Watching the Boston Red Sox vs. the Oakland A's, at 5 a. m. (CST), there were massive differences in the Japanese crowd(s), compared to the majority of fans, in the United States. Even the announcers, one of whom played his career in Japan in the 1990s, agreed that the Japanese fans have a love for the game, that goes beyond the glitz and glamour, but a love for the fundamentals of the game, what the teams and players bring into their lives, and a love that extends into their lives, not just when it fits into their spare time.
Filling the stadium, over 50,000 Japanese fans, to watch the Red Sox battle the Oakland A's was very different, indeed. Even though, there the may have still been matting in my eyes, in the wee hours of the morning, to see the second game, of Major League Baseball season, I could see subtle and huge differences in the game and it's fans. There was a stadium filled with fans cheering more, during the players batting (than the usual defense cheering, in order to distract the players in the field), which showed respect for the game, as a whole. The stadium was "standing room only," for the whole game. No fans were blazing up the stairs to beat traffic, get another beer (before sales ran out), and continued to banter thru the ninth. The cheering was in waves and coordinated, with the fans using all kinds of implements (like blow up tubes, towels, et. al). In America, fans have a tendency to root for their team, some are die hard fans, and some are at games for the good of the sport and not for beer, fights, and spewing out loud cuss words, in a "family environment." However, in Japan, even when the MLB teams have long gone, and the Yamori Giants are playing another Japanese team, there will still be 50,000 strong, whether at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, or at 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday (as the announcers pointed out this morning). The only baseball in America, that stands out like this, is at the NCAA College World Series, in Omaha. It is all, but gone, in the MLB crowds and some minor league stadiums.
In Japan, baseball is revered. It is revered, the way it was back in the 1950s thru the late 1980s. The fans are screaming and cheering (although, their chants are usually regulated, like actual cheerleaders at a high school football game), for their favorite players, teams, and for the opposite players and teams, when the fundamentals and great plays are executed. Personally, I long for the times when my mom and dad took me and my brother to the MLB games. When I was younger, from the age of four thru fourteen (I am 35), the MLB experience was so very different. Going to "Royals Stadium," in Kansas City, to see the Royals, meant seeing George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson, John Wathan, and Amos Otis, most not "All-Stars," but they were the "home team." In those trips, to the stadium, before the name change, to "The K," it was not about booing the other teams, but rooting for your team and favorite players. In the rosters of incoming teams, I learned about the other teams in advance, collecting their cards, memorizing statistics, watching on Saturdays "This Week In Baseball" and having the privilege (of my parents' taking my brother and I) of watching players like Wade Boggs (Boston), Paul Molitor (Brewers), Don "Donny Ball Game" Mattingly/Rich "Goose" Gossage/Craig Nettles (Yankees), and two players who will never make the hall of fame, but where "Royal Killers," (who oozed fundamentals, power, and were modest great ball players) Lou Whitaker and Alan Tramell (Detroit Tigers). Of course, this was before the three league split, the switch in teams to the National League/American League (depending), and mostly it was before the 1994 strike, shortened season. However, before these changes, the game was strong, the players were revered and truly loved (like the stories we heard from our fathers and grandfathers about Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Mays, and Duke Snider). It was the last time, I can remember kids and their parents seeing the game, like I remember seeing it, when I was young.
I do not blame the strike (either people are baseball fans, or they are not), because some people were upset and should have been, but baseball fans are fans for the sport, not fans looking for a reason to turn their back, on the sport they love. The strike season gave an excuse, for the fans who didn't love baseball, but were more happy complaining about the game. Besides, 1994 was a long time ago. I do not blame the other sports, football and basketball, being a quicker way for student athletes to get big dollar deals, and the inner city youth not having a place to play baseball. Simply, because kids were in the inner city, as far back as the depression, but kids still loved the game, playing stick ball in the streets, as far back as sticks, balls, and streets. I am not in a position to blame any one thing, any one type of person, or any direct choice(s) that has taken the game from "America's Past Time" to "America's reason to complain" (for some people). As a matter of fact, I am not in any position to judge anyone, or anything, period. I just miss the American game people used to love, the fans who loved it, and the fact baseball does not have the power to put "the stamp" on our lives, as it once did, for whatever reason.
It boils down to watching the fans and people of Japan, holding up a mirror to America, to see what baseball used to be and mean to our great country. Who cares how much money a player wants, to play for a certain team? Who cares what a general manager does, trading a player for a group of younger players, in hopes to make a team better? There are so many reasons for people to turn away from the sport of baseball. However, if America was to take a look in the mirror, the Japanese are holding up to our country, during the Red Sox vs. A's games. Baseball is life. Baseball, in so many ways the game is played, the strategy it has thru it's heralded lineage, and it mirrors all of the facets of our lives. Baseball is life. The Japanese fans love the games for what they are, a sporting event with spectacular athletes, who play the game with grace and love for the chance to play the sport they devoted their lives to, and who are humble for the gifts they have. The Japanese revel in their team, they came to root for, but they also know about the alternate team and give them equal respect. The majority of Japanese fans worship the game of baseball and are the epitome of what fans are about. They are showing the United States baseball fans, not only how to watch, cheer, and see the game of baseball for what it is, but they show us the way back to our roots. Roots, in America kids playing in the streets (emulating their favorite baseball players), in the family going to the park to root on the team they want to watch (without a group of men and women, spewing out hatred and foul language, at the top of their lungs), and finally the roots of America being all that is good thru, "America's Past Time."
