A Baseball Gaijin PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download A Baseball Gaijin PDF full book. Access full book title A Baseball Gaijin.
| Author | : Aaron Fischman |
| Publisher | : Simon and Schuster |
| Total Pages | : 444 |
| Release | : 2024-06-18 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 1683584783 |
Download A Baseball Gaijin Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Like many American boys, Tony Barnette yearned to one day make it to “The Show,” playing baseball professionally. The Arizona State pitcher was drafted in 2006 by the in-state Diamondbacks. Gradually ascending the minor-league ladder, it looked like this was the beginning of a blessed life, where he could play the game he loved on the grandest of stages in front of family and friends. But things don’t always work out the way we want. On the verge of achieving his lifelong dream after notching a league-high 14 wins in Triple A, Tony looked ahead to 2010 with optimism. That’s when Japan came calling, offering a significant salary hike in exchange for forgoing a likely forthcoming big-league debut. The Diamondbacks agreed to release Tony so he could play for Tokyo’s Yakult Swallows, the renowned Yomiuri Giants’ intra-city rivals. At the time, the only thing he had in common with the country was a love for baseball. He did not know the language and was unfamiliar with Nippon Professional Baseball and essentially everything else. On his own in a strange land, the burning desire to one day make the major leagues never subsided. He knew the odds were against him, as less than one quarter of gaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) ballplayers who go to Japan appear in the majors at any point thereafter. First-year struggles led to multiple demotions and his end-of-year release. But when you’re chasing a dream, you expect to encounter several obstacles. Tony refused to be deterred. Over six seasons in Japan, the starter became a reliever and then a closer. After a strong 2015 season, in which he guided his long-suffering Swallows to the Japan Series, he finally got the call he had been waiting for. Signing with the Texas Rangers in December, Tony would make his first major-league appearance on April 5, 2016, at age thirty-two. He’d go on to pitch four seasons with the Rangers and Chicago Cubs, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Through extensive research and reporting, Aaron Fischman worked directly with Tony to tell his story of perseverance, determination, and never giving up on your dream.
| Author | : John Berry |
| Publisher | : CreateSpace |
| Total Pages | : 152 |
| Release | : 2010-09-13 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 9781452882192 |
Download The Gaijin Pitcher Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Victor Starffin was one of Japan's first great professional baseball players. He was born in Russia in 1916 and his family was displaced by the Russian Civil War which followed the Bolshevik Revolution. The Starffins eventually settled in Japan where Victor became a great high school baseball star. Japanese professional baseball began in 1934 when a team of paid players was assembled to take on an American all-star team headed by Babe Ruth. The Japanese team later became the Yomiuri Giants and Victor became an original member of that great franchise. By the late 1930's, Victor was Japan's greatest player. His life was complicated, however, by the nationalism and racism of the day. The culmination of that was Victor being removed from the Giants and sent to an internment camp. After the war, Victor's life was still affected by prejudice, but he was eventually allowed to resume his baseball career. Although he battled illness, both physical and mental, he continued to play the game he loved in his quest to become Japan's first 300 game winner. The story of Japan's gaijin pitcher is a little known, but fascinating tale of survival, injustice, triumph, and tragedy, set against a backdrop of some of the major historical events of the 20th century.
| Author | : Bill Staples, Jr. |
| Publisher | : McFarland |
| Total Pages | : 282 |
| Release | : 2011-08-12 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 0786485248 |
Download Kenichi Zenimura, Japanese American Baseball Pioneer Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
While the story of the Negro Leagues has been well documented, few baseball fans know about the Japanese American Nisei Leagues, or of their most influential figure, Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968). A talented player who excelled at all nine positions, Zenimura was also a respected manager and would become the Japanese American community's baseball ambassador. He worked tirelessly to promote the game at home and abroad, leading goodwill trips to Asia, helping to negotiate tours of Japan by Negro League All-Stars and Babe Ruth, and establishing a 32-team league behind the barbed wire of Arizona's Gila River Internment Camp during World War II. This first biography of the "Father of Japanese-American Baseball" delivers a thorough and fascinating account of Zenimura's life.
| Author | : Alan M. Gratz |
| Publisher | : Penguin |
| Total Pages | : 288 |
| Release | : 2008-02-14 |
| Genre | : Young Adult Fiction |
| ISBN | : 1440634823 |
Download Samurai Shortstop Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. But he grieves for his uncle, a samurai who sacrificed himself for his beliefs, at a time when most of Japan is eager to shed ancient traditions. It's only when his father decides to teach him the way of the samurai that Toyo grows to better understand his uncle and father. And to his surprise, the warrior training guides him to excel at baseball, a sport his father despises as yet another modern Western menace. Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family's samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a Western game that stands for everything he despises?
