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Your sound editing needs work bro. Your music is too loud to hear your narration. It even worst because you speak fast. You just need to lower the music so that your narration is easy to hear.
Even most members of these powerhouses do not become professionals and take other jobs. Most members only play during their school days for fun or hobby. In Japan, most children who are not aiming to become professionals play some kind of sport. Even members with the ability to become professional often do not choose professionals. This catcher Sasaki played at university and now works at a normal powergenerating company.
@@superiongames3528 That's right, but each students has a dream and a job they want to be from childhood. They just want to play baseball for fun But I think this is the same case in other countries as well.
His high school manager deserves a lot of credit. A lot of Japanese high school managers would burn out their players for the glory of winning. Shohei's coach had the long term perspective.
Most coaches in Japan now have a long-term perspective. They're thinking about the growth of young students, and they don't sacrifice anything to win the game now.
@@super-k not really, a lot the coaches would make their star pitchers throw 120+ balls a game making them throw their arm out by the end of their high school career
@super-k you’re accurately describing rules that most managers grudgingly follow while trying to work around. The above point is that Ohtani’s coach started from a perspective of growing players to succeed later in life, not crash out in the 2.5 years they’d be playing high school ball. I was there in 2006 when Hankerchief Prince dueled Tanaka for 2 days straight and 24 innings. If not for rule changes, we’d still be seeing that today.
I mean, ohtani went to a powerhouse private school that recruits AND houses top talent. So think of private high school football teams in the USA except on crack. Our private schools also recruit elite talent for sports, especially football. But most private schools do not have dorms or house their students, meaning students need to live close enough to school to commute to and from daily. At an elite boarding school with an elite baseball team, their team will probably consist of the best in the country. They might get 6-7 of the top 50 players in the entire country every single year. Chances are his first year Ohtani was not a better pitcher than an upper-classman or 2. Or not significantly better. If he was, he'd probably have started every game in the koishen and threw 500+ pitches if it was allowable in his day.
I've lived in Japan since 2007. I remember watching Koshien that summer and the hype around Ohtani and his pitching. Most of the hype was around his pitching, but not much about his hitting.
Man... I highly encourage all of y'all to go to 5:43 and read his goals. They always say if you reach all of your goals, you've set the bar too low for yourself. Reading his goals truly displays his mindset and dedication to baseball at such a young age.
yes, 5:43 is exactly where i hit the pause button, and went down the list slowly one by one. now we can remotely understand the agony he must be going through in the past few seasons at Angels...for every season lost, is one of the year's life goal left unachieved...
These are very achievable goals, which is wild considering how incredible the goals are... ... with the exception of the strike-out record, which was untouchable when people threw 300 innings a year and is even more ridiculously untouchable now in this era where the workhorses pitch 200. If you pitched 22 years and averaged 250 strikeouts a year (a mark that a single player reached last year, Gerrit Cole at 257 Ks), you'd have 5500 Ks... which would be 215 Ks short of breaking the record. Nolan Ryan was just a physical freak, man. Man had tendons made of steel cables. Considering the question mark, it seems Ohtani knew that one was out of reach in this era, though.
as a japanese person I'm amazed by how incredibly well-researched this video is, given that there are very limited English sources on Japanese high school baseball
Stop kissing his ass ruth only pitched for like 4 seasons and wanted to hit to prove a point and cuz he was bored ohtani doesn’t even pass judge in war like what are u talking about 😂
Great video. ❤ Appreciate mentioning Coach Sasaki, who had such an important influence on Ohtani as a player and the person. Everybody talks of the obvious Kuriyama but the foundation to his discipline, mental focus, humility and strength that turned the baseball boy into the man he became is undoubtedly Coach Sasaki.
6:56 The team is not called the "Ham Fighters." The team's name is just "Fighters", they are owned by the food company Nippon-Ham and they play in Hokkaido.
Now I understand where Diamond no Ace got their inspiration from. Kataoka (Seido's Coach) has the exact same mentality and way teaching as the coach that taught Ohtani
Just one thing, the Koshien is the name for the Stadium, called the Hanshin Koshien Stadium, the home ground of the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers lend out the Stadium for free for a 2 week span for the tournament while the team go out for a 2 weeks of visitor matches. The All Japan High School Baseball tournament was also originally held in a ball park in Toyonaka in Osaka prefecture (theres a memorial in a train station) and moved to Nishinomiya Hyogo prefecture when the Koshien was built in 1924. So basically the tourney is held in Hyogo, not Osaka. It gets mixed up a lot because Hanshin is super popular in the Kansai region, but ye i think thats about it.
I don't think Hanshin is a real region. It's the name of the company that owns the team. (I believe my dad told me growing up that Hanshin is a nickname of Osaka and Kobe combined) Unlike how MLB franchises its teams in the US, Japan goes by the names of the owner companies to refer to the respective teams rather than the cities that they represent.
Well, to be particular it is not in osaka since nishinomiya is in hyogo pref but in a broad sense it is kinda osaka because hanshin tigers is iconic osaka thing and their home stadium is koshien. Hanshin is not official region but just of casual word for calling areas between osaka and kobe.
It’s a shame that people who don’t watch baseball can’t understand how great Ohtani is. If baseball is a sport as global as soccer or basketball, Ohtani owns the world.
It’s hard to describe to someone who doesn’t watch to understand how difficult it is to be elite pitching and batting. I can’t think of anything else like it.
