Tokyo Junkie

Home of Robert Whiting, best-selling author and journalist

Tag: whiting

  • A fascinating book: The Chrysanthemum and the Bat

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    by Dan McGuire (Jun 26, 1977), Honolulu Advertiser At hand is a fascinating book by Robert Whiting, an American who attended school in Japan and has lived there for many years. It’s titled “The Chrysanthemum and the Bat” or “Baseball Samurai Style.” Intending to read a few chapters, I stuck my nose in it and…

  • You Gotta Have Wa

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    by Orel Hershiser, James Fallows, and David Halberstam (Apr 15, 1989) “The Japanese certainly have the same kind of enthusiasm for baseball as Americans…they just play the game a little differently, and Bob Whiting captures those differences perfectly.” Orel Hershiser Bob Whiting has done it again! THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AND THE BAT was a comic masterpiece,…

  • The Enigma of Japanese Baseball-whacky

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    by Alan Booth (Sep 22, 1989) – Asahi Evening News When major league batting star Bob Horner arrived in Japan in 1987 to play a season for the Yakult Swallows he said: “This place is great.” Twenty-nine games later he said: “I’ve got to get out of here; I can’t believe this shit.” The story…

  • After quake and tsunami, public split on baseball’s return to Japan

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    by Robert Whiting (Apr 11, 2011) – Sports Illustrated Besuboru is finally back in Japan, after a delay caused by the worst earthquake in the nation’s history and an ensuing tsunami that ravaged Northeastern Honshu. The Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) launches its season on April 12, 15 days later than scheduled, and Nippon leaders…

  • The Fans in Japan: Why they’re happy when baseball players go on strike

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    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…

  • Pitching From Behind: The sad road of Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu

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    by Robert Whiting (Aug 1, 2011) – Slate Last week, former New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead in his Southern California home, having apparently hanged himself. The 42-year-old Irabu, a baseball sensation in his home country of Japan, had a short, tumultuous career in the United States. In his 2004 book The Meaning of…

  • DiMuro Debacle was Predictable, Author Says

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    Jack Gallagher (Jul 10, 1997) For acclaimed baseball author Robert Whiting, a periodic resident of Japan over the past 34 years, last month’s incident triggering the departure of U.S. umpire Mike DiMuro was no surprise. Whiting, who penned such classics as “The Chrysanthemum and The Bat” and “You Gotta Have Wa,” saw the inevitable clash of…

  • Tobaku

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    Robert Whiting (Oct 21, 2015) I have been reading with interest about the gambling scandal in professional baseball. Kyojinfarm team pitcher Fukuda has admitted he bet on baseball and has lost a considerable amount of money at it in the process. A couple of weeks later, two other players on the ni-gun(the farm team) followed suit. An…

  • Otani and Nippon Ham

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    Robert Whiting (Dec 9, 2012) Congratulations to Nippon Ham for making a successful attempt to convince Shohei Otani to stay in Japan instead of going to the MLB as he earlier vowed to do.  It had been widely believed that Otani was going to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after he said he would…

  • The Umpire Strikes Out

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    Robert Whiting (Jun 23, 1997) In these days of “borderless” nations, few Americans blink at the idea of a Japanese baseball player like Hideki Irabu crossing the Pacific to pitch for the New York Yankees. But another transoceanic story is a reminder that globalization of the baseball diamond hasn’t ended national antics in the game.…