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baseball (Page 5)

Japanese baseball mascot kicks and punches another mascot lying defenceless on the ground【Video】

Corey Gold
Jul 19, 2016
Tweet

Over the weekend, a fight broke out between two mascots who have a well-documented history of bad blood.

Japan
(baseball • fighting • Fukuoka Softbank Hawks mascot • funny • Japan • japanese character • mascot character • Mascots • sport • twitter)

Japanese boy charms the internet after buying McDonald’s meal all by himself

Oona McGee
Jun 28, 2016

The young boy is melting hearts for navigating his way back to the car while carrying his meal out of the store and into the street on a tray.

Japan
(baseball • burgers • cute • fast food • funny • kids • LOL • McDonald's • McDonald's Japan • twitter)

Ichiro’s lookalike “Nichiro” is cheering him to 3,000 (and more) in his own special way【Video】

KK Miller
Jun 17, 2016

If you are going to pick someone to impersonate, there’s no one cooler than Ichiro.

Culture, Entertainment, Japan, USA
(3000 • 4256 • baseball • copycat • Ichiro • nichiro • Super human)

Sadako vs Kayako take to the field as they open baseball game in Hokkaido

Oona McGee
Jun 2, 2016

The question on everyone’s lips was: how fast can Sadako throw?

Entertainment, Japan
(baseball • cool • Hokkaido • Ju-on • marketing • movies • Sadako vs Kayako • The Grudge • The Ring)

Young boy’s first baseball hit smacks a very golden prize【Video】

KK Miller
Feb 7, 2016

It’s exhilarating to see a kid hit a fast-moving baseball, but this probably wasn’t the result this dad wanted.

Internet, Japan
(balls • baseball • funny • ouch • viral videos)

Why are the Los Angeles Dodgers wearing the caps from Nagoya’s professional baseball team?

Casey Baseel
Jan 31, 2016

Is the storied L.A. franchise ripping off the uniform of the Japanese club, or is this just a case of “What goes around comes around?”

Japan, USA
(baseball • Chunichi • copy • Dodgers • dragons • hats • Los Angeles • Nagoya • plagerism • sports)

What’s going on in this old photo of the now-demolished Osaka Stadium?

Krista Rogers
Jan 12, 2016

Osaka once housed this modern walled neighborhood, presumably constructed to keep attacking Titans out. Or are we missing something here?

Internet, Japan
(baseball • housing exhibition • Osaka • Osaka Stadium)

Subliminal messages, coming soon to a bowl of Japanese noodles near you?

Casey Baseel
Dec 16, 2015

Japanese Twitter user finds his udon has something to say to him.

Japan
(baseball • cool • food • kishimen • Nagoya • Noodles • subliminal messages • udon)

Japanese professional baseball players amuse fans with girly crossdressing makeovers【Video】

Jamie Koide
Nov 26, 2015

It was quite a show at the Rakuten Eagle Fan Festival 2015, where players from the Japanese professional baseball team dressed as female look-alikes drew the most laughs and smiles from the audience.

Japan
(baseball • crossdressing • funny • Rakuten Eagles • sports • video)

“Don’t thinking! Just swing!” Munenori Kawasaki is our favorite thing about baseball【Videos】

Master Blaster
Oct 20, 2015

It’s turning out to be an interesting post-season in Major League Baseball. In the American league we have the Toronto Blue Jays coming off a stellar late regular season and into their first real World Series attempt since the 90s. Meanwhile, over in the National League the Cubs are inching closer to a possible first World Series win in over a century, made even more eerie by its prediction in Back to the Future II (minus the Miami Gators).

As an added bonus, more games for Toronto means more interviews with infielder Munenori Kawasaki. Charged up by their victory over Texas in the AL Division series, Munerin was in rare form.

Canada, Japan
(baseball • Blue Jays • funny • interview • MLB • Munenori Kawasaki • Toronto)

Modern samurai demonstrates that he could make it in Major League Baseball【Video】

KK Miller
Oct 15, 2015

The master swordsman Isao Machii has been dicing up whatever has been thrown at him so far. Whether it’s shrimp, fruit, or soybeans, this expert has left his cutting mark in a field of sliceable items.

One field he hasn’t turned his sword on yet is baseball, but considering how much Japan loves the game, it was only a matter of time before Machii would step up to the plate, and he’s done so in an impressive display of swordsmanship you won’t want to miss.

Japan
(awesome • baseball • Isao Machii • samurai • swords • videos)

At 41, Ichiro Suzuki continues to amaze by making professional pitching debut

KK Miller
Oct 8, 2015

Even if you’re not a fan of baseball, you’ve probably heard of Ichiro Suzuki. He was a starter for the Seattle Mariners for a number of years before heading to New York to play for the Yankees and then to the Miami Marlins for the 2015 season. He’s broken a number of records, received dozens of awards and is widely known to be a charismatic and respectful player. Since his debut as a professional baseball player, he’s played almost exclusively in the outfield because of his wicked throwing arm.

As one of Japan’s most prolific baseball stars, the country and the Internet collectively lost its mind when Ichiro pitched one full inning on the last day of the Major League Baseball regular season.

