Tag: The Japan Times
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Resentment of Valentine’s power factored in downfall
by Robert Whiting (Jan 31, 2010) There are many reasons why Bobby Valentine lost favor with the Chiba Lotte Marines organization. It wasn’t just his prohibitive salary ($5 million per year). In contrast to the foreign media covering Valentine in Japan, who liked to portray Valentine as a victim of heartless corporate executives, Japanese reporters…
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Contract loophole opened door for Nomo’s jump
by Robert Whiting (Oct 10, 2010) Hideo Nomo was born to a working-class family in Osaka in 1969 – his father, Shizuo, was a big, broad-shouldered fisherman turned postal worker and his mother, Kayoko, a part-time supermarket employee. He was a naturally shy, taciturn youth who hid his emotions, even from his own parents. Said…
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Kawakami’s players impressed MLB counterparts
by Robert Whiting (Nov 29, 2013) The V-9 Yomiuri Giants were arguably the best team in the history of the game. Giants stars Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima had been openly coveted by MLB general managers back in the United States. So had pitcher Tsuneo Horiuchi at his peak. Legendary manager Tetsuharu Kawakami had wanted…
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Equaling Oh’s HR record proved difficult (part 3 of 3)
Robert Whiting (Oct 31, 2008) The one big black mark on Sadaharu Oh’s reputation was, of course, the unsportsmanlike behavior of the pitchers on his team whenever foreign batsmen threatened his single season home run record of 55. The phenomenon had first surfaced in 1985, when American Randy Bass playing for the Hanshin Tigers, who…
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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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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…
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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…
