STRIKE ONE! the 1st baseball strike of Japan

[Taro Toporific]

Negoro must step up to the plate
(September 8, 2004) Asahi ShimbunAs the first-ever strike in Japanese professional baseball looms, Commissioner Yasuchika Negoro, the only person who can break the impasse, has avoided taking responsibility.
....more>>


Hmmm, "avoided taking responsibility"? Isn't that Mission One for all Japanese?

[Captain Japan]

Apparently these guys are only going to "strike" on Saturdays and Sundays. They'll play during the week. This ought to show management they mean business.

[AssKissinger]

Apparently these guys are only going to "strike" on Saturdays and Sundays. They'll play during the week. This ought to show management they mean business.

No weekend games would certainly cut into revenues.

[Captain Japan]

Apparently these guys are only going to "strike" on Saturdays and Sundays. They'll play during the week. This ought to show management they mean business.

No weekend games would certainly cut into revenues.

And not playing during the week will cut it even more. Going halfway is just sort of silly. I mean, if you are going to screw up the season, screw it up entirely and make your point.

[AssKissinger]

Well, then the records are skewed and a lot of the players are sensitive to that. Probably this way they feel they can cut into the profits but without having to leave blanks and asterisks in future baseball almanacs. That way they can hurt the management without hurting themselves. Plus, a full strike over a team merger seems a bit of an overkill, I think.

[gaijinzilla]

Actually this tactic makes better sense as it is more dispruptive than strikes that go on forever (anyone having travelled to/or lived in Italy can attest to this!!). I don't know the figures, but I believe attendance is higher on weekends than week nights.
A prolonged strike such as the one conducted by MLB players back in 1994 would only kill any good-will many of the fans may have towards the players, thus palying into ownerships hands ("see these players are just WAGAMAMA, they don't care about you fans")
Furthermore a prolonged strike makes it possible for management (or in this case ownership) to unload the lot and hire "scabs" who will play for less!
(hmm maybe I should go look for my old baseball glove, I know it's in the apartment somewhere )

[canman]

I never thought that the players would ever get enough backbone to go ahead with the strike. I've looked at all the crap the owners have dumped on them and they just took it in the mouth. But now they are standing up for what they believe in. I was also hoping for a full strike, but perhaps as was metnioned it would hurt them more than help. I think the only way to fix the situation is to tear down Japanese baseball as it is and start over from scratch. Of course that will never happen, but until you get rid of theGiants and their ability to corner the market on tv revenues and buy the best players there won't be a baseball league, there will only be the Giants and nine or ten other stiffs.

[kamome]

Furthermore a prolonged strike makes it possible for management (or in this case ownership) to unload the lot and hire "scabs"...!

I vote for Captain Japan to be the first scab to be hired. Legend has it that he's got a wicked pitching arm. The Giants could use him on the mound.

[Taro Toporific]

Owners OK baseball merger despite the threat of strike
- Asahi Shimbun, Japan / Sept 9Owners of Japan's 12 professional baseball teams on Wednesday approved the merger of Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave, pushing the first-ever merger ...


Ichiro, Godzilla Offer Japan Economic LessonWilliam Pesek Jr.
Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Almost 15 years after being published, Robert Whiting's book ``You Gotta Have Wa'' remains a favorite of expats in Japan. Ostensibly about baseball, it tells a much broader story about Japanese culture and mindset.
Japanese-style baseball, Whiting argued in 1990, has become as clear an expression of the Japanese character as one could find, reflecting the real life and spirit of the people. (``Wa'' is a Japanese term meaning unity and team spirit.)
Why? Baseball's ``grip on Japan's collective psyche is due, ultimately, to the fact that it suits the national character,'' Whiting wrote. ....<snip>
....Old vs. New
The standoff pits two larger-than-life men against each other -- Tsuneo Watanabe, 78, owner of Japan's most popular baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants, and Takafumi Horie, a 32-year-old millionaire and founder of Internet service company Livedoor Co. Watanabe has been cast as personifying ``old Japan,'' while Horie represents ``new Japan.''<snip>
....Old Japan says no. ``We can't let some unknown person in, someone even I don't know,'' Watanabe told reporters. ...
If only such insular, antiquated thinking were confined to baseball. Watanabe's comments speak to a bigger problem that still holds back corporate Japan and, by extension, the economy. Japan's business model also continues to favor the huge, entrenched corporations over the interests of enterprising upstarts.....<snip>
....Job Protection
That's Japan's challenge, too. While corporate reform is afoot and entrepreneurship is on the rise, the odds are still stacked in favor of the big guys. Japan's business climate remains more about job protection than job creation.....<snip>
....Avoiding Change
In Japan's case it's debt. Even today, as the economy awakens from a 14-year slumber, little discussion goes toward reducing a debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio that's approaching 150 percent....<snip>

