Japanese

"A Scandal surrounding a collegiate baseball star"

It was brought to light that the scouts of the professional baseball teams, the Yomiuri Giants, the Hanshin Tigers, and the Yokohama Bay Stars had given total 2.85 million yen to a former collegiate star Yasuhiro Ichiba (a star pitcher of Meiji University) who was the top pick in the pro baseball entry draft this year, and it has developed into resignation of six professional baseball team executive members including three owners.

Same as the problems of present Japanese professional baseball community that I mentioned in the last column, this incident is also only a drop in the bucket. It is said that there was a pressure from a right-wing organization, and whistle-blowing activity behind the fact that this incident came to light abruptly. It means that the professional baseball community has lost self-purification capability. Although Mr. Kuma the former owner of the Hanshin Tigers criticized the present draft system and advocate introducing a waiver system on resignation, it does not make sense if his comment was made after injustice was performed. By the way, it seems to me that the report of each media about Ichiba, who is one party of this incident, was sympathetic tone and rather treated him as a victim. It is maybe because; A) It is not fair for him to suffer such an unreasonable loss, while such kind of rule bending has became a way of life. B) The amount of money he received was comparatively small and does not deserve sanction. C) Since he is an excellent ball player, it would be loss of Japanese baseball to deprive him of a chance to demonstrate his talent.
At the apology interview of the professional baseball team managing director of the Yokohama Bay Stars. Mr. Yamanaka and president Mr. Nozaki held on October 26, they were asking for the relief of Ichiba and Ichiba welcomed their offer as well. But wait a minutes. The action he took was at least clear misconduct to a amateur draft eligibility, and it has developed into large scandal to the extent that the head of six professional baseball team executive members including two tops of a first section market company was rolled. Though he himself did not realize the gravity of the situation, he should accept the fact seriously and turn down the nomination of the draft this year. I want star players to be a fine people as well. For example, Hideki Matsui and Ai Miyasato are not only world-class sportsman but also excellent people. They are modest in behavior and always pay careful attention to other people since they realize what they have to be as professional athletes. I don't know how excellent baseball player Ichiba is, but if he has outstanding genius, he should make a fresh departure from old structure smeared with finger marks and do his best to meet our expectation. (End)