Tag: japan
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The Chrysanthemum and the Bat review
by Library Journal (Aug 15, 1977) Japanese baseball, even more than its American counterpart, is a game of custom and tradition, a sport which has acquired staggering appeal. Children play baseball 12 months a year; major league players are treated with deference reserved for royalty and clergymen. Whiting touches upon these topics in this definitive…
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Review: The Chrysanthemum and the Bat
by L. Vington, Fort Worth Star Telegram (Jul 17, 1977) Although baseball is a business affair in America, in Japan, despite its vast popularity, a ball club is often merely a tax write off for its sponsoring firm. Which is but one of the numerous differences in the game that seem to be the same…
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In Japan, umpires even get hits – in the head
by Abe C. Ravitz, The Plain Dealer (Jul 14, 1977) An easy ground ball is booted by the shortstop as the winning run scores. The offending player looks at the crowd and smiles. An error doesn’t bother him, it’s perfectly human. That’s baseball Samurai style. A popular .350 hitter speaks disrespectfully to his manager and…
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Book Review: Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The outsiders who shaped modern Japan
by Henry Hilton, Japan Today – April 27 2024 TOKYO Foreigners behaving badly goes down well with audiences in Japan. Stories of Yankee misfits, British conmen and Korean upstarts are guaranteed to find eager readers. Throw in shady espionage rings, guys who started out by sleeping on park benches, plus stories of massive transfers of dollars bills in…
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Reading “Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies” by Robert Whiting
by DC Palter, Japonica – June 18 2024 Robert Whiting is always fun to read. The author of You Gotta Have Wa and Tokyo Junkie, Whiting has been writing about Japan since arriving in the country in 1962. Whiting is the preeminent English-language writer and commentator on Japanese baseball, and has also written extensively about the yakuza in Tokyo…
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Sideline Slants: Eureka-reared writer scores with new book
by Don Terbush (Jul 10, 1977), Eureka Times Robert Whiting, Eureka High School class of ’61, has written an interesting and widely acclaimed book “Chrysanthemum and the Bat.” In it he describes the Japanese character through the common game of baseball. “The very different way the Japanese approach the game mirrors their fundamentally different approach…
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The Chrysanthemum and the – what? And The making of ‘The Chrysanthemum and the Bat’
by Tom Chapman (Jul 10, 1977), Tokyo Weekender Early Fall – and the excitement and tension of baseball pennant races occupy the thoughts of fans of the ancient and honorable sport wherever it’s played. And especially in Japan with the almost fanatical adventure of Yomiuri Giants’ slugging hero Sadaharu Oh approaching, tying and finally last…
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The Fans in Japan: Why they’re happy when baseball players go on strike
by Robert Whiting (Sep 29, 2004) – Slate They said it would never happen: A baseball strike in harmony-conscious Japan? Yet two weeks ago, after lobbying unsuccessfully to block the proposed merger of two of the country’s 12 professional baseball teams, the Nippon Professional Baseball Players Association walked out for the first time in 70…
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Oh’s career sparkled with achievements as player, manager (part 2 of 3)
Robert Whiting (Oct 30, 2008) I watched Sadaharu Oh through much of his career with the Yomiuri Giants, living as I did in Tokyo, first as a student, then as an employee in a Japanese company and after that as a journalist. During that time it was impossible to miss what was going on with…
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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…
Tokyo Junkie 