The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors. Let me explain.
MLB pitching coach Jim Colborn of the Los Angeles Dodgers was saying his hurlers had been having trouble during the first three games because the mounds were too soft. Also, the Japanese-style pitching rubber was causing problems. Instead of a plain hole with dirt where the pitchers would push off as they delivered their throws, there was an extension of the rubber surface which caused Colborn's charges to slip at the release point.
Despite the handicap, the MLB pitchers performed well enough to help their team win the first four games of the series before losing Game 5 at Osaka Dome. They still wanted something to be done to make the mounds more comfortable, however, so by agreement among Major League Baseball, Nippon Pro Baseball and the Mainichi Shimbun tour organizers, it was decided to fly in a couple of groundskeepers from the U.S. to alter the mounds at the Sapporo, Nagoya and Tokyo Domes for the final three games of event.