Round and Square: cheerleaders

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Showing posts with label cheerleaders. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Besuboru Guy—Big Cheer

Click here for the "Celebrity Commentary" Resource Center—(all posts available)
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One year ago on Round and Square (13 June 2012)—Accidental Ethnographer: A Yankee on the Yangtze (a)
Two years ago on Round and Square (13 June 2011)—Living and Learning: Being Like Water

[a] Individual and Society RF

可飛ばせ, 土田!

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

—Common Japanese baseball chant
(Tsuchida is a common surname, like "Swenson")

And even before the batter lets 'er rip (and flies to base), the buzz in the stands in palpable.

[b] Palpable RF

The cheers of Japanese fans are so far beyond what most American baseball fans have come to expect that it defies the imagination at times.

We'll spend a few days looking at the dynamics of cheering, but one of the best places to begin is with a terrific article from the New York Times from 2009. Check it out, and we'll continue tomorrow with some of the dynamics of eager participation in the stands.

Root, Root, Root, and Buy Me Some Eel—NY Times

This is not your Honus Wagner's national pastime.

[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] Participation RF

[Originally posted on August 13, 2014]

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Besuboru Guy—Cheerleaders

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One year ago on Round and Square (12 June 2012)—The Real Ideal: Chinese Historians
Two years ago on Round and Square (12 June 2011)—Hurtin' Country: Nobody's Home

[a] Individual and Society RF

可飛ばせ, 鈴木!

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

—Common Japanese baseball chant
(Suzuki is a common surname, like "Jones")

And when a player in the Japanese major leagues lets one rip (and flies to base), the cheers go up from the stands.

And that's not all. If you have watched American baseball in the major leagues, there is one thing in Japan that you will find a little disconcerting.

[b] Cheers balloon RF

It's not as though Americans have never seen it. It's just that they've never seen it at a professional baseball game.

That would be the cheerleaders.

Yes. Baseball cheerleaders.

How it all works will be the subject of future posts this month. For now, just ponder the image of cheerleaders in foul territory, keeping up the spirits of the faithful.

Trent Lott never saw this one coming.

[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] Cheerful leading RF

[Originally posted on August 12, 2014]