Ogasawara

All I can say is that when he is posted or gets free agent status, he's likely to get a lot of attention on the MLB side of the Pacific.

Jim Albright

- All I can say is that when he is posted or gets free agent status, he's likely to get a lot of attention on the MLB side of the Pacific.

I agree that he'd draw a lot of attention if he were posted, but the Fighters are unlikely to part with their super-star as they move to Sapporo and try to build a fan following there. If they don't post him, Michihiro might never play across the Pacific. I believe he'll be a free agent after 2006, and I don't know how much attention a 33-year-old will attract from MLB teams.

Also of note, I don't think he's ever expressed an interest in playing in North America.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that he doesn't get much respect from the media. They do tend to have only nice things to say about Ogasawara. I assume that you mean that they just don't pay him the attention that he deserves.

Ogasawara did get a lot of attention last season, with hitting streaks, consecutive games reaching base streaks, lead off home runs, and many other records you don't see every day. Even though he's done very well this season as well, the Tigers have simply dominated the press. Even when Ogasawara is interviewed in Shukan Baseball, Tigers have him surrounded. (Other than this week's Koshien special, Tigers have been on the cover probably 3 out of every 4 issues over the past few months.) As good as Ogasawara is, he just isn't as big news as Hanshin this season.

Another factor seems to be that Nippon Ham has been really emphasizing Hillman-kantoku this season with their press releases. I see Hillman-kantoku giving talks to various community organizations each time the Fighters travel to Hokkaido and other third party stadiums. I agree with 1908-san that the Fighters should be promoting Ogasawara more, and it bewilders me that Hillman-kantoku is getting so much more press for what he's doing off the field than what Michihiro is doing on the field.

I also wonder why the press hasn't had much to say about former Tiger Tsuboi, now leading his new team mate Ogasawara by .001 point in the Pacific League batting race with a .361 batting average.

The press has the power to shape interest in the Pacific League, but they don't do it. It may be a catch 22: there isn't much interest in what's going on in the Pacific League (except when Rhodes and Cabrera get close to 55 homers), so they don't promote it much, so there isn't much interest, so they don't promote it, ... Well, I wouldn't say that they don't promote the Pacific League at all. Daiei gets their own page quite often (with their high scoring games and great pitching performances).

But other than Hillman-kantoku's promotions off the field, Nippon Ham doesn't tend to get much attention.

You are right about Hillman. From the Hokkaido press coverage of the Nippon Ham you would think he's the only member of the Fighters. It seems that the management made the decision to use him as their spokesperson and image representative for all public relations in Hokkaido. He's done a good job as you can tell the interest in the team is growing, not just in Sapporo, but in other towns as well. But I think this could be a mistake as they should be "introducing" all of their players, especially their super-stars like Ogasawara, to their new fans.

After all, fans go to games to see the players that put on a good show like Ogasawara. I hope they soon realize this mistake and start using him for all P.R. events. Unless, of course, he doesn't want to be involved for whatever reason. Does anybody know if he's too shy or something?