Dead Ball (JPN Baseball Thread)

[canman]

I was reading this article in the Gomiyuri about Kiyohara trying to hit his 500th. The Hanshin pitcher wouldn'd throw him a fastball when the bases were loaded with two outs. Kiyohara called the guy a whimp and questioned his man hood. What a fucking loser. The pitcher is suppossed to grove one so he can get a stupid homerun. Loser! Here is the link to the artcile.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20050428wo51.htm

[AssKissinger]

He criticized the pitcher for striking him out on a forkball.

I'm sure the pitcher is real choked up about it. Actually, the forkball was a clever pitch since it probably fooled him into thinking it was the fastball that he obviously thinks should have been given to him on a silver platter.

[Mulboyne]

There was a big feature on Marty Kuenhnert in the Friday Asian Wall Street journal (sub only - no link). There was a small comment from an unnamed source suggesting that he would be kicked out very quickly if life got tough for the team. 24 hours later, the press reported that he was being offered an alternative role with the organization...

Yomiuri: Kuehnert to lose GM post
The struggling Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles will relieve Marty Kuehnert of his general manager duties, officials of the expansion Pacific League team said. Kuehnert became the general manager in October and played a key role in building the Eagles. However, the team is apparently unsatisfied because the foreign talent he signed have failed to produce results. Sources said the 58-year-old American would be given other duties, including fan services, while assistant general manager Isao Hirono will take over the GM post.

[canman]

Here we are less than a month and a half into the season and already they are firing the GM. I thought it was usually some coaches first, then the manager, then finally the GM. They are an expansion team, they picked up the cast offs from the Orix Kintetsu merged team. What do you expect.
It seems a lot of people don't like Marty, but I always thought he was a stand up kind of guy. I've lost some respect for Rakuten, I thought they were going to be different, but I guess, the owner Mikitani is no different from anybody else.

[GuyJean]

However, the team is apparently unsatisfied because the foreign talent he signed have failed to produce results. Sources said the 58-year-old American would be given other duties, including fan services...

First on his list to satisfy fans should be to improve PR for the Rakuten cheerleaders.. I can't find any information about them online; I want pictures, bios, and measurements, baby!

The team should also get a reputation like the Bad News Bears; start some fights, been some batters, throw tantrums when called out, steal more bases, drinking on the bench, etc.. "We lose passionately" could be their motto..

GJ

[AssKissinger]

I guess, the owner Mikitani is no different from anybody else

Rakuten owner Hiroshi Mikitani has also decided to reshuffle the team's coaching staff starting today. Farm team manager Masanori Matsui will take over the job of head coach from Daisuke Yamashita, who in turn will manage the farm team. Batting coach Norihiro Komada will be demoted to farm club's batting coach while Koju Hirohashi will move up to serve as batting coach.

He sounds like a power freak asshole.

[cstaylor]

He sounds like a power freak asshole.

I've never met the guy, but that was my impression too. And he's fake IT, not even the real thing (ex-banker).

[AssKissinger]

Frustrated Rhodes lashes out at teammates
AP

TOKYO (AP) -- Yomiuri Giants outfielder Tuffy Rhodes is tired of losing, and has some harsh words for his teammates.

``I hate the Giants,'' the Nikkansports newspaper quoted the former major leaguer as saying after a 7-5 loss Tuesday to the Yakult Swallows. ``Everybody is lousy, I hate this.

``Our pitchers throw the ball right down the middle of the plate and I take the blame?''

The Swallows scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning to hand the struggling Giants their fifth straight loss. After the loss, Rhodes was reportedly singled out at a team meeting for not hustling on a double by Alex Ramirez that allowed Yakult to score the go-ahead run.

The Giants, who have one of the highest payrolls in Japanese baseball, are in last place in the Central League with an 8-14 record, 6 1/2 games behind the league-leading Chunichi Dragons.

As Japan's most popular team, the Giants face tremendous pressure each year to perform. When things don't go well, it's often the foreign players who take the blame.

