Standing on the field at Petco Park in San Diego at the finals of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, streamers falling from the sky and the Japanese team dog-piling in celebration, I never thought I would see any other country than our own win an international baseball tournament. Of course the Cubans had won many, but never when our major leaguers were playing.

Ichiro Suzuki was hugging Daisuke Matsuzaka. Their manager, Sadaharu Oh, had a look of pride in his eye as his team tasted the fruits of victory.

Japanese baseball has come a long way since I began working with Japanese baseball players in the 1960s. On Tuesday I will be proud to receive a prestigious award that Japanese officials say honors my contributions to Japanese baseball. On behalf of the Emperor of Japan, Consul General Junichi Ihara will present me with the Order of the Rising Sun. I will be humbled and thrilled to accept this award.

My involvement with Japanese baseball goes back a long time. Walter O’Malley sent me to Japan in 1965 to work with the Tokyo Giants and instruct them in all aspects of baseball. For three weeks I did my best to impart the Dodger way of playing baseball to the players, coaches and manager of the Tokyo team.

I tried to teach them all the fundamentals that a ballplayer has to know between the lines. I also tried to teach them about scouting, as well as setting up a farm system to develop young talent, something at that point no Japanese team did.

Believe it or not, the Tokyo Giants went on to win nine consecutive championships starting that year.

In 1965, there were only three Japanese players who could have played major league baseball: Shigeo Nagashima, a power-hitting third baseman; Masaichi Kaneda, a 400-game winning left-hander; and Sadaharu Oh, the Japanese Babe Ruth.

The majority of their players were good with the glove, but didn’t hit for power. They played for one run, but did not have great speed.

Now, there are many Japanese ballplayers playing the major leagues, and in fact, some of them are the best in the game.

I attribute much of their progress, and success, to the many instructors and managers who spent time teaching the game. Japanese players are prepared to play up to their capabilities. They have tremendous focus.

When Hideo Nomo came to the Dodgers in 1995, the cultural transition was tough on him. He didn’t know the language. He didn’t have any friends. I took Nomo under my wing and helped him as much as I could. I ordered food for him, spent time with him, and did my best to make him feel comfortable.

I treated him like a son.

But he, like many Japanese players, came to the United States to compete against the best in the world, and to do so, and be successful under those conditions, takes focus and competitive drive. Nomo never embarrassed himself, his family, or his country. All he did was win.

The Dodgers signed a friendship agreement with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes in 2001. As part of that agreement, I hosted the Buffaloes for three weeks at Dodgertown for our annual fall training camp. At night, after all the work of the day was done, the players would stand outside of their rooms and take one hundred swings each. Not extra batting practice in a cage, but they were visualizing.

The entire team was participating. Ask any farm director or minor league coach the last time they saw any of their players preparing like that.

The Buffaloes went from worst in 2000, to first in 2001, and went to the Japanese World Series.

Part of Walter O’Malley’s vision was the internationalization of baseball. The game was flourishing in countries throughout Latin America, but building the bridge to Asia was key. After my trip to Tokyo in 1965, the Dodgers toured Japan in ’66 and played a series of games against Japanese teams. These visits led to a series of visits by Japanese teams to the Dodgers’ spring training facility in Vero Beach, Fla., for baseball clinics hosted by Dodger coaches. The Giants visited five times, the first being in 1961, and four other visits in ’67, ’71, ’75 and ’80. The Chunichi Dragons visited Dodgertown in 1988.

As part of the friendship deal between the Dodgers and Buffaloes, I visited Japan more than 15 times over the course of the four-year agreement. I was the manager of the National League All-Star team that toured Japan in the 1970s. I went to Japan in 1993 for the Akihiro “Ike” Ikuhara Friendship Series where the Dodgers toured Japan playing exhibition games. I lectured at Waseda University. I was fortunate enough to represent the United States of America in a presidential delegation at the World Expo in Aichi in 2005.

What do all of these visits, clinics, lectures, series and diplomacy serve to create? Goodwill, certainly. Friendship, naturally. Bridging a cultural divide through a common love? Perfectly.

The World Baseball Classic is the manifestation of that. In 2006, MLB commissioner Bud Selig named me the official ambassador, and as such I traveled the globe promoting the tournament. I went to each city hosting games of the WBC, did interview after interview, spreading the idea that this tournament is special because the best players would be competing against each other, and playing for national pride.

This year, the semifinals and finals of the WBC will be played at Dodger Stadium. It is the perfect setting, as it has hosted numerous international visitors over the years, and has seen some of the most exciting and dramatic baseball in the history of the game. I can’t wait for this March. It is the best answer to one of baseball’s hardest questions – which team is the best in the world.

I do look forward to the day we see a true World Series, where the championship team from Major League Baseball plays the championship team from Japan. We might be close, but for now though, I just enjoy a tremendous sense of fulfillment and pride by seeing the advancement of Japanese baseball.