https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGm-3LQEs4k
TFS’ Dragon Ball ShortZ reminds audiences that regardless of where Yamcha falls on the power hierarchy among otherworldly fighters, when playing baseball with normal people he’s unbeatable. So much so nobody outside of his friends would show up to games involving him because he never lost.
I am not a baseball fan, but would the average sports fan really not want to see a superhuman who gets a home run every time he swings the bat?
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Doubtful. If anything people would want to see more players like Yamcha. You see it in sports in real life. Whenever an athlete hits a new level, they all strive to play at that level.
Even in real life Mark McGwire had a crazy home run streak. Unfortunately, he was caught doping. That didn’t drive people away from the sport. There are players gunning to get those numbers without illegal PEDs.
I think of the end of Shaolin Soccer. Spoilers for a 25 year old movie… everyone starts learning shaolin martial arts because of the masters using their skills on the soccer pitch.
Not if you’re a fan of the other team or other players, no.
Few people want to see wildly unmatched sports games – there’s not a lot of excitement in them, you know? That’s why sports have leagues, so you don’t get matches where one of the teams might as well not bother showing up.
In this case, you already know the result of the baseball match before the game begins. The team with Yamcha is going to win. Hell, not even the team – Yamcha’s going to win, even if every one of his team mates stayed in bed. Nothing anyone except Yamcha does matters.
This might be cool to watch the first time, but the novelty will wear off very fast, and then you’re spending a good chunk of money to sit in an uncomfortable seat for hours watching people apathetically do pointless things until a pre-determined ending occurs. I don’t imagine a lot of people would be interested.
It would be one thing if the other athletes could catch up, but watching Yamcha dominate every single game would be like watching a Monster Truck driving over a toy truck:
Entertaining the first time because of the novelty, but it gets old really fast.
There would probably be an early spike in attendance, but after a while the novelty would wear off. Once it becomes clear that no one can touch this guy, and once he’s beaten the home run record by 20ish homers, what’s left? I mean, say what you will about Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky, there was an actual, competitive game being played.
Or to borrow from the clip, who would want to watch the baseball equivalent of Mr. Satan wrecking a kiddie tournament more than once? Unless the other teams also find Z Fighter tier players or the game degenerates into Harlem Globetrotters-style shenanigans, you get the whole experience in one sitting.
Other players would ask Yamcha to teach them, so the overall level of baseball players would increase
Not a baseball nerd or anything but I don’t think that having a superhuman like yamcha would be an auto win for the whole team. Quick check says the best players are worth 8-12 wins a season (over 160ish games), while the average player is worth about 2. So is Yamcha worth 24 wins? Still sounds great but not a guaranteed win.
Arguably he could prevent the other team from scoring at all with his speed, but he wouldn’t be playing his position in most of those instances. If he did that a couple of times the league would probably make a rule against that, forcing him to stick to his position.
The other thing would be contracts and money. A player of his caliber would be getting insane offers from every team that could afford it. And if that is the case how much would the team have to spend on their other players. They might get a baseball god but can only afford rookies and overthehills for the rest of the player slots.
It’s less that Yamcha is “too good” and more that no one else is half as good as Yamcha. If it was a sport with more superhumans in it, that’d be one thing, but if he’s good enough that most rules that rely in human error barely or never affect him, then he’s not even playing the same sport.
Especially for organized betting that’s a nightmare.
I’d actually think his solution would be to throw it nice and steady and then back step to 2nd base. If they bunt he still gets them out at 1st, and if they try to home run he just jumps and catches it.
In real life Yamcha would be banned.
If I’m playing against Yamcha, I’m walking him every time he comes to the plate. By the end of his third game he is never swinging at the ball again. None of his teammates do anything on defense because he could basically be Bugs Bunny and pitch to himself.
Im assuming watching him win every single time is exiting at first but gets old fast
I think it would take a little while for the novelty to wear off but eventually it will. Assuming Yamcha went all out, there’d still be interest in him chasing and setting records. Plus there’d be haters who would eventually want to see him fail or hate the team. But even then, after a while, it would all go down because it would take the fun out of it. Sports is all largely built on the hope that your team has a chance to win. So if your team has no chance, then why show up?
Realistically though, similar to Krillin when he became a cop, Yamcha wouldn’t use his full power all the time so that he didn’t look out of place. He’d be a star baseball player for sure but even just using 10-20% of his power would be enough to accomplish that. That way he’d still be one of the guys.
No because nobody understands baseball rules.
No.
In the NFL, in the late 2000’s-2019 The Patriots won 97% of their games. Then from 2020-2025, the Chiefs won about 97% of their games. Them winning was kind of predictable, and I just got tired of watching them.
I’d watch all the other games I could. Especially between more evenly matched teams.
So I’m sure the same could be said about Yamcha’s team. People just wouldn’t watch that particular game.
I was just thinking, if they gave him gimmicky handicaps it would be entertaining. At least as a sideshow.
Can a blindfolded Yamcha Hit a home run using a rubber chicken? Can he strike someone out using a wiffle ball while pitching from the outfield?
If Yamcha can hit the ball into a 4 year old’s mitt, everyone gets 50 cents off $20 hotdogs.