Earlier this month, the Giants put pitcher Dan Miceli on waivers after the former Houston Astros right-hander blew several save opportunities.

Rhodes, a 10-year veteran of Japanese baseball, signed with the Giants in 2004 after eight seasons with the now-defunct Kintetsu Buffaloes.

He hit 45 homers last season for the Giants and had 55 in 2001 to tie Sadaharu Oh's single-season record.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getsp.pl5?sb20050429j1.htm

Giants to fine Rhodes 2 million yen for criticizing team in outburst

Fuck Gomiuri

I was going to go see the Carp play them yesterday but the weather was shit so we passed. Dig this though... The game started two hours late. 3:30 instead of 1:30. At 5:30 they were still in the second inning. The game was finally completed after five innings (I think) at around 7:30 or so. Can you imagine sitting out in the pissing rain for seven hours to watch five innings of shit baseball? Man, they sure don't wanna give out those rain checks!

[Mulboyne]

Seattlepi.com: Ichiro climbs high to deny
Make room for another keepsake in your "Many Wonders of Ichiro" file. Your friendly neighborhood right fielder was up to more wall-scaling, gravity-cheating mischief at Safeco Field last night. In the top of the seventh inning of the Mariners' 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, Garret Anderson clubbed a certain homer to right field. It looked much too high and much too far to be caught. But Ichiro raced back, anyway. He leaped on the track, dug his cleat into the "s" of the Washington Mutual sign and executed a sort of jump-crawl that vaulted him up the wall and over the rail. He may have misjudged the ball ever so slightly (yeah, right) but nimbly reached back and stabbed the ball at his apex. He hopped down from his perch as 24,184 witnesses rubbed their eyes. And roared..."I don't know if I've ever seen a better catch," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a 30-year veteran of professional baseball.

[Captain Japan]

Seattlepi.com: Ichiro climbs high to deny
Make room for another keepsake in your "Many Wonders of Ichiro" file. Your friendly neighborhood right fielder was up to more wall-scaling, gravity-cheating mischief at Safeco Field last night. In the top of the seventh inning of the Mariners' 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, Garret Anderson clubbed a certain homer to right field. It looked much too high and much too far to be caught. But Ichiro raced back, anyway. He leaped on the track, dug his cleat into the "s" of the Washington Mutual sign and executed a sort of jump-crawl that vaulted him up the wall and over the rail. He may have misjudged the ball ever so slightly (yeah, right) but nimbly reached back and stabbed the ball at his apex. He hopped down from his perch as 24,184 witnesses rubbed their eyes. And roared..."I don't know if I've ever seen a better catch," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a 30-year veteran of professional baseball.

It was a heck of a catch, though a certain homer it was most certainly not. But as the story says, the M's lost.

[Captain Japan]

I guess, the owner Mikitani is no different from anybody else

Rakuten owner Hiroshi Mikitani has also decided to reshuffle the team's coaching staff starting today. Farm team manager Masanori Matsui will take over the job of head coach from Daisuke Yamashita, who in turn will manage the farm team. Batting coach Norihiro Komada will be demoted to farm club's batting coach while Koju Hirohashi will move up to serve as batting coach.

He sounds like a power freak asshole.

At the press conference just before the decision was made about whethere Horie or Mikitani would be moving to Sendai, Mikitani made it really clear that Marty had a network that he'd be able to use to get players.

Mikitani came on strong initially about how he wanted to be different from the other owners by running his team so it made a legitimate profit but I really think the advertising aspect for Rakuten is again the point. I just don't see how a team not named Giants can make a buck in Japan.

[Watcher]

Do the Hanshin Tigers not make any money? They sell out even when losing and the Osaka fans are rabid. Truly rabid. Not just following the Giants... actually many Osakans, Tiger fans or not, *hate* the Giants (and most things Tokyo but really, I think, that's just jealousy )

[canman]

I read an interesting article about Mikitani in the paper a while back. The author said that with the soccer team Mikitani owns, he went out and hired two really expensive foreign players, who totally sucked, and just took the money. But all he wanted was to get fans in the stands, he really didn't care about the product. So I guess it will be the same with the baseball team.
On the other hand I am really happy for Bobby Valentine, what a great job he is doing. I hope that Lotte can keep it up. Talk about flying under the radar. You'd think that Lotte was having their usual rotten season. Hardly any press coverage. Which is also typical. Watcher you said the Hanshin fans are jealous, wouldn't you be. If were a Chicago cubs fan and all you ever heard or say on national tv were the Yankees, I think you would get fed up with it.