To be honest the MLB kind of hindered the global growth of baseball...if only they always allowed their top players to participate at the Olympics and if the WBC was created sooner, baseball would have become bigger than it is today
@@romiarkan450 no, they are not. what are you talking about?🤦♂the full team name is hokkaido nippon ham fighters. the most common abbreviation is 日本ハム.
The Koshien brings out the type of heroism that blind poets used to write about in Ancient Greece. The legend that is Daisuke Matsuzaka began there. His stats from that tournament make even Sho-Time seem mortal.
Japanese “YAKYU-baseball” has a unique spirit that took root and developed over more than 100 years after it was imported to Japan from the American style of baseball. In fact, there is another type of baseball on the earth today that exists in a different spirit from the American style. Of course, the roots of baseball are in the U.S. (or the U.K.), but baseball was exported from the U.S. to other countries, and the baseball that took root there developed in a different way. This would be a fact that has happened on the planet. The 2023 WBC was the day that “Japanese-style baseball (YAKYU)” defeated the home of “American-style baseball.” To put it another way, it was a battle between Japanese-style baseball “ZEN-IN-baseball (all members),” which emphasizes “teamwork of all players,” and American-style baseball, which emphasizes “individual power.” The result was the day that Japanese-style “ZEN-IN-baseball (YAKYU) (organized baseball emphasizing teamwork)” won over American-style baseball. This difference is due to the difference in background culture, history, and environment. However, the real and obvious cause of the difference is largely due to the difference in the two countries' educational methods in “high school baseball education.” Japan's professional baseball system consists of 12 teams in two leagues, and almost all of the players who join these teams as professional players come from Japanese high school baseball clubs, and have played in the “Koshien Tournament,” a national high school baseball tournament that has been held annually since 1915 (more than 100 years). Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each of which has one (or more than one in large autonomous regions) winning team from each regional tournament. 56 teams (2018) will gather at the Koshien Tournament to compete for the championship of the best high school in Japan in a sudden-death tournament format over a two-week period. Almost all Japanese high school baseball players spend three years practicing baseball in order to participate in and win this annual Koshien Tournament. Although the Koshien Tournament is a tournament for high school students, it has a history of more than 100 years, and because it is participated by the regional representatives of the 47 local autonomous regions of Japan, the level of interest and enthusiasm is unusually high throughout Japan. The interest in the Koshien Tournament is much higher than that of professional baseball. Of course, every Japanese player who has made it to the major leagues, without exception, has either participated or aspired to participate in the Koshien Tournament when they were in high school. That is how influential the Koshien Tournament is in Japanese high school baseball. During the three years of high school baseball education, they are taught the basics of baseball skills, physical fitness, winning strategies, teamwork, manners, and character development. The stoicism toward the improvement of baseball skills, the obsession with winning, and the behavior seen in Japanese players such as Shohei Ohtani and Ichiro were also greatly influenced by their three years of high school club activities during which they competed hard to win the Koshien Tournament. The secret of why Ohtani often says that he prioritizes his team's winning and World Series championships over his own individual results, and why he is still committed to self-discipline and technical improvement, is largely due to the baseball education they received during their high school years, when they were aiming to win the Koshien Tournament. The Koshien Tournament has a large number of participating teams and is a sudden death tournament. Therefore, no matter how well-rounded and strong the team is, if they fail to score a single run in a single game, they are eliminated from the tournament and their three years of hard work comes to naught. Do you have any idea how difficult and frightening this is for these players who have worked so hard every day to play baseball? So they are willing to sacrifice themselves and cooperate with their team members in order to score one point more than the other team. They naturally learn to put the team first and act in a cooperative manner, where everyone tries to score one more point in order to win the game. The uniqueness of Japanese-style organized baseball ”YAKYU” is partly due to the uniqueness of Japanese culture, but it is more influenced by the experience of going through the Koshien tournament, which almost all high school baseball players go through. Do you know that when Shohei Ohtani was a member of the Hokkaido Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team, he was strictly forbidden by his manager and coach from stealing bases, which had a high probability of causing injury. That is why he could not run in Japan even if he wanted to. Therefore, his stolen base record in Japan was poor, and even when he was transferred to MLB, those who only looked at Shohei's past records overlooked his ability. Even so, it is said that Shohei wanted to run every time he was banned. Why does Shohei always try to steal a base without worrying about the risk of injury? It is because he believes it is the duty of a baserunner to advance to the next base for the team's victory. This is a strong influence of his high school baseball education in Japan, which was designed to help him survive in the sudden-death tournaments at Koshien. Shohei's mentality is still that of a boy ballplayer with Japanese high school baseball education drilled into him.
