Photo/Illutration Los Angeles Dodgers World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto raises his trophy as teammates celebrate their Game 7 win in the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Nov. 2. (AP Photo)

The 2025 Major League Baseball season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers clinching the World Series championship.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who took the mound as a relief pitcher in Game 7, pitched in the previous day’s game as the starter.

I was quite impressed when he said in a post-game interview, “I feel as if I’m back being a kid playing baseball.”

It was written all over his face that he must have pitched solely because he wanted to win and that he enjoyed every moment of it.

It was a home run that enabled the faltering Dodgers to tie the game with the Toronto Blue Jays, and then another round-tripper to win the World Series.

The way the games played out seemed symbolic of Major League Baseball, where raw physical power is everything. Home run slugfests and 160-kph fastballs are no longer rare.

But this is also the age of baseball analytics, which is about strategizing each game by calculating and statistically analyzing various plays.

With pitchers, for instance, fans would be thoroughly familiar not only with their fastballs, but also details such as their spin rates and axis of rotation.

This tendency exists in Japan, too. If we were to watch today a pro baseball game of the past, would we find it a bit disappointing?

On Nov. 4, 1979, a “legend” was born at Osaka Stadium.

In the final game of the Japan Series that year, the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp were facing off, with the score tied at 3-3.

What happened in the bottom of the ninth inning, which nonfiction writer Junji Yamagiwa (1948-1995) documented brilliantly in “Enatsu no 21-kyu” (Enatsu’s 21 pitches), also became the subject of NHK’s (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) special feature program.

Rereading Yamagiwa’s book and watching the NHK video again, I was totally engrossed, even though Carp pitcher Yutaka Enatsu threw only limited types of pitches, and no home run was hit.

What unfolded there was the heart-gripping drama of how Enatsu battled his irritation, played mind games with the batters he faced and made a split-second decision to waste a pitch.

Yamamoto of the Dodgers threw 34 pitches in Game 7. There was a walk, a hit by pitch, a strikeout and a possible walk-off loss.

Did he savor his every moment on the big stage, which enabled him to go back to the basics?

I felt that I experienced the timeless magic of baseball.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 4

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News