Baseball & Anime

Back when I was president of the Northeast Ursamen (as if it were so long ago), Daddy Mike and I came up with an idea for an event to take place in Boston on a regular basis, called "Spring Training".  Knowing how much the Red Sox are loved in that city (and by many of us in other parts of Southern New England), we gave the party a Red Sox theme.  I mean, on any given night a game is happening across town at Fenway Park, you can see the game on big screens in pubs of all sizes, including The Alley, arguably the best bear bar in the Northeast, so throwing a Red Sox themed party at the Alley was a perfect formula.  So we needed an image for the poster, and after having done "Butch & Bruiser" and the "Nut & Bolt Party", I set out to do "Spring Training" but Hairyer Parts-style.  People often compared the finished product to Jason Varitek, though truth be known, I worked from a drawing of Youkalis to get the job done.

So I knew that baseball has been big in Japan, but it never occurred to me to look into baseball manga.  I think I was aware of one show whose name escapes me... so for kicks tonight, I put in the words "anime" and "baseball" into a Google image search, and found all sorts of great images.  This one particular article I found from Otaku USA gave a whole mini-course on baseball subjects in Japanese cartoons.  Do check it out.  It made me smile to think I may have been on to something when I did that "Sprig Training" drawing... now four years old!