With its 4-1 victory over Hawaii in the Championship game, Japan won the Little League World Series on Sunday. The Japanese team, a solid unit with stellar pitching and defense, held the kids from Hawaii to only a few singles and one run, easily dispatching them for the title. This recap from Yahoo! Sports tells the story, as The All-Star team from Tokyo’s Edogawa Minami Little League became the first international squad to take the crown sinc...

I’ve seen my share of amazing baseball catches throughout my life, but this one might be the best yet. Masato Akamatsu, outfielder for the Hiroshima Carp, made this astounding play in a game last week: EMBED-Spiderman Style Baseball Catch – Watch more free videos He treated the outfield wall like a ramp with which to project himself up ABOVE the stands to catch the home run ball! My favorite part about the play is how nonchalant he ...

Hiroki Kuroda is currently one of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ main starting pitchers. He also used to play for Hiroshima’s Toyo Karp. Now in the USA and anchoring the Dodgers’ rotation, Kuroda has himself in a unique situation with his team. He’s the only member of the squad who only speaks Japanese, since fellow pitcher Takashi Saito isn’t with the team anymore. This great article over at ESPN.com sheds light Kuroda&...

The World Cup may be over, but that doesn’t mean you won’t hear anything about it until four years from now. Quite the opposite, in fact. FIFA’s head honchos are now on their two-month trip around the globe to find a suitor for the 2022 World Cup, and Japan is trying really hard to win the competition. As this article describes, the FIFA kings have given the “thumbs-up” to the existing soccer stadium in Saitama, a c...

George Steinbrenner, the long-time New York Yankees team owner and not-so-secret General Manager (as in he influenced a lot of personnel decisions for the team) died on Tuesday at age 80. This article from the Christian Science Monitor highlights how Steinbrenner was just as notorious in Japan as he was here in the States, due to comments The Boss made over Japanese baseball stars Hideki Irabu (George called him a “fat toad”) and Hid...

Japan, in dramatic, authoritative fashion, beat Denmark yesterday at the World Cup, 3-1, propelling the nation into the Round of 16 and advancing…it was a “win or go home” game, and Japan delivered, led by goal scored by Keisuke Honda and Yusuhito Endo. After the game, Honda remarked that “For Japan it’s a big win,” Honda said. “I’m glad we won but I am not satisfied. The next game is more importa...

A bit off-topic, perhaps, but still relevant….the Fifa 2010 World Cup is here! No matter who you are rooting for, today is a big day…Mexico and South Africa are close to kickoff…so whether you’re rooting for Japan, England, the United States, or someone else, the day has finally arrived! Please pardon our downtime, several of our writers are out of town for a bit…but we’ll do our best to make new posts often. ...

As has been widely reported, the upcoming World Cup will undoubtedly be the biggest international sporting event in recent memory. Because of the magnitude of the tournament, which pits nations against each other in a soccer tournament that is simply an amazing spectacle to witness, much criticism has been piled upon the new ball unveiled for the games, the Adidas “Jabulani” soccer ball. As this article mentions, Japan defender Marcu...

I came across this interesting article highlighting some dramatic statements from former Japan soccer coach Philippe Troussier regarding the squad’s recent 2-0 defeat to South Korea at home. Some of the best quotes from the article include, “It’s a bad situation for Okada,” Troussier said on Tuesday. “The situation now is exactly like it was when Okada was coach at the World Cup in 1998. The team has exactly the sam...

The LAST thing I’d want to have happen if I was golfing, bowling, or playing tennis would be a silly yellow mascot thing crashing in and yelling “PEEE” at me and ruining my game. Apparently, this Pachinko mascot, named “P-kun”, thinks this irritating little thing is cute….but I know that if he/she/it interrupted my golf game like that I’d be inclined to throw my club at its head….but maybe that...

This looks wild. Japan Probe posted this video of a golf course in Japan where you can get up close and personal with wild animals in Gunma Safari Park. I was amused by the part in the article that describes how people are sometimes fearful of getting close to the fence to retrieve wayward golf balls because they would be close to the animals. If I’m out there golfing on this course I wouldn’t be afraid of anything. Or, I would at...

Shaun White, everyone’s favorite American copper-headed snowboarder, paid a visit to Japan’s Fuji TV and TBS networks recently. In this video, White talks about his love for Japanese games and toys and stuff like that: halfpipe whiteby samonbatson He is also given some Gundam models as a token of gratitude for his visit, and looks pretty excited about it. Of course, White won the Gold Medal for his ridiculously awesome half-pipe perf...

Eri Yoshida, an 18-year old woman from Japan, recently visited with Boston Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield at Spring Training. Yoshida, you see, is gaining notoriety for her pitching, which drew the attention of the Red Sox and Major League Baseball. This video from ESPN shows Yoshida showing Wakefield what she’s all about: That’s pretty impressive. She has the same sort of wind-up as Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsusaka, who...

I didn’t watch much of the Winter Olympics, but I would have if this was broadcast here in the USA. The Japanese network NHK had some fun in the studio with Domo-kun and the Olympic mascots….check out this video, which was posted by Japan Probe: The combination of Domo, the cool wintry blue-themed set and the soothing music makes this a pretty fun segment….although anything can become instantly fun if Domo shows up. I saw thi...

…And now the former Yokozuna has returned home to Japan, where camera crews follow him around incessantly, not unlike those TMZ crews that stake out restaurants in order to catch a few seconds of Lindsay Lohan or one of the Twilight kids leaving dinner with their parents. Here’s a voyeuristic video of Asashoryu at the airport after returning from his vacation to New York and Hawaii. I’m not really sure why I decided to post t...