As an athlete in Canada, I wish we would take baseball, let alone any sport as seriously as other countries do. When I see the facilities I play on versus these facilities it is night and day
@@mickeytlaseca9990 you’re right lol. Baseball is THE sport in Japan so it’s an entire reason why it is taken that seriously over there. We cant say the same for the other sports they take part in
Great video, just one additional comment, because I really like these facts. -Due to regulations/limitations, each player has exactly 5 chances to stand on the mound in Koshien stadium, starting with the summer Koshien in their first year (in which they rarely participate), the third years cannot participate in the spring Koshien due to regulations - the invitational works a bit different, but not quite like you made it seem. While it is an invitational, 26/32 available spots are more or less automatically given to the schools that win their respective regional tournament (e.g. while Tokyo has a West/east district in the summer, the regional tournament for Tokyo includes East and West schools), 3 additional spots are awarded to so called 21st century teams. These are teams that never appeared Koshien, lost in the qualifier (but reached at least the qf) and must have done something amazing/special, an additional invite is given to the region that wins the Meiji Jingu (the last official tournament of the year, where only the 10 schools that won their regional tournament compete in) and the last two are given to either an additional team in the tokyo/kanto region and the Chugoku,Shikoku region - the reason why the summer tournament is more prestigious is because it is the final tournament for the third years. Once it concludes, the third years HS baseball life is officially over and they retire. They are not allowed to play in the regional tournament due to them having to study for their finals, and spring Koshien starts when they have already graduated -that also means that the perfect season would be a triple crown season, winning the Meiji Jingu, the spring Koshien and the summer Koshien Now for some specific facts - The team that won it all in 2012, Osaka Toin (which is quite possibly one of the best schools in the countries history) almost achieved the near impossible triple crown win in 2022. They won the fall championship/Meiji Jingu as well as the spring Koshien while also qualifying for summer Koshien. They would absolutely annihilate the first three teams they would face, before losing in an upset walk off against a dark horse in the qf, thus ending the almost perfect season, the team that defeated them would lose in the final (I still cannot believe that they lost, that team was quite possibly the best team in years, with elite pitching AND batting) Also, winning spring and summer Koshien in one year is an incredibly rare feat that has only been done a few times -the 2018 Osaka Toin team is quite possibly the best team in Japanese history in terms of batting ability, it was sometimes described as the line up of the century. They were basically the equivalent of the murderous row in HS. Their pitching was lackluster and so was their defense, but they absolutely destroyed opposing pitching, winning the Koshien final 13-2 and absolutely demolishing every team on their way to the championship. The best HS pitcher in the country, who had to hard carry his team to the final, got destroyed in the 13-2 blow out and had to leave the game in the first inning -Everyone on the 18 man roster for Koshien scored several RBI and every main player had several HR to their name (excluding their ace) - from the 2018 Osaka Toin team, 3 players were drafted RIGHT OUT OF HS!! which includes their ace, the clean up hitter and their SS (who is also an occasional pitcher who could throw 150kph) - even the 8-hole of that team became the clean up batter for his university team
The Japanese Koshien is like the US college basketball tournament and is extremely popular. By the way, Sasaki's son, Rintaro, has been playing for Stanford's baseball team since this year. He is a candidate for the US draft the year after next.
A lot of research goes into videos like this, which makes me wonder why the people who make them don't take a second to see how to pronounce Japanese words and names like "Iwate" "Koshien" "manga" Or that Nippon-Ham is a company and the team is called the Fighters, as demonstrated in the team logo that is included in the video. Although there should be a team called the Ham Fighters, which is a vastly superior name in my opinion
It's the typical buzz cut that most Japanese high school baseball players get. For most schools I'm pretty sure it's a rule for them to cut their hair like that.
Loved this one. PLEASE do a report on Shohei's massive impact on current Japanese culture from a baseball and business perspective. Shohei is live-streamed back to Japan in every moment he is visible in every MLS stadium. Would love to see the impact he is having over there from a Japanese point of view.
Dude, I like your videos. I've watched just about all of them. One suggestion, if I may, slow it down a beat or two. I have to click back to read the text you flash a lot. Maybe take a breath at the end of each sentence, lol. Other than that, you're doing good work. Keep it up.
comparison to Babe has to stop... Babe played in a segregated league, against many part-time players: mechanics and insurance agents... at a level of competition that is not even a shadow of what it is today. An all star high school team today would kick ass over most teams during Babe's era.
Preach it brother! To add to your comment and something more to think about regarding Ohtani’s brilliance is there were also less teams which means less players so familiarity with hitters/pitchers would have been a Babe Ruth advantage? Just saying.
@johnthompson5333 Nah...the chick lied. There's a video of her filming herself in bed afterward with him while he is asleep and with her smiling in blissful satisfaction. She should be in prison
It’s so unselfish of Ohtani’s coach to not make him pitch as soon as he probably wanted to. He knew that throwing him out there to pitch AND hit from the time he was 14 was gonna be bad for his long-term development.
The first time i heard and watched Ohtani in some random sports highlights the first person or character came to my mind is Goro Shigeno. Now im a fan of both of them!
Dude this video was top notch. That Koeshein tournament looks bigger and more insane then even the NCAA March Madness. No wonder the Japanese are World Champs
The video seems very informative and provides a strong background on Ohtani's rise to glory. I have two suggestions based on complaints about this video presentation. First, your script is fine but you talk too fast and without enough verbal emphasis on the words. It's a breakneck pace to the narrative, with words delivered without much tonal variation. Second, the lengthy promo coming midway through the video is annoying--too long and breaking the momentum of the video.
Lo más bonito que demuestran los japonés hombres y mujeres y niños es respeto y humildad conviví con una familia aquí en mi casa y fue increíble y lo valoro mucho ya que he convivido con personas de otras nacionalidades
I'm Japanese. To be honest, he didn't break high school baseball. Ohtani's ascent came in his Hokkaido years, when he clocked 165km/h - 102mph. Till then, the fastest NPB pitch record was 161km/h, and people in the high 150s (high 90s in mph) were considered fast. It's a real shame he didn't make it to the Koshien - I'd say the duel between Yuki Saito and Masahiro Tanaka in 2006 will remain the biggest moment in Japanese highschool baseball. Asides this, ・Seiryo High School losing after Hideki Matsui intentionally walked 5 times (1992) ・Daisuke Matsuzaka's No-hitter in the Koshien Final (1998) ・The first ever use of the "Re-match" rule (1958) - Bando (Shikoku-shogyo High School) VS Muratsubaki (Toyama Uozu High School) were the real high school baseball "breaking" moments.
