Want to pay to watch Japanese baseball? You can't!

NPB has to be one of the most short-sighted professional sports organizations in the world.  At the conclusion of another season, here's the letter I have sent.  Unfortunately, it's identical to last year's letter.

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Dear Sir or Madam,

I am an overseas fan of yakyuu who would like to have access to all NPB games, regular and post-season.  At present, I can purchase streaming/VOD rights to games only of the Pacific League.  This means I can watch only half of NPB teams, only half of interleague games, and nothing at all of the Central League Climax Series or the Japan Series.

If you have a look across the internet, you will find the following baseball leagues offer streaming/VOD packages:

• MLB (USA)
• MLB Minor (USA)
• LMP (Mexican Pacific League, winter)
• LMB (Mexican Baseball League, summer)
• CPBL (China Professional Baseball League, Taiwan)
• KBO (Korean Baseball Organization)
• ABL (Australian Baseball League)

Why does a leading country such as Japan still not offer such service to fans worldwide?  If even small leagues on three continents have managed to offer affordable, easy access to _all_ their games, why not the NPB?

For the moment, I rely on fans uploading content to file sharing sites to avail myself of Central League games and the Japan Series.  I would be happy to pay for a quality product, but at the moment there is _none_.  I hope by the 2018 season NPB will resolve what issues remain in order to better serve their customers.

Best regards,

Season's end at Pacific League TV

This is pretty much the same as last year's letter submitted when I cancelled my season viewing pass.  I hope I don't have to say the same again at the end of the 2018 season.

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I have been a subscriber to PA League TV for the 2016 and 2017 seasons and am writing to let you know how pleased I have been with your service. I hope to renew my subscription for the 2018 season. Please keep up the good work.

Here are a few changes I would like to suggest.

Allow controls at full screen. The present software removes all video controls when the full-screen option is engaged. This can be frustrating whenever there is need to pause, fast-forward, rewind, or adjust volume.

Add 10 second forward/reverse buttons. These would be a huge help in navigating through a game, most especially if we can use the forward and back buttons on the keyboard to navigate through the video.

Add condensed games. MLB VOD service offers games in four formats: Live Stream, VOD Full Game, VOD Condensed and VOD Highlight. The highlight film is similar to what you already offer at PA TV. The condensed film runs 10-15 minutes, depending on the level of action in any particular game. All of the relevant plays are shown, though not every pitch, nor every out. There is no commentary on the audio track. (Search [condensed game] at youtube for examples.)

Add a Facebook share button to video clips. At present, only a Twitter button is available. FB is by far a wider network, one which the Pacific League can use to promote its brand through attractive and interesting video clips.

Finally, bring us the Nippon Series! Those of us overseas have no access apart from illegal streams.

Thank you for your attention to this letter and thank you again for a wonderful service. My last wish is that the NPB offer a streaming service for both leagues.

Yours sincerely,

A Saitama encounter

The author, Iwaki-san, Matuskawa-san

Matsukawa-san said, Why don’t you come and sit next to me?  The people who own these seats never come, he claimed.  We took him up on his offer, Iwaki in the center, Matsukawa and I on either side.  Good thing, too, because Matsukawa had a rough way of speaking that was not easy to understand and Iwaki could help explain if required.

During the game itself (a win for the Lions against the last-place Marines) I didn’t interact much Matsukawa, but we spent a good 40 minutes in conversation on the train back to Ikebukuro.  A man of odd jobs who worked 23 years as a truck driver, he claimed to have no family, which is I suppose why he had the means for season tickets, regular transport from Gunma prefecture, and hotels in Ikebukuro during every home stand, 73 games a season.  He claims to have been a Lion’s fans from a young age, back when they belonged to Nishitetsu, the Kyushu rail company.

How did a kid in Kanto grow up being a fan of a team so far away in an age when there was only newspaper and a few channels each on television and radio?  It seems he was something of the contrarian.  Everyone he knew loved the Giants, and so he wanted to be a fan of some other team.  I’m not sure why he settled on the Lions, but it turned out to be a good choice as they ended up moving to Saitama, far closer to Gunma than Fukuoka.  He remembered the Lions playing at Heiwadai, a stadium that has since been torn down, but whose name remains attached to a park and a track-and-field venue. We spoke a bit about Fukuoka, since I used to live there and know a bit about it, and he warned that the Hawks was becoming the Pacific league version of the Giants, a team fronted by a huge corporation with the money to buy the best team, year after year, and thereby thwart the aspirations of other teams and communities. Since retiring Matsukawa has travelled to a number of stadiums up and down the peninsula, from Kyushu to Hokkaido, and hopes someday to visit the US to see some live MLB games, and maybe even to Korea and Taiwan for some pro-league Asian games.

#

A letter to Pacific League TV

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have been a subscriber to PA League TV for the 2016 season and am writing to let you know how pleased I have been with your service.  I hope to renew my subscription for the 2017 season.  Please keep up the good work.

Here are a few changes I would like to suggest.  

