Cultural Differences in Baseball

Interesting piece from the WSJ:

 

The above chart is a list of injuries suffered in the past few years by Japanese middle infielders. There have only been four middle infielders from Japan to play Major League Baseball and three of them have been seriously injured due to "takeout" slides by players looking to break up a double play. The article theorizes that the cultural difference between Japanese and American baseball is to blame due to the fact that this type of slide is not common in the Japanese game.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703518704576258822289290998.html