High School baseball in Japan is bigger than any professional sports in the country! No joke, there is one huge high school national championships tournament every year.
5:42 wow he actually did win the mvp at the age of 27, unless he means the WBC mvp at 27 which he won just last year at the age of 29, so not far off which is crazy
~ NO MLB CAMP CAN OUTWORK 1 JAPANESE BASEBALL YOUTH CAMP … PERIOD. ~ Japanese have MORE respect and a greater work ethic than “Entitled-delusional-Egotistical American Spring Whining Campers” … PERIOD. WE THE PE🇺🇸PLE GOT TIRED & FEDuP WITH OVERPAID DRUG-USING NARCISSISTS (Bonds, McGwire …) THAT WE LEFT FOR DECADES. TH🙏🏻NK GOD For SHOHEi OHTANi.
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Great content whereas the combination of the background beats & your fast talking make the video virtually ununderstandable!
Your sound editing needs work bro. Your music is too loud to hear your narration. It even worst because you speak fast. You just need to lower the music so that your narration is easy to hear.
World Series choker sadly
Honestly, props to that catcher for a high schooler being able to catch him…. Wonder where he went off to
great point! I wonder too
Even most members of these powerhouses do not become professionals and take other jobs. Most members only play during their school days for fun or hobby.
In Japan, most children who are not aiming to become professionals play some kind of sport. Even members with the ability to become professional often do not choose professionals.
This catcher Sasaki played at university and now works at a normal powergenerating company.
@@novrinkov0053 man what waste of talent
@@superiongames3528
That's right, but each students has a dream and a job they want to be from childhood. They just want to play baseball for fun But I think this is the same case in other countries as well.
@@novrinkov0053 do you know any phenomenal pitcher who throw 90mph ++ but decided to not go pro in japan?
His high school manager deserves a lot of credit. A lot of Japanese high school managers would burn out their players for the glory of winning. Shohei's coach had the long term perspective.
Most coaches in Japan now have a long-term perspective.
They're thinking about the growth of young students, and they don't sacrifice anything to win the game now.
@@super-k not really, a lot the coaches would make their star pitchers throw 120+ balls a game making them throw their arm out by the end of their high school career
@@burgski That was a long time ago. Now there are rules and no coach can do that.
@super-k you’re accurately describing rules that most managers grudgingly follow while trying to work around. The above point is that Ohtani’s coach started from a perspective of growing players to succeed later in life, not crash out in the 2.5 years they’d be playing high school ball. I was there in 2006 when Hankerchief Prince dueled Tanaka for 2 days straight and 24 innings. If not for rule changes, we’d still be seeing that today.
I mean, ohtani went to a powerhouse private school that recruits AND houses top talent. So think of private high school football teams in the USA except on crack. Our private schools also recruit elite talent for sports, especially football. But most private schools do not have dorms or house their students, meaning students need to live close enough to school to commute to and from daily. At an elite boarding school with an elite baseball team, their team will probably consist of the best in the country. They might get 6-7 of the top 50 players in the entire country every single year. Chances are his first year Ohtani was not a better pitcher than an upper-classman or 2. Or not significantly better. If he was, he'd probably have started every game in the koishen and threw 500+ pitches if it was allowable in his day.
The Summer Koshien Tournament is Japan's March Madness.
Absolutely, definitely want to see that one day
I've lived in Japan since 2007. I remember watching Koshien that summer and the hype around Ohtani and his pitching. Most of the hype was around his pitching, but not much about his hitting.
That shows you how great he really is
Man... I highly encourage all of y'all to go to 5:43 and read his goals. They always say if you reach all of your goals, you've set the bar too low for yourself. Reading his goals truly displays his mindset and dedication to baseball at such a young age.
yes, 5:43 is exactly where i hit the pause button, and went down the list slowly one by one.
now we can remotely understand the agony he must be going through in the past few seasons at Angels...for every season lost, is one of the year's life goal left unachieved...
These are very achievable goals, which is wild considering how incredible the goals are...
... with the exception of the strike-out record, which was untouchable when people threw 300 innings a year and is even more ridiculously untouchable now in this era where the workhorses pitch 200. If you pitched 22 years and averaged 250 strikeouts a year (a mark that a single player reached last year, Gerrit Cole at 257 Ks), you'd have 5500 Ks... which would be 215 Ks short of breaking the record.
Nolan Ryan was just a physical freak, man. Man had tendons made of steel cables.
Considering the question mark, it seems Ohtani knew that one was out of reach in this era, though.
Step one. Make a list.
Step two. Cross “Make a list” off the list.
Step three. Realize I’ve already accomplished two things and take a nap.
as a japanese person I'm amazed by how incredibly well-researched this video is, given that there are very limited English sources on Japanese high school baseball
As an American...ty for such a good human being...we respect him so much here
The dedication that Ontani had and his coach is how real greatness is made. Bless the coach and bless the angels for keeping ontani. Amazing
Ohtani left Babe Ruth behind ages ago. He's in his own category now.