Allow controls at full screen.  The present software removes all video controls when the full-screen option is engaged.  This can be frustrating whenever there is need to pause, fast-forward, rewind, or adjust volume.  

Add 10 second forward/reverse buttons.  These would be a huge help in navigating through a game.  

Increase video resolution.  Comparing your service with other sport streaming services, the video resolution is quite low. 

Add condensed games.  MLB VOD service offers games in four formats:  Live Stream, VOD Full Game, VOD Condensed and VOD Highlight.  The highlight film is similar to what you already offer at PA TV.  The condensed film runs 10-15 minutes, depending on the level of action in any particular game.  All of the relevant plays are shown, though not every pitch, nor every out.  There is no commentary on the audio track.  (Search [condensed game] at youtube for examples.)

Add a Facebook share button to video clips.  At present, only a Twitter button is available.  FB is by far a wider network, one which the Pacific League can use to promote its brand through attractive and interesting video clips.  

Hide scores in Archive.  I have sometimes been unable to watch games for a few days and when I go to the archive to find them, I have to make a deliberate effort to cover or avoid looking at scores.  

Thank you for your attention to this letter and thank you again for a wonderful service.  My last wish is that the NPB offer a streaming service for both leagues.

Yours sincerely, 

A letter to NPB

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am an overseas fan of yakyuu who would like to have access to all NPB games, regular and post-season.  At present, I can purchase streaming/VOD rights to games only of the Pacific League.  This means I can watch only half of NPB teams, only half of interleague games, and nothing at all of the Central League Climax Series or the Japan Series.

If you have a look across the internet, you will find the following baseball leagues offer streaming/VOD packages:

• MLB (USA)
• MLB Minor (USA)
• LMP (Mexican Pacific League, winter)
• LMB (Mexican Baseball League, summer)
• CPBL (China Professional Baseball League, Taiwan)
• KBO (Korean Baseball Organization)
• ABL (Australian Baseball League)

Why does a leading country such as Japan still not offer such service to fans worldwide?  If even small leagues on three continents have managed to offer affordable, easy access to _all_ their games, why not the NPB?

For the moment, I rely on fans uploading content to file sharing sites to avail myself of Central League games and the Japan Series.  I would be happy to pay for a quality product, but at the moment there is _none_.  I hope by the 2017 season NPB will resolve what issues remain in order to better serve their customers.

Best regards,

Japan Baseball Trip: More Tickets

Buffaloes online ticketing

Single tickets for Japan’s pro-league games are released in blocks, both to groups and across time.  Fan club members get first choice, and some weeks later, usually one to two months before game date, remaining tickets are released to the general public.

When I left off, I was waiting to purchase tickets for August games of the Eagles and Buffaloes. I was a bit worried about availability during holiday events, the Eagles during Sendai’s largest annual festival, Tanabata, and the Buffaloes on Yamanohi with last year’s champions and this year’s leading team, the Hawks.

As it turned out, there were plenty of seats available for both and the only inconvenience with the online order systems was being forced to input my name in kanji.  Foreign credit cards were not a problem.

I chose to print my own tickets.  The Buffaloes' system was somewhat easier;  the Eagles seemed especially cumbersome, requiring 1) entering a receipt number, 2) then on a succeeding page entering my email address, 3) checking my email for a link to a ticket, 4) saving the ticket as a pdf, then finally 5) printing the ticket.

All that’s left now is to get to the stadiums on the appointed dates, eight in all.

#

Japan Baseball Trip: Buying tickets

Tokyo Giants Ticketing (in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean)

After determining the schedule and making hotel reservations, the next order of business was securing tickets, a process in which I am still engaged.  All Japanese teams have fan clubs that are given priority access to tickets.  Sales to the general public don’t begin until a month or two before game dates (depending on the team), though some Japanese ticketing systems (such as Pia) offer the option to make ticket reservations.  A reservation does not guarantee a ticket, only a place in line.  There are other complications.  Pia, for example, will not accept credit cards issued by a non-Japanese bank.

Planning a baseball trip to Japan

Nippon Professional Baseball

It wasn't a long cherished dream to do a baseball trip to Japan.  It wasn't much of a dream at all. But I'm now just a few weeks away from boarding a plane.  For those who might have such dreams or aspirations, I thought perhaps my experience might be helpful in planning your own trip.

I’m not highly paid, but as a teacher I get long vacations.  Every summer my wife and I visit my family in the US, or hers in Japan.  This summer we’ll be visiting the latter and for the first time in a number of summers I found myself with no research projects or conferences.

While considering what I might do with my time, I bumped into the idea of a baseball tour.  Last summer I had a great day photographing at a US game in Atlanta.  With more available time, I could do the same in Japan many times over. I haven’t visited any Japanese stadiums apart from Fukuoka Dome, at which I attended a couple of Hawks games when we lived in that city.

So, why not?  I may never have a chance like this again.

My trip as scheduled now includes eight games in four stadiums featuring seven teams, plus a day at a fifth stadium for a high school tournament, all over a period of 16 days.