Nabetsu Steps Down!

I'm watching the Giants vs. BayStars on Yomiuri's G+, but there's been no such talk (that I've noticed). Shouldn't they be first with the scoop?

Watanabe said before the season started that he was going to step down this season, and have a less vocal role until then. He didn't do well with the latter, and I was starting to doubt the former. I look forward to reading Nikkan Sports tomorrow.

Update: Apparently the Giants spent somewhere around 2 million yen wooing high school wunderkind Yasuhiro Ichiba. The money is said to have been spent on dining, transport, "pocket money" and a sembetsu (a kind of parting gift). Giants' President Makoto Doi, who was fired, admitted that he and other pink-slipped execs Hideaki Miyama and Koichi Takayama knew about the illicit spending and approved it. No mention was made of whether Nabetsu knew or was ignorant of the move.

Meanwhile...

- Watanabe said before the season started that he was going [...] have a less vocal role. He didn't do well with [that].

Very droll, Westbaystars-san. Two zabuton for you

Correction: Ichiba is a university student, not a high school kid. Sorry, I had high school baseball on the brain.

Additionally, part 1:

Former Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino (currently in Athens) implied that there was something more sinister going on. He said: "That's not the kind of thing that the owner, president, and two execs should resign or be fired over. I'm trying to concentrate on the Olympic baseball team, but it's hard to do so when Japanese ball is in such a state."

Additionally, part 2:

Officially, a student that receives money from a professional baseball organisation must apparently take no further part in his school's baseball club activities. Does this mean the end for Ichiba? Meanwhile, Ichiba was quoted on MBS news as saying "They forced the money on me; I'm sorry I wasn't able to refuse strongly enough."

The Tigers have indicated that they are still interested in Ichiba, so he might still have a future.

Nabetsune stepping down strikes me as a desperate measure which seems to have been welcomed all over Japan. However, for it to have any meaning at all, NPB needs to step in and end the Giants' abuses for good. This is not likely to happen.

That he's stepping down before the details of the scandal have hit the press is damning. That he is claiming to take "moral" "responsibility" (sorry, but both words need to be in isolated quotes to convey the full sarcasm I intend) implies that he was the one who decided to break the rules: indeed, I doubt anyone in the Giants' office can run the copier without his direct approval, much less illicitedly fork over 2,000,000 yen.

What I wish to have investigated, and doubt will even be brought up, is in what other cases has illicit money been used to direct the fortunes of the Giants, who are really the only team to benefit from the "reverse draft." For one example, I remember reading Y. Takahashi in '98 being described as "not enthusiastic" about joining the Giants (although he looked fine at the induction ceremony).

I wonder some how the "Kokubo trade" came about as well, though I'm not sure how that would fit in with this outright violation.

Whatever happens in the next year, Japanese Baseball will be forever changed, or die. May it be guided by better angels, and a sense of positive capitalism.

- Whatever happens in the next year, Japanese Baseball will be forever changed, or die.

Japanese baseball will be changed for the better without Watanabe.

This Kyodo article [Yahoo! News - English] mented in this thread has a very good rundown on the situation that happened. Today's Nikkan Sports has the reactions of many of the leaders in Pro Yakyu.

The comment by Hoshino-special director, mentioned above, sounds tin-foil hat enough to have a shade of truth to it. For example, what could possibly take the steam out of the threat of a strike, short of actually talking to the players? I would think that Watanabe resigning would create a huge distraction. But judging by Furuta's comments, he's still focused on stopping the mergers of teams and leagues. Furuta has impressed me as being far more intelligent than the owners bargained for, and he's not going to fall for a distraction, no matter how earth shattering.

As reported above, Meiji University's Ichiba Yasuhiro is the one who this scandal centers around. (Notice that the incidents are always named after the players? the "Egawa Incident" is perhaps the most famous, and it was the Giants working behind the scenes that made it happen. So will this go down in history as the "Ichiba Incident"?) Ichiba claims that he refused the offers at first, but eventually gave in and accepted them. He is now suspended from university competition for the remainder of the school year (until March, when he graduates). H still wants to enter Pro Yakyu, but his future is very much up in the air right now.

I know it's serious, but one of the more entertaining articles was entitled "Scouts Panic." After the day's games at Koshien, word spread quickly about the inappropriate recruitment practices and their repercussions. There was then a rush of scouts calling up their teams to confirm that they still had their jobs, and I imagine to get an update on what kind of tactics will be allowed to lure the high school students to signing with them. (I wonder, does Kintetsu have any scouts there?)

YES YES YES!
Nabetsune is gone!