NPB Appreciation Thread

We talk often about good players in Japan and wanting them to come to MLB... which fans of the Nippon Pro Baseball league coughdeannacough find rather irksome, as the league's struggled with revenue over the years, as obviously well as losing their best players year after year (imagine your team's best players just up and leaving every year; can be demoralizing), and losing teams due to these losses.

People tend to forget that this is an entire league, with a rich history, a game that is entertaining to watch for its own separate reasons, and of course, crowds and a Japanese baseball culture that's nothing like anything you see in MLB.

So over time, while admittedly scouring YouTube for video on stars like Daisuke Matsuzaka, I've discovered a variety of odd and end videos on a variety of players and teams, that paint an enlightening picture of what NPB at its best can be like.  I want to share some of that here.

Excitement from the pitching and defense in the final outs of a Chiba Lotte Marines win.

Here's a funny video from some sort of TV game show featuring Matsuzaka.

They call the knuckleball the shake ball in Japan.

BENNY WOULD GO!  Remember Benny Agbayani?  Also... note the enthusiasm of the crowd for the AB.  This is telling: rather than sitting on their hands waiting for their team to do something, as we do in the US, the fans in this clip try and pump up their hitter during a rally.

Marc Kroon didn't amount to much in the states, but he went to Japan and became the Yokohama Baystars closer with serious 100 mph (160 km/h) gas, though Air Fukudome dropped a grand salami bomb on Kroonland in this clip.  Eat your heart out, Eddie.

How about a diving, turf munching catch on Astroturf by Kenji Morozumi, even with his team leading 8-2?  PRIDE AND HONOR.

Thoughts welcome.