Word: besuboru
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Critics say Japan's hidebound feudal practices have finally caught up with it. Ever since Americans introduced the game in 1871, Japan has imbued besuboru with its own philosophy: a Zen samurai emphasis on discipline, spirit and selflessness reflected in the modern-day professional system, which began in 1935. The 12 teams of the Central and Pacific leagues draw more than 22 million fans a year. But because of a compliant union, which refuses to strike (that would disrupt social harmony, or wa), and restrictions that keep neutral salary arbiters and sports agents at arm's length, players are underpaid...
...Japanese besuboru is not exactly the same as American baseball. And that fact hit Mike Di Muro with all the force of a beanball. Di Muro, a 29-year-old pro umpire from New York, was invited this spring to step onto Japan's diamonds and teach the American meaning of a strike. But Di Muro soon learned that it's less hazardous to face Roberto Alomar's spit than the wrath of Japanese players and fans who don't like the call...
...convergence of baseball and besuboru apparently hasn't gone far enough to let an American umpire in Japan. Those who thought that possible underestimated how difficult it would be to penetrate the Japanese game, which is run by a cabal of players and managers as protectively as the Finance and Trade ministries are captained for the good of the economy. Di Muro's insistence on standing by his strike and ball calls upset the system's harmony--what the Japanese call wa, as besuboru expert Robert Whiting wrote in his 1989 book You Gotta Have...
...left, of the Orix Blue Wave (second place, Pacific League) smacks the 200th hit of his record-breaking season in a 6-5 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines. Thursday: The Tigers lose again, 4-0, as Chunichi Dragons pitcher Kuo Yuan-tzu becomes only the fifth hurler in besuboru history to win 100 career games. Friday: The once mighty Giants lose, 1-0, to the fifth-ranked Yokohama Bay Stars, forcing a tight pennant race with the second-place Hiroshima Carp and third-place Dragons...
...record with his 192nd hit of the season (George Sisler set the U.S. record of 257 in 1920). Friday: Suzuki went hitless as the Pacific Division's first-place Seibu Lions beat the second-place Orix 6-1, moving four games ahead. Rain -- not a labor dispute -- canceled besuboru's other Friday games...