Experience the Thrill of Japanese Teams Beating American Teams in Baseball

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After Japan beat the United States in the World Baseball Classic, Japanese TV showed the same footage from Miami for almost two hours! They really wanted everyone to watch this special moment on and on.

Shohei Ohtani throwing a ball that made Mike Trout, his teammate from the Los Angeles Angels, strike out, ended the game. Everyone was really excited and they celebrated by replaying it again and again on TV, screaming with joy in the clubhouse and doing the ‘doage’ celebration where team members toss the winning manager and players up into the air!

Yomiuri newspaper, one of the most popular newspapers in Japan, put out a special edition on Wednesday just for commuters. This kind of edition isn’t usually done unless it involves an important event like election news or when there was an assassination of a former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year. The headline read “Japan, the World’s No. 1” and some people were seen pushing and shoving other people just to grab hold of this special edition.

Shohei Ohtani’s victory over the past two weeks helped to distract people from the worries of economic problems, North Korea’s missile threats, and China’s growing power in Asia. It also made baseball more popular again in Japan because it had been declining compared to soccer. Japan likely won’t win a World Cup for soccer any time soon, but their skill in baseball is nationally known since they have won three out of five World Baseball Classic tournaments since 2006!

In 2013, Japan became only the second team to win the biggest baseball tournament in the world without ever losing a game. Hiroya Kuroda (44 years old) and Toshiya Ishii (29 years old), who were both in a small crowd of around 400 people watching the game at Tokyo Tower, had different reactions to this victory. Even though Hiroya was okay with winning or losing, he still felt really moved by this game that took place all the way over in the U.S. On the other hand, Toshiya burst into tears when they won!

After the Japanese team, Samurai Japan, won a big championship against teams from Mexico and the United States, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida congratulated them. He said that it was very impressive how they worked together as a team to win those close games. When he comes back from Ukraine and talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kishida wants to personally meet with Samurai Japan.

Kishida loves baseball and he is a passionate supporter of the Hiroshima Carp, which is his hometown team.

Japan has actually beaten the Americans in baseball before. This happened when America introduced baseball to Japan through teachers and missionaries during the 1870s and 1880s. The most significant game where Japan beat America was in 1896 in Yokohama – with a score of 29-4! It was this incredible result that made baseball become more popular in Japan.

After a game, the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar declared that playing for Japan was the best decision he ever made. He hugged his mom who was standing nearby and said “I love Japan! Thank you” in Japanese (Nippon daisuki, Arigato). Players like Nootbaar, Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, and Hideki Kuriyama were celebrated by their teammates by being lifted up into the air!

Nootbaar said, “That was my first experience being lifted up like that! I really hope I got it on camera, because it’s something special that I want to remember forever.” Koji Ueda also helped with this report. If you are interested in MLB coverage then you can check out the Big Bignews Website or follow Stephen Wade on Twitter.