USA TODAYより抜粋。
Players in Japan can become free agents after nine years with their club, compared to six years for U.S. major leaguers. Japanese clubs, rather than get nothing in return when a star leaves as a free agent, will post a player a year or two before free agency.
The high bidder among interested U.S. clubs gets 30 days to work out a contract with the player. If a deal is made, the posting fee goes to the Japanese team. If not, the fee is not paid and the player returns to the Japanese team.
"For the most part, it has been very successful," Selig says. We're going to look back and examine the whole process … but I think we're OK."
Nomura says he doesn't have a perfect alternative for posting, although, as an agent, he would like to see it modified so more than one bidding club could negotiate with a player. He says he does, however, have a plan that would send the system into turmoil.
He wants to convince a top Japanese player coming out of high school to go directly to the USA rather than to the Japanese team that drafts him.
"I've been trying for 10 or 12 years," Nomura says. "But it's such a strong cultural thing. I've gone to college and high school coaches, I've gone to the parents, I've gone to the kids. So far, no go."
The next opportunity could be Sho Nakata. The powerful high school senior from Osaka is an accomplished pitcher but is the stuff of legend in Japan for long home runs, including one last year that went 520 feet according to local media.
Three years ago Nakata played in a tournament in suburban Chicago and told the Northwest Herald he would like to return to the USA and pitch for the Yankees.
"If it happens, it happens," Ito says, dismissing the impact of a player like Nakata spurning pro baseball in his homeland. "But the majority of club owners would answer differently."
Just as he believes the money involved in landing Matsuzaka is not likely to be repeated often, Ito also says one high school player going to the USA would not signal a mass exodus, for practical reasons.
"They're like teenagers anywhere else," he says. "Girls see Nakata here, they go crazy. He can play in the top leagues in Japan when he's 20. He'll be famous. "If he goes to the U.S. he'll be in places like Midland, Texas. The food will be a big problem. He won't have friends, especially girls. It's not the physical and technical talent that will hold him back."
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顔は清原を可愛くしたおっさん顔だから、女性よりも、男性に人気がありそうだ。
松井秀喜がゴジラになれなかったので、中田翔にＭＬＢで本塁打王を取って欲しい。
