From MLB Power Pros Wiki

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Shuuto 1.1.1 What is it? 1.1.2 Sightings 1.1.3 Possible Origin of Term 1.2 Sinker velocity 1.3 "Power Rating" in Box Score 1.4 HBP getting counted as a BB in the Box score 2 Season Mode 2.1 Player Records Explained 2.1.1 Pitching 2.1.2 Hitting 2.2 Team Records → Single Game Records 3 Success Mode 3.1 Cultural References 3.1.1 Sarah and Becky meet for the first time 3.1.2 Gundar Robots 3.1.3 Wild Pigs' Names Explained 3.2 Why are Running and Throwing considered Stamina training menus for Pitchers? 3.3 The story behind Laser Beam as an alternate name for Cannon Arm 3.4 Confusion over "Genius" 3.5 Dr Goodjob 3.6 Shop Items 3.6.1 Necklaces 3.6.2 Charms 3.6.3 Powerin 3.6.4 Surprise Bag 4 References

Gameplay

Shuuto

What is it?

The shuuto is basically a two-seam fastball thrown with emphasis on lateral break. Wikipedia has a slightly different take.

Sightings

The following Major League pitchers officially had shuuto pitches in a Japanese Power Pros game at some point of their careers:

• Hiroki Kuroda of the LA Dodgers had a Lv2 hard shuuto the last year he pitched in Japan (2007) and a Lv3 shuuto the year before. Watch his starts and you'll probably see him throw one.
• Cleveland Indians' reliever Masahide Kobayashi has a renowned shuuto that the Japanese Power Pros rated as a Lv3 hard shuuto over the last two years. He was even given a Lv5 hard shuuto following a great season in 2005!
• Keiichi Yabu, currently pitching for the SF Giants, had a Lv2 shuuto back in 2004.

Possible Origin of Term

Be warned this is merely a personal theory. In Japanese, shuuto is written in Katakana so it's obviously a transcription of a foreign word. According to the Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers^[1], inshoot was a 19th century baseball term used to describe fastballs that broke the opposite way of the incurve. Sometimes these two words were even used interchangeably. Back then there were no such words as curve, slider, changeup, etc. Maybe when baseball was first introduced to Japan in 1872, the words curves and shoots (according to the book, frequently used words to describe moving pitches back then) were imported and became the curve and shuuto pitch.

Sinker velocity

I believe the American sinker and Japanese sinker are two different pitches, but since they are phonetically identical and break somewhat in the same direction, it never gets addressed.

The sinker is a word for an off-speed breaking pitch in Japanese baseball that breaks in the direction of the throwing hand (similar characteristics to the screwball). It's more of a changeup or screwball rather than the conventional sinker in American baseball. In some circles, the screwball is considered exclusive to left-handed pitchers, with sinker being the word for the right-handed equivalent. Japanese Power Pros followed this tradition until a few years ago, when both the screwball and sinker finally became available regardless of the pitcher's dominant hand. However, the screwball and sinker seem to have identical breaks.

One of the few times this cultural difference surfaced in the popular media was when side-arming reliever Shingo Takatsu joined the Chicago White Sox in 2004. Takatsu was renowned for his (Japanese style) sinker that he used as a out-pitch, and was regularly given a Lv5 or Lv6 sinker in Japanese Power Pros[1]. However, once he went stateside, that pitch became known as a changeup in the American sports media^[2]:

Takatsu features an 87-90 mph fastball. Coming on the heels of what he calls "a sinker," but actually works as a 60-mph changeup, it seems much quicker.^[3]

What the article fails to mention is that it's not just what he personally calls it, it's the norm in Japanese baseball lingo. In MLB telecasts shown in Japan, the conventional American sinker is referred to as a 'high speed sinker' by commentators. This is why in MLB PP, the H-SNK (hard sinker) is closer to the conventional sinker that major league pitchers throw.

"Power Rating" in Box Score

Percentage of swings taken in Big Swing mode.

