Ichiba Claims Another Owner

I saw that on the news this morning as my daughter was flipping the channel to NHK (I stopped her at the mention of the BayStars). There was nothing in Nikkan Sports (that I noticed) about it. Only something about their 4th round draft choice being a shortstop for the "post Ishii" future.

The only further information that I caught from the news on TV was that Yokohama had given Ichiba this money for meals and taxies before the Giants started showering him with cash gifts. So, the question is, why didn't they come forward two month ago when Watanabe stepped down? Also, was the information volunteered from the owner (who waited until the season ended to prevent distracting the team), or did someone else break the news?

As for "clearing out owners obstructing progress," Yokohama's owner wasn't one of them. He's been very much for expansion over contraction (despite going along with the other owners on the Kintetsu-Orix merger). He's voiced his opinion that the entry fee should be dropped or abolished to help promote expansion. While he hasn't done enough to promote the BayStars on TBS' TV network, the games TBS has shown have been high quality productions where they don't miss the lead off batter in innings (unlike TV Asahi). (My only complaints about TBS' broadcasts during the season were the usual 7:00 to 9:24 time frames and geinojin (celebrities) guests with a focus on the Giants.)

Maybe TBS should now sell the team to the loser of the "new team grant." Hey, having Horie-owner in the Central League should be real interesting with Watanabe still running things in the background.

Ichiba is a getting more like an epidemic every day. His latest victims are Kuma-san and Nozaki-san of the Tigers. This young man is definitely on the take.

[Corrected Kuma's name.]

That fool has Hiroshima Carp written all over him. Ichiba is ruining his career before it gets started. He should be banished to the worst baseball place in the world. It makes me sad that they're moving the Expos, because that's where he belongs.

Hiroshima - they're cheap and they'll burn his arm out!

All these owners quitting over payments to Ichiba - there's gotta be something going on.

- [T]here's gotta be something going on.

I understand why Watanabe grabbed the opportunity to get out of the spot light. He was pulling the owners deeper and deeper into trouble every time he opened his mouth.

Of course, his "retirement" hasn't stopped him from continuing to run everything. He is still present at all important meetings for the team. The new "owner" doesn't do anything without Nabetsune's OK. The only difference is that he's no longer talking to the press. I don't know if that's for the better or worse.

Yokohama's Sunahara-owner just bought the team a couple of years ago. He's hasn't been around long enough to be a grumpy old tyrant. Under the new ownership, Yokohama may not have done too well on the field, but they have had a number of interesting ideas about how to make money, such as the highly successful "visitor's season tickets" where said reserved seats were sold out for all Hanshin games before the season started. So, what ulterior motif would Sunahara-owner have had?

As for Kuma-owner (Hanshin), I don't know enough about him to say anything positive or negative. I have thought, over the years, that he tended to copy what ever the Giants did, but with less success for the most part. Nonetheless, I don't think he'll be working behind the scenes like Nabetune. Maybe this battle tired him out and he's just looking for a reason to retire, and this works for him.

[Corrected Kuma's name on Oct 26, 2004 7:55 PM JST]

My impression was that Kuma-san tended to co-operate with Nabetsune until Hoshino-san was able to persuade him otherwise. Nozake-san is a real loss as he was very astute and very much on the reform side.

As for the owners resigning in quick succession, I am not sure there is any consipiracy. The owner of Seibu has also resigned over a different corruption case.

[Corrected Kuma's name on Oct 26, 2004 7:56 PM JST]

The new owner (chairman) of the Tigers is likely to be Masatoshi Tezuka who is also the chairman of the Hanshin Electric Railway Co. No news on a new president, but this will be decided on Monday.

Sorry to be picky: it's "Kuma." The second kanji in his name is the one for "man" but in his case, the name is pronounced "Kuma."

You're not picky at all. However I am not trying to pronounce his name. In Romanji it would be written "Kuman" but pronounced differently (I have seen several examples of this). Note how "Hiro-o" (in Tokyo) is written but it is definitely pronounced without the extra "O".

But it wouldn't be written as "Kuman" in romaji because romaji is basically a transliteration of Japanese sounds. In this case we drop the "n" because we don't say the "n."

Long and short vowels are a completely different issue. Strictly speaking we should be using macrons to indicate long vowels, but that's not practical with English keyboards. And there's really no standard, particularly with place names. Why write Hiro-o, but not Oosaka for instance?

Writing wise it would follow the original Kanji which is man. As it is a transliteration it is written Kuman as n is a part of the original Kanji. Silent pronunciation does not necessarily lead to dropping parts of Kanji. Some of my Tokyo friends actually call him Hisama which can be confusing.

Anyway can we get back to the Ichiba issue - this is an interesting discussion but I started this post to talk about Meiji's pitcher.

To close the issue, if you look at what the Japanese press writes when they parenthesize his name, it is transliterated as "Ku-ma." Please see this Yomiuri On-Line article (in Japanese) which addresses the retirement of Kuma and Sunahara owners as an example.

If you Google for him as くまん you will find mostly fan sites, many with this same discussion in Japanese. But no news sites. Kuma appears to be the correct pronunciation and transliteration of the former Hanshin owner's name.

I'd gotten this wrong for a number of years. I apologize for it, and would like to thank Torakichi-san for pointing out the error (even if it did lead off on a tangent). Getting information corrected is what's important. More sites that would know write it Kuma, while sites that are harder to verify correctness (like this one) write it Kuman.

Unless someone knows of a more reliable source (such as the owner himself), I think that "Kuma" can be assumed to be correct. Feel free to verify with other sources yourself. And if you think I've got some other names wrong (not related to things like "o-o" or "o-u" combinations), please feel free to point them out, preferably with a verifiable source (and under the "Administrative" forum).

I get the impression that the Japanese concept of "owner" is different from the American one. An American owner might sell the team, but not "resign." "Resign" sounds like something an employee would do, not an owner.

The "owner" of a club in Japan equates to a "chairman" of a business.

By the way, I saw Ichiba's apology on TV this morning.