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Sometime between 1867 and 1873, an American professor, Horace Williams, at what is now Tokyo University, is credited with introducing baseball to the country of Japan. Williams came to Japan to teach English and American History, but his sports interest is what has impacted Japan the most. Fellow American Albert Bates, teaching at Kaitaku University, organized the first baseball game in Japan.

The first Japanese baseball club, the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics, was organized in 1878 by a former U.S. student who was a fan of the Boston Red Sox. By 1896, the skill of the still amateur players was demonstrated during the first international baseball game played between Ichiko team from Tokyo’s First High School and an American team organized at the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club. The Japanese had challenged the Americans to the game and were not taken seriously. The American spectators jeered and booed the Japanese at the thought that they could beat Americans at their ‘national pastime.’ The Japanese team soundly defeated the Americans.

During the years between 1903 and 1934, amateur baseball in Japan was wildly popular. University teams were vying with each other in the Sokeisen, between Waseda University and Keio University; and at the Summer Koshien or National High School Baseball Championship as well. The National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament or Spring Koshien began in 1924. Many senior high schools in Japan participate in the National High School Baseball Championship and or the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament. The tournament is named after Koshien Stadium which was built in 1922 and is the oldest of the Japanese stadiums. The stadium seats 55,000 people and still has grass, unlike most other stadiums in the country which have astro-turf.

Professional baseball in Japan can be traced back to 1920, although the first professional league was not organized until 1936, consisting of six teams. The first professional team was created by Shouriki Matsutarou and is now known as the Yomiuri Giants. The current highest Japanese professional competition is Nippon Professional Baseball, created in 1949 consists of four leagues. The year 2005 marked the foundation of the Shikoku Island League. Japan fielded a franchise known as the Tokyo Dragons as part of the now defunct Global League in 1969. An effective minor league in Japan is formed by corporate sponsorship of employee teams that play in local leagues and for a national championship.

There was a professional women’s baseball league as well. Beginning in 1952, the women’s teams took part in semiprofessional leagues until early in the 1970s. The Japan Women’s National Team took silver medals at the Women’s Baseball World Cup in both appearances.

Japanese youngsters in the Little League World Series have won five of the championships and have placed second three times. As of 2007, the Japanese championship team will not be required to win an Asian regional competition, but will proceed directly to the Little League World Series.

The Big Six University League was the organizational structure for baseball in Japan from the 1900’s through the 1930s. Now, at the university level, the All-Japan University Championship is an annual competition for school teams.

In the search for stronger competition, a Japanese team from Waseda University traveled to the United States in 1905. Three years later, the baseball team from the University of Washington returned the visit and played in several games that became the pattern of international interest in the sport of baseball. 21 American college teams made the trip to Japan and several Japanese teams made the return journey to the United States. Professional players from the United States, including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, also toured and played exhibition games in Japan.

In 1934, during Ruth’s visit, 75,000 spectators jammed into the Koshien Stadium to see the MLB stars. Internationally, the Japan national team has won three Olympic medals, two Intercontinental Cups, and captured medals in six Baseball World Cups. The outstanding star quality of the Japanese baseball players has now made many Americans newly aware of the history of Japanese participation in the American national pastime. In particular, activities of Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and other players from Japan who have been playing in the major leagues have heightened interest in the history of the sport in Japan.

Intense nationalism in Japan in the years previous to World War II saw some major changes in baseball in Japan, but following the War, the interest in baseball play resumed and has been an integral part of Japanese life ever since.

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In the United States, both baseball and football have passionate fans who claim that they follow the true number one sport in America. But, how does one determine what is the actual “number one American sport”?

There are several categories that can be considered when determining America’s number one pastime. Analyzing attendance, ticket costs, revenue from television, salaries, venues, will help to present a case for which sport is number one in the United States. These six factors will help determine which sport is more beloved by Americans.

Attendance

One way to determine whether baseball or football is more popular in America is by looking at how many people go to the games. During the year 2000, the average crowd at a baseball game was 30,125, while the average crowd at a football game was 66,077. This figure is based on a total yearly attendance, divided by the total number of games that were played in the sport. Simply based upon this one factor, it would appear that twice as many people went to football games than to baseball games in that particular year.

Ticket Costs

An aspect which can contribute to the popularity of a sport is ticket cost. An important question is: how affordable is it for the average family in America to go to a live sporting event? Pertaining to this factor, baseball is more accessible and potentially more popular overall with average, to below-average income earning American families. Baseball games, in the year 2000, cost $20.02, while football games cost an average of $54.14. Clearly, live baseball is easier to afford than live football, and watching games live is an experience that can create a lot of fans and generate plenty of excitement for a particular sport.