[canman]

Hey AK, Captain Japan and all you other baseball fans out there, what is it with the Japanese pitchers and that strange hickup in their delivery. I have been watching some pitchers and I'm sorry I don't know their names, but man what a strange delivery. THis one guy lifts up his leg, and then does this kind of little can can kick and then delivers the ball to home. I mean if it works for you more power to you. But I wonder who the hell is teaching this.

[gaijinzilla]

That little hiccup (I think it's supposed to be around 2 seconds, it might be more. I don't remember) is part of the rules in Japanese ball. If you have a continous motion like in Major League ball, it's considered a balk. Actually (and for the life of me I can't remember where I read or heard this) this rule is on the books in ball played in the majors & minors in North America & the rest of the ball playing world. One of the "original" rules as it were, but over the decades it has gradually disappeared, meaning that it is never enforced. However when the game was brought over to Japan, the Japanese decided to enforce this rule. And so it remains.

As much as I don't like Bobby Valentine, he is doing a good job of running the Marines, but they'll fade come the second half of the season. I'd like to see the Giants never it out of the cellar this season. He he he. Then again once they start palying Rakuten, they'll start winning again.

BTW is it me or does it seem that Kiyohara is dyeing the stubble on his face? It looks too blond to be white.

[canman]

Norihiro Nakamura. The guy is 31, he goes to the Dodgers, and promptly hits .128 with 3 rbi's, and now is pissed off that the club has sent him down to the minors. What an idiot. I can't believe they gave him a chance in the first place. It must have been only to seel more jerseys, or pick up some money from NHK.
He said" They're not thinking about the long run. I did the best I could under the circumstances. I wish I had more plate appearances."
Then take the fucking minor leagure assignement, get your at bats, and prove yourself. I guess the Mets are really happy he didn't sign with them a few years back. Go back to Japan with your tail between your legs you big wimp.

[Captain Japan]

Here's the story in full:
Dodgers to waive Nori
Japan Times

CINCINNATI (Kyodo) The Los Angeles Dodgers designated Norihiro Nakamura to the minor leagues Sunday evening to make room on the 40-man roster for infielder Oscar Robles, who was playing in the Mexican League when his contract was purchased.
The move means Nakamura, who was promoted April 10 after signing a minor-league deal with the Dodgers in February, will be placed on waivers, giving all teams an opportunity to acquire the 31-year-old Japanese player.

"I felt like I'm not needed by the team," Nakamura said. "I'll go back to Los Angeles and talk to my agent and family before I decide what to do."

"They're not thinking about the long run," he said. "I did the best I could under the circumstances. I wish I had more plate appearances."

Nakamura hit .128 with three RBIs and no homers in 17 games in the majors.

[Captain Japan]

As to windups, I don't know the reason why Japanese pitchers tend to pause. I remember last year it got Otsuka (Padres) in a little trouble. Here's a Q/A that talks about it:

Otsuka Fan (San Diego): What do you make of the Art Howe-generated controversy over Aki Otsuka's motion to the plate, in which he briefly pulls the ball out of the glove in mid-windup? Howe protested, and Otsuka eliminated that aspect of his delivery in a subsequent appearance with a runner on base, presumably to avoid being charged with a balk. But would that move be illegal with the bases empty? Rob Dibble, on ESPN, said it was illegal because it deceives the hitter. But isn't that a pitcher's job? Is there any language in the rules suggesting a pitcher can't try to deceive the hitter?