| Author | : Brian Maitland |
| Publisher | : Tuttle Publishing |
| Total Pages | : 148 |
| Release | : 1991 |
| Genre | : Art |
| ISBN | : 9780804816809 |
Download Japanese Baseball Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
| Author | : Samuel O. Regalado |
| Publisher | : University of Illinois Press |
| Total Pages | : 211 |
| Release | : 2013-01-30 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 0252094530 |
Download Nikkei Baseball Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Nikkei Baseball examines baseball's evolving importance to the Japanese American community and the construction of Japanese American identity. Originally introduced in Japan in the late 1800s, baseball was played in the United States by Japanese immigrants first in Hawaii, then San Francisco and northern California, then in amateur leagues up and down the Pacific Coast. For Japanese American players, baseball was seen as a sport that encouraged healthy competition by imposing rules and standards of ethical behavior for both players and fans. The value of baseball as exercise and amusement quickly expanded into something even more important, a means for strengthening social ties within Japanese American communities and for linking their aspirations to America's pastimes and America's promise. With World War II came internment and baseball and softball played behind barbed wire. After their release from the camps, Japanese Americans found their reentry to American society beset by anti-Japanese laws, policies, and vigilante violence, but they rebuilt their leagues and played in schools and colleges. Drawing from archival research, prior scholarship, and personal interviews, Samuel O. Regalado explores key historical factors such as Meji-era modernization policies in Japan, American anti-Asian sentiments, internment during World War II, the postwar transition, economic and educational opportunities in the 1960s, the developing concept of a distinct "Asian American" identity, and Japanese Americans' rise to the major leagues with star players including Lenn Sakata and Kurt Suzuki and even managers such as the Seattle Mariners' Don Wakamatsu.
| Author | : Robert Whiting |
| Publisher | : Open Road Media |
| Total Pages | : 390 |
| Release | : 2022-03-22 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 1504074084 |
Download You Gotta Have Wa Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
From the author of Tokyo Junkie, “the definitive book on Japanese baseball and one of the best-written sports books ever” (San Francisco Chronicle). One might expect the sport of baseball in Japan to be a culture clash—a collision of American individualism with the Japanese focus on wa, or harmony. Instead, it has turned into a winning symbiosis. Imported American sluggers—some past their primes—have found new life in the East and have given credibility to the Japanese game. A succession of Japanese stars like Hideo Nomo left their teams to find success in the US major leagues, enabling MLB International to make hundreds of millions of dollars selling TV and licensing rights to its games in Japan. While philosophical differences remain, You Gotta Have Wa guides you through the strange and fascinating world of besuboru, or baseball. With a history of the game in Japan and an overview of the Japanese leagues and their rules, this book follows the careers of players and managers who influenced the game in the East and vice versa—including Babe Ruth, Ichiro Suzuki, Bobby Valentine, and Sadaharu Oh, the Japanese homerun king. Whether you are a Yankees or a Red Sox fan, a sports or an enthusiast of Japanese culture, “simply sit back and enjoy the wonderful stories in You Gotta Have Wa, one of the most unusual baseball books of the season” (The New York Times). “A wonderfully entertaining look at baseball and wa.” —Time “A terrific, fast-paced account of Japanese baseball.” —Chicago Tribune “A funny look at baseball in Japan that is as much a work of cultural anthropology as a sports book.” —Playboy
| Author | : Fitts, Robert K. |
| Publisher | : SIU Press |
| Total Pages | : 276 |
| Release | : 2005 |
| Genre | : Baseball |
| ISBN | : 9780809389735 |
Download Remembering Japanese Baseball Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
| Author | : W. P. Kinsella |
| Publisher | : Rosetta Books |
| Total Pages | : 164 |
| Release | : 2017-11-17 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 079535097X |
Download Japanese Baseball Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Short stories filled with empathy, laughter, and a love of the game, from the award-winning author of Shoeless Joe. W.P. Kinsella weaves his characters into the thrill of the game, be it in Japan, Central America, Canada, or the United States, with a variety of comic, tragic, and mystical results. This collection captures the dazzling wit, compelling insight, and obsession with baseball that have made Kinsella more popular than a ballpark frank. “There is a new depth and gentleness to Kinsella’s storytelling here, a more subtle nuance than his readers may be accustomed to. In ‘The Kowloon Club,’ the baseball club is persuaded to hire a Feng Shui master to determine the site for their new park…‘The First and Last Annual Six Towns Old-Timers’ Game’ is vintage Kinsella…The final extra-base hit is a deeply felt, introspective look at the half-lived life of an umpire and the reasons he continues to be a part of the game, even when his marriage is going foul.”—Quill & Quire
| Author | : Robert K. Fitts |
| Publisher | : U of Nebraska Press |
| Total Pages | : 365 |
| Release | : 2008-09-01 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 0803213816 |
Download Wally Yonamine Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. ø In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high?and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan?s Baseball Hall of Fame.