[Watcher]

These players are being ridiculous over the merger... I've been to a Buffalos game during a free weekend... that is, all the tickets were free. Tuffy Rhodes was heading for the HR record and Daie was in town. Guess how many fans showed up? Offhand I'd say about 4000. The place was dead quiet. You could only hear the whistles blown whenever there was a foul ball. Orix has been just as popular even though they hold the record of most runs given up in a game (a record they got on a Saturday and then broke on the following Sunday). Both teams were gonna collapse.
Hanshin fans are mad and they are the "brand" team in kansai... much as the Giants are in the East. I know Carp fans who are rabidly loyal, too. The Pacific League just has that secondary image... so if merging two teams is what it takes for any teams to survive then so be it... 6000 fans still don't make a succesful attendance.
My ideas:
Take down the fences/nets between the field and the stands(except the backstop area).

Get some entertaining announcers.

Build up local attachments - recruit players locally.
--- but don't limit quality (ie open up foreign player limitations)

Build an international following by having the J-Series champs play the K-Series champs (a real tourny, not some pre-season warm up for the MLB), and whoever else has a decent league.

Finally, take more risks in play.

[canman]

Watcher, I agree with you completely. Although I do applaude the players for trying to protect their jobs. If the team collapses then you won;t have a job at all. I still advocate breaking up the Giants, that is the first step in any recovery to Japanese baseball. As long as they continue to exist, then the majority of fans will only attend their games, the tv networks will kill themselves to broadcast the games, and the biggest number of free agents will want to play there. Start over, do the things Watcher said, start the games a little later on tv, broadcast the whole damn game, let the fans keep the homerunballs and the foulballs. Get rid of the highschool style chanting and the balloons and umbrellas. Make it into a professional game. Because it sure isn't now.

[Captain Japan]

Take down the fences/nets between the field and the stands(except the backstop area).

I used to wonder about this. Then I read, maybe in You Gotta Have Wa, that the fences weren't to protect the fans from batted balls but rather to keep the fans from jumping onto the field. I seriously couldn't believe this was the reason but a few months ago I was watching some highlights and it showed some footage from the '60s and these enraged fans were scaling some fences to get onto the field.

But you are right. The fences ruin the views. They should be cut down by half or all the way.

The game overall needs help. More specifically it needs managments that knows how to manage. There just isn't any incentive to run the teams properly. I attended a press conference recently where Robert Whiting made the point that the teams as they are now are merely cheap advertising for the parent companies. The companies see the teams more as an expense and not necessarily as a business. I think he's right.

If a more solid fan base results, I'm in favor of the contraction. But maybe if some of these fans got half a brain and realized cheering for the Giants is a complete bore, that would help too. Before the Ham Fighters moved up to Hokkaido their games at the Dome (which they shared with the Giants) were an absolute joke. They couldn't have averaged more than 1,000 bodies a game near the end. And I think a lot of people were using tickets given to them from newspaper subscription peddlers - I know this because that is where I got mine!

[canman]

I have watched sports highlights for the better part of this year, and have yet to see a Japanese manager do anything, but sit and watch the game. I have to laugh at the Chunichi Dragons manager, who has the same semi-retarted smile on his face. They never og out and pull a pitcher, you never see them give a player a pep talk or any encouragement. Just what the hell do they do, except call for that dumb bunt play to get the man to second. Ooh what exciting baseball.

[Captain Japan]

I have watched sports highlights for the better part of this year, and have yet to see a Japanese manager do anything, but sit and watch the game. I have to laugh at the Chunichi Dragons manager, who has the same semi-retarted smile on his face. They never og out and pull a pitcher, you never see them give a player a pep talk or any encouragement. Just what the hell do they do, except call for that dumb bunt play to get the man to second. Ooh what exciting baseball.

I think it was two years ago that the Nagoya Dome painted a dirt infield onto the artificial turf. Everytime I see that I laugh. The dirt cutouts are a different color! It looks so damn bad.

[Captain Japan]

Furthermore a prolonged strike makes it possible for management (or in this case ownership) to unload the lot and hire "scabs"...!

I vote for Captain Japan to be the first scab to be hired. Legend has it that he's got a wicked pitching arm. The Giants could use him on the mound.

My skills will be on display this Saturday in Yokohama. I'll report the number of beanings afterwards.