Let's calm down a bit😂
@@barfyman-dm6zx its true lol
@@barfyman-dm6zxgotta face reality brotha
@@barfyman-dm6zx you're in denial babe
Stop kissing his ass ruth only pitched for like 4 seasons and wanted to hit to prove a point and cuz he was bored ohtani doesn’t even pass judge in war like what are u talking about 😂
This shows the deep passion Japan has for baseball. High school students sacrifice a lot to win games
I don't think it's just baseball.
@@You_suck_at_gamesそうです。バスケでもバレーもサッカーも。大体の強豪高校の生徒は3年間部活に専念している。本人達はその高校がどういう高校なのか知って入学しているから犠牲という言葉はちょっとニュアンスが違うけど、まぁ似たようなもんだ
That's a really nice retelling of the story. I'm impressed, as someone who has been watching Japanese baseball since 1975.
Amazing video a great insight into Japanese baseball
Great video. ❤ Appreciate mentioning Coach Sasaki, who had such an important influence on Ohtani as a player and the person. Everybody talks of the obvious Kuriyama but the foundation to his discipline, mental focus, humility and strength that turned the baseball boy into the man he became is undoubtedly Coach Sasaki.
Yes, that's right. And Mr. Sasaki was also the coach of Yusei Kikuchi. Such a great teacher.
6:56
The team is not called the "Ham Fighters." The team's name is just "Fighters", they are owned by the food company Nippon-Ham and they play in Hokkaido.
But “Ham Fighters” just sounds so funny 😂
@@EverythingIsGuchiSo is Bay Rays and York Yankees 😂
@@EverythingIsGuchiI'd be happy to be a Ham Fighter 😂
They fight fat feminists
I've always wondered where the 'Ham' came from, but this makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification!
50/50 legend
Now I understand where Diamond no Ace got their inspiration from. Kataoka (Seido's Coach) has the exact same mentality and way teaching as the coach that taught Ohtani
the manga is most old than this Ohtani pitch in the koshien
Ohtani is Goro Shigeno of real life. Even his goals are pretty much the same as it was depicted in the anime excluding the injuries and drama ofcourse
Just one thing, the Koshien is the name for the Stadium, called the Hanshin Koshien Stadium, the home ground of the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers lend out the Stadium for free for a 2 week span for the tournament while the team go out for a 2 weeks of visitor matches. The All Japan High School Baseball tournament was also originally held in a ball park in Toyonaka in Osaka prefecture (theres a memorial in a train station) and moved to Nishinomiya Hyogo prefecture when the Koshien was built in 1924. So basically the tourney is held in Hyogo, not Osaka. It gets mixed up a lot because Hanshin is super popular in the Kansai region, but ye i think thats about it.
Ohtani is now looking at the biggest MLB contract ever: 500 to 600 million!
And that would still be a bargain
Turned out to be $700M 😁
3:47 Koshien Stadium is not in Osaka, but in Nishinomiya in the Hanshin region, thus giving the name for the Hanshin Tigers.
I don't think Hanshin is a real region. It's the name of the company that owns the team. (I believe my dad told me growing up that Hanshin is a nickname of Osaka and Kobe combined) Unlike how MLB franchises its teams in the US, Japan goes by the names of the owner companies to refer to the respective teams rather than the cities that they represent.
Well, to be particular it is not in osaka since nishinomiya is in hyogo pref but in a broad sense it is kinda osaka because hanshin tigers is iconic osaka thing and their home stadium is koshien.
Hanshin is not official region but just of casual word for calling areas between osaka and kobe.
That Major reference... Respect!
Agreed.
It’s a shame that people who don’t watch baseball can’t understand how great Ohtani is. If baseball is a sport as global as soccer or basketball, Ohtani owns the world.
It’s hard to describe to someone who doesn’t watch to understand how difficult it is to be elite pitching and batting. I can’t think of anything else like it.
To be honest the MLB kind of hindered the global growth of baseball...if only they always allowed their top players to participate at the Olympics and if the WBC was created sooner, baseball would have become bigger than it is today
Next make a vid of Ohtani's insane season with the Ham fighters with numbers that are comparable to his 2021 season. Not many people know about it
They're simply known as the Fighters
@@romiarkan450 no, they are not. what are you talking about?🤦♂the full team name is hokkaido nippon ham fighters. the most common abbreviation is 日本ハム.
Nippon ham is the brand name. So either nippon ham or fighters, but not ham fighters.
Hell yea fighters of the ham.
3:47
It may be a trivial matter, but Koshien Stadium is not in Osaka Prefecture.
Located in Hyogo Prefecture
The Koshien brings out the type of heroism that blind poets used to write about in Ancient Greece.
The legend that is Daisuke Matsuzaka began there. His stats from that tournament make even Sho-Time seem mortal.
Thank you for this knowledge! Anyone that wants to know more about how Shohei got started absolutely needs to watch this video
Japanese “YAKYU-baseball” has a unique spirit that took root and developed over more than 100 years after it was imported to Japan from the American style of baseball.
In fact, there is another type of baseball on the earth today that exists in a different spirit from the American style.
Of course, the roots of baseball are in the U.S. (or the U.K.), but baseball was exported from the U.S. to other countries, and the baseball that took root there developed in a different way. This would be a fact that has happened on the planet.
The 2023 WBC was the day that “Japanese-style baseball (YAKYU)” defeated the home of “American-style baseball.”
