Sports: A Game Of Inches

We are four humble men who love sports, but hate sports commentary. Peter Gammons is our hero and John Madden is our enemy. If you were to ask us our purpose, our answer would be simple: "We are forever locked in Mortal Kombat for the souls of sports fans everywhere. Statistics are our science and 'the immeasurable character of men' is the obsolete religion of blind faith. Our job is to prove that God doesn't exist and that athletes are merely cold, metal machines with no hearts or souls."

Stolen Goods: Why Haven’t We Had More Japanese Players In The Majors?

Jim Albright of BaseballGuru.com posits a great question: why haven’t we had more Japanese players in the Majors? The article breaks down the historical reasons into six parts:

1. 1935 and earlier-No professional Japanese baseball league
2. 1936-1950-Wartime and occupation
3. 1951-1963-Korean War to the Murakami Affair
4. 1964-1994-Murakami Affair and the De Facto Ban
5. 1995-2000-Pitchers Break the De Facto Ban
6. 2001-present-Position players arrive

The most interesting bit, in my opinion is the Murakami Affair. It sheds a lot of light into why the breadth of foreign players in basebal is more or less a "recent" phenomenon. Definitely worth the read.