Baseball in Japan: Time for a minor adjustment

To be honest, this was a welcomed part of the schedule for me. My children were in international school at the time, so I quickly went from being home all day and gone all night to the complete opposite, which gave me significantly more time to be with my kids.

The non-game days result in a lot of practice. As a native ballplayer here that can make for some very long days - they love to practice in Japan. As a gaijin (foreigner), especially a pitcher, it can make for some really short days.

A foreign player is granted a lot of concessions in Japan and none may be more important to him than his right to practice at the level he is used to. The shortened version: I was home in time for lunch while most of the other guys worked until dusk. Guilt, you ask? Not likely. I am a quality-over-quantity type of guy. Get your work done and go home, the rest is just eyewash.

The travel is essentially the same in the minor leagues. We took a bullet train everywhere and wore the same team suit the major league team wears. The hotels are, well, minor league hotels with one major exception. There is no $20 per diem, as minor leaguers in the States receive. The hotels here provided us with a quality breakfast, lunch and dinner. A much better and more nutritious option than minor league players in the States are left with.

Each big league team here has only one minor league club, compared to the five or six that an organization in the States may have. That means Japanese teams are able to pour all of their minor league budget into one place - the 42 minor leaguers get a full coaching staff of six and a medical training staff of four.

Not to mention a strength coach, traveling secretary and a bullpen catcher, all full-time employees. In the States, minor leaguers get three coaches and one trainer. Ask any minor league trainer in the U.S. if he'd like a staff of four and he'd give you his left arm for a staff of two. They have the most difficult job at the minor league level with multiple responsibilities.

At the end of the day, the minor leagues in Japan were nothing like the folk tales I'd heard when I was playing in the States. Of course, if you want to come back to Japan, which I'd like to do, then you have to be in the big leagues performing.

I am glad to be back and hopefully I never see the minor leagues in Japan again. But if I do, I know it won't be all that bad.