[Mulboyne]

if merging two teams is what it takes for any teams to survive then so be it

That's really the question. As long as the current cabal of owners is in place and sticking to the same business plan, then the mergers are probably necessary.
But there are other options. The mergers are based on the assumption that baseball cannot grow its fan base or generate new sources of revenue. That seems very pessimistic. I have no idea whether Horie of Livedoor has the resources to turn Kintetsu around but it is crazy that the the owners, particularly Watanabe and Yomiuri, can exercise veto power.
The corporate owners of the baseball teams are a virtual who's who of crusty domestic companies. Daiei, Kintetsu, Seibu, Yakult, Yomiuri - where are Kirin, Toyota, Matsushita, Hitachi, Canon? Or even a foreign owner? Why did Nintendo invest in the Seattle Mariners and not a domestic team?
None of these companies want to play by rules set by the Giants so the game has been starved of decent managers and, consequently, the crowds have declined. Although any professional sport is essentially just a business, baseball has become a national asset in Japan and it is well within the government's powers to intervene to protect that asset.

[canman]

I didn't think the players had the backbone to stand up and fight for their rights. No strike what a joke. The owners won't listen to them, they will continue and do whatever they want to do. Then I read todays Gomiyuri's editorial how a strike will help nobody. Ha, it won't help you the newspaper, is more like it. Talk about conflict of interest. Oh well I guess its the same old same old.

[Mulboyne]

Just seen on TBS that the CEO of Rakuten has said he would like to invest in baseball. He is from Kobe so may be looking at the Orix franchise, although Japan Today suggests he wants to set up a whole new franchise Story Here. Rakuten already have a J-League team.
Japanese link:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/headline/tbs_headline1035033.html

[Bongo]

[Mulboyne]

Just what is baseball in Japan, is it anything other than an expression of the Helsinki syndrome [= Stockholm Syndrome] perpetuated by dwindling generations of former colonized people?

I like this line of thinking...I think I've just found my new wind-up.

[American Oyaji]

What is that syndrome?

[Captain Japan]

Just seen on TBS that the CEO of Rakuten has said he would like to invest in baseball.

Here's a couple of updates...
Rakuten receives warm welcome from players association

TOKYO &#8212]

Rakuten Inc. Says It May Form Professional Baseball Team

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Rakuten Inc., Japan's biggest online shopping mall, said it is considering forming a professional baseball team.

No official decision has been made, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement distributed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

So would this team be the sixth team in the Pac League (assuming the merger happens)?

[AssKissinger]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040919a3.htm

Baseball strike could cost 1.9 billion yen

The two-day strike by professional baseball players is likely to cause economic losses totaling 1.89 billion yen, a group of researchers said Saturday.

Well it looks like they might have some balls after all.

canman1 and Mulboyne, I've been enjoying your posts. I wish I knew more about Japanese baseball.

Other baseball news. Braves magic number is 6!

Bonds is a steroid junkie and will never be half the man Aaron is.

And have yall seen this...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpcDBuM2RlBF9TAzk1ODYxNzc3BHNlYwN0aA--?slug=ap-rangers-suspensions&prov=ap&type=lgns

Francisco was suspended by the commissioner's office Friday for the rest of the season -- 16 games -- for throwing a chair that struck a woman and broke her nose during Monday's game.

16 games? That fuck should be out of MLB for life. What other job could you throw a chair at a woman and break her nose and still stay at the company? I get pissed at work, too. And I talk it up tough here but I'm smart enough to know if I go bashing anybody's face in with a chair I ain't gonna be working anymore in the Japanese public school system. WTF makes make these spoiled dickheads so special? It's BULLSHIT.

[Mulboyne]

Another badly translated article on the Shukan Post site but you can get the gist.

Premier Koizumi Intervenes In Professional Baseball Conflict

[Mulboyne]

Baseball dispute settled

"Play ball!" was the overwhelming sentiment in Nagoya Thursday as professional baseball players and management agreed on a deal that halts further strikes and preserve the current 12-team, two-league system for next season.

Hard on the heels of Japan's first-ever pro baseball strike last Saturday and Sunday, Nippon Professional Baseball promised to expedite the evaluation of prospective franchisees so that one can be approved in time for next season. The Professional Baseball Players Association had been fighting the reduction of teams from 12 to 11 through the merger of the Pacific League's Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave.

The players were unable to prevent the Buffaloes' extinction, but they were able to preserve the Pacific League as a six-team circuit.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Today:Olympians show baseball way to go

Writing in Bungei Shunju, Sakaiya says the four defining characteristics of the Japanese system in the postwar period are: (1) an industrial society based on standardized mass production; (2) bureaucrat-led cooperative setups within individual industries; (3) a heavily centralized regional structure focused on Tokyo; and (4) up-front investment, massive infrastructure, and disregard for profitability. While the Japanese Olympic team broke free of these strictures, baseball remains mired in the postwar setup, he asserts.

At the Athens Olympics, says Sakaiya, the use of personalized training methods specially tailored to each individual enabled Japanese athletes to perform well and the nation's Olympic team to finally escape the postwar social system.

By contrast, baseball clings to the past and is in a deepening slump, he states, adding that the four characteristics of postwar society still apply to what is the largest professional sport in Japan.