Just recently in Political Science 299, the freshmen McConnell Scholars read a book entitled You Gotta Have Wa ("harmony"), written by Robert Whiting. The book compares American baseball to Japanese besuboru ("baseball") and, by extension, analyzes the differences and similarities between American culture and Japanese culture.
The book includes many anecdotes of American ball players who have had their skill (and in some cases, patience) tried in Japan. As Whiting notes, "it took a special kind of person to play in Japan. A man had to deal with a different type of pitching, a wider strike zone, and unpredictable umpires. The life of a ballplayer was so regimented by club rules that many Americans compared it to being in the army . . . or worse" (p. 8). Japanese managers, coaches and players are very different from those in the United States, and some American players experience difficulty in adapting to this new way of playing baseball. "If you asked a Japanese manager what he considers the most important ingredient of a winning team, he would likely answer wa. If you asked him how to knock a team's wa awry, he would probably say, 'Hire an American'" (pg. 78).
Referred to as gaijin ("foreigners, outsiders"), American baseball players are generally looked down upon in Japanese besuboru and are often treated unfairly, especially when they are accused of disrupting team wa. Wa is arguably the most important thing to the team. This certainly reflects Japanese society where, much different from American society, individualism is frowned upon. "While 'Let It All Hang Out' and 'Do Your Own Thing' are mottoes of contemporary American society, the Japanese have their own credo in the well-worn proverb, 'The Nail That Sticks Up Shall Be Hammered Down.' It is practically a national slogan" (pg. 70). That nail is most often a gaijin who believes he knows what's best for himself as a baseball player. This attitude absolutely appalls Japanese managers and coaches who are treated with the utmost respect by their players. The players always take their coaches' advice and never stir up confrontation for fear of disrupting the team's wa . American players, on the other hand, have a harder time submitting to the "superior knowledge" of the coaches and managers and often have a difficult time adjusting to Japanese baseball and Japanese society in general.
One man who had a particularly difficult time adjusting to Japan was Clyde Wright. Wright, an American pitcher who had played for the California Angels, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Texas Rangers, came to Japan in 1976 to play for the Yomiuri Giants, "a team that traditionally liked to consider itself pure blooded" (p. 83). The fact that a gaijin was playing for the Giants was a little unnerving to the Japanese, especially a gaijin like Wright who seemed "selfish and crude to many Giants fans" (p. 83) and unafraid to speak his mind.
This attitude concerning Wright only became worse as the season went on. Once in the sixth inning of an early-season game, with the score tied at 1, Wright walked the first two batters he faced. Immediately the Giants' manager, Shigeo Nagashima, walked out to the pitcher's mound to remove Wright from the game. "Few American managers would have removed him so abruptly. It was Nagashima's feeling, however, that Wright was getting weak and that was that" (p. 83). When Wright realized that he was being removed, his anger at Nagashima exploded. With thousands of horrified Japanese fans watching at the stadium and at home, Wright refused to hand the baseball over to Nagashima and instead stomped off to the dugout where he threw the ball against the wall. Uttering strings of profanity, he disappeared into the locker room where "he kicked over a trash can, ripped off his uniform, shredded it and flung it into the team bath" (p. 83). While this seems like a normal reaction in America, the Japanese were furious that a gaijin had exhibited this type of behavior, especially in a Yomiuri Giants uniform. "'Crazy' Wright, as he was instantly renamed by the press, became headline news in the sports dailies the next day. Letters, telegrams, and phone calls poured into the Yomiuri offices. Outrageous! Inexcusable! Wright should be released. Deported. Shot. Drawn and quartered. And not necessarily in that order" (p. 84).
The book offers several more interesting anecdotes such as this one, making it an easy and entertaining read. Even if you're not a baseball fan, Whiting has much more to offer about Japanese society than simply how the Japanese play baseball. I encourage you to put it on your summer reading list. You won't be disappointed!