[新聞] Japan frets over talent exodus to North America

看板Asian-MLB作者chordate (封侯事在)時間18年前 (2007/03/31 01:25)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

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By Paul White, USA TODAY In an occasional series, USA TODAY examines the rapidly changing relationship between the Far East and America's pastime. Nearly 200 media members, most Japanese, will be in Kansas City next week to chronicle the Major League Baseball debut of Boston pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. The game between the Kansas City Royals and the Red Sox, who invested more than $103 million in Matsuzaka, will be televised live in Japan beginning shortly after 3 a.m. But as Japan's professional baseball season begins this week, none of the opening games will attract half as much media. The 12 teams in the top two leagues will have big crowds, even sellouts, then settle in for another season of wondering what effect losing more stars to the USA will have on their product. "It's like strip mining. You don't get the gold back," says former major league manager Bobby Valentine, beginning his sixth season as manager of Japan's Chiba Lotte Marines. "Matsuzaka is a national treasure. He's a national resource of baseball here." FIND MORE STORIES IN: Major League Baseball | Japan | New York Yankees | Red Sox | Japanese | Chicago Cubs | Los Angeles Dodgers | Player | Matsuzaka | Nomura Japanese pro leagues have existed since 1934, but the level of play was considered inferior. That perception has been changing, especially since Ichiro Suzuki crossed the Pacific in 2001 and became the American League's Most Valuable Player in Seattle. "I think the majority (of Japanese baseball officials) believes we lose too many of the best players," says Nobusha "Nobby" Ito, executive director for baseball operations/international relations for Japan's professional leagues. Top annual salaries for players in Japan are about $5 million, not even a quarter of what New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi were paid last season. Matsuzaka, who made 330 million yen (about $2.8 million) last year, will earn $52 million over the next six seasons. That's in addition to the $51.1 million sealed bid (6 billion yen) the Red Sox made through a "posting system" for the exclusive right to negotiate with him. "Finally, it's become about the players going to make money, not for the great opportunity to play against the best competition," Valentine says. Players succeeding in the USA, such as Suzuki and the Yankees' Hideki Matsui, are a source of pride in Japan. "I don't want the players to go, but I'm pleased for them because they go there to challenge themselves," longtime fan Yoshiaki Nakayama says through a translator. Valentine agrees. "There's nothing left to prove," he says. "Their best hitter (Suzuki) has gone to the U.S. and succeeded. The best power hitter (Matsui) has gone and succeeded. Now, their best pitcher has gone and he'll succeed. "It's supposed to end now in a lot of fans' minds." But, will it? Posting a healthy salary Money is the key. Will the exodus continue because of superior revenue streams of U.S. teams? Or is Matsuzaka one of a kind and the concerns overblown because of the posting fee's shock value? Of the 12 players who have gone through the system since 1998, Seattle's $13.125 million bid for Suzuki was the previous high. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says he is satisfied with the process, saying Matsuzaka is "an exception because he is such an outstanding pitcher with so much potential." The posting system that brought Matsuzaka to the Red Sox was designed to protect Japanese baseball. The first player born, raised and trained in Japan who played in the USA was pitcher Masanori Murakami with the San Francisco Giants in 1964; he was 5-1 with a 3.43 earned-run average in 54 games over parts of two seasons. No others came until pitcher Hideo Nomo became a sensation with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995, going 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA to begin an 11-year major league career. With Matsuzaka and reliever Hideki Okajima joining the Red Sox, Kei Igawa moving into the Yankees' starting rotation and Akinori Iwamura becoming Tampa Bay's third baseman, the total to reach the majors since Murakami is 30. Agent Don Nomura orchestrated Nomo's move, having him "retire" to get out of his Japanese contract and become available to U.S. teams. Japanese baseball officials were outraged. Nomura did the same in 1998 with Alfonso Soriano, a Dominican playing in Japan who would become a star with the Yankees and this winter signed an eight-year, $136 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. That prompted U.S. and Japanese baseball officials to negotiate the posting system. "Yes, you can blame me," Nomura says. "But I didn't create the posting system. It's a stupid idea. To be fair, though, the Japanese had to create some rules." Pitcher/slugger on the horizon Players in Japan can become free agents after nine years with their club, compared to six years for U.S. major leaguers. Japanese clubs, rather than get nothing in return when a star leaves as a free agent, will post a player a year or two before free agency. The high bidder among interested U.S. clubs gets 30 days to work out a contract with the player. If a deal is made, the posting fee goes to the Japanese team. If not, the fee is not paid and the player returns to the Japanese team. "For the most part, it has been very successful," Selig says. We're going to look back and examine the whole process … but I think we're OK." Nomura says he doesn't have a perfect alternative for posting, although, as an agent, he would like to see it modified so more than one bidding club could negotiate with a player. He says he does, however, have a plan that would send the system into turmoil. He wants to convince a top Japanese player coming out of high school to go directly to the USA rather than to the Japanese team that drafts him. "I've been trying for 10 or 12 years," Nomura says. "But it's such a strong cultural thing. I've gone to college and high school coaches, I've gone to the parents, I've gone to the kids. So far, no go." The next opportunity could be Sho Nakata. The powerful high school senior from Osaka is an accomplished pitcher but is the stuff of legend in Japan for long home runs, including one last year that went 520 feet according to local media. Three years ago Nakata played in a tournament in suburban Chicago and told the Northwest Herald he would like to return to the USA and pitch for the Yankees. "If it happens, it happens," Ito says, dismissing the impact of a player like Nakata spurning pro baseball in his homeland. "But the majority of club owners would answer differently." Just as he believes the money involved in landing Matsuzaka is not likely to be repeated often, Ito also says one high school player going to the USA would not signal a mass exodus, for practical reasons. "They're like teenagers anywhere else," he says. "Girls see Nakata here, they go crazy. He can play in the top leagues in Japan when he's 20. He'll be famous. "If he goes to the U.S. he'll be in places like Midland, Texas. The food will be a big problem. He won't have friends, especially girls. It's not the physical and technical talent that will hold him back." JAPAN VS. MAJOR LEAGUES Measuring baseball interest in Japan is difficult. The general consensus is attendance at games is down, but most clubs didn't announce figures until last season, when the average was about 23,500. Last year's Major League Baseball average was more than 31,000. But, Chiba Lotte Marines manager and former major league manager Bobby Valentine says, "We have 400 people sitting five hours in the sun just to watch spring training" practice. Japan has more Little League teams than any country other than the USA. The national team won the first World Baseball Classic. "The WBC helped Japanese fans feel pride, but it's just luck. One hit here, one hit there," says Nobusha Ito, executive director for baseball operations-international relations for Japan's professional leagues. "If you play a league with all those teams, Team USA wins easily." The American players who go to Japan generally are those who have run out of opportunities to land a major league job and can make $400,000-$500,000 a year rather than $10,000 a month for six months as a U.S. minor leaguer. "Is that good for baseball? No," Valentine says. "I think the infrastructure is good enough (in Japan) to have MLB leagues, two divisions of teams under the MLB umbrella. The commissioner was a great concept when it was created in North America. Maybe it's time to have that kind of czar globally." By Paul White -- 在奇怪的時刻突然想寫blog http://chordate.blogspot.com/ -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.135.3.133