Will Japanese Baseball ever come to the US?

This is a very good question. I know I get a number of queries every year asking how/if one can view Japanese games in the States. Unfortunatly, all I can ever say is that I've heard that the Rainbow Channel in LA and NHK International have been rumored to have broadcast some games in the past. Not a very good answer, for sure.

I'd heard that either ESPN or FOX showed the Nihon Series a number of years ago (strike shorted 1994?). But since I wasn't in the States to see it first hand, I don't know how the coverage was. I think somebody said that Dave Wiggens did the English coverage. I'd rather listen to Sumo in Japanese than to him, but then, I'm not very fond of any of the English Sumo announcers. (And, no, I couldn't do any better. I don't have a good announcer's voice.)

Nonetheless, it's you fans in the States that need to have your voices heard. I'm sure a programming director at ESPN is trying to think of a new program to show at the wea hours of the morning when hardy anyone is awake - looking for something people might set their VCR or TiVo for. You know that part of the show where they flash their address up on the screen and ask you to write in? Write in. It's the people who take the time to write who get heard. And while I'm sure that ESPN's web feedback mechanism is read, most establishments still weigh feedback via snail mail to be more important.

Before Nomo went to the States, there were generally up to about 3 games per week on NHK's MLB Stadium program. They usually chose to show games live at about 2:30 in the morning, but like with Lowe's recent no-hitter, would show some "game of the week" every now and then. I could well imagine a similar start to introduce Pro Yakyu to North America.

And keeping with another thread, this would be a great way to show the general North American population how much better "sayonara home run" sounds than "walk-off home run" (or what ever it was in English).

Now, what barriers stand in the way other than probable program managers with no vision?

For starters, NPB management with no vision. Those at the top of Nippon Professional Baseball have little desire to change the current status quo and want to believe that the world is not changing around them. They tend to work reactionary to the various changes in players and fans rather than proactively, making things change for the better. The "powers that be" continue to grab for excuses to not inact inter-league play.

On the one hand, one could argue that this could expand NPB's recognision to new markets. But at the same time, many lacking in vision will most likely feel that it's giving the MLB more of a look at what players they'll be wanting to take from Japan. I know, it's the doom and gloom scenario I don't subscribe to, but many in the press and involved directly with the game seriously believe it and are worried.

Another possible problem is who to ask? MLB copyrights all images and "stuff" in North America, so I believe that NHK only had to make one agreement to get the rights to televise games in Japan. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) But I believe that each team handles goods and home game TV rights themselves, making 12 potential contacts necessary to even schedule some games. Of course, JSky Sports seems to have found a way (I'm watching Yokohama vs. Yakult on JSky Sports 1 as I write this.) So it's not impossible.

What it will probably come down to is: is it economically feasable to even try to make such contacts and contracts? How big of an audience can they expect? Who and/or how many sponsors can they expect? I expect 0 yen in return for all of the work on this site, which does have costs for materials. But any commercial venture to broadcast NPB games will expect a return, and for the amount invested, rightly so. (My expenses aren't exactly on the same scale.) I wouldn't hold it against any network if it just weren't economicly feasable.

So, do we have anyone who works in TV in the audience? Anyone who can confirm or deny the above?

Most importantly, if you want your voice heared, write your local cable provider and/or the programming manager of TV channels you think might be able to pull this off.

Actually, according to Chunichi Sports, the Yankees
broadcasting arm is negotiating with NTV for rights to
Yomiuri Giants games and want to begin airing those
games sometime in May. The games will have english voice overs, though I hope that they do a better job
with it than ESPN has done with Sumo broadcasts (bloody awful). The cynic in me says that this is a
payoff to Yomiuri for getting Godzilla Matsui, who
reportedly wants to play for the Yankees, since the audience size for those broadcasts are going to be pretty small. My reasoning is that if Yomiuri gets a payoff here, Matsui will be more wiling to go to
the Yankees than sign with the SF Giants or the Boston
Red Sox, two other clubs he is supposedly interested in. I could be talking out my hat, too, but I just don't see any other reason for the Yankees media group
to be comtemplating all this.

Let's hope the yankees settle things with the cable companies since the only way you can see a YANKEE game right now is if you have a sattelite dish with the YES! network.

Mmmm... I hope they won't cut the games off halfway through the top of the ninth like they do in Japan.

Once again Mr. Westbay, you hit the nail on the head. As someone who has approached both Japanese networks and ESPN to for a joint venture back in 95, I reached nothing but roadblocks of disinterest on both sides. Fox had just done the 94 Japan Series with Hawk Harleson and former Yakult infielder Rex Hudler and Nomomania was sweeping the US. The Japanese networks were either totally disinterested or wanted a unacceptable amount of money on a per-game basis. ESPN was showing interest while Fox was still trying to grow it's US cable base. Eventually we found one network that was willing to work with us when the Programming Chief at ESPN said there would be no deal since "no one cares about Japanese ball...there would be no advertiser interest." That was enough to kill anything we had with the Japanese networks. In the end, ESPN's top guys never heard our full pitch for the show...never bothering to understand that we knew it wouldn't sell in Peoria but would be big with those markets with large Japanese populations like LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York. As the Asian minority group is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in this country and a group are loyal to designer label merchandise, this would make the program attractive to top advertisers who would be getting this audience at a bargain price. In the end, ESPN chose to run Strongman Competitions, Fitness Competitions, and Cheerleader Competitions rather than get involved at a low price on a game that Americans already know and love with players that are quickly integrating into the game on this side of the Pacific.

In the end, my experience was seven years ago and the influx of Asian players into the MLB should force the US sports networks to finally wake up. I see Fox getting more involved than ESPN as they now are commited to MLB, NFL, NBA and WNBA. With Fox, I would think that Murdock's international network already in place could move it along quickly and present it to their regional cable franchises. But if YES picks it up then not only does the largest TV market in North America have access to it but so does anyone who buys a sports package on DSS. As it stands now, if you live in New York, the only way you can get YES is with a dish since Cablevision refusal to do business with YES after the Yanks pulled themselves off of Cablevision owned MSG Network after last season. I hope they do it. My only disapointment would be in having to watch "WAAAAYYYY BAAAACCCKKK" Wasdin pitch and not being able to see the Pacific league.

Negotiation will prove to be difficult. As you pointed out. NPB doesn't care to negotiate for both leagues and you have to work it out with either individual teams or networks. As far as MLB and their exclusive contracts, NPB would be treated just like any other sports league comming onto the network scene as it is common for many reginal sports networks in the US to carry both The big club and their minor league affilite games for MLB, the NHL and even NBADL. Last year UPN ran the XFL while big brother CBS handled the NFL.

The Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants on the same network? Sounds like the perfect match to me. The two teams with the most championships in their respective leagues and the largest media attention will be joined together on television. This is terrible for all the other MLB and NPB teams everywhere.