Very cool image put together by Bill Turianski, who does a site called billsportsmaps.com, which is filled with all kinds of interesting regional sports maps from both the past and the present. Some are delightfully obscure (NHL 1970-71 season anyone?).
Click to enlarge.

He’s also got an NPB on in the works he’s planning on posting very [...]

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Required Reading for NPB fans and followers: The Japan Times is currently running Robert Whiting’s four-installment series detailing the rise and fall of Bobby Valentine’s career with the Chiba Lotte Marines.  Whiting’s meticulously researched account describes a clandestine campaign to oust Valentine.
Whiting takes readers through Valentine’s meteoric rise to stardom after leading the Marines to [...]

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Pretty lengthy and interesting article on MLB.com about the Red Sox and the Japanese players the team has signed in recent years. I say interesting because we get some quotes by Red Sox players and management talking about what it’s like to have (or be) four Japanese players on one team, and how the cross-cultural [...]

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I thought this was announced awhile ago, but the winners of the NPB and KBO are going to square off for an exhilarating one-game championship for all the marbles (the italics indicate an echo monster truck voice) on Nov. 14. It’s going to be called the Asia Baseball Champion and will be played at 1 [...]

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I know I miss a lot these days, but I don’t want this little curiosity to pass us by. AFP of all sources, has an interview with former SF Giant Masanori Murakami, the first native Asian to play in MLB. In the article he’s quoted as saying he’d make the jump all over again if [...]

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This one is getting passed around the blogosphere.  Pure genius:
“Chicks who dig home runs aren’t the ones who appeal to me…I think there’s sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I’d rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do [...]

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In an earlier April post so clairvoyant that it was erroneously dismissed as an April Fool’s joke by some EWC readers, I hipped readers to the fact that Hideki Irabu was on the comeback trail.
Patrick at NPB tracker brings word from Japan that the comeback is indeed in full effect. Irabu has joined the [...]

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If you haven’t already seen it Ryo has a good post at NPB Tracker titled The Nature of Pitch Counts. It’s a good read, a topic we’ve discussed a little bit here, and I wanted to make sure to link to it here.
A teaser:
The difference in the philosophy of pitch counts between the two countries [...]

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Just a year after the circus-like build up and signing of Junichi Tazawa, the 23-year-old right-hander signed by the Sox last year out of the Japanese industrial leagues. Tazawa will be available for this weekend’s series at Yankee Stadium.
Tazawa started his career in Double-A Portland, going 9-5 with a 2.57 ERA, and earning a role [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8ZCGv8Ef9k

The Mets’ Ken Takahashi, who earlier this year set an MLB record by becoming the oldest rookie in baseball, enjoyed a short stint with the Mets but has spend most of the year in AAA Buffalo. The New York Times Bats Blog has a short piece about Takahashi and his friendship with former CPBL player [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHjjSNNVB0

Not much to say here, just couldn’t pass up putting this one on the site.  Enjoy.

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The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman brings news that Boston’s Matsuzaka Daisuke finds himself in hot water after publicly criticizing his throwing rehab program. He reportedly vented his frustration with not being able to throw as much as he wants, and claimed Japanese pitchers require different conditioning programs due to “ethnic, racial and physiological differences”.
Manager Terry [...]

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Cleveland released Reliever Kobayashi Masahide from Triple A Columbus last Saturday, ending a near two-year stint with the team.  Kobayashi was 4-5 with a 5.10 E.R.A. and 1.45 WHIP in 67 total appearances with the pro club.  The Tribe inked Kobayashi, a former Chiba Lotte Marine, to a two-year, 6.25 million dollar deal in 2007. [...]

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Ryo over at the always informative NPB Tracker has given us some rather useful links to blogs covering various NPB teams. You’ll need a translation tool if you don’t read Japanese, but the blogs give some unique insights from the perspectives of various staff members and front office personnel. If you ever wanted [...]

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On the heels of its now infamous losses to China in the Beijing Olympics and WBC, Taiwan’s international rep took another one on the chin this week when it learned it likely will no longer be invited to participate in the Asia Series. Despite putting up competitive teams, The CPBL winners’ presence in the [...]

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Patrick over at NPB tracker reports that the Texas Rangers are about to release pitcher Fukumori Kazuo.  The talented but injury-prone 32 year old signed with the Rangers last year, but managed only a brief stint with the big club where he managed to enter just four games and, well, got pounded mercilessly.
Japanese baseball news [...]

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Fantastic article in the Japan Times about Trey Hillman’s early days as manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters. The article is an excerpt from an updated version of You Gotta Have Wa, the seminal Japanese baseball book by Robert Whiting. 
The piece (which is part 1 of 2) more-or-less documents the adaptation of Hillman to Japan, [...]

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The cherubic Naruse Yoshihisa, off to a slow-ish start for Lotte, picked up the pace with a dominant win against Softbank last Tuesday to improve to 2-1 on the season. Despite substandard velocity, he set 13 down on strikes, walking just one. Patrick over at the always informative NPB tracker has concocted one [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLDeuIURy20

NY Mets lefty hurler Ken Takahashi is now part of baseball’s record books, joining Satchel Page and Diomedes Olivo as the only players after World War II to make their major league debut at forty or older.
The Former Hiroshima Toyo Carp–who had a solid if not unspectacular pro career with Hiroshima–held Philly’s bats in check [...]

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Koji Uehara had another nice game yesterday, holding the Yankees to a run and six hits through six innings. The bullpen blew the lead, but Uehara is off to a respectable 2-3 start with a 4.01 ERA. Kenshin Kawakami hasn’t been as good, but had a solid start yesterday against the Mets, allowing just 2 [...]

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