Michael Wolverton: For those who haven't seen him, Otsuka starts his windup with a normal leg kick, bringing both hands together up in front of his face. But he pauses at the top of his kick, and briefly takes the ball out of the glove and shows it to the batter before sticking it back in the glove and getting the motion moving again. It's that mid-motion separation of the hands that Howe is objecting to. And he filed his protest (since denied) after the first pitch of an inning, so it's not just a runners-on thing with him.

I don't know of anything in the rules that prohibits Otsuka's motion, and nothing I've read about the case indicates what rule Howe has in mind. 8.01(a) does require a pitcher to complete his motion "without interruption or alteration." Maybe Howe thinks the pause and hand separation constitute an "interruption"? I don't know.

If anyone knows the rule that Howe based his protest on, send it in. Otherwise, I figure it's just a little gamesmanship by Howe.

[zentogo]

I can't play baseball. But I used to make training videos.
One summer I made a multimedia CD that taught picthing for
a start-up internet company trying to create a business around
sports-education.

So anyway, they had a pitching coach from a university come in and coordinate everything.

This guy was very particular about the "pause" for younger players. Meaning High School - University Freshmen/Sophomore. He was saying that if you couldn't hold yourself solid for as long as you need to, then you don't have the control you need. Like martial arts. He was trying to really convey that pitching is a disciplined whole body art form.

And it was very intricate in my opinion.

But all I can think is that the Japanese Pitchers are using a disciplined style of pitching uniformly and not being very creative. Obviously anyone in the Majors can pitch (I mean mechanically) so maybe it is a lack of open thinking?

[Captain Japan]

This reviewincludes a theory on the pause from Ya Gotta Have Wa:

And, of course, in the 1990s, the United States finally began to be an option for truly exceptional players from Asia. The Los Angeles Dodgers created a minor sensation in 1993 when they paid $1.2 million to sign Park Chan Ho, an economics major and star pitcher at Han Yang University. Park went to the States, westernized his name to Chan Ho Park, and radically changed his pitching motion, which for years featured an excruciatingly long pause at the top of his windup. Japanese pitchers often use the same pause and compare it to ma, the dramatic pauses so essential to Kabuki dialogue. In You Gotta Have Wa, Robert Whiting quotes a fan of the famous Japanese relief pitcher Yutaka Enatsu, who claimed to know the secret of his hero's success: "He was good because he knew how to use the ma. He waited for just the right moment--a lapse of concentration by the batter--to deliver the pitch." But umpires and fellow professional players in the United States took one look at Park's ma and cried foul over something they had never seen before. Park took it all in stride, quietly altered a lifelong habit, and was a pitching star in the Major Leagues within two years.

[FG Lurker]

Players From Over There Find Opportunity Over Here
nytimes.com, May 18, 2005

Japan considers baseball its favorite sport, but the opportunity for a player to reach the professional level is extremely limited.

There are about 4,000 high schools playing baseball in Japan and dozens of universities, but only 82 players were selected in the most recent annual professional draft, according to Kevin Outcalt, commissioner of the newly formed Golden Baseball League.

[...]

The eight-team Golden Baseball League supplies them with one more place to go. The Japan Samurai Bears will compete in the independent minor league based in Pleasanton, Calif. They will become the first all-Japanese team to play in an American league when the season opens May 26.

[...]

The Bears will play a 90-game regular season, but there is a catch. All of the games will be on the road. They will live out of hotels and buses. And they will have only two days off each month during the four-month regular season.

(Full Story)

Four months on the road, two days off per month. You've got to really want to play ball!

[Captain Japan]

Matsui's Output Has Been Lost in Translation
NY Times (subscription)

MIAMI, May 26 - As Kazuo Matsui pondered how he had gone from an international iron man to a training-room regular in one year, he bowed his head and scanned the floor in front of his locker, seemingly searching every corner of the clubhouse for an answer.

When Matsui looked up, he shrugged his shoulders, and appeared as baffled as anyone who has followed his professional career. Matsui played 1,143 consecutive games in Japan, but he has missed 54 games since joining the Mets last season.

"What could it be?" Matsui said through his interpreter. "I have thought about it a lot and I know there has to be a reason. I just don't know what it is."

