Yomiuri Sign Lee

Yomiuri is bright lights where many established regulars go to wallow in the darkness when they end up as part time players. I wish Lee better luck, but I don't wish any success for the Giants.

I would have to think this looks like a pretty good signing for my Giants.

I don't think it's a good signing for the Giants. I think the Central League pitching will tear him up. He will have a year comparable to what Saeki did for the BayStars this year.

You mean like how Central League Champion Hanshin's pitching tore him up in the Series? (6-11, 3HR, 2 2B) I know it's a small sample size, but ...

Wow, a real live Giants fan on the board. I was always wondering where they were.

Yeah, it's difficult to tell with that sample size.

Well, for a larger sample, according to Jim Allen's Jan 19 article, Lee went .330 with 15 HR in 33 inter-league and series games. However, in the same article Allen says he thinks that CL pitching will adapt and do better against Lee. That's just conjecture though, albeit conjecture from a source far more respected than me.

I still think it's reasonable to think that Lee will do as well as he did in the PL last year, and also reasonable to hope for more, especially since he wanted to play in the field last year, and this year he'll get his wish. Happy players often equal productive players. His stats show improvement - maybe he's adjusting to Japanese pitching after his move. Yes, wishful thinking on my part.

Giants fans do seem in the vast minority here - although I guess I'm proof there's at least one. The pie chart shows there being about as many Giants fans here as for any team other than the Tigers, but the posting doesn't seem to be falling in line with those numbers. I suppose if we do better this year a few more people will pipe up.

Yomiuri Giants (Kyojin) fans comprise a good sampling in japanesebaseball.com as well as among Japanese baseball fans. The postings and reactions concerning the Giants are different. The other 11 teams have supporters; the Giants have many fans but also have a sizable anti-Kyojin crowd.

Just to add what Kiyoshi said, it's similar to the Yankees who have a large fanbase, but just as big of a anti-Yankees crowd.

Actually, it's not really "similar" to the Yankees. In Japan, 90% of the baseball fans in all of Japan cheer for the Yomiuri Giants. In the United States, the Yankees are said to have a large fanbase because they play in New York, a city and a state which happens to have a much higher population compared to other regions of the country.

I am pretty sure that even with the Giants not being the team that they once were, the number of Giants fans still outnumber the anti-Giants fans. The same cannot be said of the New York Yankees.

Probably the best supported baseball club in Japan today is the Hanshin Tigers. Figures are hard to come by but estimates of their fan base are enormous.

The Giants, whilst being very popular, have been in decline for a long time. They certainly never had 90% of the Japan baseball fans at any time even during their attempt to be the team for Japan.

Nowadays, the number of anti-Giants fans exceeds the number of pro-Giants fans by a large margin. As clubs move to a regional marketing model this decline will continue. The Giants need to adopt the regional model themselves and as yet have not made significant moves in this direction. Once they do their support will begin to increase again.

There's no hard numbers, but I reckon that there are more anti-Giants fans than Giants fans amongst vocal baseball fans in Japan. But I'm not so sure about the silent majority.

- But I'm not so sure about the silent majority.

This will reflect the proportions of the more vocal fans - once again the anti-Giants out-numbering the Giants. As a more regional focus kicks in it will solidify things.

The problem is not so much the Giants support, which will remain strong, but for Yokohama, Yakult, and Lotte who fall within the Giants' sphere of influence. Lotte may well continue to flourish, but the other two teams are very much under threat of loosing fans if the Giants decide to adopt a Kanto focus.

Players like Lee will certainly help the Giants retain fans, but a change in marketing strategy is needed if they want grow.

No question that Hanshin is far more popular today than the midgets. Last year at any Tokyo game the number of Hanshin fans were equal to midget fans. And of course it goes without saying that at an Osaka based game midget fans would number, let's see, that would be zero. None of them would dare show their midget colors for fear of personal damage.

No, the days of the rich money team Yomuri buying championships is over. And the fan base that is not loyal is eroding. The Tigers are a far more enjoyable team to watch and their fans stay true to the team no matter what.

I hope Lee has a good year, but the midgets will still be a bottom dweller next year.

- ...at an Osaka based game midget fans would number, let's see, that would be zero.

Of course that's an exaggeration, as their fan base is still sizable in Kansai, but the numbers are certainly down.

Not so much of one - possibly you might see a maximum of 1,000 Giants fans at Koshien. Last season it was even smaller, numbered in the hundreds.

^ ...numbered in the hundreds

I'm not sure how many Koshien games you got to last season, but at the ones I attended, the Giants contingent was definitely much larger than that. Even the BayStars can usually manage to rustle up a couple of hundred diehard fans.