The State of Japanese Baseball [link updated]

I like your style.  No need to skip anything at all!

You did have one small miss, though.  It's been 2 position players and 2 pitchers for a few years now.

And you're right.  Even with a lot of the star moving abroad, the real fans will still be around.  The loss of Sasaki really hurt my 'Stars, yet I still watch all the games on TV that I can.  I'm watching Hiroshima's Gomez hit a game tying home run against Saitoh as I type this.  (No shiroari or tabacco smoke around here, but my 2 liter bottle of Aquarius is getting awful warm.)

The reason I think that fans will continue watching is really quite simple.  We've gone through this fan decrease before when J-League started up.  J-League took a big chunk of the younger fan base, leaving mostly oyaji like me still in need of our baseball fix.  And after the fad of J-League wore off, many fans returned to watch baseball, perhaps just not as feverously.

I still like my idea of the Pacific League joining Korea and Taiwan to live up to their name.  Since the Central League won't help them out with interleague play, play up the internationalization theme as much as they can.  I think it'll have a lot of appeal.

That's a pretty well done piece, except for the
fact that it's KAZUHISA Ishii going over to the
majors next season and not his teammate Hirotoshi,
who has spent a lot of down time during this campaign with an injury.

In any event, to expand on increasing the number of foreign players allowed on a Japanese
team's roster (something the Japanese players
association is against), the Koreans, who are second to none in Asia when it comes to nationalism, has one team with five foreigners JUST ON ITS PITCHING STAFF.

But while being willing to take on more foreign
players is a good thing, it's certainly no panacea. The overwhelming number of non-Japanese
players don't do that well. For example, the Hanshin Tigers were hoping for big things from
Tom Evans after Ivan Cruz and Eduardo Perez went
by the wayside, but Evans, who did fairly solidly in his limited major league experience, has hardly
been anything special for his new club. Yomiuri's Darryl May, who had a fine 2000, is struggling this season. Thus, just what the Japanese players learn from foreign players is questionable at best. And when an ex-big leaguer fails doing things his way it only makes Japanese management more convinced that their method is best. Even when a foreigner is successful, as Bobby Valentine was, they are still so hidebound that variations from the past norms seem inconceivable.

Part of the problem may be cultural since there
is an emphasis on the collective rather than the
individual and an outlook that reveres authority.
Therefore, players are too concerned with fitting into a mold and not making mistakes to maintain harmony and face and owners are preoccupied with keeping their thumbs on the players. This often hampers a player's development and makes the style of play conservative and often like a kabuki play sans the onnagata (men playing women's roles). I'm not saying that what Japanese baseball needs are
Albert Belles (God forbid) or Gary Sheffields,
but some Pete Roses sure would be nice. But if one
tries to emerge the Japanese team management would
find a way to snuff it out. THAT is the perhaps the problem.

For Westlbstars comment about the roster, I was just trying to say that the maximum number of foreigners on the field at any one time would be 3. Pitcher and two position players. Isn't this right? If so I will make it more clear. Otherwise, please tell me.

For the 2-gun bench warmer comment, you are right about Ishii! I will fix that. Thanks.

Generally, in the article I was trying to give the fans' voice because the media continually overlooks them. But as for my opinion...

I generally agree with 2-gun bench warmer, bringing a boatload of foreign players to Japan will not necessarily be the answer. I like the fact that younger players are coming these days (Cabrera, Pedraza, Ramirez). I say this because seeing older players (Mike Blowers) at the end of their careers get run out of town can be pretty painful. If the Japanese teams focus on young players that have shown they can hit a curve ball and stay away from aging former big stars (I am wagering that Ron Gant will be here next year), adding more foreign players might add interest.

To me though, the biggest problem that Japanese baseball faces is the Giants. They are just too big and for no good reason. If interest could be
spread around, the game would be much much better for it. They just have such an incredible monopoly and there is so little competition (off the field). As a result, Watanabe has no interest in improving the game while he rakes in tons of dough. I guess the recent interest in U.S. baseball is forcing his hand a bit, but I suppose it will take one of his own (Matsui) to defect before he does anything really substantial. Even then he might not do anything.

I mean, two weeks ago I saw two games at Jingu against the Carp and the only full sections were both oendan. Everyplace else was maybe half full. Last week, the place was packed for the weekend series against the Giants with 3/4 of the house supporting the Giants. This is ridiculous, the Swallows are in first!

Gotta get some more flypaper,

Brett