Baseball in Japan: an overview – Part 2
The Nippon Professional Baseball has also devised an awards structure to honour the high achievers similar to the one followed by the Major League Baseball.
The most prestigious award is the Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award. This is the top honour given annually to two most outstanding players in baseball, one each from the Central League and the Pacific League.
To credit the debutants in NPB, a Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award is given to a player from the Central League and the Pacific League. This award is more of a confidence booster for the young professionals who are setting their feet
on the big stage.
To acknowledge the hard work of injured players who make a strong comeback to the NPB, a Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award is devised. This too is given to one player from each of the two leagues and is in line with the theory
of motivation which the Japanese pioneered.
The best starting pitcher from the Nippon Professional Baseball is awarded with the Eiji Sawamura Award. This award is prestigious and is independent of the Most Valuable Pitcher award which is given to one player from each of the two leagues. The award
is named after a Tokyo Giants’ player who had an astonishing career before he was killed in World War II.
This award has a tough selection criterion. The pitcher must have started at least 25 games with wins in at least 15 of them. The pitcher’s winning percentage should be more than .600 and he should have a strong arm to support at least ten complete games
in a season. Moreover, more than 200 innings should have been pitched with a maintained ERA of 2.50 and less and all of this should be accompanied by 150 strike-outs. This is no easy criterion and signifies the amount of personification the Japanese require
for honouring their stars.
The Japanese go one step ahead to award the player who shows sportsmanship and best represents the game of baseball along with active community involvement. The NPB awards such a player, selected by media vote, with the Golden Spirit Award.
Unlike the Major League Baseball, the NPB awards its Golden Glove Award to nine fielders in professional baseball leagues based on votes by different media personalities. This award is unique as it carries prize money as well.
The top players from Central League and the Pacific League take on each other for the All-Star Game each year. The selection is based on votes by fans, players, coaches and managerial staff, just as it is done in Major League Baseball. This represents the
halfway point of the season and the best player from the winning team is usually awarded with the All-Star Most Valuable Player Award.
Among the batters, Ichiro Suzuki and Alex Cabrera are famous for their records. Cabrera recorded the most home-runs in a single season when he smashed 55 in 2002. Ichiro Suzuki has achieved the best batting average two times in a single season past 1986.
He recorded a batting average of .385 in 1994 and improved it further in 2000 when he ended the season with an average of .387.
Ralph Bryant has been by far the best pitcher in NPB as he holds the top four positions in the list of most strike-outs in a single season.
While the Japanese have strived hard to improve the standard of baseball in their country, Major League Baseball continues to dominate the world of baseball with the huge amount of money involved.
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