Nippon Professional Baseball 2013 (more World Baseball also welcome)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Nippon Professional Baseball 2013 (more World Baseball also welcome)

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Ah, you beat me to it. Great OP!

Some other links of interest on Japanese baseball in English:

Yakyu Baka - run by Gen Sueyoshi, has great translations of post-game summaries/news tidbits from the major Japanese sport sites, and also covers the rest of Japanese baseball as a whole (high school, college, industrial leagues, the NPB's minor leagues).
Japanese Baseball - A long running (since 1995!) site run by Michael Westbay that has a forum, team blogs, and the only (as far as I know) place to get raw NPB stats in English. Also hosts the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast hosted by John E. Gibson and Jim Allen.
NPB Tracker - Patrick Newman's blog that has some good insights into NPB. Also has a velocity tracker stat page (which isn't pulling data correctly at the moment, but is great for historical pitch data).
Japan Ball - Bob Bavasi's site that's mostly an ad for his NPB-oriented travel service. Decent daily news translations, an English language media guide that's available for purchase.

Since I'm a Yakult Swallows fan, I also regularly read Tokyo Swallows, a good English language blog solely dedicated to the Swallows. I think there might be some other single-team blogs, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

e:

Crovie posted:

Tsubakuro don't take no poo poo. :colbert:

SporkOfTruth fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Apr 5, 2013

# ¿ Apr 5, 2013 02:07

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:35

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

It appears BBRef has started giving a poo poo about NPB (or at least has learned to scrape NPB-BIS' English page): http://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2013/04/japanese-nippon-pro-baseball-nbp-league-history-and-current-standings-and-stats/
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/npb.shtml

Of course, NPB-BIS' English page omits fielding stats for some odd reason, so BBRef's claim of "full player stats" is a bit off.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2013 21:26

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Lastings Milledge and Kaz Hatakeyama, two Power Hitting Tastes that Taste Great together!

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 07:40

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Also, Alex Ramirez (formerly of Yakult and Yomiuri, currently of Yokohama DeNA) just got his 2000th NPB hit via a towering dinger at rainy Meiji Jingu Stadium! He's the first foreigner to get 2000 hits in NPB.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 07:56

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

ZenVulgarity posted:

Is there a good place to watch replays of recent Japanese baseball games?

If you go back to the justin.tv feeds linked in either @spartiecat's twitter feed or elsewhere in the thread, many of them should have recordings of previous airings on that channel under the URL justin.tv/USERNAME/videos. For example, Hideki1179's previous broadcasts are here. The only caveat is that the channels don't often correctly label or catalog the games, so you'll be hunting around a bit if you want a particular game.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 20:14

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Rakuten Global Marketplace is the only viable English-language place to get NPB merchandise. Many of the merchants do ship outside of Japan via EMS. For those that don't, Rakuten has a link to proxy buyer/shipping services. Otherwise, you can go to the team websites and hope their shops will either ship to where you are or use a proxy service to do the same. There used to be a fantastic website called YakyuShop that imported a massive variety of NPB fan goods (hapi coats, replica jerseys, caps, etc.), but they closed down a few years ago because the yen strengthened enough to blow away their already tiny profit margin.

I want to point something out though:

Funkysauce posted:

Dude, I lost a whole loving night trying to find a store in Tokyo that sold NPB stuff. Like snapbacks or even fitted hats for all teams. I couldn't find any but I had no real idea where to look. Every store I came across only had MLB or the Giants. The Tokyo Dome had Giants hats for 9000 Yen that weren't the size I needed and the rest were velcro.

The stuff that I bolded is the way things are in Japanese baseball merchandising. It wasn't until very recently (5-6 years ago?) that "like the pros wear" fitted caps were even offered in fan stores in Japan. The velcro-back caps (~US$21-35) were the only ones available for years and years.

Now, of course, there's been a bit more of an explosion of variety. New Era has a line of NPB Vintage fitted caps (~US$62-65) and leather strapbacks (~US$43-45) celebrating defunct teams/older team-names like the Taiyo Whales, Nankai Hawks, and Lotte Orions. Mizuno has replica team caps (velcro-backed) for about ~US$35. If you want the "on-field" fitted caps, they'll run you (like you said) US$80-90.

