Category: Articles
-
Devoted to the game: Looking back at Oh’s career (Part 1 of 3)
Robert Whiting (Oct 29, 2008) “He showed us all how much you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. And that’s a beautiful thing.’‘ – Hiroshi Arakawa, Sadaharu Oh’s batting sensei Sadaharu Oh has retired. The legendary baseball figure, suffering from ill health in the wake of cancer surgery, appeared in his last…
-
Whiting pays tribute to Boyer, Halberstam
Robert Whiting (Jan 20, 2008) This is a tribute, long overdue, to Clete Boyer and David Halberstam, two class individuals who died last year. The former was an All-Star baseball player, one of the greatest fielding third basemen of all time. The latter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who was perhaps the greatest reporter of…
-
Coronavirus and the Olympics
Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji When I arrived in Tokyo in 1962, working for the CIA as a 19-year-old member of the U.S. military, the city was an unsightly sprawl of ramshackle wooden houses, rickety shanties and cheaply constructed stucco-covered buildings that had mushroomed from the wartime detritus left by American B-29 Superfortress bombers. Living conditions…
-
Japan’s No-Strike Zone – The New York Times
By Robert Whiting (10 Oct, 1994) The long baseball season is finally at an end. On Oct. 22, the two league champions will face each other in the first game of the annual best-of-seven fall classic to determine the professional baseball championship. Although tickets are all but sold out, millions of viewers will be able…
-
Land of the Rising Fastball – The New York Times
by Robert Whiting (7 Oct, 1992) After six months and 162 games, the major league playoffs began last night in Atlanta. Yes, the road to the World Series is long, but the road to the Japan Series — the Asian version of the fall classic, which will begin next week — is far more arduous.…
-
East meets West in the Japanese game of bēsubōru – Smithsonian original magazine scan
September 1986 You can enlarge the images below by clicking on them.
-
Billion Dollar Blueprint
by Robert Whiting (May 8, 2012) – Yukan Fuji Money. Money. Money. MLB is rolling in it, as indicated by the recent sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers for an astonishing $2 billion, an all time record for a major league team. The $2 billion figure is more than double the previous record for an…
-
Unfair Trade Advantage: Anti-Trust Exemption (Part 4 of 4)
by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji Continuing our discussion of unfair trade advantages, begun in a previous column, the basis thesis, restated, is: MLB enjoys certain benefits under US law and custom that give it a decided advantage over the NPB in competition for the international market for players and for fans. NPB…
-
Unfair Trade Advantage: Salary Deprecation Allowance (Part 3 of 4)
by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji Continuing our discussion of unfair trade advantages, begun in a previous column, here is the basic thesis re-stated: MLB enjoys certain benefits under US law and custom that give it a decided advantage over the NPB in competition on the international market for players and for fans.…
-
Unfair Trade Advantage: Marlins Stadium, Public Extortion (Part 2 of 4)
by Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji The special treatment MLB teams receive can clearly be seen in the recent case of the Florida Marlins. The Florida Marlins are a baseball club that has had to play in an outdoor stadium in Miami, Marlins Stadium (also home to the NFL Miami Dolphins). For years,…
Tokyo Junkie 