Matsui may be able to relate to the Mets' level of confusion. The Mets signed him because he was a seven-time All-Star and a four-time Gold Glove winner in Japan who stayed off the disabled list. What they got was an injury-prone shortstop-turned-second baseman who at times has been a defensive liability.

Manager Willie Randolph sounded exasperated Thursday when he said that he still did not know the status of Matsui's sore neck. The injury, which Matsui said he sustained while sleeping last Friday night, was initially characterized as minor, but it has kept him out of the starting lineup for five games.

Randolph said that he and General Manager Omar Minaya have discussed placing Matsui on the disabled list and promoting Victor Diaz from Class AAA Norfolk. Matsui told reporters Thursday that he did not need to go on the disabled list and intended to return to the starting lineup this weekend. Randolph acknowledged it had been difficult to communicate with the Japanese-speaking Matsui about the nature of his injury, but added that the Mets cannot continue to play short-handed.

"If this strings out, we have to do something," Randolph said.

The Mets endured a similar episode with Matsui last August, when he said he needed a few days to recover from back spasms and then sat out the next month and a half. The first game that Matsui skipped in the United States became big news in Japan. Now, it is barely worth mentioning.

This season, he has already missed time because a contact lens scratched his cornea.

The Mets maintain that Matsui will be their regular second baseman at least through the All-Star Game break, but it is clear they have other options. When the San Diego Padres revealed this week that second baseman Mark Loretta would be out for two months because of thumb surgery, Minaya promptly called Padres General Manager Kevin Towers.

Although San Diego has decided to fill its vacancy from within their organization, Minaya's phone call could be an indication that the Mets want to unload Matsui and his $7 million-a-year contract.

The prospects of any such move are unlikely, in part because of Matsui's high salary and also because he has a no-trade clause that prevents the Mets from sending him to any team except the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels or the Seattle Mariners. Matsui might have been willing to waive his no-trade clause for the Padres, because they are another West Coast team in a desirable location.

Even if the Mets keep Matsui for the duration of his contract, which expires after next season, they have other second basemen who could challenge him. Randolph has insisted that Matsui's absence should not be viewed as an audition for Miguel Cairo, but Cairo has batted .300 in the five games since Matsui was injured.

Second baseman Jeff Keppinger was batting .347 at Norfolk entering Thursday night's game and is rapidly emerging as a viable prospect. Randolph said the Mets had not talked about promoting Keppinger - he lacks power and range - but he is a steady fielder who batted .284 with 3 home runs after he was called up by the Mets late last season.

While Matsui recuperates, he gets batting tips from Carlos Beltran and tries to investigate why his body keeps breaking down. Matsui thinks he needs to strengthen his lower torso, but that does not seem to explain scratched corneas and sore necks.

"I have to look back at what I've done differently," Matsui said. "I have to find out what it is."

[Captain Japan]

This is the same league that Rickey Henderson is playing in...
Japanese baseball team out to make it in U.S.
Reuters

SURPRISE, Ariz. (Reuters) - Second baseman Takashi Miyoshi knows full well the pressure that will be placed on his small, sturdy frame in the weeks to come.

He knows the collective eyes of a nation will be on him as he and his fellow Samurai Bears make history, becoming the first all-Japanese team in an American baseball league.

"I feel we have a very big responsibility to represent Japanese baseball," said Miyoshi, following a practice in the Arizona heat. "Everybody will be trying, but that's what everybody is going to be thinking. It's a big responsibility."

With a swarm of Japanese media on hand, the Bears will begin their grand experiment on Thursday night when the team opens its regular season in the new Golden Baseball League by taking on the Surprise Fightin' Falcons in Arizona.

A mix of layers in their early- to mid-20's, the Samurai Bears will be true barnstormers -- the only team in the independent league to be without a permanent home.

Yet there is no grumbling about the brutal 90-game traveling schedule or about the meager pay. (Rookies get $700 a month; veteran pay tops out at $3,000)

"Complaining is just not in their culture," said Manager Warren Cromartie, a former Montreal Expos player who made his name in Japan during seven seasons with the famed Tokyo Giants. "It may even say that on their passports. There are no egos here, no selfishness. It's a long flight back to Japan."

