Japanese baseball team enjoys stay in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS - Forget the language barrier and other cultural differences. Maybe the biggest adjustment a team of high school baseball players from Yamanashi, Japan, has had to make during a weeklong stay in Iowa is food.

And not necessarily types.

“It's a lot more volume per person,” said team captain Takumi Hosaka before last night's all-star game at Veterans Memorial Stadium between Yamanashi and an Iowa Select team that included Metro and area prep players.

This was the last of five games the Yamanashi team played in Iowa as part of a cultural exchange between the sister states. A group of Iowa players traveled to Japan last year.

“We actually started this in 1990 and it lasted until 2001,” said Teresa Parmenter of the Iowa AAU, which helped set up this tour. “We restarted the exchange in 2009 and hope to keep it going forever. It's a baseball thing, but they learn so much about each other's cultures. It's a new world that has been opened up to these kids.”

Yamanashi players have stayed with host families here and in Central Iowa, where they played four previous games. They will return home Friday.

“They had a team come to Japan last year, but these Iowa teams this year seem a lot stronger,” said Mitsugi Kanai, the head of the Yamanashi delegation. Kentaro Yasutake, an international scouting coordinator for Perfect Game USA of Cedar Rapids, acted as interpreter.

“They've all been good games,” Kanai said. “We are having a good experience ... Wide open. It's beautiful here. It's clean. The most impressive thing is that there are so many grass areas.”

Both Kanai and Hosaka, 17, noted there are differences between Japanese baseball and what they have experienced in America.

“The first thing I was surprised with was how American kids don't take time to warm up and stretch,” Hosaka said. “Because we do that intensively. They just start playing catch right off the bat. American kids, you don't see them running too often. They might run a pole or two, but we do that intensively and as a group. They are obviously taller and have more power than we do.”

“We practice hard, probably a lot more intensely than they do here,” Kanai said. “We are in top shape. We practice to maximize our talent and strive to do the best possible. Here, American players play multiple sports. If you look at just fielding the ball, hitting the ball, in our eyes American kids are rougher around the edges. But if you look at projectability, it's a lot higher with the American guys.”

Those American guys were thrilled with getting to play international competition. The Iowa Select team consists of 18 top-shelf players who are participating in Perfect Game's fall league through October.

“Pretty cool,” said Austin Christensen, a senior at Cedar Rapids Kennedy. “Not a lot of people get an opportunity to do this. We're just trying to have as much fun as possible.”

“It's going to be interesting,” said Ryan Rumpff, a senior at Iowa City West. “I think it's two completely different styles of ball playing.”