Why did Lars Nootbaar play for Japan?

The Japanese national baseball team for the 5th World Baseball Classic (WBC) had four active Major Leaguers on its roster.　They were Shohei Otani (Angels), Yu Darvish (Padres), Masanao Yoshida (Red Sox), and Lars Nootbaar (Cardinals).

Lars Nootbaar, outfielder for the U.S. MLB Cardinals, played for Japan in the World Baseball Classic (WBC).

Nootbaar had never played professional baseball in Japan. Many fans first wondered why Nootbaar was playing for the Japan’s national team when he was an American playing for the MLB. Or, is Lars Nootbaar Japanese?

Nootbaar was eligible to represent Japan because his mother is Japanese.

The WBC stipulates that a player is eligible to represent a country if one of his  parents is a citizen of that country, even if the player is not a citizen of that country.

Nootbaar is a second-generation Japanese American whose father is American and mother is Japanese. Although Nootbaar himself is an American citizen, he is eligible to represent Japan because his mother is a Japanese citizen.

Lars Nootbaar was the first Japanese-American baseball player to join the national team of Japan. Nootbaar’s 2022 season record was a .228 batting average, 14 home runs, and 40 runs batted in.

While in Japan, where batting average is a very important factor, his batting average may have seemed low for a member of the national team, however, he had a .340 on-base percentage and is a very good No. 1 hitter.

The first reason why Lars Nootbaar was selected for the Japan’s national team is the WBC’s lax rule of eligibility.

To qualify for the WBC national teams, a player must meet one of the following conditions:

• Nationality of the country concerned
• Permanent resident status of the country concerned
• Born in the country
• One of the parents is a citizen of the country
• One of the parents was born in the country
• Is eligible to obtain the country’s nationality or passport
• Has been on the final roster of his country in a previous WBC

Lars Nootbaar’s mother, Kumiko Enokida, is Japanese and originally from Japan, so he meets the eligibility requirements of “one of his parents is a citizen of the country concerned “and “one of his parents was born in the country concerned.”

The second reason why Lars Nootbaar was chosen to represent Japan was “globalization” of baseball

One of the purposes of holding the WBC is to expand MLB and the baseball market through full-fledged MLB’s global expansion (globalization strategy), and thereby increase revenues.

Baseball, unlike soccer, rugby, or basketball, is somewhat a minor sport in most parts of the world. In order to globalize baseball, MLB has been holding its opening games outside the U.S., such as in Japan or the UK in the last decades.

There could have been some suggestion from the side of MLB, but this globalization was also in the forefront of Team Japan’s manager, Kuriyama’s mind when he selected the players for Team Japan.  Kuriyama also mentioned globalization as a reason for selecting Lars Nootbaar. This explains why Nootbaar was chosen over other players playing for Japanese baseball teams

Nootbaar is a major leaguer, so he is accustomed to playing against other major leaguers and other world-class players.

The reaction of Japanese people when they heard that Lars Nootbaar would be playing for Japan’s national team at first was “Who is  Nootbaar?” and “Why is he playing for Japan when has never played in Japan?”.  As Japanese mass media had been talking about him everyday as the WBC approached and as he made his sensational debut on his first practice match, he surely captured the heart of Japanese fans!

Does Nootbaar speak Japanese?”

Nootbaar does not speak Japanese, so he was supported by Shohei Otani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. He learned Japanese greetings and lyrics of the Japanese national anthem from his mother, Kumiko before coming to Japan.

Because the communication skill of Ippei Mizuhara was so good, he was called the 31st player of the Japan’s national team.

Nootbaar was the voted No. 1 Team Japan MVP by fans for the first round

Nootbaar played in all four first-round games and had 6 hits in 14 at bats, a .429 batting average, and three runs batted in.

The results of the survey to the question “Who is your Team Japan’s MVP for WBC 1st round?”

Lars Nootbaar (Cardinals) 54.3%

Shohei Ohtani (Angels) 14%

Kensuke Kondo (Softbank) 10.2%

Although Japanese people wondered why Lars Nootbaar plays for Japan when they first heard of him, he is now one of the the most popular baseball players in Japan.

Nootbaar : name origin and meaning