Fielding an all-Japanese team was the brainchild of league founders Amit Patel and David Kaval, who hatched the idea after failing to put together a team in Tijuana, Mexico. The Bears were assembled in a whirlwind that began in February.

There were tryouts in Japan. A partnership was forged with A-WAN Planning, a Japanese company dedicated to fostering youth baseball. The league also added a little star power, making Takenori Emoto its vice commissioner. Emoto is a former Japanese star pitcher and politician.

"A lot of these players had nowhere to go," said Kaval. "They probably would have just given up and got a company job."

Now, league officials said the players have a chance to hone their skills and return home to compete for a roster spot or move through the ranks of U.S. baseball to the big leagues.

Officials said the Japanese team brings an international flair to a league that got its start in a business school classroom and now is trying to make it financially where many others have failed.

The road to the new league came through Stanford University in 2003, where Patel and Kaval were students at the business school. While classmates were drawn to high-tech, the pair turned to baseball and studied the idea for nine months.

By the end of the class, they landed an investment from venture capitalist Terry Garnett and were well on their way to raising $5 million for the new enterprise. The two also have a $1 million a year sponsorship from Safeway for three years.

All the teams in the league, which also feature former star player Rickey Henderson, are owned by a group of investors that include ex-NFL running back Christian Okoye and Wheel of Fortune Host Pat Sajak.

Plans call for some Japanese touches to be added for Bears games. Sushi and bento boxes will be available. Bears' players who hit home runs will receive two stuffed bears -- one to keep and the other to throw into the stands.

Opening day starting pitcher Satoshi Morita is just glad to have made the squad. The shy 23-year-old right-hander called it an honor to be pitching in such a game.

"I'm just going to try to do my best," he said through an interpreter, a smile on his face. "I won't be able to pitch with all that added pressure if I thought about that."

[Mulboyne]

Newsday: Culture shock shakes Japan-MLB plan
A 2006 World Baseball Classic without Japan seems self-defeating for Bud Selig, Don Fehr and their respective charges. But given the way negotiations have been going between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball, it seems entirely feasible. Two people with knowledge of the discussions confirmed that the two sides are struggling to come to an agreement. The Japanese have enough concerns about this tournament, financial and otherwise, to make you think that they just might back out, leaving Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and company without a team, and leaving the Asia bracket without its primary draw.
...The NPB's concerns are:
1) Money, of course. The Japanese professional teams think Major League Baseball wants too big a piece of the pie, believed to be 35 percent. A person sympathetic to MLB countered that the 10 Japanese teams would make more, per team, than the 30 MLB clubs, and that MLB, assuming far more risk, should get far more in return.

2) Timing. The Japanese team would begin practice in the second week of February, and if it did well, it could be together until the March 20 final. That would devastate NPB's spring training, which it regards more seriously than MLB does its own. The Japanese clubs place a premium on team harmony.

3) Personalities. Key Japanese officials simply don't seem to care for either Selig or Archey. And the wide cultural void as to what constitutes a negotiation has caused further tension. The Japanese generally don't enjoy the "give and take" of an American-style negotiation. Ideally, a mutually acceptable solution is found at the beginning, and that hasn't happened.

Of course, Japan could look petty, and perhaps even cowardly, if it declined to play. So the NPB would have to pin the blame on MLB.

[Blah Pete]

I haven't been following J-ball real closely this year but it seems in interleague play the Pacific league teams have been beating the Central league teams regularly. Better than .500?

[Mulboyne]

SFGate: Japanese players have interpreters and most Latinos don't
When Keiichi Yabu and Brad Fischer argued about string cheese while sitting in the clubhouse before a game, they had a former anthropology professor, Andy Painter, with them to translate every word. "You're always eating cheese. Is cheese good for you?" Yabu said in Japanese, smiling as Painter quickly put the pitcher's words in English for Oakland's first-base coach. "It's better than sushi!" Fischer barked back. Engaging in such casual conversation is an important step for foreign players who come to the majors, but it's a lopsided luxury — while Japanese players have interpreters to help them with everything from getting a driver's license to communicating with teammates and coaches, most Latin Americans are left to fend for themselves...more...

