Besuboru Guy—Infields Here, Infields There

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One year ago on Round and Square (2 June 2012)—The Accidental Ethnographer: Ocean and Isle (c)
Two years ago on Round and Square (2 June 2011)—Living and Learning: Lessons for the Ages

[a] Individual and Society RF

可飛ばせ, 田中!

Let 'er rip, Tanaka!  OR
Fly to base, Tanaka!

—Common Japanese baseball chant
(Tanaka is a common surname, like "Smith")

 
It's time to let 'er rip, so let's start with the differences between the baseball diamonds (infields) in Japanese major league baseball and the United States.

There aren't any.

[b] "Same" RF

This is the key point, as we get things moving. It's ninety feet from home plate to first base, ninety more from first to second, again...ninety from second to third, and the final ninety will take you to home plate. 

[c] 60' 6" RF

That's how it works, inn Japan or in the United States.

What's more, the pitcher's mound is 60' 6" from home plate, just like in the United States.

Three strikes, four balls, three outs, nine innings—you name it.

So the game's the same, right?

違います! (I'm getting just a little bit more polite).

Sure, there are some similarities in the foundations of the game, to be sure, but they mask vast differences.

We'll pick it up with more tomorrow.

[If you don't read Japanese, but want to have some sense of the Japanese kana and kanji in these posts, just copy the phrases and paste them into translation software such as Babylon or Google Translate].

[c] Ninety feet to first RF

[Originally posted on August 2, 2014]