HBP getting counted as a BB in the Box score

This is a mistranslation rather than glitch; in Japanese baseball the there is a stat (sishikyû^[4]) that is a sum of BB and HBP, which is more commonly used. It seems that when they ported the game they didn't re-write the code to distinguish BB and HBP, and only changed the label, leading to this inaccuracy.

Season Mode

Player Records Explained

Pitching

• Consecutive No-Runs - Consecutive Scoreless Innings Pitched
• No-Hitter, No-Runners - "No-Runners" is a mistranslation of "No Runs". Basically a No-No. Japanese baseball does not distinguish no hitters unless it's also a CG shutout.^[5]
• 0 Wins - Pitchers who recorded a win with 0 pitches (Example: Come into a tie game with 2 outs, runner picked off to end inning. Team goes on to win)
• 1 Win - Pitchers who recorded a win throwing just 1 pitch. For some reason, Japanese baseball makes a big deal out of these 0 pitch / 1 pitch records.
• 0 Saves - Pitchers who recorded a save throwing 0 pitches.
• 1 Save - Pitchers who recorded a save throwing just 1 pitch.
• 1 Loss - Pitchers who recorded a loss throwing just 1 pitch.
• Most Runs Suffered - Most runs given up in an outing. Includes unearned runs.

Hitting

• Consecutive Hits - Hitting streak (games)
• Consecutive On-Base - Consecutive games on base safely
• Consecutive No Hitter - Longest hitless streak (games)
• Most Base Hits - At a glance, redundant with "Most Hits". Mistranslation of "Most Total Bases In a Game".
• Most Double Play Hits - Most Double Plays Hit Into

Team Records → Single Game Records

• Game Winning Streak - This is the Current Winning Streak for the selected team.

Success Mode

Cultural References

Sarah and Becky meet for the first time

Becky asks how your character and Sarah know each other. Sarah answers "[your character] took something special of mine", to which your character and Becky react with a shocked expression, and Becky subsequently shows anger toward your character. This is because Sarah's remark can be interpreted as a euphemism popularized by a famous Japanese pop song from the 1970s.^[6] Of course, Sarah is too naive to make such innuendos.

Gundar Robots

Parody of Gundam robots.^[7] In Japan, the Gundam franchise is the equivalent of USA's Star Trek franchise - considered stuff for nerds. The "lady figurines" also fall into that category.

I think the nerd element may have been lost in translation, because for people who grew up in the '80s USA robot cartoons are more of a childhood nostalgia thing. Transformers = cool, Gundam = geek ;-)

Wild Pigs' Names Explained

• Yokozuna, Ozeki, Sekiwaké, Coms Bee (Komusubi), Jonny Dan (Jonidan) - Sumo wrestlers' ranks.^[8][9]
• Magé is the upside down pony tail wrestlers sport.^[10]
• Touch Eye (tachi-ai) - The initial charge between two sumo wrestlers at the beginning of a bout.^[11]
• Hanamichi - Path leading up to the sumo ring.
• Chang Kou (Chanko nabé)- Special stew sumo wrestlers eat^[12]

Why are Running and Throwing considered Stamina training menus for Pitchers?

Japanese pitchers typically build up stamina through extensive running and extended bullpen sessions. Yankee or Red Sox fans may have heard or read about Kei Igawa running in the outfield^[13] or Daisuke Matsuzaka's 300 pitch bullpen sessions^[14].

The story behind Laser Beam as an alternate name for Cannon Arm

When you acquire certain abilites, the on-screen message will refer to it in an alternate name. These are probably early translations that never got fixed. When you acquire Cannon Arm, the message will read "Gained Laser Beam ability".

There's a misconception in the Japanese media and baseball community that laser beam is the default American word for an outfielder with a strong arm. This originates from a specific OF assist made by Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 against the Oakland Athletics, in which Rick Rizzs made the call[2]

Holy smokes! A laser beam strike from Ichiro!

The footage was aired over and over as part of the defining moments of his MVP season, and the word "laser beam" became imprinted in Japanese consciousness as the American word for strong throw or arm.

