illustration by kuniko nonaka

[Ya-kyu]
　There are thousands of baseball teams in Japan.
　Little league, junior-high, high school, college, companies league, and　professional league.
　And I must mention that there are more huge numbers of teams at the same time. Those are sunday player's baseball teams! May I call them bush league?
I used to play such a baseball called "Kusa-Yakyu". Of course, Kusa means
grass or bush in Japanese.
　By the way, if I translate japanese [yakyu] to correct English, that is "fieldball" in fact. One of persons who introduced baseball from America to Japan, is a very famous "Haiku" writer Shiki Masaoka. He named baseball in Japanese as yakyu, because of his real first name "Noboru". He thought that the part of his name "boru" was similar to ball. And the another part of "no" is convinient to put the letter of Kanji which puronounces also "ya" meant field.
　So, from the very biginning of baseball history in Japan, It has changed a little bit strange. It had to be transleted to "rui-kyu" originally, but we have forgotten bases in anywhere.

［one strike two ball ］
　One of the biggest difference from U.S. is this. You may think this very strange, I guess. I agree with you! But it has become a steady custom in Japan by the history of a hundred years.
　All through the years Japanese baseball players and fans have been thinking
as a matter of course that you count strikes first and then nex count balls.
　Why? I don't know. And nobody knows.
※Don't point out my mistake, [one strike two ball] must change to [two balls], but Japanese people don't use such "s" at the end of words.

［Sayonara game ］
　This is the most effective baseball Japlish, I think.
　Do you know what "Sayonara" means? Yes, it's good bye.
　In the bottom of the 9th inning, the game is tie, two outs, a runner on the third base, the batter swings and drives a ball! And ground ball thrugh the hole and runner comes in to the plate! The game is over.
　In these situations, we use this "Sayonara game" with big excitement.
　Don't you feel this nicely sound?
※other use....Sayonara home run, Sayonara hit, Sayonara wild pitch.
　When a Kevin Cosner's film "Bull Durham" exhibited in Japan, the title was
changed to "Sayonara Game".

［dead ball ］
　What do you imagine this word? The answer is... hit by pitch in Japlish.
　I suppose that the early days of accepting the baseball game into Japan, it happened a hit by pitch, then an umpire called at the moment "Time! The ball is dead!". Some japanese player understood, "Oh yeh, that is a dead ball".
*Later, I knew that early days in America some broadcast used this dead-ball as a hit by pitch in very short term. One American guy who lives in Japan told me so.

［running home run］
　Perhaps you may understand this word, don't you? It's inside the park home run.

［nighter ］
　This word came into a perfect Japlish from long ago. It means night game.
　To shorten words is the most special ability of Japanese people. And then, we sometime loose original words.

［backscreen］
　If you understand this word, you know Jpanese baseball quite well. It means batter's eye-screen.
　By the way, [back net] means back stop screen.
　Wich direction is the front? and the back?
　I don't know. No Japanese people think about it.

［shoot ball］
　Many Japanese pitchers pitch these balls very often. How do you feel?
　But please don't care about it. It's just a one of breaking balls.
　Pitchers don't shot batters in Japan so often.
I don't know why but people call the inside coming sinker as the shoot ball. I guess that the ball comes to batter's body and it almost "shoot" him. Wow!
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2002/10/28