You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting

You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting

A hilarious, informative, and riveting account of Japanese baseball and the cultural clashes that ensued when Americans began playing there professionally.

In Japan, baseball is a way of life. It is a philosophy. It is besuboru. Its most important element is wa--group harmony--embodied in the proverb "The nail that sticks up shall be hammered down." In this witty and incisive book, Robert Whiting gives us a close-up look at besuboru's teams, obsessive ritualism, and history, as seen through the eyes of American players who found the Japanese approach--rigorous pregame practices, the tolerance for tie games, injured pitchers encouraged to "pitch through the pain"--completely baffling. With vivid accounts of East meeting West, involving Babe Ruth, Ichiro Suzuki, Bobby Valentine, Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh, and many others, this lively and completely unique book is an utter gem and baseball classic.

Robert Whiting is a Principal Lecturer in History at York Saint John University. The Blind Devotion of the People (1989) and Local Reactions to the English Reformation (1998) are two of his previous works.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780307455970
ISBN 10	0307455971
Title	You Gotta Have Wa
Author	Robert Whiting
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University Press plc
Year published	2009-03-24
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.