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Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams

November 19, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

We may think of baseball as the American Pastime, but we are not the only place that loves the game. Baseball is also a very popular sport in Japan, and has been for over 100 years. Each year, there is a nationwide high school tournament leading up to crowning a champion at Koshien Stadium near Kobe. It has a nationwide following that surpasses professional baseball. Each year thousands of high school baseball teams begin the single elimination tournament in their prefectures. Only one team from each prefecture goes on to Koshien. Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams, from Ema Ryan Yamazaki, shows us a team’s quest to achieve that challenging goal.

The film focuses on Yokohama Hayato High School. The team is coached by Mizutani, who has made one trip to Koshien in his thirty year career. He is often stern with his players, pushing them as they train for the tournament. The school has 129 students who are taking part in the baseball program, but only twenty can make the summer team. We get to know a few of them, but most of the focus in on Mizutani.

The training regimen for these high school baseball players is grueling. We watch as they run in unison around the field. It looks like soldiers in boot camp. The seniors have been doing this for three years. Freshmen are having a hard time learning to stay together, and an upperclassman scolds them. They have to work as a team.

But it is not only about baseball skills and ability. In a meeting with the new freshmen, a senior mentor discusses the philosophy of the program. The number one goal is “to grow as humans”. That means being attentive to all around you. It means caring for the world. (One of the things we note is that these players pick up trash anywhere they go.) They drill on the proper way to speak. The senior mentor criticizes the way some of the players say “good morning” and “thank you”.

We also meet Sasaki, the coach of Hanamaki Higashi school. Sasaki was an assistant coach under Mizutani, whom he considers a mentor. Sasaki, however, has gone on to make it to Koshien several times. He has also coached players who have made it to American baseball, such as Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Yusei Kikuchi of the Mariners. Sasaki likens his coaching to growing bonsai plants—how they grow to fit the size of container, and the way wires are needed to form the shape, but will injure the plant if left too long. When Mizutani’s son becomes a freshman, Mizutani thinks it would be best if his son not play for him, so he is sent far from home to play for Sasaki.

But this is not just about baseball. In some ways, this serves as a chance to look at some of the cultural norms of Japanese society. The Japanese work ethic that evolved after World War II, created a strong economy, but perhaps globalization is bringing changes. Mizutani’s parents built their own company, but his mother doesn’t understand why he does not return to work in it, especially after the death of his father. That work ethic also has an effect on family life. Mizutani is rarely home. In fact it is at a practice game between Hayato and Higashu that he first sees his son play baseball (and for another team!).

That work ethic is also seen in the way the players push themselves. In a clip from a previous Koshien tournament, the TV announcers mention that the pitcher in the game threw 253 pitches yesterday. An American coach that allowed a player to through 250 pitches in a week would probably be fired for abuse. Yusei Kikuchi recalls trying to continue pitching in the tournament with a broken rib. It would not be acceptable to say he couldn’t go on.

When there is only one champion out of thousands, it means disappointment for most. And we see that disappointment play out in this film. It is what is said after that disappointment that allows us to see the way that sports can build character.

Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams is available on Virtual Cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of First Run Features.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Baseball, documentary, high school, Japan, sports

Black Boys – The Two-edged Sword

September 10, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“The bottom line for why things haven’t changed is there is no love for black boys.”

Sonia Lowman’s documentary Black Boys opens with former NFLer Greg Scruggs reading The Little Engine that Could to his toddler son. It transitions to a middle school age boy taking Richard Wrights Black Boy from a shelf and reading it. That dichotomy of idealism and reality is the driving force of the film. Or as activist/rapper Malcolm Little puts it, “You’re talking a double-edged sword to be a black boy in America, because you have to tell yourself that you are magnificent and that you are free and beautiful, while simultaneously acknowledging that the world is not built for you. It’s not built for your success. It’s not built for you to survive.”

The film is designed in four sections entitled Body, Mind, Voice, and Heart. In each of those we get a touch of what it means for young black men as they grow into the world. Sports dominates the Body section. Sports may seem like a way out of the difficulties blacks face, but is it? Or is it just another exploitation of black bodies? Education becomes the main topic of the Mind section. Again, this is an area of great hope, but we also know that as early as kindergarten, black children are often getting less attention and are sold lower expectations. The Voice and Heart sections really focus more on the hopeful side of the film’s core contrast to let us hear what the experience has done to the people interviewed and how the future has an opportunity for change, but that is by no means a certainty.

I consider myself woke (at least for an old white guy), so there isn’t much in this film that is new to me. But it is a very powerful presentation of not just facts and figures, but of the emotional reality of the lives of the people we visit. This is in no small part because of the excellent work Lowman has done in interviewing her subjects to evoke their reflections. Whether the subjects are athletes, educators, activists, or young people looking at their future, the insights provided are always challenging without being overly judgmental. As a white person watching the film I didn’t feel as though I was being called on to feel guilty, but to be engaged with the issues of social justice that are brought forth.

