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11/08/2002 Archived Entry: "Fox and ESPN Have Some 'Splainin' to Do!"
No U.S. Television for NPB-MLB Series
Looking forward to the NPB-MLB all star series starting this weekend, I looked at my tv listings hoping to see ESPN, who did a great job with it in 2000, would be calling the action, but no such luck.
I then checked the Fox affiliate as well as the local Fox Sports outlet (I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington) while dreading that they would once more use Steve Physioc, one of the oily tribe of corporate yes men that are too common among sports broadcasters these days. Again, nada.
So let's add up the totals here: on ESPN, you have billiards, bowling and women's college basketball, and the Soccer World Cup broadcasts, all of which nobody, and I mean not a soul, gives a crap about. On Fox, you have reruns of the misnamed Best Sports Show, Period (featuring convicted felon Michael Irvin), english soccer, and episodes of "You Gotta See This," which you don't unless you have a room temperature I.Q. Yet, the two greatest baseball powers square off in Japan featuring this coming season's most talked about free agent, Hideki Matsui, for the Japanese side, and Barry Bonds, who has had perhaps the best back to back years in baseball history, for the MLB contingent, and you get bupkis. Now who are the geniuses who made THAT decision?
At least in Fox' case, you can make the argument that they were putting all their time and energy into flacking for the Republican Party for the election just now past. For ESPN, there is no excuse at all. They fancy themselves as the "worldwide leader in sports." In what world when they ignore major league baseball?
I just hope they don't do with that series what they do with their sumo broadcasts; that is, a horrible repackage job with voice over announcers who can't pronounce anyone's name right aired months after the original event.
Listening to ESPN radio, it's been pretty apparent that they would rather not talk about baseball since every time I've tuned them in it has been nothing but football this and basketball that. It appears that the same attitude has spread to its television arm. Thanks for nothing Disney (which owns ESPN)!
By the way, will someone tell Lisa Guerrero to stop calling a homer a "date"? Am I the only one who cringes when she says that? Prissy trophy announcers like her make Andy Rooney seem right on the money. And Fox is as off the mark in ignoring the series in Japan as it was in hiring Guerrero.
Orix Aquires Ortiz, Brown
According to Sports Nippon, the Orix Blue Wave has aquired both Chicago Cubs outfielder Roosevelt Brown, 27, and Colorado Rockies infielder Jose Ortiz, 25. Each will be given two year deals, though the monetary details have yet to be disclosed. However, sources with the ballclub say the total for the pair is worth about $10 million. It has been seven years since the team has spent that much on foreign signings, the paper says.
Brown won a AAA batting title with a .346 mark in 2001 for Iowa and was in 111 games with the big club this past year. Lifetime in MLB, the Mississippi native was in 228 games, batting .251 with 11 homers and 69 RBIs and an OPS of .613. Brown will be expected to produce the longball for his new nine.
Ortiz, who came up in the A's organization and won a AAA MVP trophy in 2000 with Sacramento, when he clobbered 24 homers and drove in 108 while hitting.351. He also hammered three homers for Colorado on August 17th, 2002. During his three seasons in the big leagues, the righthand hitting Dominican batted .243 with 14 homers and 51 RBIs in 136 career games and posted an OPS of .684.
The two men will join Scott Sheldon and Koo Dae-sung as the four non-Japanese that are allowed per team for Orix and will be aided by newly hired batting instructor Leon Lee.
Dragons Walloped by Cubans 14-2
Jumping on starter Takashi Ogasawara for three runs in the first and then six more in the third, a Cuban all star team trounced the Chunichi Dragons Wednesday at Latin America Stadium in Havana 14-2. Dragons manager Hisashi Yamada noted that the Cuban players possessed superior bat speed and were aggressive at the plate. Unfortunately, nobody decided to cover this in any detail, so that's all I have for you. Sorry.
Valdes Signs With Chunichi
The Chunichi Dragons announced that they have claimed reliever Marc Valdes off of waivers and will now negotiate with him over a new contract for 2003. The waiver claim cost the Nagoya side about $30,000. Their being able to sign the former Braves hurler is pretty much a fait accompli since they have already said that they will offer him what he wanted for Hanshin, about $1.2 million.
Yokohama Offering Petagine Nice Side Benefits
According to Hochi Sports, the Yokohama Bay Stars have not only pretty much said that they will give free agent slugger Roberto Petagine anything he wants in dollar terms, but will also provide some sweet perks to him and wife Olga.
The Hochi is a mouthpiece for the Yomiuri Giants, so perhaps some of this has to be taken with a grain of salt, but the Stars are reportedly readying a luxury apartment as well as being willing to provide a Spanishi speaking Japanese interpreter for Olga, who speaks little english. She will also be allowed to accompany him on road trips and will be provided season seats at Yokohama Stadium. The team is said to have never before offered any other player in their history those kind of benefits.
Yakult's Iida Given Golden Spirit Award
Veteran Yakult Swallows outfielder Tetsuya Iida was feted for making it possible for little leaguers to attend pro baseball games at Meiji Jingu Stadium, as Hochi Sports has given him its Golden Spirit Award.
Since 1994, Iida has been buying up blocks of seats in the front rows of the outfield bleachers at the ballpark, which are then given to youngsters 15 and under. He reminisced with reporters about his father taking him to Korakuen Stadium for the first time as a second grader to see Sadaharu Oh hit, saying the experience made him want to turn pro one day himself. "I would like children to come and see the games and then work to become pro baseball players as I did."
