Ogasawara Officially a Giant

Ok, I don't know what happened with the article I read. Now the news sites I check say that Ogasawara is only having his second meeting with the Giants on the 22nd. I apologize for the misunderstanding. He's not quite a Giant yet.

The news sites have been pretty annoying about this the last few weeks. But what they were making a big deal out of was that he was returning home to the Tokyo area from Sapporo after the Fighters parade and Fan Festival this past weekend, so there's this undertone of "now that he's back in Tokyo he's going to go meet with the Giants again and of course he will come to his senses and sign with them!"

I wonder what his reaction to this [Live Fighters] will be, though - a bunch of fans that went out and got thousands of signatures on a "please stay with the Fighters, Ogasawara" petition campaign.

Anyway, you can all guess what team I hope he's on next year, but the entire situation is a little depressing and the media isn't helping, either.

This is a fairly standard reaction from the Japanese press. "The Pacific League is the minor league and all decent players really want to play for the big Central League teams. The Giants of course are the ones that players really desire." Take everything with a grain of salt, but if he goes remember his contribution to your success with affection.

Now they're saying he's officially a Giant with a 4 year contract worth about 3.8-oku per year. Pretty small deal considering how much they paid Lee. If the Giants can get Kosaka batting at least above .250 and Tani goes back to Best Nine form, this offense will be pretty amazing. Injuries are a huge issue with that batting order, though.

The Giants just drafted almost twice as many players as any other team in the college/industrial league draft. It'll be interesting to see how this team does next year, especially with the new playoffs. That should add a ton of excitement to the Central League.

- Strangely enough, I don't think this will hurt Nippon Ham that much. As long as Seguignol and Inaba can hit homers, I see them challenging for a playoff spot again.

Let's look at some other things for a minute. Nippon Ham fired pitching coach, Mike Brown, after leading the Fighters to a NPB best 3.05 ERA, not a good decision. One that leaves you wondering?

Second, it will hurt the face of Nippon Ham, as Ogasawara was the star of Nippon Ham. Currently, no one can rise up to accept that responsibility as well as Ogasawara did. The departure of Ogasawara leaves Darvish as the face of this team, a lot of pressure for such a young player.

Third, is it a guarantee that Inaba can repeat his 2006 year? If he doesn't this team is in trouble. Though hopefully their rotation doesn't suffer too much from the departure of Brown, and Darvish and Yagi continue to shine.

Yeah, it will definitely hurt the Fighters unless they can replace him on the roster with an equally potent bat (.900+ OPS every year), very unlikely.

Then again, he's already 33, so the Fighters may have just used up all his best years and he may be at the start of a long decline in skills and power. Then again, he's got good plate discipline, and that skill doesn't diminish with age.

Anyways, it's well known that Ogasawara's wife has all the power in the relationship, and she wants him back in Tokyo, so that's that. (Incidentally, he apparently hands over his entire 4-oku salary to his wife for her to control.) Is he yet another high profile Japanese ball player with an older wife (nothing wrong with that, it just seems like an interesting trend)?

His wife, Miyoko, is like 5-6 years older than he is, IIRC.

I'm pretty torn over this whole deal. I feel like my heart's been ripped out ... sort of like the Fighters' lineup.

Guess if Yogi Berra was a lurker on this board, he would say, "It ain't official until it's official."

Well, it seems more "official" now. According to SportsNavi (in Japanese) Ogasawara has agreed to sign with Kyojin for the next four seasons. His yearly salary will be 3.8-oku yen.

Maybe, the departures of Shinjo, who functioned as the booster for the Fighters transplanted in Hokkaido, and Guts, who may have symbolized the Fighters of their Tokyo days, will open a new chapter for the Hokkaido based Fighters.

Comments posted by Fighters fans to the fan community site of the team's official website tell many fans, particularly those in Hokkaido, were devastated by Guts' decision after clinging to a string of hope that he might stay with the Fighters in the next season. After being exhausted by the nerve wracking weeks only to wait for the worst outcome, a feeling of distrust and dislike against Guts started to brew among many fans. Such feeling against Guts were cooled by sober comments posted by more seasoned fans from Tokyo days: one long-time Fighters fan pointed to the naivety of Hokkaido based fans, most of whom became Fighters fans only three years ago when the team moved to Hokkaido and therefore have not had much of this kind of experience.

However, as the FA-qualified Kuroda announced his decision to stay with the Carp at a very early stage after the season ended (no wonder, his announcement was applauded by Carp fans), as the emotion charged Matsuzaka thanked the fans directly at the Lions fan festival held on November 23, and even Kuwata of the Giants made a speech with lots of thanks to Giants fans at the fan festival on the same day, many Fighters fans became even more frustrated by the stark difference in attitude between these players and Guts: whenever Guts made any remarks about any progress in his negotiations with Fighters or Giants management, he was in Tokyo, not in Hokkaido, and he did it to the media, not to the fans. Guts did not say anything about this matter at the fan festival held in Sapporo. After all, unlike other FA qualified players, or even Kuwata of the Giants, Guts did not talk directly to his fans who eventually came to know his departure through media report on November 22. This frustrated Hokkaido based fans in particular and they felt betrayed by their most beloved player they dubbed "kita-no-samurai" (the samurai of the north) for his looks and behavior that were in sharp contrast to Shinjo's.