One piece of archival footage that spoke to me, personally, was a press conference held by Philadelphia Eagle player Malcolm Jenkins in which he never spoke, only held up prepared signs. Several of the signs repeated the sentence, “You aren’t listening”. To me that is a reminder that the first (but not the last) thing I need to do when faced with the cries for social justice, is to listen. I may have heard these things before. I still need to listen again.

Black Boys is an invitation for all of us to listen. Some of us need to hear the facts and figures we may have missed. Some of us may need to hear the pain some people have lived through. Some of us may need to hear of the inequalities we never knew about. Some of us may need to hear the visions of hope that continue to be dreamed—and realized. Listen.

Black Boys is available on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: documentary, education, racism, social justice, sports

Super Bowl, Kobe Bryant: Questions & Reflections

January 29, 2020 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

your sunday drive podcast

Should Christians “celebrate” secular “holidays” like the Super Bowl? What risks and opportunities are there when we participate in such cultural events?

How can we respond to the sudden death of a celebrity like Kobe Bryant? Can we find context and insight and comfort from the Bible at times like this?

Reflections on these and other questions in Your Sunday Drive Podcast Season 2, Episode 2.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive



Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Bible, christian podcast, church in drive, culture, death, Kobe Bryant, Podcast, sports, super bowl

Fall Kickoff: Sports; Future of College & Work; Meaning in Life

August 20, 2019 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

your sunday drive podcast

Fall is here and with it the 150th season of college football in the U.S.!

In this episode of the Your Sunday Drive podcast, we use this occasion as a kick-off point to revisit the topic of spirituality in sports.

Then the conversation goes deep into the current state of higher education, and the future of college and work.

Finally, the concept of God’s image is used as a touchstone principle to connect these topics to larger questions about purpose and meaning in life.

Take a listen and let us know what you think! Want to interact with us? Comment here, or on Spreaker or Facebook!



Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Christian, college, drive, Football, God, hill, life, meaning, Podcast, polzin, saginaw, sports, sunday, work, your

On the Map – Hoops and Hope

November 25, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“Finally the Jewish teams are kicking ass.”

Can a sports team be the catalyst that not only unites a nation but also gives it a sense of the nation’s place in the world? On the Map asks us to consider the role the Israeli basketball team Macabbi Tel Aviv had in showing the world what Israel was capable of.

MK MOSHE DAYAN SHAKING HANDS WITH MACABBI TEL AVIV BASKETBALL PLAYER MOTTI AROESTI, AS AULCI PERRY & MIKY BERKOVITZ LOOK ON
MK MOSHE DAYAN SHAKING HANDS WITH MACABBI TEL AVIV BASKETBALL PLAYER MOTTI AROESTI, AS AULCI PERRY & MIKY BERKOVITZ LOOK ON

For those of us who think mainly of the NBA if we think of basketball at all, we may not recognize just how international the game has become. Popularity of the game grew rapidly in Europe after World War II and soon there was a European Championship that was dominated by Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Israel could never make it past the first round. In the 1960s an American player, Tal Brody, passed up an NBA career (he was drafted #12 overall) to play for Macabbi Tel Aviv. Soon other American’s followed. In 1977 everything came together and the team made a run for the championship. The story of that season is told by the members of the team and others (including NBA star Bill Walton and former NBA Commission David Stern) along with archival footage of some of the games.

Some history is needed to understand the context of this team’s story. The world watched in horror as Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1973 Israel faced the Yom Kippur War. A hijacked airliner led to the Entebbe raid in 1976. Forty years ago Israel was struggling with survival. When Macabbi Tel Aviv had a chance for a good showing in the championship, it became something other than war for the nation to rally around. That is not to say there weren’t political implications. When Macabbi was scheduled to play the Soviet Red Army team, the Soviets at first refused because they had no diplomatic relations with Israel. The game was finally played at a neutral site in a small town in Belgium. That game in particular is given attention not just because the Soviets were such a good team, but also because this was a period of Soviet oppression of Jews. The game took on a touch of geopolitical ramifications. It was after that game that Tal Brody said that it had put Israel “on the map”, not just in sports but in everything.

onthemap6

The American equivalent of this story is probably the US gold medal in ice hockey that took place just the year before this story (and also involved beating the Soviets). To be fair, Americans are used to being the best in sports. We take pride in being at or near the top in Olympic medals. Still, for a country that is struggling not just in sports but for its very survival, a victory such as Macabbi Tel Aviv provided can give a new sense of pride and new hope of what the future can hold. It is a reminder that sometimes sports are not just something we can watch and enjoy. Sometimes those games can speak to us emotionally and even spiritually.

onthemap9

Photos courtesy of Hey Jude Productions

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: basketball, Dani Menkin, documentary, Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv, sports

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