Baseball fans were disheartened to learn that Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish would be out for the entire 2015 season because of elbow surgery. The right-hander could still have a promising Major League career, but like other Japanese pitchers who have crossed the Pacific, he seems cursed by infirmities that affect his ability to throw.

Three compatriots currently active in the U.S. have had to undergo the same type of surgery, and that number doesn't include Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had the operation but is now back in Japan. The latest pitching star to debut in the States, Masahiro Tanaka, may succumb to an identical fate, since he missed the latter half of his rookie season due to elbow problems.

The American sports press has theorized that the malady is caused by the inordinate number of pitches these players threw when they were young. It's common for Japanese high school pitchers to throw complete games on a regular basis, and the wear and tear comes to a head when they hit their late 20s. Japanese coaches have labeled these assertions culturally ignorant. The vast majority of high school pitchers are not going to progress to the big leagues, and so they should be allowed to make the most of their youthful passion for the sport. At any rate, the American guideline of limiting a pitcher to 100 throws a game in order to safeguard his arm is anathema in Japan, where konjō, a word that describes a single-minded "spirit," is the operative sensibility in amateur athletics.