[Previous entry: "Japanese Baseball News: MLB Japan Opener Tix On Sale 2/1; Lee Advised by Haku"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Japanese Baseball News: NOW Yakult Wants Tadano; Attanasio, Sasaki Burned by Yokohama Racism"]
01/28/2004 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: To Hall of Famer Nomura, Kenny is Dead; Tadano Clears the Air---Again"
Team Reports
Hanshin Shortstop Takashi Toritani took batting practice Wednesday in Ginoza, Okinawa and launched seven homers in 32 swings despite intentionally leaving his contact lens in the locker room. However, incumbent shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto had a better showing in the field, displaying greater range and a nice gun. However, Fujimoto's problems aren't physical, but mental and he didn't hit well with runners in scoring position last year. He is also attempting to lower his body fat ratio from 20% to 13%....Outfielder Osamu Hamanaka said that the shoulder he is rehabbing from a severe dislocation last June is about 60-70% of full strength. He will start spring training in the minor league camp....Special adviser Senichi Hoshino ripped ace Kei Igawa Wednesday, claiming that Igawa out to be more than happy with the $1.9 million offer being made to him by the Tigers. In fact, the goonish former field boss asserted, "it may be too good." The Igawa negotiations could now be headed for arbitration.
Yomiuri According to Sports Nippon, the Giants intejnd to pursue now released former Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, but are only willing to offer him $3.8 million and, if a statement made by a team spokesman is correct, that will be all, take it or leave it. "We're not going to get into a bidding war," he claims. Nippon Ham and Yokohama are the other two clubs said to be interested, with rumors saying that Sasaki's old nine was willing to give him over $5 million per. No word as yet on what Nippon Ham will proffer....Rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi visited a bat factory in Toyama Prefecture Wednesday and ordered up some maple bats. Lats year, his weapon of choice was made of aodamo....Righthander Masumi Kuwata had his 11 year old son taking fungoes and hitting off of a pitching machine Tuesday. Kuwata wants his kid to become a baseball player and has been coaching him from the time he was in elementary school....Outfielder Takayuki Shimizu, like his teammate, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, has died his hair blonde. He just returned from training in Florida and worked out for about four hours. It will be interesting to see if Shimizu is still on the roster when the 2004 schedule is done since Tuffy Rhodes' addition leaves him out of a job, with Takayuki Saito likely to take the centerfield job. There are rumors that he will be traded for pitching....First baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara's progress will be tracked over the internet by manager Tsuneo Horiuchi, as Horiuchi will have a camera shooting Kiyohara's workouts while he is in Guam with the rest of the Giants first team players. The footage will then be transmitted to Horiuchi over the net. Likewise, Kiyohara will keep track of how his buddies are doing in a similar manner....Lefthander Masanori Hayashi is working on a cutter that he intends to use mostly against lefties....Catcher Shinnosuke Abe thinks that if he can be the focus of a "hero interview" ten times this season, the Giants will win the pennant. So that is his goal for 2004...Second year man Hiroshi Kisanuki threw 50 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday and said that he is at about 70-80% full strength.
Yakult The Swallows are allowing new White Sox reliever Shingo Takatsu to use Meiji Jingu Stadium to get ready for his first MLB campaign. He will also act as an instructor to the team's minor league hurlers beforer heading stateside....New imports Billy Martin and Tony Mounce arrived in Japan Wednesday along with leftfielder Alex Ramirez. With Hiroki Kokubo and Tuffy Rhodes now in the Central League, Ramirez said that even with the 22 wxtra pounds of weight training developed muscle he put on during the offseason, he is conceding the homer title to that pair, Instead, he will concentrate on winning the batting title. If that means Ramirez will cut down his strikeouts, he should have one heck of a year.
Yokohama Team president Susumu Minegishi, who wasn't part of the Bay Stars organization at the time that the club decided not to draft Rikkyo University pitcher Kazuhito Tadano, who is now with Cleveland (see story below), said that he thinks the porno video issue may have been a distraction for Tokyo Broadcasting (TBS), which now owns the team, and basically supported the decision to forsake the man who was going to be their number one draft choice.
Daiei First baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka met with team negotiators Wednesday and though they had improved their offer by about $95,000 over their last proffer of $2.85 million, they are still about $70,000 apart and Matsunaka isn't willing to compromise. It is now expected that the 2003 RBI champ will go to spring training at his own expense and the Hawks front office is now hinting at resorting to arbitration, which tends to favor team management....Number one draft choice Takahiro Mahara threw 80 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday and felt good.
Seibu Pitcher Fumiya Nishiguchi will begin the spring in the minor league camp as he had hoped so that he can take his time getting back to the form that saw him win in double figures for several years running until being limited to six victories last season.