To put it another way, it was a battle between Japanese-style baseball “ZEN-IN-baseball (all members),” which emphasizes “teamwork of all players,” and American-style baseball, which emphasizes “individual power.”
The result was the day that Japanese-style “ZEN-IN-baseball (YAKYU) (organized baseball emphasizing teamwork)” won over American-style baseball.
This difference is due to the difference in background culture, history, and environment.
However, the real and obvious cause of the difference is largely due to the difference in the two countries' educational methods in “high school baseball education.”
Japan's professional baseball system consists of 12 teams in two leagues, and almost all of the players who join these teams as professional players come from Japanese high school baseball clubs, and have played in the “Koshien Tournament,” a national high school baseball tournament that has been held annually since 1915 (more than 100 years).
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each of which has one (or more than one in large autonomous regions) winning team from each regional tournament.
56 teams (2018) will gather at the Koshien Tournament to compete for the championship of the best high school in Japan in a sudden-death tournament format over a two-week period.
Almost all Japanese high school baseball players spend three years practicing baseball in order to participate in and win this annual Koshien Tournament.
Although the Koshien Tournament is a tournament for high school students, it has a history of more than 100 years, and because it is participated by the regional representatives of the 47 local autonomous regions of Japan, the level of interest and enthusiasm is unusually high throughout Japan.
The interest in the Koshien Tournament is much higher than that of professional baseball.
Of course, every Japanese player who has made it to the major leagues, without exception, has either participated or aspired to participate in the Koshien Tournament when they were in high school.
That is how influential the Koshien Tournament is in Japanese high school baseball.
During the three years of high school baseball education, they are taught the basics of baseball skills, physical fitness, winning strategies, teamwork, manners, and character development.
The stoicism toward the improvement of baseball skills, the obsession with winning, and the behavior seen in Japanese players such as Shohei Ohtani and Ichiro were also greatly influenced by their three years of high school club activities during which they competed hard to win the Koshien Tournament.
The secret of why Ohtani often says that he prioritizes his team's winning and World Series championships over his own individual results, and why he is still committed to self-discipline and technical improvement, is largely due to the baseball education they received during their high school years, when they were aiming to win the Koshien Tournament.
The Koshien Tournament has a large number of participating teams and is a sudden death tournament.
Therefore, no matter how well-rounded and strong the team is, if they fail to score a single run in a single game, they are eliminated from the tournament and their three years of hard work comes to naught.
Do you have any idea how difficult and frightening this is for these players who have worked so hard every day to play baseball?
So they are willing to sacrifice themselves and cooperate with their team members in order to score one point more than the other team.
They naturally learn to put the team first and act in a cooperative manner, where everyone tries to score one more point in order to win the game.
The uniqueness of Japanese-style organized baseball ”YAKYU” is partly due to the uniqueness of Japanese culture, but it is more influenced by the experience of going through the Koshien tournament, which almost all high school baseball players go through.
Do you know that when Shohei Ohtani was a member of the Hokkaido Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team, he was strictly forbidden by his manager and coach from stealing bases, which had a high probability of causing injury.
That is why he could not run in Japan even if he wanted to.
Therefore, his stolen base record in Japan was poor, and even when he was transferred to MLB, those who only looked at Shohei's past records overlooked his ability. Even so, it is said that Shohei wanted to run every time he was banned.
Why does Shohei always try to steal a base without worrying about the risk of injury?
It is because he believes it is the duty of a baserunner to advance to the next base for the team's victory.
This is a strong influence of his high school baseball education in Japan, which was designed to help him survive in the sudden-death tournaments at Koshien.
Shohei's mentality is still that of a boy ballplayer with Japanese high school baseball education drilled into him.
striking out 15, hitting a home run or two, having superstar teammates and losing in high school and now, some things never change
As an athlete in Canada, I wish we would take baseball, let alone any sport as seriously as other countries do. When I see the facilities I play on versus these facilities it is night and day
Play hockey lol
@@mickeytlaseca9990 you’re right lol. Baseball is THE sport in Japan so it’s an entire reason why it is taken that seriously over there. We cant say the same for the other sports they take part in
This young man is mind-blowing! What a stud!
Great video, just one additional comment, because I really like these facts.