Eventually Konami created the defensive ability "Laser Beam" for their Power Pros series. I find it interesting that despite originating from a call made in an American telecast, the ability name got changed (rightfully) to Cannon Arm when the game was ported.

Confusion over "Genius"

This comes from failing to provide different translations according to the different nuances of the following word:

天才 (tensai)
trans. brilliant mind // genius // giftedness // intellectual genius // mental giant // natural // person of genius // phenom // prodigy // rocket scientist // superbrain // wizard ^[15]

My choice of translations in bold:

• "Genius" : Bookworm Lv2 - Intellectual genius, Brainiac
• "Genius" : Annie's Arc - Rocket Scientist, PhD (not a dictionary translation but makes sense from a story standpoint)
• "Genius" : In Patrick's profile - Whiz kid; Gifted
• "Genius" : Starting Stat type - Prodigy, Phenom

Dr Goodjob

As explained on the wiki article, his original name in the Japanese version, Daijôbu Hakasé (Dr A-Okay), is a phonetic homage to Dr Frank Jobe, inventor of Tommy John surgery.

This is another cultural oddity: Dr Jobe is probably better known in Japan than in USA. Proof? Japanese wikipedia has a page on him (also note the last paragraph), while on English wikipedia his name redirects to the page for Tommy John surgery.

Why is the doctor better-known than the procedure? For one thing nobody knows who Tommy John is in Japan, so the name Tommy John surgery isn't going to stick. Secondly, there aren't any experts on Tommy John surgery in Japan, and Dr Jobe practicing on the west coast ^[16] probably makes him the geographically closest expert for seriously injured Japanese baseball players. They all wind up seeing him rather than someone else, and of course every time the media will report his name. Most notably Dr Jobe has revived the careers of stars Sadaaki Yoshimura, Masumi Kuwata and Choji Murata. So, in some sense, I think Japanese baseball circles revere him as the super sports doctor who can do incredible things to cure players who were deemed incurable by conventional standards. Does that sound familiar?

I do like the Dr Goodjob translation though, because regardless of whether or not the porting team knew about the origin of his name, the tongue-in-cheek factor of "everything being a-okay" is probably more important than a direct reference to Dr Jobe.

Shop Items

Necklaces

Some professional baseball players wear special metal or crystal necklaces believing they have therapeutic effects. Hideki Okajima's necklace has been a topic of discussion^[17], so you may have heard of them. The fad seems to have made its way to MLB.^[18][19]

Charms

These are modeled after traditional Japanese charms.^[20][21]

Powerin

Japanese energy drinks are typically suffixed with ~in.

Surprise Bag

Modeled after fukubukuro [3] [4] ("Luck bag"), popular holiday gifts at department stores.

References

1. ↑ p16
2. ↑ When Takatsu first arrived in the major leagues, commentators called his sinkers changeups, since they were so slow compared to conventional sinkers.
3. ↑ Notes: Takatsu hopes to impress
4. ↑ Google Translation of Wikipedia
5. ↑ Japanese Wikipedia Babelfish Translation
6. ↑ Hito Natsu No Keiken
7. ↑ http://www.gundamofficial.com/
8. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makuuchi
9. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonidan#Jonidan
10. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chonmage
11. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachi-ai
12. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chankonabe
13. ↑ Igawa's oddities, like heavy cardiovascular work on the day he pitches and throwing a baseball against a chain-link fence alone, drew some attention in the spring.
14. ↑ ...In past years with the Seibu Lions, he wouldn't ice even after his frequent 300-pitch bullpen sessions
15. ↑ http://eow.alc.co.jp/%C5%B7%BA%CD/EUC-JP/
16. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Dr._Frank_Jobe
17. ↑ Rotoworld.com Forums _ Fantasy Baseball Talk _ Dice K and Okajimas Necklaces
18. ↑ What are the Boston Red Sox Wearing? Phiten Titanium Necklaces
19. ↑ An agreement has been reach for Phiten to produce MLB authorized official health care goods to be used by 30 clubs across the US
20. ↑ Japanese Protective Charms
21. ↑ Charms are used for successful childbirth, passing examinations, safe driving, and the like