After welcoming Japanese players to their home field at Cliffridge Park last year, athletes from La Jolla Youth Baseball soon will get their turn to be visitors to a foreign land.
As part of the Friendship Games exchange partnership with Japan, young Japanese baseball players came to La Jolla last year and LJYB players will go to Japan this year. The alternating trips will go on for the foreseeable future.
The local boys will be overseas for the first 11 days of August. Two teams (the Stars and the Stripes), with 10 players on each team, will compete as part of Team USA in a series of informal games against teams from Japan.
The players, all ages 13-15, will stay in hotels and with local families. Stops will include Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe.
In addition to the games, the La Jolla players will take in sights, ceremonies and a gift exchange with their Japanese hosts.
“This is an immense honor for La Jolla Youth Baseball and an amazing opportunity for our young ballplayers to form international relationships through the baseball community,” said LJYB President Rob Robinson. “Our local youth is given an opportunity to not only learn about another culture but to experience it through a sport they share love for. It is just an absolutely incredible opportunity for LJYB players, and we are thrilled to be a part of it.”
La Jolla player Ethan Blumenthal said that after participating in the Friendship Games at home last year, he’s ready to travel.
“I feel so excited,” he said. “I’ve been to Japan once before, but to get to go and play baseball there means a lot to me. It’s going to be really hot there, and I don’t really like a lot of Japanese food, but I’m looking forward to exploring Japan and seeing things besides the big cities and staying in people’s houses to learn their culture.”
Ethan, who has played with LJYB at various age levels for nine years, added that “I can’t wait to see how people play baseball there. When they came over here, I saw they have different stances that bring a lot of power. So I want to learn from them and I want them to learn that we’re good baseball players, too.”
Ethan said housing two Japanese players last year was a lesson in culture and respect.
“It was really cool having them stay at our house, even though they didn’t speak English,” he said. “I realized it doesn’t matter what language we speak, we can treat each other with respect.”
Last year, when the partnership was confirmed, then-LJYB President Scott Blumenthal (Ethan’s father) said “Japanese players like Yu Darvish [of the San Diego Padres] and Shohei Ohtani [of the Los Angeles Dodgers] have really reignited that connection to Japan through baseball and have heightened the appreciation for the game. It is the national pastime for both the United States and Japan, so this exchange provides opportunities for players to experience a cultural building exercise through baseball.”
La Jolla Youth Baseball, based at Cliffridge Park, fields teams in the Shetland (6 and younger), Pinto (7 and younger), Mustang (9 and under and 10 and under), Bronco (12 and under) and Pony (14 and under) divisions.
Players who turn 15 during the season are eligible.
Find out more at ljyb.org. ♦
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