Professional baseball in Japan the first American to play professional baseball in Japan when he joined the Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu (Tokyo Giants) in December 1934, touring with them in 1935. Jimmy Bonna, Kiyomi "Slim" Hirakawa, Fumito "Jimmy" Horio, Kazuyoshi "George" Matsuura, Andrew "Bucky" Harris McGalliard (Japan's "Bucky Harris"), Herbert "Buster" North, Yoshio "Sam" Takahashi, and Tadashi "Bozo" Wakabayashi became the first Americans to play in Japan's professional baseball league in 1936. The American writer Robert Whiting wrote in his 1977 book "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" that, While others have objected to characterizing the sport in these terms, many Japanese players and
Professional sports leagues in the United States each year since 2004. Major League Lacrosse (MLL) is a men's field lacrosse league consisting of nine teams in the United States. Founded in 1999, the league's inaugural season was in 2001. MLL averaged 3,844 spectators per game during the 2017 season. MLL is a semi-professional league. MLL players reportedly earn annual salaries in the $10,000–$25,000 range; players and staff generally hold other jobs. The Arena Football League is the highest level of play in the indoor/arena styles of gridiron football. The sport is played in an indoor arena on a much smaller field than American football. The league was