-Due to regulations/limitations, each player has exactly 5 chances to stand on the mound in Koshien stadium, starting with the summer Koshien in their first year (in which they rarely participate), the third years cannot participate in the spring Koshien due to regulations
- the invitational works a bit different, but not quite like you made it seem. While it is an invitational, 26/32 available spots are more or less automatically given to the schools that win their respective regional tournament (e.g. while Tokyo has a West/east district in the summer, the regional tournament for Tokyo includes East and West schools), 3 additional spots are awarded to so called 21st century teams. These are teams that never appeared Koshien, lost in the qualifier (but reached at least the qf) and must have done something amazing/special, an additional invite is given to the region that wins the Meiji Jingu (the last official tournament of the year, where only the 10 schools that won their regional tournament compete in) and the last two are given to either an additional team in the tokyo/kanto region and the Chugoku,Shikoku region
- the reason why the summer tournament is more prestigious is because it is the final tournament for the third years. Once it concludes, the third years HS baseball life is officially over and they retire. They are not allowed to play in the regional tournament due to them having to study for their finals, and spring Koshien starts when they have already graduated
-that also means that the perfect season would be a triple crown season, winning the Meiji Jingu, the spring Koshien and the summer Koshien
Now for some specific facts
- The team that won it all in 2012, Osaka Toin (which is quite possibly one of the best schools in the countries history) almost achieved the near impossible triple crown win in 2022. They won the fall championship/Meiji Jingu as well as the spring Koshien while also qualifying for summer Koshien. They would absolutely annihilate the first three teams they would face, before losing in an upset walk off against a dark horse in the qf, thus ending the almost perfect season, the team that defeated them would lose in the final (I still cannot believe that they lost, that team was quite possibly the best team in years, with elite pitching AND batting) Also, winning spring and summer Koshien in one year is an incredibly rare feat that has only been done a few times
-the 2018 Osaka Toin team is quite possibly the best team in Japanese history in terms of batting ability, it was sometimes described as the line up of the century. They were basically the equivalent of the murderous row in HS. Their pitching was lackluster and so was their defense, but they absolutely destroyed opposing pitching, winning the Koshien final 13-2 and absolutely demolishing every team on their way to the championship. The best HS pitcher in the country, who had to hard carry his team to the final, got destroyed in the 13-2 blow out and had to leave the game in the first inning
-Everyone on the 18 man roster for Koshien scored several RBI and every main player had several HR to their name (excluding their ace)
- from the 2018 Osaka Toin team, 3 players were drafted RIGHT OUT OF HS!! which includes their ace, the clean up hitter and their SS (who is also an occasional pitcher who could throw 150kph)
- even the 8-hole of that team became the clean up batter for his university team
The Japanese Koshien is like the US college basketball tournament and is extremely popular. By the way, Sasaki's son, Rintaro, has been playing for Stanford's baseball team since this year. He is a candidate for the US draft the year after next.
Shohei Ohtani has become the real life version of Goro Shigeno from the “Major” manga and anime.
A lot of research goes into videos like this, which makes me wonder why the people who make them don't take a second to see how to pronounce Japanese words and names like "Iwate" "Koshien" "manga"
Or that Nippon-Ham is a company and the team is called the Fighters, as demonstrated in the team logo that is included in the video. Although there should be a team called the Ham Fighters, which is a vastly superior name in my opinion
This kid looks good. I hope he can make it to MLB one day and success.
That haircut was clean
It's the typical buzz cut that most Japanese high school baseball players get. For most schools I'm pretty sure it's a rule for them to cut their hair like that.
@@asianbeowulf4276Yeah some schools allowed them to give the freedom of having whatever haircut they desire.
Loved this one. PLEASE do a report on Shohei's massive impact on current Japanese culture from a baseball and business perspective. Shohei is live-streamed back to Japan in every moment he is visible in every MLS stadium. Would love to see the impact he is having over there from a Japanese point of view.
Not much, to be honest.
To be honest, it is a huge. Lots of Japanese people are excited his homer every morning.
Dude, I like your videos. I've watched just about all of them. One suggestion, if I may, slow it down a beat or two. I have to click back to read the text you flash a lot. Maybe take a breath at the end of each sentence, lol. Other than that, you're doing good work. Keep it up.
one big thing I learned from this is wow, high school baseball is a huge deal in japan
mac suzuki was actually one of the first japanese high schoolers to forgo the npb draft and sign with an mlb team
comparison to Babe has to stop... Babe played in a segregated league, against many part-time players: mechanics and insurance agents... at a level of competition that is not even a shadow of what it is today. An all star high school team today would kick ass over most teams during Babe's era.
Why do you have to say that?
@@rustyshackelford4224 because it's true?
Preach it brother! To add to your comment and something more to think about regarding Ohtani’s brilliance is there were also less teams which means less players so familiarity with hitters/pitchers would have been a Babe Ruth advantage? Just saying.
I think it’s safe to say “This kid’s gonna be alright at baseball” 👍😂😂
The hidden MVP: Sasaki (The high school teacher)
Legendary cut up there with Ronaldo
Trevor Bauer and videos like this have really increased my admiration and enjoyment of Japanese baseball
@johnthompson5333was that your attempt to talk shit about Bauer, who has been proven innocent? Stfu
@johnthompson5333 Nah...the chick lied. There's a video of her filming herself in bed afterward with him while he is asleep and with her smiling in blissful satisfaction. She should be in prison
The way the catcher caught that pitch was Hard as hell... Looks like a movie
It’s so unselfish of Ohtani’s coach to not make him pitch as soon as he probably wanted to. He knew that throwing him out there to pitch AND hit from the time he was 14 was gonna be bad for his long-term development.
Overall, good video. But Kōshien isn't in Osaka City or Osaka Prefecture, it's in Nishinomiya in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture.
The first time i heard and watched Ohtani in some random sports highlights the first person or character came to my mind is Goro Shigeno. Now im a fan of both of them!
I really have trouble keeping up with the fast pace narration of this.
Here in 2024, Dodgers World Champion Shohei Ohtani creates the 50/50 club in Los Angeles.
"Strikeout 15 and still lose..."
Why does this sound so familiar...
it's called なおえ(Na-O-E) in japan (Na O Enzerusu haibaku/But Then Angels lost)
Nice video but..."eye-wait" lmao
Actually the tournament is not Osaka, but rather in Nishinomiya which is in Hyogo Prefecture. It is about a 15 minute train ride from Osaka.
either the background music is too loud or your mic is too low, but audio levels need tweaking
Yo love the vids but you should turn the music down
Great video. Is it just my phone or is the BGM too loud and makes the narration hard to hear?