Even worse, when Fighters fans started to put behind the nightmare and try to redirect their thoughts in positive things such as guessing the lineup for the next season with existing players and young hopefuls, a message apparently written by Guts apologizing and thanking the fans along with his resolution for the future was posted to the Fighters' website in the evening of November 23. For some reason or other, after being posted to the site for several minutes, the message disappeared, and some time later, a much shorter version of the message reappeared on the site. The timing of the posting of the message (after the media report, it was too late actually), the content of the original message, and the scrambling to re-edit the message to a shorter one were almost equivalent of rubbing salt into the healing wounds of fans.

Even less emotional fans now consider Guts, and the Fighters' management for some part, mishandled the situation. Fans are not angry at his decision to leave the Fighters for the Giants, although it was very annoying, especially because he was going to the Giants, the team that still believes it dominates Japanese professional baseball and notoriously robs good players from other teams by throwing tons of money at them only to ill-treat them until it dumps them. Fans are angry that Guts did not tell his fans his decision from his mouth. Fans wanted to be told by Guts, not through the media. During these weeks, it appeared to many fans that Guts kept avoiding talking directly to them, despite the fact that the fan festival could have made an ideal situation. And to many fans his behavior contradicted his "samurai" image. It was true that, playing in the Pa-League To-zai Taikosen games, Nichi-Bei Yakyu, and the Asia Series, Guts did not have much time to deal with this. But remarks reportedly made by Guts somewhat suggest he had made up his mind (to leave the Fighters) before he declared to exercise FA.

Some comments posted by fans indicate that Guts' departure for a Tokyo based team has hurt people in Hokkaido, which is the northernmost, coldest, snowy, and agriculture-heavy province, and was hit hardest by the economic recession and has been lagging behind other provinces in terms of economic recovery. The NPL champion pennant crossing Tsugaru Straits seems to have meant a lot more to people in Hokkaido than just a local baseball team winning the championship. (It would be a bit sad if people in Hokkaido were not aware of the positive brand image of the vast, cooler, and wildlife-rich Hokkaido with a strong appeal to people like me in other heavily developed areas.)

Some Hokkaido fans seem to feel Guts turned down Hokkaido itself: he is returning to his wife and daughters who kept staying in Chiba and did not move to Hokkaido while he played for the Fighters. Some suspect that, when the Fighters moved to Hokkaido, Guts had already planned to move to a team near his home in Chiba once he was qualified for free agency.

One seasoned Tokyo based fan posted a comment that Hokkaido fans were still in the "in-love-with-their-team" stage, and they would have to go through many ups and downs until their relationship with the Fighters matures to the stage of that of Dragons fans and their team.

- During these weeks, it appeared to many fans that Guts kept avoiding talking directly to them, despite the fact that the fan festival could have made an ideal situation. And to many fans his behavior contradicted his "samurai" image.

That samurai thing was just a gimmick the PR machine made because his look was similar to Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Studying Bushidou is kind of a hobby of mine. Let me tell you, facial hair is a sin with samurai, and being whipped by your wife is pretty bad, too. I'd say Tomonori Maeda is the one guy currently who fully deserves that title.

Ha, it's funny that modern day samurai are not being defined by Tom Cruise.

Then again, Santa Clause started wearing red because of a Coke advertising campaign, so that's how the world works.

Well, you have to admit that his unconventional batting stance, while not exactly like swinging a sword, might have lent to it. (I think the first time I ever saw him at the plate, I thought, "Did this guy stray in from the kendo club?")

I think it also had something to do with him being so reserved compared to some of his other teammates. I used to wonder why I rarely ever saw him smile. (This year changed that, of course.)

The Giants pick up another big-name free agent. What else is new? I am so sick and tired of seeing good players bolt for the Giants. Kudos to Kokubo for leaving the Giants.

BTW, what did Tomonori Maeda's wife do to him? I must have missed it.

Oh my god. WHO is this guy [Giants site] and what has he done with the real Michihiro Ogasawara? (Also pictured here [Yahoo Japan]).

The facial hair - it's all gone - I feel like the Red Sox fans must have when they first saw Johnny Damon in clean-cut "Yankee mode."

Wow. I predict his stats to go down a ton just because of the shave. That is sad. It reminds me of the line in Mr. Baseball when Jack Elliot is asked to shave his mustache.

"Tell him that if my mustache gets in the way of my swing, I'll gladly shave."

You know they're going to shave Igawa bald over there in New York.

Yeah, the Giants like to copy the Yankees in all the wrong places.

Wow. He looks terrible.

I guess he was affected by the soulless Giants machine sooner than I thought he would be.

Could turn out to be a Samson and Delilah situation. You know, the evil temptress seduces the hero and cuts his hair, robbing him of his strength.