Dan Rempel wrote:
> CL wrote:
>> The 2-Belo wrote:
>>> CL totally sneezed all over fj.life.in-japan with a withering cloud of
>>> snot:
>>>
>>>> Do you mean "baseball" or "Japanese baseball flavored product" a.k.a.
>>>> "yakyu."
>>>
>>> I detect a smidge of derision in that particular description. Is 
>>> Japanese
>>> baseball not baseball?
>>
>> Au contraire (that there's France talk jus' like the fanciest whores in
>> N'walins speak).  I don't know if it is still up on the Japan Pro
>> Baseball (sic) web site, but there _used_ to be a long article that
>> explained that yakyu is a unique Japanese game developed by Jimmu and a
>> few of his closer field commanders as a way to keep the troops amused
>> when they weren't raping and pillaging Yayoi villages on their way to
>> unifying ancient Japan.  See, in addition to the Mirror, Sword, and
>> Jewel there are also the Sacred Fielder's Mitt, the Spiked Shoes, The
>> Holy Bat of Mizuno, and the Yayoi Book of Secret Coaching Signals to
>> Base Runners and Batters.  These were brought to Edo from the Temple at
>> Koshien in 1615 are now housed in a secret vault beneath Korakuen.  They
>>  can only be viewed by coaches for the Yomiuri Giants -- and Hoshino-san
>> -- if the Emperor says "Okay."  Although far older and better developed
>> than it's American counterpart, the game had been largely neglected for
>> several thousand years, but the New York Yankees' 1936 tour went a long
>> way to stirring ancient Japanese memories and led to the reintroduction
>> of this ancient sport under the "yakyu" name ... just in time for World
>> War II when Japanese uniqueness was at it's peak.
>>
>> Yakyu only resembles baseball superficially.  The Japanese say so.
>> Anyone who has ever watched just 30 minutes of "Giants no Hoshi" will
>> immediately recognize the powerful differences like a willingness to
>> swing a bat 3,000 times in succession, a need to shout meaningless
>> slogans repeatedly while running in circles around an enclosed field, a
>> desire to lock your hands behind your back and do repeated squat jumps
>> through a hot afternoon, and a willingness to play a game for which
>> Americans are paid huge sums for a mere 5% of what players from other
>> countries receive and a ten year indenture.
> 
> Is the behaviour of the fans (chanting in unison, waving weird things in
> the air) also so carefully defined?

Don't recall seeing anything on the web site,  But, that Heike-Onin 
dustup gets blamed for originating a lot of those meaningless group 
cheers and synchronized fist pumping, even when not wearing black 
lacquered bamboo armor.  I think that the individual teams might have 
something on it though.  To me, it's always been an example of what 
happens when spontaneous regimentation goes bad.