Television Revenue

Another important factor to consider when analyzing the popularity of a given sport is how much money that sport accumulates from television revenues. In this case, football is the clear winner. The NFL brings in about 2.2 billion dollars a year in revenues from television. The MLB earns about 340 million. The significant difference pertaining to TV revenue is that football is on a few days per week, and baseball is on nearly every night. However, football still brings in much more money from ad revenues on television, which means that there are more people watching the football games than are watching the baseball games. When it comes to television revenue, football is the number one sport.

However, this does not settle the argument. The baseball season and the football season are opposites in many ways. Baseball season is long and drawn out, with a team playing almost every night. Football games are essentially once a week, even though the league and the networks have added Saturday and Thursday games to the already successful “Monday Night Football”. This creates more of a buzz for a football game, and the TV numbers and the revenue generation is a product of that buzz.

Salaries

Another measure of how popular a sport is would be how much its players are paid. In the Major League Baseball, the average salary is a little over 2 million dollars a year; while the average salary in the NFL is right around 1.18 million dollars a year. Therefore, baseball pays its players more money, but it is essentially unclear what effect this aspect has on the fans preference between the two sports.

Venues

The different venues in which the two sports are played is another aspect to take into consideration. When attempting to determine which sport is number one sport in America, this can be a factor. The number of seats in stadiums is important because it shows the number of fans that can be expected per game. The average baseball stadium holds 47,000 people. The average football stadium holds 70,000 people. Therefore, there are more seats to watch football games, meaning that more people typically go to football games. Again, this may be skewed due to the frequency of games played in both football and baseball. However, a regular season football game is more of a major event on a consistent basis than a regular baseball game.

The Role of a Sport’s Athletes

Another factor to consider when discussing what America’s favorite pastime may be is the impact the games players have on society, both positive and negative. For instance, if an Arena football player or an A-class baseball player gets in trouble, or does something very generous, it is not big news. If a NFL or MLB player does one of those things, it usually gets plenty of coverage. This may be a draw, mostly because both MLB and NFL players are consistently in the news for various run-in’s with the law or charitable actions.

Looking at these factors together, one realizes that football and baseball are both extremely popular and also very different. Due to this dynamic, it becomes difficult to compare the two fairly. Both sports have been around for many years, and both of them will continue to be popular for many years. Which one, however, is the more popular, is still undecided.

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The purpose of this article is to discuss place kicking, teaching football kickers the art of kicking field goals. We will take you through the steps necessary to become a successful place kicker.

The tips written here are for soccer style place kickers.

1. Positioning the ball:

The place kicker lines up 7 yards behind the center. For practice purposes, start out .

about 20 yards from the goal posts.

The ball should have a slight backwards tilt whether it is being set by the holder

or placed in a kicking tee.

2. Positioning the place kicker:

1st. Take one stride backwards from where the ball will be placed.

2nd. Take two or more strides, depending on your comfort zone, to the side, measuring off the

distance from where the ball will be addressed.

3rd. It is very important place kickers always measure off the same distance regardless of the

distance needed to kick the field goal.

4th. The proper angle for addressing and kicking the ball. Successful place kickers

come in on the ball from half the distance of their side steps. Should field goal

kickers take 6 steps to the side, they want to take 3 steps in as the approach

and kick the ball.

3. Look at the up rights, visualize the ball sailing through, splitting the goal posts.

4. Approaching the ball for the place kick:

1st: Sort of jab at the ground with the plant foot to start the forward momentum.

2nd. Take the firs step with the kicking foot.

3rd. Begin coming in towards half the distance stepped out.

4th. As you are ready to kick the ball, starting at the heel firmly get the plant foot

planted in the ground.

5th. The plant foot should be pointing straight towards the goal posts, even with

the ball and about one foot from the ball.

5. Kicking the ball

1st.Resting the weight on the plant foot, make sure the body is facing the goal posts.

2nd. Strike the ball with the upper bone of the center of the foot.

3rd. Kick the ball in the lower third, otherwise you risk topping the ball. Kicking

Lower on the ball adds height.

4th. Keep the head down and follow through extending the kicking leg as far as

possible. Lifting the head early can cause the ball to go to the right

for right footed kickers and left for left footed kickers.

Kickers should do about 20 minutes of warm up exercises before practicing. These warm ups should include stretching exercises to avoid pulled muscles and get the most out of place kicking practice. Remember it is quality and not quantity that creates successful field goal kickers.

In conclusion the above teach place kickers where to place the ball and how to address the ball. There In conclusion there are many fine place kicking DVDs available that will expand on the information supplied here. All a football kicker need do is decide which one or ones best meets their needs.

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