<figure id="attachment_301610" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301610" style="width: 1644px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9253fa27"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/fbab3802578207d29aee86088c8c3c0d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301610" class="wp-caption-text">Kazuya Shimasa of the comedy duo &#8220;New York&#8221; who &#8220;caused a huge firestorm&#8221; with his comment &#8220;Baseball is boring.</figcaption></figure>
 The game isn&#8217;t interesting,&#8221; he said. 
 Japan is too strong.
 Kazuya Shimasa of the popular comedy duo &#8220;New York&#8221; spoke out against the WBC (World Baseball Classic), in which heated games are being played day after day.
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 Shimasa and his partner Hiromasa Yashiki attended a commemorative event for a foreign drama series on March 14. From a reporter.
 The reporter asked, &#8220;How about you, Mr. Shimasa, who hates baseball?&#8221;
 and he grinned. From Yashiki
 He said, &#8220;You said you wanted us to lose as soon as possible. You said you didn&#8217;t recognize Shohei Otani&#8217;s face.
 Yashiki teased, &#8220;You said you didn&#8217;t recognize Shohei Otani&#8217;s face.
 I&#8217;m not rooting for anyone (in the WBC), really. I prefer martial arts.
 I don&#8217;t find the games interesting. I like soccer, I watched the World Cup and so on. I can catch too, and fly and stuff. Japan is too strong.
 He went on to say.
 When this became part of the Internet news, Shimasa was, as expected, &#8220;burned up. Even Yashiki&#8217;s comment, &#8220;Hurry up and lose,&#8221; became a fact of life, and Shimasa received abuse, such as &#8220;Don&#8217;t joke around,&#8221; &#8220;I doubt your character,&#8221; and &#8220;Apologize. On the other hand
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 I shouldn&#8217;t say &#8216;hurry up and lose,&#8217; but I can&#8217;t help it if you don&#8217;t like baseball.&#8221;
 &#8220;I sympathize with Shimasa in some ways.
 On the other hand, there were some defensive comments such as, &#8220;You shouldn&#8217;t say &#8216;hurry up and lose.
 The Samurai Japan team, which includes Shohei Otani, Yu Darvish, Masanao Yoshida, and Munetaka Murakami, is a &#8220;dream team&#8221; for baseball fans. The team went undefeated in the preliminary round with an overwhelmingly strong performance, and won their match against Italy 9-3 on March 16.
 The average household viewer rating for the match broadcast on TV Asahi was 48.0%. This means that approximately one out of every two people in Japan watched the game.
 The sports press and TV stations have a good relationship with each other, so they are not reporting negatively on the WBC, but are doing it as if they are trying to boost the WBC together,&#8221; said a sports newspaper reporter.
 (Sports reporter) &#8220;The spirit of the Samurai Japan team, which is determined to become the world&#8217;s No. 1 team, can be felt on the screen.
 On the other hand, some &#8220;wannabe fans,&#8221; as they are commonly called, are not so sure.
 &#8220;Is this really a tournament to decide the world&#8217;s No. 1 team?
 The U.S. team, which was favored to win the tournament, was clearly under-conditioned, suffering a 5-11 defeat against Mexico in the preliminary round, and a 3-2 win against Colombia in the final round. The U.S. team was clearly out of shape, losing 5-11 to Mexico in the preliminary round, and finally winning 3-2 against Colombia to advance to the quarterfinals on thin ice.
 The regular season for the majors starts at the end of this month. Many Americans take pride in the fact that the true game to determine the best in the world is the World Series. Compared to past WBCs, there is a little more excitement, but it is not something that is repeatedly reported on the news like it is in Japan.
 Phil Nevin, the manager of Ohtani&#8217;s Angels team, even &#8220;blurted out&#8221; that &#8220;Ohtani will not pitch&#8221; in the semifinals and final round of the WBC. When asked about this, manager Hideki Kuriyama was at a loss for an answer, so there must be some kind of &#8220;secret agreement.
 A reporter for a sports newspaper reported the following.
 I really feel like I shouldn&#8217;t say anything unnecessary. It is true that some people were put off by that.
 He was angry.
 Soccer tends to be compared to baseball. On the Internet, there are many people who compare the WBC to the World Cup and take this opportunity to speak out against the WBC.
 According to them, the World Cup is the biggest event in the world of sports, and the money involved is vastly different. In Europe and South America, there are many countries that put their national prestige on the line. In Japan, too, the scene of supporters getting excited at the scramble crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo, and Dotonbori, Osaka, has become a familiar sight.
 This is not to say that one is better than the other. The games themselves are completely different and have different cultures and histories, so comparing the two is nonsense.
 The answer to the &#8220;baseball vs. soccer&#8221; question will never be answered. Both the WBC and the World Cup serve as a gateway for &#8220;casual fans,&#8221; and from there, some people get hooked.
 The WBC is still in its developmental stage. We want to make the WBC more popular than just a passing fad.
 So, it is meaningful to hold the WBC.

 Ippei Hara

 The WBC baseball tournament was a great success in the Japanese archipelago. The quarterfinal game against Italy recorded an average household viewership of 48.0%. This means that about one out of every two people in Japan watched the game...

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