Pro baseball also needs reform

プロ野球も改革を

Even in the preseason games, the sports media have been full of reports about the performances of Japanese players in the American major leagues, such as Ichiro Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Hideo Nomo. As of March 25, there will be 12 of them to follow this year. Once again, it looks as though American pro baseball is going to grab more attention than Japanese pro baseball this season.

One of the main issues in Japanese pro baseball this year is going to be whether stars like Hideki Matsui of the Yomiuri Giants and Norihiro Nakamura of the Kintetsu Buffaloes will pack their bags to join the flow to America at the end of the season. A Japanese group led by pitchers Nomo and Hideki Irabu has purchased a majority stake in an independent league team in America with the aim of assisting Japanese players who want to try their skills in the major leagues. Such enterprise would never be seen in Japan. These players demonstrate that they are full of pep off the field as well.

The focus of attention at the moment is the upswing of the Hanshin Tigers under their new coach, Mr. Senichi Hoshino. Hanshin came out on top in the preseason exhibition games, and there are high hopes, especially in the Kansai region, that it can keep up the winning pace in the new season. That's fine, of course. But think about it for a moment. Faced with a lack of other topics, Japanese pro baseball appears to be pinning its hopes on a team that has finished at the bottom in the last four consecutive seasons. We can only hope that the Tigers do not run out of steam too quickly.

It is only natural for fans to share the ups and downs of their favorite team's performances, but at the same time the front offices of the clubs should put more effort into gathering human resources and building teams with continuity. While it is not necessary to go as far as the major league clubs do, the core of team building should be a general manager. There should be someone in charge of how the team is going to grow over the next several years.

Remember the late Mr. Rikuo Nemoto, who was a sort of general manager with the Seibu Lions and Daiei Hawks. While teams like Seibu, Yokohama BayStars and Nippon Ham Fighters appoint former players to their front offices, they should give them more authority and help them to develop in the post. The free-agent system has been grabbing all the attention lately, but the fact is that player-for-player trading has diminished of late precisely because of the negligence by front offices.

Some efforts are being made to restore the popularity of the game. For example, NHK is scheduled to air live broadcasts of 10 Giant home games, and Daiei is going to play some official games in Taiwan. And it remains to be seen whether the new strike zone will shorten playing time. Nevertheless, amid the drift away from baseball and the approach of soccer's World Cup kick-off in May, the sense of crisis in baseball administrative circles seems serious. Back in 1993, when a similar sense of crisis spread following the emergence of J. League soccer, professional baseball set up a reform committee that deliberated for a year and a half without coming up with specific measures that have lasted.

Problems that should be tackled include: (1) issues of internationalization, such as the dispatch of players to the Olympics and the proposal by the major leagues for an international draft system for Japanese amateur players; (2) the need to correct loopholes in baseball agreements that were exposed by last year's difficulty in transferring shares of Yokohama BayStars; (3) the serious business condition of the Daiei Hawks, a situation that continues to smolder; (4) the question of reducing the number of years before a player can acquire free-agent status; and (5) the introduction of a loan system a la soccer.

Although moves to relocate the Nippon Ham Fighters to Sapporo show that long-delayed progress is being made to disperse team franchises, which are concentrated in the Tokyo and Kansai regions, there could be a troublesome reaction by the Seibu Lions, which have scheduled opening games this year and 20 games next year in Sapporo.

Professional baseball operators should take this opportunity, though, to consider whether there are any places in the Tohoku or Shikoku regions that could serve as the homes of baseball teams.

The Japan Times: April 1, 2002
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      野茂、伊良部を中心とするグループが、大リーグ入りを目指す日本人選手支援の目的で独立リーグチームの株式を取得した。日本ではありえないことで、彼らは球場の外でもやる気十分だ。

      今、日本の球界の話題の中心は星野監督を迎えた阪神の躍進だろう。オープン戦トップの成績を残した阪神に、開幕後も好調維持の期待がかかる。結構なことではあるが、これは他に話題がないために、4年連続最下位のチームに望みをかけているだけなのではないか。

      球団フロントは人材の確保と継続性のあるチーム作りに努力を傾注してほしい。ゼネラルマネジャーがチーム作りの中心となるべきだ。

      人気回復を目指し、NHKは巨人のホームゲーム10試合を生中継し、ダイエーは公式試合の一部を台湾で行う。ストライクゾーンの変更で試合時間が短縮されるかどうかも明らかになる。野球離れが進み、5月にサッカーＷ杯開幕という状況下、球界首脳の危機感には深刻なものがある。

      今後の課題としては、オリンピックへの参加や、アマ選手国際ドラフト制度など国際化の問題、昨年横浜ベイスターズの株式譲渡問題で明らかになった野球協約の抜け穴をなくすこと、経営不振に苦しむダイエーホークス親会社の問題、フリーエージェントの権利を獲得する年限の短縮、サッカーで行われているような期限付き移籍の導入などがある。

The Japan Times Weekly
April 6, 2002
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