Kantoku Shou

Here is the above article.

It appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as well.

What I liked was the quote from Tom Glavine:

"If you're a player and you think, 'Hey, I got a chance to go 4-for-4 today and I might get that money at the end of the game,' " Glavine said, " 'but, man, we got runners on first and second, or a runner on second, and the better thing for me to do here might be to sacrifice him over. But now I'm going to go 3-for-4 instead of 4-for-4.' You kind of start getting into that gray area."

I'm not quite sure that's what the Japanese players think. His reaction probably shows why the system would never work over in the States!

Sumo, weddings, funerals, major surgery - all of these require large wads of cash in Japan. I suppose this is just an extension of the Japanese penchant for gift-giving.

Yeah, in addition to being quoted in this article, CJ Nitkowski mentioned it in his blog a few weeks ago. His quote then:

It is a neat system but like I said I don’t think it would work at home. I could totally see guys complaining about what they got or didn’t get and also probably focusing too much on the fight money instead of the game. I look at it as fun money I can hide from my wife.