Japan (27) - Baseball Rules

20 July 2010 - I am staying close to the Tokyo Dome. One of the things that surprises me about Japan is that baseball is everywhere. The Japanese are crazy about the game, as if they invented it. Everywhere boys and young men are throwing a ball, and the railway tracks are lined with baseball field after baseball field. Actually, the game was only introduced to Japan in 1873, but now its probably sport number one (after Sumo wrestling of course, but that's a different category). Not more than four foreigners can make the team here, but there has been an exodus of top Japanese players to the American baseball league. People now watch the American games and I heard that the television ratings for Japanese games  have fallen. Baseball is perceived as the ultimate team sport, and as in other aspects of life,. it is the group, the team, that counts.