're supposed to tsukkomi them. It's kind of hard to explain...

I was referring to Hiromi Matsunaga who did that I believe in '92 after he had been traded to the Tigers from Orix for Noda. He started off the season wearing number 2, but I guess he saw what Santiago did (Benito started wearing 09 in '91) and decided to do it also. Matsunaga loved to watch MLB games on BS. I remember how he tried to make the Oakland A's roster after no one in Japan wanted him. He lasted with the A's for, I think, 02 seconds.

I doubt Komada knew about Olerud's reason for wearing the helmet in the field. Even now, announcers on American broadcasts will explain why Olerud does it when it's been common knowledge for so long.

You're right, Motoki does that Sosa thing also and it bothers the heck out of me. Motoki will do anything to get a little airtime on T.V.!

Speaking of Motoki, he told the T.V. crews that Kiyohara got his latest haircut in order to look like Jerome Le Banna. And I once saw Kiyohara in an interview where he said he wanted to be like Nagabuchi so that's why he got a buzz cut.

I totally forgot about the Giants copying the Yankees with the no-number-on-the-back look. That kind of stuff really bothers me. Teams should be more original. I think that Mr.CFiJ was right about Orix's uniforms. I don't like the way the numbers are written on their unis, but I do think that they at least have some originality.

Lastly, I don't think it's bad when kids imitate their favorite heroes. When Brady Anderson was at the top of his game, a lot of kids tried growing sideburns in order to imitate him. I find that stuff pretty innocent and cute, but when grown-ups on a prestigious team like the Yomiuri Giants start copycatting others, that's where I draw the line.

>I totally forgot about the Giants copying the
>Yankees with the no-number-on-the-back look.
>That kind of stuff really bothers me. Teams
>should be more original.

Yes, but the Giants weren't copying the Yankees - they were copying the Hanshin Tigers, who were copying the Yankees. That's even more galling

No, Nagashima specifically said that he liked the Yankees no-number look so he requested the Giants' no-number unis.

Speaking of uniforms, I can't believe the Carp changed their uniforms again. Their uniforms were sweet. I really thought that the Carp had one of the best looking uniforms in Japan, but I guess they wanted to copy the Reds yet again and go with pinstripes. Those new road uniforms are obviously patterned after the Reds. I'm just glad they didn't use black in their new unis because if they did, their new uniforms would've been an exact replica of the Reds' uniforms.
I don't mind the new duds, but I really thought that the last model they wore were the best.

One thing that I forgot to mention was the fact that there are some things that Japanese baseball needs to copy from American baseball. I'm sure you all remember the ridiculous tradition of playing the Japan Series in the afternoon! That was so stupid that I can't even think of one good reason why they kept doing that until they finally went to an all night game Japan Series in 1994. The World Series (I hate the fact that the word World is in there by the way) had started playing night games in the early '70s, for crying out loud.
I can still remember guys cutting classes or bringing a portable radio to class to listen to the Japan Series when I was going to school here. Just thinking about the fact that they didn't play the Japan Series at night until recently ticks me off! I thought Bud Selig was an idiot, but he's got nothing on the people who run Japanese baseball.

Do you think Komada knows that Olerud did that because of his prior history of brain aneurism?

Actually, I belive that Komada started after being hit in the head a couple of times at bat. It was simply a safety precaution. I really don't think he did it in immitation of Olerud.

I also recall some other players wearing a helmet in the field after bean balls, but only for a short time. Komada was the only one (here) who stuck with it.