For every home game, two teams, each with a maximum of 18 kids, are invited to use the seats. Over the years, Hochi estimates that over 17,000 children have seen games due to Iida's largesse.
East Beats West in All Star Game at Nagoya
Yokohama Bay Stars shortstop Takuro Ishii was named MVP for the eastern contingent for an RBI single that put his side up to stay in the fifth inning in a 4-2 victory over the western squad earlier today at Nagoya Dome. Accompanying the award was a check for $16,000, which Ishii said he would put in a savings account for his newborn daughter Haruka.
The all star game rosters were determined by the birthplaces of the players, so in the eighth, Koji Uehara faced his Yomiuri Gianst teammate, Hideki Matsui, who had driven in the first run of the game in the fourth with an RBI single to center, and popped him up on three pitches. Matsui had done very well for his career at Nagoya Dome, mashing 38 homers and sending in 100 runners while batting .334. However, Dragons ace Kenshin Kawakami obtained a measure of revenge for the carnage raged by Matsui over the years against his team by striking him out in the second on a 90mph fastball up and in. Kawakami was named best pitcher of the game.
Third baseman Norihiro Nakamura had three hits and an RBI for the west side and was named a valuable player. Seibu Lions outfielder Kazuhiro Wada, who went 0-16 in the Japan series, cracked out two hits, a double and a single. Yomiuri leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu also wacked a pair of knocks and drove in a run to be named a valuable player.
Giants righty Masumi Kuwata came on in the third inning and disposed of the hitters on just four pitches.
Hot Shots....
The Yakult Swallows may trade for veteran Seibu infielder Ken Suzuki for some lefthanded help off the bench....Barry Bonds says he wants to crush eight out of the park during the eight game series with Yomiuri and then an NPB all star team....The Hanshin Tigers have countered the Yomiuri Giants offer of four years at $6 million per with an eight year, $4 million a season proposal. In a bad sign for the Giants, Nakamura has dyed his hair orange and shaved it bald around the sides....Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe called on Ichiro to show Hideki Matsui the ropes in the U.S., saying that the Mariners rightfielder is a "smart, gentlemanly sharp guy"....Perhaps as proof of that, at a kickoff party for the NPB-MLB series at a Tokyo hotel, Watanabe and a couple of the other Japanese owners cornered Suzuki and debriefed him for about 40 minutes on various facets of MLB and living in America, including the way the ballparks are laid out....Harmonizing with Kazuhisa Ishii, who had earliermade the same suggestion, Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki recommended that Godzilla get himself an agent as soon as possible so that he can concentrate as much as possible on baseball....Yusaku Iriki will start the first game of the NPB-MLB series for Yomiuri, saying that he wants to perform well as so as not to make the level of baseball Matsui competed against look bad....The Hiroshima Carp are picking the brains of Yakult scouts on how to contain departed leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto. Kanemoto hit .212 against the Swallows last season while he beat up Hanshin to the tune of a .336 average and shook Chunichi down for a .311 mark. Alan Newman, who was with Yakult and is now a Carp, held Kanemoto to a 1-7.
Beeston Backs Baseball World Cup
See article at Toronto Sun Story
Another Article on Matsui Coming to MLB
See story at: Associated Press Article
Matsui Hot Topic for MLB All Stars
See story at: Japan Times Article
Giambi, Bonds on Japan Tour
See story at: Stamford Advocate Article
Williams Glad Yanks Going Global
See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article
Derrick Lee Knows Japanese Baseball
See article at: South Florida Sun-Sentinel Story
Overachiever Eckstein Goes to Japan
See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article
Major Diplomats Get in First Practice
This is about the NPB-MLB series. See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article
Welcome Home Ichiro, Goodbye Godzilla
See story at: ESPN Article
Off Topic Article of the Day
Scott Miller at CBS Sportsline has nicely encapsulated the questions about next season (with a snide reference to Hideki Matsui, btw) and topped it off with a reprinting of a hilarious David Letterman Top Ten List as read by Bobby Valentine. Article is Here
Samsung Shuts Out LG to Take 2-1 Korean Series Lead
See story at: Korea Times Article
Superstition and the Korean Series
See story at: Jung Ang Ilbo Article
Replies: 3 comments
how does Hanshin not sign their #1 stopper from 2002? Valdes had 22 saves and a 1.53 era.
Posted by k. kawakami @ 11/11/2002 11:57 PM EST
DO U KNOW IF IT POSSIBLE TO GET THIS SERIES ,ON THE RADIO ?SOMEBODY MUST BE BROADCASTING THIS SERIES AT LEAST ON THE RADIO?
Posted by todd @ 11/08/2002 08:38 PM EST
Your're right Gary. It is amazing that ESPN and Fox make time for dog shows, cheerleading contests, "You Gotta See This", and the "Worst Darned Sports Show" but not the MLB vs NPB series. It would be great to have the Nippon Series, KBO Series, and the Caribbean Series on a regular basis too. Whatever happened to the Baseball Network that was being planned a few years ago? It would be be great to have a "This Week in International Baseball" type show on the air. (FYI: I live in the Puget Sound area too)
Posted by Robert Kiyoshi Shadlow @ 11/08/2002 10:53 AM EST
