Yomiuri Giants baseball club sues former executive for slander, AFP says

TOKYO (TR) – The Yomiuri Giants baseball club accused a former executive of slander and are suing after he criticized and accused the chairman of the parent company of going outside the normal process and pushing through his own choice as team coach, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Giants and the parent firm, the Yomiuri Shimbun media group, are seeking $1.3 million (100 million yen) in damages from Hidetoshi Kiyotake, the fourth highest official at the club, for an incident on November 11, in which he called a press conference and criticized Tsuneo Watanabe, the chairman of the two organizations, for forcing through his own pick, AFP said. Read more

Entertainment world to follow sumo in baseball betting clampdown

As the world of sumo continues to grapple with revelations that wrestlers routinely gambled on baseball games, weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (Sep. 2) reports that police authorities are now targeting entertainers for the same illegal activity.

A former member of a gangster organization is at the center of a police investigation.

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department seems to know which entertainers are involved in baseball betting,” says a person related to the investigation. “And in tracking them down, it all is going back to the same former gangster. So he is the key guy in the betting scheme.”

Among those suspected to be partaking are a famous idol and an enka singer.

“The idol is a huge fan of the Yomiuri Giants,” explains a production manager at a big firm. “He’ll wager around 20 or 30,000 yen on Giants games. Even though the amounts are small, that is still betting. The enka singer owns his own team, and he loves betting. He’ll put down one million yen a week. He’s even been getting enka composers involved.” Read more

Sumo world’s ties to gangsters, baseball betting have long legacy

Ever since weekly tabloid Shukan Shincho reported (in its May 27 issue) that sumo wrestlers frequently gamble on professional baseball games with organized crime members, the Japan Sumo Association has been on the defensive.

On Sunday, the association decided to dismiss 34-year-old wrestler Kotomitsuki and his stablemaster Otake. Other wrestlers and senior advisors received punishments.

Recent revelations that Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate members have been supplied with ringside seats for past matches — ostensibly so that fellow gangsters behind bars can catch a glimpse of their compatriots on television — have also soiled the image of the pastime. Read more

Hideki Matsui museum drawing crowds on heels of World Series MVP

TOKYO (TR) – The museum dedicated to former New York Yankees star Hideki Matsui attracted an unprecedented number of visitors over the New Year holiday as a result of the designated hitter winning the Most Valuable Player award during last year’s World Series, reports tabloid Daily Sports (Jan. 4). Read more

Let the good times roll in Miyazaki

One of the really nice things about the current special toll arrangement being offered by the various members of the Nippon Expressway Companies group is that for a uniform toll of just 1,000 yen, you can follow the exit ramps to male playgrounds all over this land — from Hokkaido, Aomori and Gunma to Ishikawa, Osaka, Mie, Ehime and Fukuoka.

And oh yes, adds Shukan Jitsuwa (May 14), that also includes Miyazaki. The capital city of this Kyushu domain, currently in the limelight thanks to its celebrity governor, is also where the Yomiuri Giants hold their baseball spring training camp. It is also said to boast a system of “take-out snacks” where the snack you take out is taken to bed. And it’s rumored some Giants players may even go there to take a few nocturnal practice swings.

Shukan Jitsuwa’s reporter is directed to Ueno-cho, which is located in the back of the neon district close to the central station. Read more

NTV axes MLB coverage

Broadcaster Nippon Television (NTV) has terminated its contract with Major League Baseball that allowed the network to show highlights of games during news segments, according to a report from entertainment news site Zakzak (Apr. 7).

NTV, which is the flagship station of the Yomiuri Giants, is now the only major broadcaster in Japan not providing highlights of MLB contests. The network will be limited to showing such content as interviews and pre-game practice.

This will leave some of Japan’s biggest stars — such as, former Yomiuri star pitcher Koji Uehara, now a member of the Baltimore Orioles, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, and Hideki Matsui, also a former Giant — without coverage on one of the nation’s largest networks.

Zakzak reports that NTV announced that the decision is as a result of the ongoing recession. Read more

Koshien Stadium gets face lift

The venerable home of the Central League’s Hanshin Tigers will this season unveil the second phase of its ongoing four-year improvement plan, which blends old-style baseball aesthetics with modern conveniences, according to the team’s Web site.

Koshien Stadium, which opened in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture in 1924, is adding a 250-meter by 1.2-meter LED “Koshien Liner Vision” display board; seventeen special izakaya box seating sections for parties of 4 or 5 people to enjoy the action from behind third base; “Royal” corporate suites that extend out onto a balcony; and bag storage spaces for the steeply aligned outfield bleachers, or “Alps” seats. Read more

Samurai Japan in shambles on eve of WBC

TOKYO – With the Asia Round of the World Baseball Classic set to start today, Japan’s weekly and daily tabloids are suggesting that infighting within defending champion Japan, skippered by the Yomiuri Giants Tatsunori Hara and anchored by MLB stars Ichiro Suzuki and Akinori Iwamura, could be making a repeat title increasingly challenging.

Sandwiched between photo spreads of the lovely AV actress Rio and busty pinup idol Yoko Kumada in the Mar. 17 issue of Flash is the article “Ichiro & Iwamura losing faith in Hara’s judgment.” The two-page story details the ongoing distrust and isolation among certain players within Samurai Japan, which will open the WBC tonight against China at Tokyo Dome. Read more

Couples clamor to mount where Mona was moanin’

The scandal over the extramarital dalliance between TV news anchor Mona Yamamoto, 32, and Yomiuri Giants player Tomohiro Nioka, also 32, has proved a windfall not only for the vernacular tabloids, but for the hotel in Tokyo’s Gotanda district where the alleged whoopee-making took place.

Evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (July 18) does not identify the hotel by name, but provides a photograph with the signboard obscured. It reports the room used by the couple cost 9,800 yen. Read more

Matsuzaka-Ichiro showdown proves anticlimactic

TOKYO (TR) – The last time two heroes from Japan clashed in a much-anticipated head-to-head match-up in the major leagues, Hideo Nomo plunked Ichiro Suzuki in the back. The Seattle Mariners right-fielder fell to his knees in pain, and Tokyo gasped.

Wednesday’s battle, six years later, pitted Ichiro against rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was making his second start of the season for the Boston Red Sox. The game once again left Japan’s capital speechless, but for a different reason: Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez completely dominated, stealing the show with a one-hit shutout. Read more