Tubegazing: Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball
June 30, 2006
Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball(PBS, premières July 4, 10 p.m. EDT) So you thought it was just Americans who went batty every summer over four sandbags and a dirt mound? You haven't seen sports-crazy till you've tuned into baseball as lived and breathed by hoards of Japanese teens. This PBS documentary series follows two of the 4,000 high school teams that vie annually for the privilege of competing in the national tournament, known as "Koshien." In the Land of the Rising Sun, America's favorite pastime is life – teaching youngsters humility, submission to authority, a yen for poetry in the midst of heartache – and that particularly Japanese obsession with martial arts. Grade: A