EDITORIAL: New baseball boss

Tag : baseball wear

After 4 1/2 years of being headed by a former "guardian of thelaw," Japanese baseball will get a former "baseball-lovingambassador" for commissioner next month. Acting CommissionerYasuchika Negoro of Nippon Professional Baseball, who will stepdown at the end of this month, used to wear the hats ofsuperintendent public prosecutor of the Tokyo High PublicProsecutors Office and chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission,among others.
Although the baseball commissioner has the final say in makingdecisions, his legal authority is somewhat ambiguous. Perhapsbecause this was Negoro's interpretation of the terms of theJapanese professional baseball agreement, he was reluctant toassert his leadership. As soon as he became commissioner in 2004,he had to deal with a series of thorny issues. Starting with themerger of the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave, there wastalk of reorganizing Japanese baseball into a one-league system,and the baseball players' union went on strike. While we sympathizewith Negoro for not getting a chance to familiarize himselfproperly with the professional baseball world, we can hardly say hewas an effective problem-solver. He became acting commissioner whenhis term expired last year.
Ryozo Kato, who will succeed Negoro on July 1, is a confirmedbaseball fan. After his appointment was confirmed at baseball clubowners' meeting, Kato showed off a bat he had been given as a boyby Tetsuharu Kawakami, a former Yomiuri Giants slugger. Kato canrecite the batting averages of Kawakami and Shigeo Nagashima,another former Giants superstar. While he was the Japaneseambassador to the United States, he reportedly hit it off with U.S.President George W. Bush, talking about pre-World War II majorleaguers.
Kato was undoubtedly a capable bureaucrat, and there is no questionabout his love of baseball. However, the problems he inherits fromhis predecessor have all to do with the structure of Japanesebaseball. The sport's declining popularity, as evidenced by low TVviewer ratings for Giants games, is one. The continued drain ofstar players to the U.S. major leagues is another, and some teamsare also beset by chronic financial problems. He will have to workon each of these problems if he wants to produce results.
There are many matters that require urgent action. For one, Katoneeds to reinforce the functions of the baseball commissioner'soffice. For that purpose, we believe that his office should beintegrated with the offices of the Pacific League and the CentralLeague. Also, we think the posts of league chairmen--which arebasically honorary positions--should be abolished.
The sport is also in need of faster decision-making procedures.Working-level meetings of team representatives are held only aboutonce a month, while owners' meetings where final decisions are madeare even less frequent. We believe the commissioner should have thediscretionary power to call these meetings whenever necessary todecide on important policies.
But for this sort of reform to succeed, the commissioner will haveto be more of a CEO than a "judge." In fact, many governing bodiesof professional sports in the United States, including the majorleagues, follow this pattern. It will also be important to rehashthe professional baseball agreement to enable the commissioner toexercise greater power.
We hope the new commissioner would never even think of taking theinterests of just a handful of powerful teams into consideration.He should also be prepared for confrontation with individual teamsif he intends to really assert himself as the CEO. It is also thecommissioner's job to come up with a future vision of Japanesebaseball in general, including what to do with regional independentleagues, senior high school baseball and college baseball. The newcommissioner will be tested on his ideas as well as action.
--The Asahi Shimbun, June 24(IHT/Asahi: June 25,2008)