Archived Weblog Entry - 11/07/2003: "Japanese Baseball News: Wada, Miyamoto Lead Japan to Athens; This Column Going to Offseason Schedule"

Daiei Hawks owner Nakauchi held a press conference Friday trying to explain why he dispatched slugger Hiroki Kokubo to Yomiuri for nothing. He didn't really say anything new and, perhaps most importantly, didn't apologize. This only threw more fuel on the fire and now several prominent Hawks players have pulled out going with the team on its championship celebration vacation in protest. Manager Sadaharu Oh said that as far as he's concerned, the matter is over and done with, but it sure isn't for fans or the team's players. Definitely to be continued....Yakult closer Singo Takatsu will be represented by Kazuhisa Ishii's agent, Joe Urbon, in negotiations with MLB teams. According to a Japanese media report, Yankees scout John Cox will bring Takatsu's name up at an upcoming player personnel meeting. The Padres, who will non-tender Trevor Hoffman, are also still sniffing around the sidearming sinkerballer, who, if a San Diego Union-Tribune report is correct, scouts project as either a setup man or middle reliever....A Detroit Tigers scout is quoted by Sports Nippon as saying that that club's ownership is"strongly interested" in Lions shortstop Kazuo Matsui. In addition, the San Francisco Giants continue to follow Matsui even though Peter McGowan earlier said that they would pass on the speedy infielder....A Philadelphia Inquirer report says that the Dentsu advertising firm will buy rights to broadcast MLB games in Japan for $275 million and then parcel them out to individual networks....Bobby Valentine and the Chiba Lotte Marines will workout former Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani next week, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun. It had been thought during the 2002 offseason that the chunky Hawaiian would end up in Tokyo with the Giants, but Agbayani was apparently more interested in sticking with MLB....On a non-baseball note, I was really saddened to see that Akebono, real name Chad Rowan, the first foreigner to ever be named a sumo Yokozuna, will take on Ultimate Fighting champ Bob Sapp in Japan on New Year's Eve. Sapp is the brother of NFL All pro showboating boor Warren Sapp. Akebono will get his clock cleaned and hopefully this will be his last foray into a non-sumo related event.

This Column and the Offseason

Because I have other things I want to work on this offseason, I'm going to reduce the frequency of these reports from nearly everyday to Wednesdays and Sundays until mid-January. Of course, if anything momentous happens, I will put something up the same day it occurs. Thank you for your understanding.

Replies: 2 comments

Hi Kurt: Thanks for that. Unfortunately, Bob being related to Warren is what Japanese press reports have said. Oh well, won't be the first time they (and I) have gotten something wrong.

Posted by Gary Garland @ 11/09/2003 10:24 PM EST

Thanks for all the hard work on the column, but I just thought I'd mention that Bob Sapp isn't actually related to the Buc's Warren Sapp, though the former did play in the NFL for a short while (and was suspended once under the league's drug policy)

Posted by Kurt @ 11/09/2003 02:55 AM EST