As for why you could only find Giants merch, that's because the marketing departments for NPB teams, and the league as a whole, are provincial as hell. They assume that only people living in the immediate area around a team will care about that team, and only an even smaller subset of those people will be "crazy" enough to buy team merchandise. Hence, the only brick-and-mortar way to buy merchandise for a team not named the Yomiuri Giants is to go to the stadium (or similar stores nearby). The Giants, on the other hand, are owned by Japan's biggest media group, so they and their crap are pushed down everyone's throat at every opportunity.

The provincialism also explains why stuff is so drat expensive. Since the marketing departments assume only hardcore fans would purchase jerseys/fitted ballcaps/etc., they apply a huge markup to compensate for the (assumed) low volume.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2013 22:52

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Crovie posted:

So far this year NPB teams are scoring 0.74 homers per game.

Last season they scored an average of 0.51 homers/game, the Giants homered the most with 0.65/game.

So if Japan's legendary lack of home runs was turning you off from exciting puro yakyu action, good news!

The guys on the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast have been speculating that Mizuno has done something to juice the balls.

Whatever it is, it let Lastings Milledge crush a doozy yesterday, so I'll take it.

# ¿ May 26, 2013 10:47

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Being a Swallows fan this year is like having a hot poker driven slowly into your abdomen. Tonight, they're down 2-1 in the top of the 9th, 2 out to Seibu. 2 strikes on Wlad Balentien and he drills a monster shot into the left field seats of Seibu Dome! Huzzah, success might be around the corner!

Aaand then the Lions walkoff on a long fly to centerfield off an inside fastball that tailed just a bit back over the plate. Tony Barnette was clearly pushing to come back inside after a tight ball 3 call on the outside, but forcing a pitch like that is guaranteed to float back over the plate somehow. :negative:

SporkOfTruth fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Jun 1, 2013

# ¿ Jun 1, 2013 09:37

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

SirPhoebos posted:

Please tell me NPB's Commissioner is smart enough not to make home field advantage in the Championship series based on the all-star game (or series).

By the way, how long is Baseball Season in Japan (both in terms of games played and time of year)

The regular season is 144 games long. The playoffs are 3 rounds (2 rounds of the Climax Series -- first round best-of-3, the second best-of-6 with a 1 game advantage to each league's regular season champ -- followed by the Japan Series). The regular season usually ends slightly after the MLB regular season, with the end of the playoffs stretching into the last weeks of October/early November.

And no, the NPB doesn't do the stupid home-field-advantage bullshit the MLB does with the All-Star Game.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2013 01:47

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Xenophon posted:

If he isn't intentionally walked all the time so he doesn't reach it, aka The Randy Bass Treatment

Since the Swallows are doing so poorly this year, I'd almost think the other teams would let him do it out of pity. Also, Bass had to go up against Oh managing the Giants and explicitly calling for IBBs to preserve his own record.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2013 06:01

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

WLADIMIR "COCO" BALENTIEN HAS HIT HIS 56TH DINGER OF THE SEASON! He's now the single season HR king of NPB!

e: A gif of the event:
http://i.minus.com/i0WQmvVO3UK0e.gif

SporkOfTruth fucked around with this message at 10:42 on Sep 15, 2013

# ¿ Sep 15, 2013 10:17

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

NPB's stats service says 60. He was shut down for the last few games or so to rest, since the Swallows were nearly 30 games out of the pennant chase and 11.5 out of the last playoff spot.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2013 23:50

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Pastrymancy posted:

They're warming him up in the bullpen right now

And he got the last 3 outs in the 9th! Congratulations to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for winning their first Japan Series!

# ¿ Nov 3, 2013 16:43

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:35

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

fisting by many posted:

Kosuke Fukudome and Tsuyoshi Nishioka of the Hanshin Tigers had one of the worst outfield collisions ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QALAdIiOT60

Fukudome is staying in the game, Nishioka was down for over 10 minutes and was just taken off on an ambulance.

I just saw the gifs you posted in the gif thread; that's terrifying. :barf:

I can only hope Nishioka isn't destroyed for life.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 09:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Nippon Professional Baseball 2013 (more World Baseball also welcome)