Talent Drain = Merger

Yes, I think it would. The players you mentioned were valuable to their teams, but not enough to cover the losses the teams were making.

It's hard to say. Certainly, Orix would have been more competitive, and that would help put fans in the stands. Also, I wonder if the fact that some players have the option of going to the majors doesn't put upward pressure on salaries in NPB. If it does, that certainly doesn't help keep teams in existence.

Maybe if the option to go to the majors didn't exist, the Buffaloes or BlueWave (or somebody) might have felt that moving the team would be a viable answer. It is clear that under the current circumstances, the Buffaloes did not see moving as a viable option. On the other hand, the size of the losses the Buffaloes were experiencing make one question whether even these changes would have been enough.

I guess the best answer I can give is that I doubt the merger between Orix and Kintetsu would have happened in 2004. It might have come as soon as 2005, and might have been a different pairing, or it might have been held off for an extended period of time.

On the whole though, I think that NPB was going to have to face the issues they're facing, and I hope it shakes up the powers-that-be to make realistic attempts at resolving them. My take on the ownership group of NPB is that they needed the prod of a crisis for there to be any hope they will face their problems and act appropriately to address them. Of course, the question remains as to whether or not they will do what they need to do.

Jim Albright

- I don't know if it was discussed before, but how much do you think the loss of Nomo, Taguchi, Ichiro, et al. did to help cause the merger to happen?

Nomo left the Buffaloes after the 1994 season. Nomo had a falling out with then Kintestu manager Keishi Suzuki, and retired from the NPB. Kintestu went to the Series in 2001 without Nomo. Yes, granted they had Tuffy Rhodes and Norihiro Nakamura, but still, they went to the Series without Nomo. Also, Osaka released Rhodes after offering him only a 1 year contract, then watched him go to Yomiuri.

- Do you think the merger would have happened if Ichiro and Taguchi were still BlueWaves?

Yes, I think the merger would still have happened, because Osaka and Orix want to merge the two teams. Kintestu should have sold the team to someone like Livedoor, but the owners in charge were against this.

In conclusion, I don't think Kintestu, if given a second chance, would have still done the right thing: which would have been to sell the Buffaloes.

Part of the problem is that one team (Tigers) dominates the Kansai region and any other team has to try and compete with this. Neither Orix nor Kintetsu were particularly well run or had any clue how to break this dominance. So a sale or merger was inevitable. And whilst the sale was the more intelligent option, it was not the road the Kintetsu management took.