Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 29, 2007
Eastern High Schools

Japan's best players already head to the United States when they become free agents, and now there is a fear that the best high school players head to the west before they play a game for their home country:

He wants to convince a top Japanese player coming out of high school to go directly to the United States 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 United States 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 United States 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."

As the article points out, the money is much better in the US. One of these teenagers will eventually realize he'll make a lot more money playing his entire career in North America than waiting a number of years before his team posts him.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:32 AM | International | TrackBack (0)
Comments

re: the west is the best

"the west is the best"

--the doors, 1967

Posted by: arthur john kyriazis at March 30, 2007 11:47 AM
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