1st August - Management idiocy

What are the odds of a meaningful fan campaign prompting change, or at least garnering some publicity? i cant recall seeing either live or on tv a banner critical of a japanese team's ledership before. though with the attendance numbers the Tigers put up, does anyone in the company really have to care about anything but last-place incompetence?

There was a campaign to get rid of Mayumi (the previous incompetent) which gradually built up until the owner was actually harassed by fans. Hanshin-Hankyu then put in place a policy which eventually dismissed Mayumi. Note the higher ups at Hanshin-Hankyu will not actually sack a manager. This would be to admit that they got it wrong in the first place and that the policy of appointing old boys is totally bankrupt. When complaints surfaced about Wada the response of the Sakai-owner was that 'he has a contract for three years'. Shareholders do raise the poor performance at the AGMs but the nihilism exhibited by the company ensures that the dissatisfaction is ignored. Hanshin-Hankyu is satisfied with its own little pond and has no vision or ability to understand how to expand the franchise. They are also afraid of competing too directly with the Giants (though the ordinary fans would love that).

could you explain your 'afraid to compete too directly against the giants' thought (even if its a pet conspiracy theory)?
the only explanations i have come up with myself are contradictory to the nature of sports in general. nepotism will unfortunately exist in many places, but running a business to kinda-succeed is confusing. i could understand if they didnt want to overshadow a smaller team like orix, but yomiuri doesnt need anyone's help being popular or successful.

Tigers couldn't care less about Orix - they're a small team and not the main interest. Tigers have the potential to be as big as the Giants if they are properly managed but the Giants are the Giants and this affects even Tigers front office. They want a piece of the pie but don't want to draw the attention of the Yomiuri group too much. This goes way back - the Egusa affair. He would have been happy to stay with Tigers but Giants wanted him and Tigers management at that time wanted good relations with the Giants and so were prepared to trade. If Tigers grow and start to challenge the Giants in the Giants market then they are more of a threat and they will have a dirty fight on their hands. Competition in Japan doesn't work quite the same way as it does in other countries. You can have your piece of the pie but don't try and take too much.

so pro baseball is unofficially rigged in the giants' favor because of strength and leverage of the parent companies?! this is seriously rattling my brain, is it possible for hanshin to be successful? are they *allowed*? is a championship too much? would two in a row instigate a hostile takeover of the parent company?
why bother having games at all, NPB can just tell us in early march who was allowed to be competitive based on parent companies' nikkei profiles and whatever credible economic threats they hold against each other.

Pro Yakyu used to be seriously rigged in favour of the Giants - how do you think the V9 Giants won so many Japan series with the rubbish manager they had? Now its not that bad but shall we say the status quo is that Giants are the No. 1 team. Other teams can win championships of course but overall the Giants are the top. Japanese organisations don't like change and given the established order will seek to maintain that. Tigers front office is very Japanese.