Global MLB is on the horizon

- There are 12 teams in the Japanese leagues and, according to a source close to the situation, all 12 are losing money.

Both Rakuten and Hiroshima, two of the stingiest teams in Japan with regard to salaries, reported being in the black in both 2005 and 2006.

- The Japanese apparently don't do a good enough job marketing their own players, and they don't do TV deals well, either. Most every night, in a 12-team league, there are 10 games on TV (sometimes the home and road team broadcast the same game), but there are no games on Monday because that day is left open as a rainout date. Why not, some suggest, call Monday night, "Baseball Night In Japan,'' and televise and market that one game?

I agree with the first sentence. But the author doesn't have a clue about Monday nights in Japan.

First of all, Mondays are not rain out makeup days. Those are scheduled in the beginning of rainy October. Mondays (or Thursdays for the Pacific League in the past) are set days off required by either the Players' Association or Japanese law (I don't recall which at the moment). One may not be scheduled to work more than 9 consecutive days without a holiday. And since rain outs happen unscheduled, they don't count as a day off. To play a game the following Monday would then put two six day schedules together, making it 13 consecutive work days - not allowed.

Secondly, the Pacific League has had "Monday Night Pa" to promote Pacific League games while the Central League was resting. They took their fixed holiday on Thursdays instead. While I was overjoyed to have baseball being played every day of the week, the foolish radio stations wouldn't broadcast Pacific League games on Monday nights! In fact, unless all of their Central League choices were rained out, they rarely broadcast Pacific League games at all.

Note: Games are scheduled on Mondays during the regular season when Monday falls on a national holiday. For those periods, the schedule is often reworked so that teams play occasionally 8 to 9 days in a row, but no more than that. They'll play the Tuesday-Thursday card, take Friday off, then play Saturday-Monday, Tuesday-Thursday, and Friday-Sunday cards. Sometimes a two game series will be stuck in instead (this time with a rain out scheduled since 9 days won't be surpassed).

The author of this article is right, the teams don't have a clue how to market their product. But for all the Pacific League teams' attempts to promote baseball on Monday nights, the media - and thereby the public - didn't respond.

This article is better than most, but still falls down as the author hasn't done enough research. Hanshin have been raking it in recently, and the club generates a healthy profit. Marketing wise they are very astute and are the most marketing aware of all the teams.

Actually despite reported results, Rakuten made a loss and money is becoming a problem for them (my source is in a position to know, but I cannot reveal who he is). The Japanese media still sees the Pacific League as second best and it doesn't attract the level of advertising the Central League does. Most Central League teams ride on the Giants and Tigers matches.