Are Japanese players West Coast bound?
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Re: Are Japanese players West Coast bound?
[ Author: Guest: asij 81 | Posted: Nov 7, 2002 5:07 PM
]
Boston, Montreal, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Colorado, Arizona, and both New York teams have had Asian players. Both Boston and New York have good sized Japanese populations. Home sickness and culture shock aside, it seems to me that any free agent, Asian or another ethnicity, is looking to play for an organization that shows they want them there.
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In terms of culture, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco (the ONLY West Coast city that has an official Japantown district), where I live, have a larger Japanese population than in other cities in North America. (Tsuyoshi Shinjo has an apartment in San Francisco's Japantown District.)
Here in San Francisco, NHK broadcasts programs every Sunday (on public TV). (I'm STILL hoping for US cable TV to offer at least one 24 hour Japanese station.)
As for winning World Series titles, Los Angeles has won 4 (the most recent in 1989), Oakland has won 4 ( the most recent victory was in 1989) and Anaheim won 1 last month. Los Angeles was a few games shy of reaching the playoffs. Oakland was in its 3rd year of consecutive playoff berths. San Francisco was in its 2nd year of the 2000s of reaching the playoffs and was one game shy of winning this year's World Series title.
In terms of location, the West Coast is much closer to Japan than the other areas of the US.