Off-season Training

Well, there really isn't much less for the "sports rags" to write about now. But they still insist on printing 2-3 pages of Pro Yakyu news daily. So that's what you get.

Also, baseball players in Japan are more like geinoujin (celebreties) than the are in North America. Sure, Bonds will draw a crowd where ever he goes, but with basketball and American football going on, nobody really cares where he goes and what he does during the off season.

Until recent years, baseball pages for major sports' sites in North America were static from November to March! That always drove me nuts. (I need my fix on baseball year round.) Hmm. I wonder if there's a correllation between a lack of baseball news in the North American press and the over-focus on MLB teams in several posts here recently. Maybe the North American audience would like to know what monastery Bonds is training at?

> Also, baseball players in Japan are more like
> geinoujin (celebreties) than the are in North
> America. Sure, Bonds will draw a crowd where ever he
> goes, but with basketball and American football going
> on, nobody really cares where he goes and what he
> does during the off season.

Sorry, Westbaystars-san, I should have been clearer. Rather than media coverage, I wanted to ask more about whether MLB players actually do things like meditate at temples, train with known martial artists, or otherwise take part in unorthodox kinds of training.

- Rather than media coverage, I wanted to ask more about whether MLB players actually do things like meditate at temples, train with known martial artists, or otherwise take part in unorthodox kinds of training.

I'm not entirely sure that Japanese players take part in these unorthodox kinds of training. My impression is that more often than not the press plays up the slightest angle of what a player does in the off-season as somehow baseball-related, since to the press the players can't be anything other than their role: baseball players.

Many, many people in Japan study martial arts of one kind or another. They do it for health, as a hobby, and out of general interest. But when a baseball player does it (particularly after Oh's study of aikido and kendo), it becomes "training." They're not expected to care about anything other than baseball, so the press assumes any kind of attempt at physical, mental, or spiritual improvement must be related somehow to baseball. Predictably, when asked stupid questions (like, "Do you think doing this will improve your baseball?" the players give stock answers "Yes it will" to satisfy the reporters.

I think Westbay-san has the gist of it: it's not that Japanese players do anything particularly different than MLB players when it comes to training. It's just that the press has to cover it, and somehow put a baseball spin on it. Think about it: Ugueth Urbina enjoys playing basketball. If he played in Japan, the press would talk about his "basuketto-tokkun" and how he expected playing basketball would improve his pitching.

Now that makes sense - good point (and now that I understand what you were trying to say westbaystars-san, good point to you, too).

I suppose, then, that we should be grateful that the media restrict themselves to the players' more interesting activities like training at martial arts dojos.

Masumi Kuwata of the Giants has credited his comeback and success (in the starting rotation), to the Kobujutsu marital arts training that he has been doing.

Suppposedly it has helped him redesign his pitching form and throw more "naturally."