Nakamura To Leave Orix

It's good that Orix is getting younger. Getting rid of Tani, Nakamura, and hopefully Kiyohara would do wonders for a new start. Let Collins develop the young talent.

The Mainichi Daily News [in English] quote's Nakamura's agent as saying "I conveyed (to the club) that Nakamura has [no] intention of continuing to play for Orix. [...] A club official said the team needs Nakamura because he is an important player but they couldn't meet his demands."

Nikkan Sports (paper version) says that Orix felt that Norihiro Nakamura's value was 4,000-man yen (an 80% cut), but was willing to offer him a 60% cut (to 8,000-man). Sports writer, Hirokazu Terao, mentions that a big part of the problem is that Orix doesn't have a negotiating professional working for them (against Nori's agent who is), and that Nakamura hasn't been taking his agent's advice but has been spewing his own childish ideas to the club.

I find it hard to believe that a leasing company can't find a competent negotiator. Did they get Kintetsu's player relations personnel when the two teams merged? It looks like this could play out for a while as both Orix and Nori play a power struggle against one another to their mutual destruction.

The saga continues with a report from Japan Ball (Kyodo News Service) stating that Orix will meet with Nakamura and his agent for a sixth time today (Friday, January 12, 2007). Pull quote:

"I requested that the team reevaluate how it assesses players, but there was no improvement. If I am traded it's too bad," Nakamura said after the fifth round of talks.

Orix, however, has no intention of changing its player assessment policy, leaving little room for an agreement unless Nakamura decides to compromise.

The paper version of Nikkan Sports (January 12) elaborates a bit, including this quote from Nakamura which is the stickler:

Nakamura: Aren't they in violation of the going over the rule (that states that a player's salary that surpasses 1-oku yen may not be decreased by over 40%) without the player's consent? Shouldn't there be a follow up to injuries sustained by a player while trying to help the team win? For two months I have been awaiting an answer. Now the club says that they're cutting off negotiations. I plan on making tomorrow (January 11) my limit as well.

This isn't just about getting a pay cut. This is about upholding his rights that the owners have agreed to but have not followed up on. (I've often wondered about that. A lot of players accept pay cuts well over 40% without a word about it.) It's also about getting answers to direct questions. (Again, this is something that many players, and the Players' Association, have a really hard time with, often going years without an answer. More transparency on the part of the owners is required! Tell 'em, Negoro-san!)

As for the Hochi speculation that Nori may be heading to Korea or Taiwan, the Nikkan Sports article also quotes Nakamura-san as saying that he's only going to move within Japan (a joint decision with his wife). Even if he has to sit out a year to get out of his contract with Orix, that's what he'll do.

After the sixth round of talks, still no agreement could be reached [The Japan Times]. Pull quote from the article:

"Basically, I wanted to play for Orix, but there were too many differences of opinion in the talks and this is the result," Nakamura said.

The Daily Yomiuri added:

As much as the money, Nakamura said he felt slighted by the team's attitude toward the wrist injury he suffered last May when he was hit by a pitch. The team pushed him to play more, while Nakamura insisted that the team recognize the severity of the injury.

He was limited to 85 games and batted .232 with 12 home runs.

Nikkan Sports elaborates on both sides with Orix's representative saying that this is all about Nori not accepting the pay decrease and Nori's agent saying that neither party was communicating with each other - that Nori would accept even less money.

Furthermore, the Daily Yomiuri stated:

The team said it will now try to trade the 33-year-old infielder. If it cannot find a taker, Nakamura will be allowed to become a free agent.

However, Nikkan Sports pointed out:

Even if [Nakamura] is given his released, it's unclear if there will be a team willing to pick him up.

Sports Hochi took that sentiment to an extreme, seemingly having it out for Nori, vilifying him at every turn. Other than Koizumi-president shaking hands and saying "It's unfortunate, no hard feelings," and Nakamura replying, "I appriciate it," Hochi goes on to quote representatives of several other teams saying they don't need a trouble maker like Nakamura (or something equally unflattering). Is Sports Hochi the Fox News of Japanese sports dailies?

Well, that's your Nori Roundup for the day.

I asked my friends what they thought about him. Oh - he's got Yakuza links was the main answer. No one seemed to have any sympathy for his position at all. Not objective or a scientific sample I'm afraid, but maybe an indicator of why Sports Hochi is adopting its attitude.

Who in Japan with any power doesn't have Yakuza links?

What is it with people's rumors of NPB players and gang links - none of which are proven? What are these links supposed to entail? Is someone throwing games in relation to illegal gambling? Is someone getting steroids from criminal organization? Nope, just "links" or "yakuza friends."

Still, maybe having "gang links" isn't all that glamorous anyway. I remember back in 2001, I happened to be in Tokyo for the season-opening card between the Giants and Tigers. Desperate to go to all three games, I applied for tickets through official channels, but only got them for the second game.

Resorting to Yahoo! Auctions for the remaining two games, I picked up a pair of tickets for the third game, but because opening day was a Friday, and I couldn't find anyone at of our Tokyo office interested enough in baseball to come, so I was after only one ticket, and of the hundreds of tickets up for auction, seemingly none of them was for just one. Just as I was about to give up, I found one.

Very low reserve but a very popular item, I won it at a very inflated price. The e-mail from the seller gave the reason for it being a lone ticket: "We were a group of four, but we found out that one of us was a Giants fan so he's not welcome to sit with us anymore. Anyway, if you don't mind sitting next to us, welcome along."

When I got there, it turned out to be three very junior chinpira - loud suits, expensive-but-cheap shoes, alligator-hide man bags, ... the works. They were friendly enough, but for the whole game, they were on the look-out for fights in the crowd. There was only one, a dozen or so rows in front of us and a good 20 meters across, but they were off like a flash to get involved. Unfortunately for the young punks, security had sorted things out before they could get there.

Anyway, as we parted after the game (Yomiuri gave Hanshin a bath, by the way; Yabu had chickened out of the opening-night start and Nobuyuki Hoshino had filled in until he got carted all over the dome and was replaced by rookie Taiyo Fujita, who fared even worse IIRC) we found out that we would be sitting fairly near each other the next night as well.

Sure enough, there they were there for game two. But something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was amiss. Right after the first innings it hit me: they had swapped suits from the previous night, and were now wearing each others' clothes! I almost sprayed my beer on the couple in front as a fought to stifle a laugh.

Maybe the life of a gangster ain't all it's cracked up to be. Surely Nori can afford a better class of friend than this!

I doubt he has any serious yakuza links. He just has the unfortunate bad luck to look like one [Slate Pictures].

- Is Sports Hochi the Fox News of Japanese sports dailies?

Well, as we all know, Yomiuri is the conservative, right-leaning media conglomerate of Japan a la News Corp./Fox, so that should make Sports Hochi ... umm ... never mind.

(But then, does this make Nabetsune the Rupert Murdoch of Japan? I thought he was the George Steinbrenner of Japan. Maybe he's a Steinbrenner-Murdoch hybrid, which is a truly frightening thought.)

Nice story Torakichi. Nakamura's Yakuza links are supposed to relate to illegal gambling, and whilst in the Orix dugout he has been seen making phone calls to bookies.

A lot of Japanese celebrities did have links to the organization (especially if they had right wing views) rather like the situation in the early sixties in the U.K. This has become very unfashionable recently and many who did enjoy the situation have now pulled back.