In Japan, “every child plays baseball and every boy plays baseball”, former Chiba Lotte Marines player Ei Kobayashi told AFP.
“Baseball was invented in the United States, but somehow we fell in love with it,” said Kobayashi, now a professor and sports management expert at JF Oberlin University in Tokyo.
The game was introduced in 1872 by a teacher at the Kaisei Academy in Tokyo.
But after a team at Ichiko High School defeated a group of foreign residents in 1896, it began to take off, sparking interest in the American team and further competition.
“These games are iconic in Japan because the Japanese are behind in many ways, such as business and industry,” said Robert Whiting, a baseball expert who has lived in Japan for decades.
“The message is that if we can beat the Americans in our own games, then we can definitely surpass them in other areas,” Whiting, author of “Tokyo Junkies: 60 Years of Glory and Back Alleys…and Baseball” Added.
