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01/31/2004 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Skipper Sasaki? Watanabe Stews Buffaloes Over Naming Rights"
Sasaki May Get Manager's Job
According to Sports Nippon, Yokohama Bay Stars president Susumu Minegishi is considering making now free agent closer Kazuhiro Sasaki the team's manager after the Daimajin calls it quits. "I can't imagine him wearing anybody else's uniform," Minegishi averred as a sign of his wanting the big righthander involved with the team even after his playing career ends.
Failing having him helm the club in the future, TBS, the television station that owns the Bay Stars, is considering clearing the way for him to join their broadcast team as a baseball commentator.
In addition, the report indicates that Yokohama is going to offer their prodigal closer a three year pact at about $5.8 million per season, making him the highest paid Japanese in the sport.
Watanabe Objects to Harebrained Selling of Buffaloes' Naming Rights
According to Sports Nippon, the Kintetsu Buffaloes, who have been losing into eight figures in every year for the last few seasons, including red ink approaching $28 million this past campaign alone (that includes their Osaka Dome costs), are considering expunging their corporate name from the team's appellation and putting the moniker up for sale as a hedge against the mountain of debt the ballclub has run up. In other words, if the Acme oil company forks over the readies that Kintetsu is looking for, the team will be known as the Acme Buffaloes. Kintetsu would still retain
ownership.
This would be the first time this has ever been done either in Japan or in MLB. But the idea may be cashiered by Saddam Hussein-like Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe, who resolutely fumed that it violates NPB rules. And in a sign of the apocalypse, this writer agrees with the megalomaniacal Giants supremo.
There have been rumors for years that Kintetsu's parent firm, which is in a cost cutting mode, has been looking for a buyer for the Buffs, something that they officially deny. This development only further fuels that speculation, but with the Japanese economy in the tank and the team playing a faintly heard second fiddle to the Hanshin Tigers in terms of popularity in the Kansai region, prospects for offloading the squad seem dim at best.
Shockingly, though, the Daiei Hawks endorsed the naming rights concept. "That's a wonderful idea," said a team official, when quizzed by Hochi Sports. "There might be some value to us looking into that, too." They may also consider auctioning the naming rights to Fukuoka Dome, though what Colony Capital, which bought the debt of the stadium and the nearby Seahawk hotel, thinks about that is unknown.
Correction
Well known Japanese baseball author Robert Whiting was kind enough to write in to give a fuller and more accurate picture of the relationship between hall of fame catcher and former Hanshin manager Katsuya Nomura and his son Kenny than I did a couple days back:
"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."
Thanks Bob!
By the way, Whiting will have a new book coming out in April on Ichiro and the effect that the recent wave of Japanese players has had on MLB. You can pre-order it at a nice pre-release discount at Amazon.com. I've already ordered mine, so make sure you get in on a bargain that is sure to be one good read. I will also have a review of it after our new sister site is launched in April.
Team Reports
Hanshin Mike Kinkade had his first Japanese batting practice session Saturday, taking 150 hacks in Ginoza, Okinawa off of a pitching machine. Manager Akinobu Okada is quoted as hoping for a .280, 30 homer season from their new addition. He then headed for the weight room, where he pumped iron while strains of Bizet's Carmen and Khatchatorian's Sabre Dance played over the sound system. A Sankei Sports scribe was impressed with the former Dodger's physique, saying "he looked like he just walked right off of a move screen." Once he was done, he packed up and exited the facility, but not before signing autographs for fans....For you major leaguers who whine and complain about what you have to put up with, be glad you aren't outfielder Taichiro Kamisaka. The bit player got a speeding ticket last June for driving about 25mph over the speed limit in Nishimomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. He then ignored five summons to the local police station to explain himself. Moreover, the usual procedure of contacting a speeder's employer was followed through on, but the Tigers front office assumed those requests were in connection with an earlier accident involving Kamisaka in which he was injured after sideswiping another motorist's vehicle, an affair that was being handled by Kamisaka's insurance provider. Thus, it is only this past week that the ballclub had the matter clarified and so they suspended, that's right, suspended, him until further notice, meaning that he is going to miss the start of spring training. Kamisaka apologized for the trouble, but he is now facing the prospect of further prosecution by prefectural authorities as well as a fine by his team. Okada, when hearing of this, called Kamisaka "pathetic."
Chunichi Manager Hiromitsu Ochiai is going to fiddle with an interesting combo at the top of the lineup, as in the team's first intrasquad game, he will have third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami leadoff and rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome in the two hole. It is still unknown, though, what Ochiai has in mind for the rest of the lineup.
Yomiuri The team's training site in Guam got majorly dumped on by a rain squall that moved through the island Saturday, soaking the grounds and making them unusable. The area has been met with much misfortune the last couple of years, as a typhoon destroyed most of the then under construction facility last year and then poisonous frogs and noisy, low flying helicopters have dogged it this time around. Nonetheless, team officials hope that they will be blessed with enough sun over the next couple of days to enable them to get at least a few things done before heading off to Miyazaki for spring training....And the injuries keep on coming, and this one is very serious. Reliever Yuya Kubo was discovered to have suffered a fracture in the upper right side of his back Saturday after an MRI and will miss the next month. That pretty much torpedoes his chances of being on the Opening Day roster and makes the Giants' dire bullpen situation even worse....And in another blow to U.S. beef, the hotel that Yomiuri players and officials will stay at is ankling American meat for the Aussie variety due to mad cow fears even though the down under meat quality is admittedly inferior in taste to the red white and blue's brand.
Seibu At the team's spring training site in Miyazaki, they will be raising an 85 foot high net behind the stands in left at Chuo Koen Stadium in order to keep blasts from Jose Fernandez, not really known as a tape measure artist, and Alex Cabrera, definitely a guy who can hit them nine miles, from injuring people in the residential area behind the facility. Security gaurds will also be stationed to warn passersby. It is 328 feet to straightaway left there....Setup man Shinji Mori was discovered to have a circulatory problem late last year. He will be re-evaluated at a Tokyo area hospital on the second, so he will start spring training a couple of days late.
Nippon Ham An estimated 500 fans greeted outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo Saturday at Naha Airport as if he was a rockstar, with a news photographer losing the grip on his camera and cell phones and sunglasses being trampled amid the throng. Geez, just imagine if the former Met had actually done something during his career. But the most inane aspect of this was the Japanese press making an issue of his wearing "beach sandals" as he arrived. Shinjo's teammates touched down on a separate flight more formally dressed and were probably grateful to have missed the excitement.
Lotte Manager Bobby Valentine took a bike ride around his club's spring training site of Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu Saturday, revealing that he listens to Japanese language lessons on compact disk while doing so, before setting off for the ballpark for a round of meetings. He is still gathering data on Korean slugger Seng-yeop Lee and hopes that Lee's old team, Samusng, will provide him with what he's looking for so that he can more fully evaluate the Asian homer record holder.
Orix Manager Haruki Ihara says that he will demote anyone sporting dyed hair to the minors.
Miscellaneous Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said that, at least for now, fireballer Billy Koch will be the closer going into spring training while righthander Shingo Takatsu will be assigned to a middle relief role.