KintetsuThird baseman Norihiro Nakamura had five teeth pulled Wednesday in a nine and half hour procedure. Nakamura seens to believe that a more comfortable mouth will lead to bigger power numbers. In addition, his surgically repaired knee is looking good...Righthanded sidearmer Tetsuro Kawajiri, who came over in a trade with Hanshin, did some longtossing and some half speed pitching with outfielder Fumitoshi Takano. He said he is feeling better this spring than last and feels ready to contribute....All six of the team's rookies will start the spring in the minor league camp.
Lotte Former Mets Benny Agbayani and Matt Franco arrived in Japan Wednesday. Franco said that he would like to surpass the Japanese numbers of another Lotte alumnus, Julio Franco, who had talked with Matt about going to Japan. His uncle, actor Kurt Russell, is reportedly also excited about his nephew playing in the Land of the Rising Sun and expects Matt to do well. Agbayani said that he doesn't care where he hits in the order, he just wants to play everyday....Another new arrival, Korean slugger Seung-yeop Lee met incumbent first baseman Kazuya Fukuura Wednesday and the two shook hands and exchanged greetings. One will get to play in the field and the other one will be the DH, depending on how they do during spring training.
Miscellaneous Kazuo Matsui and wife Mio spent the morning interviewing at a Manhattan area pre-school for three year old daughter Haruna....Former Hanshin manager Katsuya Nomura, who was canned in the wake of his loudmouthed, grasping wife Sachiyo's tax evasion scandal after the 2001 season, has filed an action in a Tokyo civil court to legally disown his son Kenny. The reason? "If [Sachiyo] hadn't been arrested, I wouldn't have gotten fired." That is grossly unfair to Kenny Nomura since dad was working on his third straight last place season in Osaka and he had all but given up on his team the second half of the schedule. The elder Nomura claimed that Hanshin owner Shunjiro Kuman had promised him at least one more year providing that Sachiyo wasn't tossed in gaol. Kenny was Nomura's second son by his first spouse, an American woman. Sachiyo, who helped get Nomura sent to the unemployment line while her husband was manager of the Nankai Hawks, was revealed by her stepson to have asked him to commit obstruction of justice by remaining quiet about her not reporting millions of dollars in income and he tapped those conversations and gave them to the media, who then aired them. Kenny's response to the legal action was that he still respected his father and is grateful for all that he taught him about baseball, positing that it was Sachiyo who put his dad up to all this. He also disclosed that papa asked him to buy viagra and Rogaine for him when he went back to the U.S, but due to the fact that old man Nomura's ticker isn't in the best of shape, he gave the viagra order a miss. However, the hall of fame catcher retorted that his son "lacked common sense." A final ruling on all this is expected on March 17th.
In the News
Tadano Story Resurfaces
See story at: Associated Press Article
See related story at: Cleveland Plain Dealer Article
See another related story at: Lorain Morning Journal Article
See yet another related story at: Akron Beacon-Journal Article
Miscellaneous For those of you who read the otherwise good piece on Yankees third baseball Andy Carey Tuesday at NYMFans, it needs to be noted that there are two factual errors in it having to do with Carey's performance on a 16 game tour of Japan in 1955. Yes, not 1954, as the article says, but 1955. Also, Carey hammered seven homers (driving in 21 runs), not 13. The Yankees went 15-0-1 on that trip, outscoring the Japanese contingent 132-24. By the way, no MLB team went to Japan in 1954. And only one man has drilled into double figures in dingers on those tours, Hank Sauer in 1953, who was part of an MLB all star side. Sauer went yard 12 times on that occasion. Eddie Murray and Johnny Bench are each tied for second with nine for a single series....According to the Houston Chronicle, baseball is rising in popularity in Mexico.
Sasaki Split with MLB Soon to be Official
See story at: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article
See related story at:MLB.com Article
See another related story at: The Olympian Article
And finally, somebody takes up the divorce issue (but just in passing), at: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article
Former Japan FTC Official to be New NPB Commissioner
See story at: Associated Press Article
Women's Korean Baseball League Gets Underway
See story at: Korea Times Article
Shim Signs 600 Million Won Deal with Hyundai
See story at: Korea Times Article
In Cuba, Players Look for a Way Out
See story at: MLB.com Article
Teaching Baseball the Cuban Way
See story at: MLB.com Article
USC to Play Three Games in Cuba
See story at: Daily Trojan Article
See related story at: San Diego Union-Tribune Article
Replies: 1 Comment
Kenny Nomura is Katsuya Nomura's stepson. Kenny's real father was an American whom Satchi dumped after six years of marriage. When she married Katsuya some years later, Katsuya adopted Kenny and gave him the family name of Nomura.
Posted by bob Whiting @ 01/30/2004 07:02 PM EST
