※ [本文轉錄自 Baseball 看板 #1HjSl3Yo ]
作者: chemikelvin (Jose Fernandez for ROY) 站內: Baseball
標題: [閒聊] 軟銀曾想挖A-Rod?
時間: Mon Jun 10 20:51:12 2013
http://tinyurl.com/k2x6q73
Japanese Suitor for Rodriguez Got No Response
At the end of last year, after Alex Rodriguez had been pinch-hit for and
benched in the playoffs, speculation raged that he would be traded, cut or
somehow removed from the Yankees’ roster. The only problem with any of those
possibilities was that no team was willing to take his enormous contract, or
so it was thought.
It turns out there was at least one, and if Rodriguez had been healthy and
was willing to obtain an international work visa, he might be Japan’s
problem right now.
Last November, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks reached out to the Yankees through
an intermediary and expressed interest in obtaining Rodriguez, according to
two baseball officials who were told of the informal inquiry.
The Yankees never engaged the Hawks in discussions because they knew it could
not work for two obvious reasons. At the time, the Yankees knew that
Rodriguez needed extensive hip surgery that would sideline him at least half
the season. They would have been obliged to inform the Hawks, and at that
point, their interest would almost certainly have crumbled.
But even more important, the Yankees knew there was no chance that Rodriguez
would agree to the transfer at this point in his career. So the matter was
simply dropped. A few weeks later, the Yankees announced that Rodriguez had a
torn labrum in his hip and would require surgery and a lengthy
rehabilitation.
If the Hawks were wondering why they had not heard back before that, they
finally had their answer.
Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, said he would not comment on
the matter, and Itaru Kobayashi, the Hawks’ general manager, did not return
a telephone call. It is not known whether the matter was brought to Rodriguez
’s attention.
The Yankees would be only too happy if they could get an American team to
show similar interest.
Going into this season, Rodriguez had $114 million remaining on his contract
over the next five years, but he is experiencing a rapid decline in
production. Since February, he has been at the center of an investigation
into a Miami clinic that has been accused of dispensing performance-enhancing
drugs to several professional baseball players.
Only Rodriguez’s staggering contract was known to the Hawks at the time of
their interest. But if ever there were a team willing to make a splash by
trying to lure a star of Rodriguez’s magnitude to Japan, it would be the
Hawks, a team owned by one of the most prominent technology companies in the
country.
Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of SoftBank, has earned a reputation as a
maverick for investing early and enthusiastically in broadband and Internet
technology. SoftBank is in the midst of trying to buy a stake in Sprint, a
wireless carrier, a bold move by Japanese corporate standards.
More than most, SoftBank has tried to innovate to turn a profit. The Hawks
are regularly at the top of the attendance standings for their games at the
Fukuoka Yafuoku Dome, which the team owns. Through May, the team was
averaging almost 31,000 fans a game, the most in the Pacific League.
Most parent companies in Japan consider their teams promotional vehicles for
their brands, and many are willing to lose tens of millions of dollars a year
for the privilege. Managed for many years by Sadaharu Oh, Japan’s career
home run leader, the team won the Pacific League pennant as recently as 2011.
It is unclear, even if Rodriguez was healthy and was willing to play in
Japan, if the Hawks’ gambit would have worked. There is a long history of
older major league stars going to Japan at the ends of their careers and
fizzling out. Many Japanese clubs, burned by paying too much for declining
stars, have shifted toward younger players and non-Americans, who are cheaper
and often hungrier.
Rodriguez has been working out in Tampa, Fla., but is still at least several
weeks away from returning. He is also facing the possibility of a suspension
from Major League Baseball over the Miami clinic investigation. He is not
expected to return until at least after the All-Star break, in July.