Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 25, 2007
Isolationists

Japanese major league baseball may be going the way of the Negro Leagues:

Losing star players like Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Matsuzaka -- whether through posting or free agency -- is taking its toll on Japanese baseball. TV ratings for Matsui's former team, the Yomiuri Giants, are way down. Attendance at many stadiums in Japan is also lagging in recent years.

The Giants, Japan's most popular team, often took a sink-or-swim attitude toward the weaker teams in the league, but there are signs the team is taking a more cooperative stance in the face of competition from the majors.

"I don't think we can eliminate the posting system," said Yomiuri GM Hidetoshi Kiyotake. "But we may be able to find ways to put limits on it."

This is a sure way to ruin. Japanese players will find ways around the system. The best youngsters will start signing with MLB clubs out of high school to avoid the nine-year free agency wait.

Japan needs to start competing with the North American major leagues for talent. They don't need to go after major stars, but they could scrape the barrel of available free agents (like Cliff Floyd or Jeff Weaver) and still improve their teams. Why not start trading stars for American prospects? Instead of isolating themselves, they should expand their horizons to try to bring stars to their teams.

The Negro Leagues disappeared because their star players went to the majors, and the fans started watching those games (and unlike Japan, the Negro League owners received little compensation). It would be a shame to see Japanese baseball suffer a similar fate. If Japan needs star players, there are plenty here. They just need to change the way they do business with MLB.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:23 PM | International | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I imagine Japan could get Cuban stars too, without any of the issues an American team would have to get through. That could be useful to them.

Posted by: Devon at January 25, 2007 02:19 PM

The Japanese leagues may have to go to AAA level. The thing is, blacks stopped going to Negro League games because they could go to MLB games. It's real hard for the average Japanese fan to decide, on a Friday, to go to a Saturday game if it involves getting on a plane and flying to another continent.

Posted by: rbj at January 25, 2007 02:54 PM

Japan is AAA now, only 2-3 players could play in the bigs. That's why so-so players go there, to start.

Posted by: Al at January 25, 2007 10:08 PM
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