[AssKissinger]

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050611/kyodo/d8al64lo0.html

Baseball: Nationals trade Ohka to Brewers for infielder


(Kyodo) _ Japanese right-hander Tomokazu Ohka was acquired from the Washington Nationals in exchange for infielder Junior Spivey, the Milwaukee Brewers said Friday.
The 29-year-old Ohka, who was scheduled to start against the Seattle Mariners the same day, is expected to join his new teammates in Philadelphia on Saturday and possibly fill a rotation spot before the Brewers' three-game series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays away which starts Monday.

"It's not the first time this has happened to me, so I'm not panicking. It's not like my job is going to change," said Ohka, who received the news from Nationals general manager Jim Bowden over the phone before he left for the ballpark on Friday.

"Every team is in its own situation so I don't know what I'll be doing for the new team, but I personally want to be a starter. I want to throw as much as possible," he said.

Ohka played three seasons for the Boston Red Sox from 1999 before he moved to the Montreal Expos in the middle of the 2001 season. He is 4-3 in 10 games, including nine starts, this season with a 3.33 ERA.

Earlier this month, the former Yokohama BayStars pitcher was fined an undisclosed amount by the Nationals for turning his back and showing disrespect to the manager, who approached the mound to remove him from the game in the fourth inning.

[Mulboyne]

LA Times: Japan Might Balk at This Brand-New Ballgame
Threatening to take the bat out of Ichiro Suzuki's hands, Japan's enigmatic baseball team owners say they may keep their country out of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March, souring baseball's effort to create a marquee international tournament to showcase the sport's emergence as a global game...MLB executives say the competition will go ahead with or without the Japanese and are already looking into moving games scheduled for Japan to Taiwan and South Korea..."We really don't know what their objections are; it's hard to figure," said Paul Archey, MLB's senior vice president for international business, who says the league believed it had a deal on Japanese participation last fall. Archey will travel to Japan this week to meet with Japanese baseball officials and "try to iron out the issues...But I wouldn't call it a negotiation," he said.
...Some critics say it is MLB's style, not the November-versus-March argument or disputes over money, that rubs the Japanese badly. "It's cultural differences that trigger these problems," said Jack Sakazaki, who represented MLB in Japan during the 1990s and is a sports consultant in Tokyo. "MLB's attitude is, 'We're taking the risk, we'll make the deal.' It is arrogant, and it ticks the Japanese off."

[AssKissinger]

Here's a pic

I've been to that stadium. It definitely is cool.

Bad news. It's days are probably numbered.

http://www.gethiroshima.com/en/gethiroshima/Hype/2005/06/16/news_11

According to a Chugoku Shimbun report June 16 it now seems likely that the city will give up its plans for a renewal of the current Shimin Kyujyo, or "People's Baseball Stadium", home of the much-loved Hiroshima Carp, in favor of rebuilding the stadium to the east of Hiroshima Station on the site of the former Japan Railways goods yard in Minami-ku.

...


There are of course many who oppose the moving of the stadium, not least amongst the fans. The Carp and their stadium have an important symbolic status . Right across from the A-bomb hypocenter they represent the renewal of the city and the resilience of its people. Cynics charge that the city government never really considered renewal of the current stadium seriously, using the proposal as a PR exercise. Mayor Akiba has some major convincing to do.

http://www.gethiroshima.com/en/Places/HealthFitness/details?placeid=50015

[Blah Pete]

Although the stadium probably needs some work I like the fact that it is close to the downtown area, bars, and that street with all the yattai. It gives it a real home town feel.
Kind of reminds me of what the SF and SD new stadiums try to do with putting the stadium back in the city.
How far out will the stadium in Minami-Ku be?
Hope they don't build some huge, sterile stadium like Tokyo or Nagoya dome.