Global
(baseball • first • Ichiro • MLB • pitching)

Japanese high school baseball players are all class, immediately clean stadium after road loss

Casey Baseel
Aug 20, 2015

Any good athlete obviously needs some measure of speed, strength, and stamina, but the list of necessities starts getting much longer if we’re talking about good student athletes. Youth sports are supposed to be as much about developing character as physical skills, so any proper high school athletic program should want its players to be just as dedicated to sportsmanship and integrity as they are to on-the-field performance.

That’s why we think Fukuoka Prefecture’s Kyushu International University Senior High School (called Kyukoku for short) is doing a fine job with its baseball team, since after a heartbreaking loss on the road, players from Kyukoku immediately started cleaning the stadium.

Japan
(baseball • cool • culture • high school • sports • youth)

Japanese baseball player shows us the craziest batting warmup we’ve ever seen 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Jul 25, 2015

In Japanese high schools, it’s customary for the band to accompany the baseball team to important games. Saitama’s Namegawa Sogo High even mixes in some modern musical stylings, as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” showed up on their set list for a recent contest in the prefectural championship tournament.

Of course, such a bombastic tune coming from the stands requires equal flamboyance from the players, and one student athlete responded with the craziest batter’s box warmup we’ve ever seen.

Japan
(baseball • crazy • funny • high schools • sports • video • youth)

We brave fastballs from the world’s fastest (and most terrifying) pitching machine

Mike
May 25, 2015

If there were ever going to be some kind of cheesy, baseball-themed horror movie, we’re almost certain the mechanical antagonist would be this Shizuoka Prefecture pitching machine – the world’s fastest at a pitching speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) – which would probably be depicted firing a fastball directly through the torso of some cocky coed.

Record-setting and somewhat terrifying? You bet we had to go and take a shot at hitting one of those blazingly fast pitches. Well, like, not us. We’re too young and handsome to die. We sent one of our Japanese-language writers, instead.

Japan
(baseball • Shizuoka • sports • technology • travel)

Yokohama Baystars get a shojo manga makeover in a bid to wow female fans

Fran W
May 21, 2015

There’s only one thing better than a life-size replica of your favourite Japanese baseball player, and that’s a manga-style life-size replica.

A large-scale illustration of eight players from Yokohama DeNa Baystars goes on show this week in the run-up to a special festival for the Baystars’ female fans.

Japan
(baseball • fans • girls • sport • Yokohama DeNa Baystars)

Attack on Titan teams up with Yomiuri Giants baseball club for special tickets, exclusive merch

Casey Baseel
Apr 7, 2015

Translation isn’t always an exact science, but there are certain conventions that translators seem to implicitly agree on. For example, look up gakuen in a Japanese dictionary, and it’ll tell you it’s another name for gakkou, or “school.” However, the more sophisticated, traditional ring that gakuen has to it means that it’s almost always rendered in English as “academy.”

Likewise, dictionaries define kyojin as “a person with an extraordinarily large body.” Nine times out of ten, kyojin gets translated as “giant,” which is also the term one of Tokyo’s two professional baseball teams, the Yomiuri Kyojin/Giants, goes with.

But if you spend more time watching anime than sports, you might favor “titan” as a translation, seeing as how the monsters from Attack on Titan are also called kyojin in Japanese. Since they’ve already got a linguistic link, the baseball team and manga/anime franchise are joining forces for four games this summer as part of a special campaign with its own exclusive merchandise.

Japan
(anime • Attack on Titan • baseball • manga • sports)

Robotic dancing troupe World Order kicks off the new baseball season with seven-man pitch 【Video】

KK Miller
Apr 4, 2015

Springtime means one thing for sports fans: baseball! While Major League Baseball is still toiling away in spring training and pre-season games, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league has already kicked off their season with the first games occurring at the end of March.

Since spring signals the time for new beginnings, what is more precious than the beginning of the first home game of the year? And with it brings the first opening pitch of the season. For the 2013 Japan Series winners, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, they asked Genki Sudo and his group World Order to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

But how do you ask seven people to throw out one ball?

Japan
(baseball • first pitch • Genki Sudo • NPB • Rakuten Eagles • World Order)

Woman loses an eye from foul ball at Sapporo Dome, sues team for millions of yen

Scott Wilson
Mar 27, 2015

Imagine you’re sitting in the Sapporo Dome, cheering for the Nippon Ham Fighters home team, when suddenly you hear the unmistakable crack of a bat. You look up to see where the ball is, only to have it come crashing down right in your eye. Quite the painful end to your evening, sure, but that’s barely the tip of the iceberg; you’re now blind in that eye.

That’s exactly what happened to one woman back in 2010 when a foul ball hit her full in the face, blinding her in one eye. And after years of deliberation, the Sapporo courts have finally reached a decision on her case against the stadium and team.

Japan
(baseball • Hokkaido • injury • Nippon Ham Fighters • Sapporo • Sapporo Dome)

Baseball players like Frozen too: “Let It Go” chosen for Spring Koshien baseball tournament

Audrey Akcasu
Jan 21, 2015

That’s it, we’ve seen it all now! The lead song, “Let It Go!” from Disney’s Frozen has really taken over Japan now (in case you weren’t already 100 percent positive that it had)! We already knew that it was the only song to breach the top 20 karaoke list for all age groups in 2014, it was translated into regional Japanese dialects, and even an NPO used it to advertise a serious cause. But the latest news about Japan’s beloved “Let It Go~ Arino mamade” might surprise you; the song was chosen for the opening ceremony of the 87th annual “Spring Koshien” high school baseball tournament.