Culture and Baseball

Recently, despite a win, Daisuke Matsuzaka, the hundred million dollar pitcher from Japan, issued an apology despite a win. Indeed, Matsuzaka has had six wins in a row, but his ERA is above 4 during that stretch, which, to non-baseball types means that, yes, he won, but mostly because his team scored more than his opponent.

A pitcher is, effectively, a defensive player. His goal is to prevent the other team from scoring. However, if his own team is prolific at scoring, he doesn't have to be so good. Even so, for the money he's paid, Matsuzaka felt a bit ashamed, and did what a Japanese player would do, which is apologize.

Shame is a big thing in Asia, and the Japanese apologize for things that Americans wouldn't. An extreme example was Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees. He had broken his arm during some play, and apologized that he had broken his arm. Again, par for the course for the Japanese, but an American would claim that it wasn't his fault, and there was nothing he could do about it.

American baseball commentators generally find such apologies quaint, if not amusing. I'm sure the commentators chalk such attitudes up to cultural differences, even as they may not fully comprehend it. After all, how many people take the time to study another culture. Perhaps Matsui and Matsuzaka are expected to issue apologies. It is the correct thing for them to do, to accept blame for even things that are out of their control.

Americans are slowly becoming more multi-cultural. We eat at a variety of places. Pho, sundubu jigae, iddly, pad thai are now part of vernacular of those who stray beyond burgers and pizza. We try to gain some sense of how other cultures work, even as it's tough for some.

Baseball was something the US used to export to other countries, and we saw it as quintessentially American. Now that those exports have come to the US to be in the big show, we are beginning to reap international results from seeds sown afar. And while we figured they'd be the one adapting to us, meeting folks half way seems like a good idea.