 Though there are hundreds of
sportswriters covering professional Japanese baseball,
only a handful work for the English language press. Below
are some of the most important writers and the papers
they work for.
Asahi Evening
News: Japan's
only English-language afternoon paper, the Asahi
Evening News has a pretty good sports section. They
carry several syndicated columnists from North America
and offer a 3-4 page sports section every day. The
emphasis is on the big four sports (baseball, basketball,
football and soccer) but they also offer really good
Olympic coverage. The Asahi has two key
sportswriters who concentrate on baseball.
Since
their writing is so similar, I've often wondered if Masayoshi
Suga is John DeBellis' Japanese pen name. Both
offer very straightforward and thoughtful pieces that
tend to stand out. Last season, the journalists authored
two ten-part series called Foreign Focus, in
which they examined one foreign player each day. When
they interviewed players like Bob Milacki and Mark
Carreon, who were evidently having a tough time adjusting
to Japanese baseball, DeBellis and Suga somehow managed
to put a positive spin on each story.
Daily Yomiuri: Owned by the same mass media
conglomerate that runs the Yomiuri Giants, the Daily
Yomiuri offers it's readers a trade-off. In exchange
for relatively thorough sports coverage, and more yakyu
news and details than any other daily offers (not to
mention the lowest subscription price in Japan), you have
to suffer their blatantly pro-Giants bias.
Despite
the restrictions, Ken Marantz still does an
excellent job of reporting Japanese baseball. Though the Daily
Yomiuri generally uses stories compiled from the
Japanese-language Yomiuri Shimbun in their daily
coverage, Marantz usually writes three of four special
pieces a month. In 1997, he provided a wealth of
information on Yokohama's Bobby Rose, Yakult's Dwayne
Hosey and several other foreign and Japanese players.
Every
Spring, the Daily Yomiuri offers a baseball
preview insert with several articles written by Marantz, Jack
Gallagher and other contributing writers. Since
the Daily Yomiuri does not have a weekly yakyu
columnist, it's a shame they don't give the role to
Marantz.
Japan Times: Recently, the Japan Times
has been making changes, not all of them good. Although
the high status paper offers an annual spring Japanese
baseball preview, their daily coverage seldom reaches
beyond simple wire stories, and they seem to care more
about Major League baseball and other world sports to the
detriment of covering yakyu. One example of their recent
shift, the Japan Times moved columnist Wayne
Graczyk from thursdays to sundays, where his column now
appears every other week.
An
editor of the Tokyo Weekender and contributing
writer for Baseball America, Wayne Graczyk
has been covering Japanese baseball for the past two
decades. Every year, he compiles the Japan Pro
Baseball Fan Handbook & Media Guide, which
includes player rosters, schedules, a directory of past
and present foreign players with photos and stats.
Graczyk also helps the Nippon Ham Fighters promote their
annual Yankees Day festivities by distributing
thousands of free tickets through his column. His Baseball
Bullet-in column in the Japan Times often
offers a historical context to the Japanese game while
answering scores of questions from readers.
Formerly
of the Daily Yomiuri, Marty Kuehnhert
joined the Japan Times a few years back and writes
about a variety of sports in his On the Keen Edge
column, which usually appears on Sundays.
Mainichi
Daily News:
Unfortunately, the daily sports coverage the Mainichi
offers is rarely adequate to justify spending 120 yen.
The paper only devotes one page to sports, and rarely
covers Japanese baseball. But on Wednesday, it's well
worth picking up the Mainichi just to read Dave
Wiggins' SportScene.
Writing
with his distinct style, Dave Wiggins doesn't pull
any punches when he takes on the powerful yakyu
establishment. One example: Yomiuri manager Shigeo
Nagashima's "affected 'fighting spirit' as a player
and his grandstanding mismanaging are enough to make this
anti-tatamae person want to barf. Obviously, Abe
'You can't fool all the people all of the time' Lincoln
was blissfully unaware of Japan."
Since
he's always willing to venture an opinion, it's easy to
disagree with Wiggins from time to time. But it's very
hard to resist being entertained by his column.
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