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Ahmalya asked in SportsBaseball · 1 decade ago

Do Japanese teams play AL or NL style baseball?

DH or no DH? Small ball or long ball? I'm just curious.

6 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    They have two leagues like we do, one with DH and one without. (Central League does not, pacific league does)

    The overall style of the game is more akin to what we consider "NL" baseball though. Lots of hit & runs, bunts, advancing runners, small ball, emphasis on defense, pitchers using more breaking/offspeed pitches...

    Some teams though that have more western players (like Tuffy Rhodes) will play some big ball AL style play (station to station, emphasis on RBI's), so it does depend on the team somewhat.

    Babe Ruth introduced the game to Japan oh so many years ago, so its natural that they emulate the older, american style of play (I use the word "oh" to commeorate Satahara Oh, Japan's great all time slugger).

    Their athletes arent as spoiled as ours though and are known to be much more team orientated and willing to sacrifice their statistics for the sake of winning.

  • Wes T
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Both. They too have a league of DHs which is more of an AL style, and a league of no DHs that plays like the NL. Their format is very similar to ours.

  • 1 decade ago

    The Central League in Japan does not use a DH, while the Pacific League does. From my understanding both leagues over there play more of an NL style game, with plenty of sacrificing, moving runners, aggressive baserunning. However the ballparks are smaller, so the pitchers throw more offspeed pitches over there.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    they play NL style, but they have two leagues, one with dh and another without. but they both play NL style. most of their hitters are contact hitters, and when matsui (godzilla) hits 35 a year and is their vision of Bonds, thats says alot

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    that's a good question

    time for me to do some research

  • 1 decade ago

    NL

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