Do Japanese Players have more respect for the game than American Players?
Question:I Think about Ichiro, Hideki Matusi and the others and they all seem to give more of themselves to the game than many American players. The Japanese player will run hard on every ground ball in the infield while some of the American players are jogging. Matusi apologized to the fans last year when he injured himself on a hustle play and was out for the season. Have you ever seen a Japanese player ejected from a game for arguing with the umpire? Go to a game and look who is signing autographs for the kids. Is it culture or respect, and do the American players need to step it up a notch?
Answers:
I think Japanese players show more respect for the game of baseball than USA. You could say that about a lot of the Latin American players too. Baseball has taken a back seat to Football in recent years here in the USA. Baseball has been tarnished with the steroid issue etc and people are tired of hearing about it. I think the Japanese players now playing in MLB are fun to watch. I hope more and more keep coming to play here. Maybe the more Japanese and Latin American players in the MLB is what will cause those American born players to not take the game of baseball for granted.
So to answer another part of your question. I think in large part, due to the culture there comes respect. Not just for baseball but for many other things.
Do you think Bartolo Colon will pitch like he did in 05?
For the Japanese players, respect is a big part of their culture. If you ever go to Japan everyone is really nice. But they take their culture with them into the game of baseball. They respect the game for what it is and they respect the players for who they are.The guy above was talking about Dominican players, those people play more for the passion of the sport, however, being in America...there are 2 reasons why EVERYONE wants to play baseball in America.
1. media attention, they want to be known
2. $$$$$$$ and uumm more $$$$
There are some American players who play for the passion of the game but lately since it has become more of a business of entertainment than a game of fun, American players are mostly about the $$$$$ and uuummm more $$$$.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game, to watch and play, but people are greedy =P.
it doesnt matter what country your from
This question is subjective, and any answer given will be so as well.
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