Japan first experienced baseball 150 years ago. via Maine.

 Japan is commemorating the beginning of the sport there in 1872. Only in 2000 were the American teacher's living descendants made aware of his involvement in bringing the game to Tokyo.

Portland, Maine Baseball can be credited with having its roots in this small East Coast town. However, Gorham, located roughly 30 minutes inland from Portland, has no desire to engage in conflict with Cooperstown, New York.

Gorham is happy to claim that it is the spot where Japanese baseball first appeared, which is a far more humble and unexpected claim. Even while that appears unlikely, the evidence is strong. This year marks the 150th anniversary of baseball in Japan, and Horace Wilson, a native of Maine, is credited for bringing the sport there in 1872.

Wilson was one of many outsiders hired by the Japanese government during the Meiji Restoration to impart Western values to the nation as it emerged from two centuries of isolation after leaving Maine to fight in the Civil War.

Wilson is credited with first teaching baseball to his students in 1872 at Kaisei Gakko, the University of Tokyo's predecessor. When Wilson was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003, that version of history was accepted as fact. This honour started with a call to Wilson's descendants in Gorham in 2000, which left them in disbelief.

The family was aware of Horace Wilson, of course, but no one knew that he had ever visited Japan, according to Scott Balcomb, whose wife Abigail is a great-granddaughter of Elbridge Wilson, Horace's younger brother.

The white, two-story farmhouse where Horace was born and raised is now home to the Balcomb family. Since Hubbard, Horace's father, bought Wilson Farm in 1836, it has always been in the family.

The real story, according to us, was that a person born on this farm ended up in Japan in 1871, Balcomb continued. Even that was unexpected, but then the caller went on to explain that Horace is revered in Japan as the founder of baseball and that they want to visit Maine to meet us before inviting us to visit them there. We found the fuss to be unbelievable.

In an effort to get Wilson inducted, Balcomb and three of Wilson's descendants were flown to Japan in 2000 and feted there. Wilson was elected three years later, making him the second American and third non-Japanese foreigner to do so.

The bust of Wilson and the plaque that are on display in the museum were given to the family as bronze reproductions. They were brought back to Maine and now adorn the parlour room, which is close to the chamber where Wilson was probably born.

If there is any opposition to Gorham's claim to be the birthplace of Japanese baseball, it might come from Kents Hill, a town some 60 miles northeast of Gorham and the location of the boarding school Kents Hill School, which was established in 1824. Wilson most certainly began his four-year education in the fall of 1858, according to school records, therefore he would have completed his studies in the spring of 1862. It is highly likely that he initially learned baseball as a student at the school, according to his living descendants.

Cooperstown's claim to be the origin of American baseball has been disputed throughout time, claims that Yokohama hosted Japan's first baseball game, a year before Wilson started teaching the sport to students, have also been made. According to English-language media stories, American sailors and locals played a game in 1871.

However, Wilson and 1872 are seen as the symbolic beginning, as shown by this year's commemoration in the US and Japan. Before a recent Mets game at Citi Field, the Japanese Consulate General in New York held a ceremony to celebrate the 150th anniversary.

Whichever version of history is correct, baseball has had a significant influence on Japanese culture and ties between the United States and Japan since the Meiji Restoration.

Wilson returned to the United States in 1915, and that year saw the birth of the National High School Baseball Championship. It is now firmly established as a summertime spectacular that engulfs the entire nation; 3,782 high schools are taking part this year. In August, Sendai Ikuei of Miyagi Prefecture was named the 104th victor.

Even though the game quickly gained popularity as an amateur sport, the establishment of a professional league wasn't complete when Wilson passed away in San Francisco in 1927. Four of the seven clubs in the original Nippon Professional Baseball, which had seven teams, are still in play today. Since then, the N.P.B. has expanded to 12 clubs, divided into the Central and Pacific leagues, with franchises in cities all throughout Japan, from Sapporo in the north to Fukuoka in the south.

Japan's baseball team won the Olympic gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, demonstrating the country's steadily improving playing standards. Japan also triumphed in the World Baseball Classic's inaugural two competitions, in 2006 and 2009.

And during the past few decades, elite players from Japan have frequently been to the United States. With his five-year, $85 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, outfielder Seiya Suzuki became the 64th player from Japan to be signed by a big league team this year.

Ichiro Suzuki, who became the first player from Japan to be inducted into a major league team's hall of fame last month, was the first of those 64 players to receive a Most Valuable Player Award in the United States. Suzuki was honoured as the ninth player to enter the Mariners Hall of Fame at a pregame ceremony on August 27 in Seattle. When he gets eligible in 2025, it is believed that he will automatically be elected to Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Suzuki thought about the reasons why Japan has been enthralled by this imported Western game for 150 years.

In Japanese, Suzuki added, "Japanese people value using their minds. Baseball is a sport that requires more than just strength and speed. It also calls for intelligence. Without a question, that has long been one of the game's key draws in Japan. I think the current game is moving away from that element, and Japan often adopts American trends, so I truly hope that doesn't become the norm there. My sincere wish is that Japanese baseball may continue to be distinctive and rely on each player's independent judgement.

The most accomplished Japanese player currently playing in American baseball is Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels, who rose to prominence with Suzuki's retirement in 2019. Ohtani, a two-way superstar, was the American League's most valuable player in 2017 and is a contender once more in 2018.

The most accomplished Japanese player currently playing in American baseball is Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels, who rose to prominence with Suzuki's retirement in 2019. Ohtani, a two-way superstar, was the American League's most valuable player in 2017 and is a contender once more in 2018.

Abigail Balcomb was asked what she believed her great-great-uncle Horace would think of Ohtani's capacity to succeed as a batter and pitcher while seated in the Wilson Farm dining room.

Oh, she said, "I think he'd be thrilled. "My forefathers really like it when players had complete control. But Shohei Ohtani's performance in the classroom is what he truly wants to know. I believe Horace would be most interested in learning if he was a good student.

Another reminder that an American instructor who introduced baseball to his students 150 years ago is responsible for the sport's origins in Japan.