The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [81]
In December of 1998, a new agreement was forged between the commissioners of MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball called the Posting System. Players in Japan could become free agents after nine years with their club, and Japanese clubs could “post” a player a year or two before free agency, to get something for the player (rather than lose him to the Major Leagues as a free agent). This aided the Japanese owners, because U.S. teams that wanted to sign Japanese players had to pay for them twice, once to the team that owned the player’s rights and once to the player himself. There had to be a system in place that kept the game competitive in Japan and in other Asian countries.
MY OPINION
There has to be some sort of conspiracy that keeps good Japanese high school players from signing with Major League teams rather than Japanese teams. “I’ve been trying for ten or twelve years,” agent Don Nomura told USA Today on March 29, 2007. “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.”
There must be more than cultural barriers. There must be intense pressures on Japanese families to keep the Japanese Leagues competitive. There is obviously no de facto ban or pressure from the United States to keep Japanese youngsters from signing. As you can see from the following lists, it isn’t just Japanese pitchers, and it isn’t just superstars that are making the move to the United States and Major League Baseball. That’s why the de facto ban on Japanese players for thirty years—that wasn’t widely talked about—remains one of the more intriguing conspiracy theories in sports.
Japanese-Born Ballplayers on Major League Baseball Rosters on Opening Day, 2009:
Kosuke Fukudome
Kenji Johjima
Masahide Kobayashi
Hideki Matsui
Ichiro Suzuki
Hideki Okajima
Koji Uehara
Yasuhiko Yabuta
Akinori Iwamura
Kenshin Kawakami
Hiroki Kuroda
Kazuo Matsui
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Takashi Saito
Keiichi Yabu
CONCLUSION:
#19
Attempts to keep minorities from breaking cherished baseball records
Here’s the thing about sports records that inspire and capture the imagination of the public: Most people don’t want to see those marks broken. If they must be broken, people want them to be broken after a suitable amount of time by a suitable hero. It is perfectly acceptable in 2007 or later for a true superstar like Peyton Manning or Brett Favre to break longstanding records held by Dan Marino, for example. The late Dick Schaap once wrote that, regarding the chase on Babe Ruth’s home run record, most fans rooted like this: 1) for Ruth, 2) for Mickey Mantle, and 3) for Roger Maris. Maris was not a beloved player, and not seen as a worthy successor to the great Ruth, who had set his mark of sixty home runs in 1927.
Maris was under tremendous pressure in 1961, and found out the hard way that it’s not easy to break a legend’s record. Not only did he have to overcome the memory and mystique of Babe Ruth, but had to put up with being hounded by the press and jeered by fans who didn’t want him to erase Ruth’s name from the record books. Even the commissioner, Ford Frick, downplayed Maris’ accomplishments, citing how, though Maris eventually toppled Ruth’s mark, he did it in a slightly longer season.
The challenge that Hank Aaron faced in breaking Ruth’s career record for home runs was harder than the one that Maris faced. Aaron faced the same annoyances that Maris had faced, but also had to deal with racism. It is well known that Aaron faced death threats by fans who didn’t want him to break the record simply because of the color of his skin.
Aaron, thankfully, overcame the obstacles and broke Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. However, there are several times in history where there were conspiracies to keep other players from breaking records held by cherished players. The most famous was the instance when a Jewish Major Leaguer, Hank