Archived Weblog Entry - 09/28/2003: "Japanese Baseball News: Whose Staying, Whose Leaving; Suzuki Says "On Your Bike Mate!" to Arias"

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09/28/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Whose Staying, Whose Leaving; Suzuki Says "On Your Bike Mate!" to Arias"

No Games Scheduled Today

Team Reports

Yomiuri According to Sankei Sports, the Giants are watching Tohoku High School's number two starter, Kenji Makabe, a junior. Makabe, a Miyagi Prefecture native, is a righthanded sidearmer whose outpitch is a sharp slider. His fastball maxes out at 88mph, though he is usually more consistently around 85mph. They compare him to former Yomiuri great Masaaki Saito. Tohoku High's number one starter, Yu Darvish, will be one of the top three picks in the November, 2004 draft, providing that he doesn't decide to take one of several MLB offers he is likely to be proffered.

Yakult Outfielder Tetsuya Iida and pitcher Hideki Sato will be let go after the season ends. However, manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu wants to hold on to them.

Hanshin The Tigers front office is reportedly prepared to offer righthander Hideki Irabu in the neighborhood of $2.5 million for next season. He will be a free agent after the Japan Series and is currently making a little over $1 million....Ace Kei Igawa will get a chance to win 20 games, as he will start Wednesday against Yomiuri, on the 30th against Yakult and on the tenth against Hiroshima.....George Arias was given an Intruder Classic 800 motorcycle by Suzuki Motors to commemorate the Tigers pennant win....Owner Shunjiro Kuman is pushing for leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto to be MVP. I think that Kuman might want to take another gander at either George Arias, Akihiro Yano or, especially, Makoto Imaoka's numbers, especially Imaoka's gaudy .430 with runners in scoring position and his batting title.

Chunichi Lefthander Masahiro Yamamoto, whose career has undergone a renaissance this season, will be back for his team record tying 21st campaign with the Dragons, according to Chunichi Sports. Morimachi Takagi is the only other player to last that long in Nagoya. They will also ask 38 year old hurler Makoto Kito to reup as well....Shortstop Hirokazu Ibata had an MRI Monday and was diagnosed with a ligament injury in his back. It is expected to take about ten days to heal, which may end his season. However, he hopes to play for the Japanese team when they engage teams from other Asian countries in a zone tournament that will determine who will go to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Hiroshima The Carp intend to make Koryo High School catcher Yudai Shirohama their number one draft choice, according to Sports Nippon. He played on four consecutive Koshien Tournament teams, including a tournaey champion, during his career at Koryo....According to Sankei Sports, Tom Davey, who has been outstanding during his limited time in Hiroshima, will be asked to reup. Meanwhile, pitcher Dave Lundquist is likely to be given his walking papers.

Yokohama The club said that it is still interested in Tsuyoshi Shinjo. Shinjo has been removed from the Mets 40 man roster after being demoted to AAA ball in late June.

Daiei Manager Sadaharu Oh, whose current contract is up at the end of the season, will be offered a new two year deal. Oh said that he will accept their request to stay in charge of the team on the field. While Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe has mentioned bringing Oh back to that squad in some capacity, Oh says that he has no interest in managing them again. "That's for younger people," said that 63 year old former slugger.

Nippon Ham Next season, the team will be known as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. A Pacific League committee approved the name change Monday.

Miscellaneous Meiji University pitcher Chihiro Kobayashi, a female righthanded pitcher, is forsaking baseball and will instead endeavor to become a pro golfer....Yamanashi Gakuindaifu High School was cited by the Japanese High School Baseball Federation for an incident in which the team's head coach, 61 year old Hideo Suzuki, punched and kicked a sophomore player or players who wanted to quit the team this past June. The coach reportedly did this in front of the player's guardians. The players have since dropped out of school (in Japan, one is required to only attend school up thorugh junior high, though more than 90% of Japanese do graduate from high school). The complaint was filed by at least one of the guardians to both the nationwide federation as well as the Yamanashi Baseball Federation. While the report doesn't indicate such, let's hope that the local prosecutor's office is also looking into this....According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Alex Rodriguez uses a glove oil from Japan he first heard about from Ichiro.

In the News

Yamauchi Wanted Mariners to Sign Nomo in 1994

See story at: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article

Ex-Teammates Kinugasa, Hopkins Have a Sitdown

And thanks to Marty Kuehnert for relaying it to us at: Japan Times Article

Arias Keeping the Faith in Japan

See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article

Former Nishitetsu Shortstop Toyoda Has Frank Words for TV Baseball Coverage

I wonder how the folks at ESPN would react if, say, Frank Robinson made the same comments. While chewing on that, see story at: Asahi Shimbun Article

Hanshin Pennant Sale Brings in the Yen

See story at: Japan Times Article

MLB Opens Japan Office