And now Fujnami has a 10.50 era for Oakland.
Dude this video was top notch. That Koeshein tournament looks bigger and more insane then even the NCAA March Madness. No wonder the Japanese are World Champs
Look at Dylan Bundy’s high school career he hit 99 his junior year and 103 his senior year
Koshien stadium is NOT in Osaka, it is located in Nishinomiya city, Hyogo prf.
So, even in high school his team would lose despite him doing ridiculous things.
The video seems very informative and provides a strong background on Ohtani's rise to glory. I have two suggestions based on complaints about this video presentation. First, your script is fine but you talk too fast and without enough verbal emphasis on the words. It's a breakneck pace to the narrative, with words delivered without much tonal variation. Second, the lengthy promo coming midway through the video is annoying--too long and breaking the momentum of the video.
The team is called the "Fighters", owned by the company Nippon Ham. They're not the Ham Fighters, that would be ridiculous
Nippon Ham Fighters is their official name
If any of you find koshien tournament a cool idea and you're into anime watch Ace of the diamond you won't regret it
If you would like to watch an anime based on trying to win the summer tournament, I implore you to go Ace of diamond it’s great imo.
Who’s here after the dodgers won the World Series?
His goals as a high schooler are why so many Japanese people are successful. The average American's list would look like this:
Win the lottery
I-WA-TE!
KO-SHI-EN!
Dude really researched this story thoroughly and butchered the pronunciation that badly?!
I’m Japanese. I think he did ok
@@plywood7894 Maybe I was too hard on him.
Lo más bonito que demuestran los japonés hombres y mujeres y niños es respeto y humildad conviví con una familia aquí en mi casa y fue increíble y lo valoro mucho ya que he convivido con personas de otras nacionalidades
Awesome video.
Real life Goro Shigeno 😮
Dude is the main character bruh, pitching 99m in highschool 😂
Yes
But lost in the final game. What a story arc for the main character. The author is cruel 😭
But after koshien arc he became OP so the manga became boring.
I need to go to some baseball games in Japan
Go to this Koshien on a home game of Hanshin Tiger's match, that's all you need.
Great content, it would help make it more enjoyable if you make the background music quieter
The real life Goro Shigeno
KOSHIEN is not in Osaka but in Hyogo.😇
Lol Japan does this a lot. I guess it's for brand recognition. Another example I can think of is how "Tokyo" Disneyland is not in Tokyo but in Chiba.
Koshien in Japan was held in 1915. Before the US-Japan war.
He’s going to be worth 700 million dollars one day
Awesome research and detail! For future reference, you should pronounce the name of the tournament as Koshi-en
Ohtani has already surpassed Babe Ruth.
甲子園を見るのが、夏の1番の楽しみなんだよ！！！
今年も甲子園はめっちゃ面白かった！
So Ohtani is basically the Furuya (from Diamond no Ace) IRL version
Goro
I'm Japanese. To be honest, he didn't break high school baseball. Ohtani's ascent came in his Hokkaido years, when he clocked 165km/h - 102mph. Till then, the fastest NPB pitch record was 161km/h, and people in the high 150s (high 90s in mph) were considered fast.
It's a real shame he didn't make it to the Koshien - I'd say the duel between Yuki Saito and Masahiro Tanaka in 2006 will remain the biggest moment in Japanese highschool baseball.
Asides this,
・Seiryo High School losing after Hideki Matsui intentionally walked 5 times (1992)
・Daisuke Matsuzaka's No-hitter in the Koshien Final (1998)
・The first ever use of the "Re-match" rule (1958) - Bando (Shikoku-shogyo High School) VS Muratsubaki (Toyama Uozu High School)
were the real high school baseball "breaking" moments.
Joker: why so serious za
Shohei: cause I’m laser focused
Another reason to want to move to Japan.... baseball
I am Japanese. I love eating ice cream and watching high school baseball games on TV on extremely hot summer days.
High School baseball in Japan is bigger than any professional sports in the country! No joke, there is one huge high school national championships tournament every year.
The catcher knew right away that was 100 as well by his body language if you watch.
And now 50/50 pitcher
exactly like ace of the diamond anime
im 33 this year. looking at Sho's life goals make me embarrassed of myself.
with u man im 27 tho
5:42 wow he actually did win the mvp at the age of 27, unless he means the WBC mvp at 27 which he won just last year at the age of 29, so not far off which is crazy
5:48 is the best
~ NO MLB CAMP CAN OUTWORK 1 JAPANESE BASEBALL YOUTH CAMP … PERIOD. ~
Japanese have MORE respect and a greater work ethic than “Entitled-delusional-Egotistical American Spring Whining Campers” … PERIOD.
WE THE PE🇺🇸PLE GOT TIRED & FEDuP WITH OVERPAID DRUG-USING NARCISSISTS (Bonds, McGwire …) THAT WE LEFT FOR DECADES.
TH🙏🏻NK GOD For SHOHEi OHTANi.
LMAO he said Ohtani was so thin he could barely bench press the bar.
Me watching this with a growth plate fracture from pitching….. 😐
It's just Fighters. Not Ham Fighters
Thanks for this. (I'll admit I had to play it @ 3/4 speed though)
2023 Season WAR
Ohtani 5.4（1/1272）
Fujinami -2.3（1272/1272）