Japanese and American Baseball: Part 4

The conclusion of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball.
It was during this time that Japan as an individual nation was looking for a place among the countries of the growing market. In an age of perceived Social Darwinism, Roden writes that “many assumed that only [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 3

The continuance of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball.
By the 1890s baseball had become one of the most popular collegiate sports in Japan despite the constant exclusion from the game the Japanese often faced by Americans. Through the victories of Ichikō in Tokyo, the dominant [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 2

The continuance of my essay on how Japanese and American culture plays itself out through the sport of baseball.

In order to fully understand the integration of baseball into the Japanese culture, it must be noted how the game came to the islands from the West. In an essay titled “Baseball and the Quest for National [...]

Japanese and American Baseball: Part 1

And then there were 3. Last night, the Korean National Team was able to soundly eliminate Venezuela 10-2, clinching a spot in the WBC final. They await the winner of USA vs. Japan, who play today.
The US-Japan match up is intriguing from a historical perspective. Baseball is often considered the quintessential American game, the national [...]

Just a Little Off the Top I

Finally, a non-sports related post! This segment, as you can read, is called “Just a Little Off the Top.” No, we won’t be covering haircuts here at the heap., unless it happens to be the topic of one of the bizarre, “off-beat’” stories I find in my internet reading. Today we have a story from [...]