What on earth has Bobby Valentine been smoking these days? The guy is a great manager and he keeps us sportswriters in business with witty quotes and humorous antics. But this time he's gone too far. We're talking Siberia here. In a recent interview with the Boston Herald, Valentine expressed his feelings about players leaving Asia to play baseball in the major leagues. Oddly enough, the former Chiba Lotte Marines manager and ardent supporter of Japanese baseball is dead set against the flow of talent to the west. He feels that such movement weakens Asian leagues at a time when baseball is trying to establish itself globally.
"I don't like when the good players leave there and come here," the New York Mets skipper said. "I think the best thing for the world would be for them to maintain a strong league and keep getting better so that it could be a true world competition some day. It doesn't look like we're going in that direction."
Had enough? There's more. Valentine claims that defections, such as Ichiro Suzuki's to the Seattle Mariners last week, go against Asian values. "I think it's diametrically opposed to what the Asian culture thinks about a team," he said. "I think the strength of their team is the fact that they work together, play together continuously. They know each other and their team is much stronger than the group. . . . That being said, I'm not in favor of it."
Valentine has a point. Team unity is more important here than in the majors. All-Stars Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds hardly speak to each other but no one seems to mind as long as the San Francisco Giants keep winning. But unity and harmony at the expense of player growth isn't good for the team or the player.
Let's face it, Ichiro has outgrown Japanese baseball. The seven-time Pacific League batting champion has been there and done that, Mr. Valentine. The logical place for the 27-year-old outfielder to compete next is the majors. That's his dream and he'll be compensated handsomely there. Forcing him to remain in Japan wouldn't be healthy. Ichiro's move to the Mariners helps strengthen the long-standing bond between Major League Baseball and Japan. That bond today is built upon many factors, including regular-season MLB games and All-Star tours played on these shores. It also involves former major leaguers coming here at various stages in their careers, as well as umpire exchanges. Valentine's stint with the Marines in 1995 was an invaluable building block, despite its acrimonious ending. But it's not a one-way street. The nucleus of that bond nowadays is player movement from Japan to the bigs.
Hideo Nomo and a cadre of pitchers have proved to the world that Japanese baseball is the real deal. The pride and legitimacy they've given their compatriots back home is priceless. And so is the experience that will rub off on teammates if any of them return to play here.
Let's say Masato Yoshii of the Colorado Rockies rejoins the Yakult Swallows or becomes a pitching coach with the team. Young players will benefit immensely from the wisdom he acquired in the States. Five years ago Valentine tried desperately to teach new techniques to the Marines but the cultural gap made the going tough. As a Japanese, Yoshii would have a much easier time.
Ironically, Yoshii was managed by Valentine from 1998-99 while with the Mets, as was Nomo in '98. On numerous occasions the skipper praised his Japanese hurlers for their trailblazing efforts. So here's what Valentine would now have us believe: It's OK for him to put on a happy face and manage Japanese players in the U.S., but it's fundamentally wrong for those players to be there in the first place. By those standards, Sammy Sosa should never have left the Dominican Republic for greener pastures.
Valentine's logic is harder to follow than a Palm Beach ballot. Here's one thing that's perfectly clear: Ichiro's signing has generated tons of enthusiasm in Japan. People who didn't care much for baseball are suddenly talking about it, and it's still November! Baseball players from Little League on up will be eyeing box scores more closely next spring to see how their hero is doing. Grandmothers, bakers and bus drivers who didn't give a hoot about Seattle's baseball team suddenly will. If you thought Kazuhiro Sasaki's move to the States was big, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Ichiro is the first position player to take a stab at the big leagues, and he is Japan's most popular athlete to boot. There's nothing wrong with this picture. But the picture Valentine paints is much darker. He worries that if Asian players flee overseas, the talent pool back home will become diluted. The Japan Leagues would then turn into a minor league outlet for major league teams, he fears. But let's not forget that a player has to remain in Japan for nine years before claiming free agency, unless he receives special permission from his club. This system is far from perfect, but at least it would prevent a crippling mass exodus.
Valentine also thinks it's better for countries to remain isolated so they can have time to prepare for some type of global challenge in the future. He envisions baseball being played on the international level the way cricket is. If baseball is to become a true global sport, borders need to be taken down, not maintained. World soccer is an ideal model. Countries compete against each other in the World Cup and internationals, but player movement abroad is essential to the sport's vibrancy. Imagine how stagnant the sport would be if Brazilians only played in Brazil. How much better would Japan get if Hidetoshi Nakata was forced to play in the mighty J. League?
As sportswriters from the Big Apple to the Big Mikan well know, Valentine is prone to the occasional exaggeration. I suppose we shouldn't hold him to a few words he may have uttered off the cuff. After all, in the Herald interview he called Ichiro "One of the top five players in the world." Five years ago he put Hideki Irabu among the top 10 pitchers. Maybe the manager was trying to give Ichiro a confidence boost. Perhaps he was attempting to further legitimize the league in which he managed for a season. Or maybe he was just trying to inflate Ichiro's value so the Mariners would bid more cash for him (gasp!). In any case, with names like Griffey, Jeter, Garciaparra, Bonds and A-Rod floating around, it's hard to share his opinion. Is Ichiro in the top 50? Maybe. Will he be the American League's next Rookie of the Year? Highly probable. The good part now is that we get to find out. Thank heavens Valentine's not in charge.