Japan’s amateur (corporate-league) baseball team faced South Korea in the Asian Games final on the 27th, falling 1-3 to finish with the silver medal. South Korea has a system granting military service exemptions to tournament winners, and this title marked their fifth consecutive exemption-winning victory. It was a tough battle: starter Arata Higuchi allowed a run in the 2nd inning, while Japan’s batters were held to just one hit through five innings by South Korea’s starter Kwak Bin. On 5ch, discussion spread over why Japan fields a squad of corporate-league amateurs rather than pros, and how much this tournament even means in the first place, spiraling into cross-sport bickering with comparisons to Japan’s U-21 national soccer team.
9/27 (Sun) 21:52 JST — Full-Count
Japan’s national baseball team “Samurai Japan,” represented by its amateur (corporate-league) squad, faced South Korea in the final of the 20th Asian Games at Toyohashi Citizen Stadium on the 27th and lost 1-3, finishing the tournament with the silver medal. South Korea, playing for military service exemptions, claimed its fifth straight title.
In the 2nd inning, starter Arata Higuchi (Oji), pitching on one day’s rest, gave up a run when outfielder Moon Hyeon-bin delivered a timely hit with a runner on second and no outs. Japan’s lineup, meanwhile, was shut down by South Korea’s ace starter Kwak Bin, managing just one hit while striking out seven through five scoreless innings.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
The difficulty level here is way different from other sports.
Though from the sound of it, it was still a real slugfest.
What's the point of crowning an 'Asian champion' among corporate-league amateurs?
No, Korea's fielding pros though.
Then Japan should send pros too.
What even is that
Makes no sense as a tournament
Pointless
No way Japanese pros could play in something like this in the middle of the season
The WBC didn't get terrestrial broadcast either lmaooooooooo
Pitiful 'yakyu' (mocking slang for baseball) lmaooooooooooooo
so losing some minor tournament like this is no big deal
Lose or lose, Japan just stays #1 forever…
The WBSC 'donation' rankings 🤭 (joking that Japan's #1 ranking is bought, not earned)
It's not that easy.
He's only in his 2nd year out of college, so getting picked at the draft in a month is a real possibility.
But aside from Higuchi, the rest were basically middle-aged pitchers who'd maxed out corporate-league ball after aging out of draft eligibility.
Soccer: "but it's age-restricted!"
Always the same story lol
Well, I guess it's just a fair statement of fact though
Japan just isn't serious about either one
For the same age group, there's the AFC U-23 Asian Cup — a far more prestigious tournament than the Asian Games, and an Olympic qualifier to boot — and Japan's won it two tournaments running 🤭
then under normal circumstances Japan's corporate-league ball might actually be a higher level than Korean pro baseball.
They do play each other sometimes, and Korean pros lose to Japanese amateurs plenty lol
The season's basically over, so if teams were asked to lend out players, I think they'd have lent their farm-team guys without much fuss.
It's more that the amateur baseball federation doesn't want to give up one of the few tournaments where it gets to field its own players.
When did it sneak back in?
For the Olympics it's up to the host city's discretion, but at the Asian Games baseball just keeps getting included for no real reason.
It almost got cut for the Qatar Games,
but they ended up keeping it on the condition that Qatar itself didn't have to compete.
This is a throwback to the scrawny Japan squads of a decade ago.
The success of Japanese hitters like Murakami and Okamoto lately is thanks to weight training.
That old small-ball style of scraping out runs with sacrifice bunts is outdated now.
Don't ask too much of corporate-league amateurs lol
What's the point of sending amateurs?
There's no way 'NPB Enterprise Co., Ltd.' is going to send out its flagship product, Samurai Japan, to some tournament that doesn't make any money.
Well, the pros are in the middle of their pennant race.
Then soccer should try going all-amateur too.
Though at this point it's basically amateur already.
It's weird that pros don't participate at all.
There's no way pros are pausing their season for something as minor as the Asian Games.
I think the point is 'it's just that kind of tournament.'
Soccer does the same thing, self-restricting to a U-21 squad with no overage (OA) players, right?
Soccer really is half-hearted about it though.
What's with the U-21 thing?
Just decide already whether you're serious or not.
Soccer uses U-21 because it's building toward the next Olympics, which is two years out.
Soccer's squad is basically always full of college students, so there's not much seriousness behind it.
This time they're trying a bit harder, but it's still the same U-21 setup.
There are only 2 or 3 college students on the squad each time — it's not 'basically all college students.'
Don't lie about it just to talk down baseball from the soccer side.
Someone's getting cornered lol
Don't sweat it, baseball otaku (mocking slang: 'yakiton'/roast-pork fan)
go smoke a 'zombie cigarette' or something and chill out
It's basically all college students lol
Background and Key Points of Debate
Japan fields a corporate-league amateur squad at the Asian Games because the tournament falls during NPB’s regular season, when the league can’t release its top players — putting Japan in a very different position from South Korea, which can build its roster around professionals. South Korea has a system granting military service exemptions for strong results at international tournaments, and this title is believed to qualify. Baseball at the Asian Games has also faced possible removal from the program in the past, making its place on the roster a recurring subject of debate at each edition of the Games. Within the thread, opinions split mainly over whether fielding a corporate-league amateur squad even makes sense, and how to weigh ‘seriousness’ compared with the men’s national soccer team’s U-21 setup — sparking plenty of back-and-forth between baseball and soccer fans. Worth noting on the numbers: it was a close 1-3 loss, and Japan’s offense was largely shut down by South Korea’s pitching staff.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Military Exemption] Japan’s Amateur Squad Loses to South Korea, Takes Silver — Gets Revenge-Killed, Allows Korea’s 5th Straight Title [Asian Games].”
