Meantime, after the New York newspaper Newsday reported that as many as seven Mets players had smoked marijuana this season, the city's TV and radio stations, and much of the national sports media, went crazy. Never mind that earlier this season, one Met, pitcher Mark Corey, went into seizures after toking up in a motel parking lot, and the teammate who got him medical aid, outfielder Tony Tarasco, told authorities he had been sharing the stash with Corey. The Newsday story was portrayed as some kind of apocalyptic portent. Nowhere in its repetition was the simplest piece of logic applied: The Mets have employed 42 different players this season, each of whom makes at least $33,000 per month. In how many groups of 42 extremely affluent 21- to 39-year-old males would marijuana use be less than 20 percent?
While these two stories were both run into the ground and still covered only superficially, the intricate saga playing out in offices in the Bronx and Tokyo went by almost unnoticed. I wrote in this space, and reported on radio, of the Yankees' negotiations with their Japanese equivalents, the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, for the services of the slugger Hideki Matsui. Matsui homered twice on the night of Monday the 23rd to bring his season totals to 45 homers and 98 RBIs, cinching leadership in both categories. Through the 24th, he held a slim lead with a .339 batting average. He leads Japan's Central League in eight different offensive statistics, including the improbable combination of slugging percentage and on-base average. He is Japan's most productive, and most popular, player since Ichiro Suzuki left for the Seattle Mariners two seasons ago.
Were the Yankees' interest in him not enough to set off a few bells somewhere, there's the marketing angle of his nickname: "Godzilla." And then there's the lend-lease possibilities that would not only break new ground in the international aspect of American sports, but which also could permit George Steinbrenner to skirt the newly agreed upon "luxury tax," designed by the other owners to keep him from signing fresh talent like Matsui.
The Japanese outfielder will be a completely unfettered free agent, effective the end of this season. But he is also the classic Japanese corporate lifer, who dreams of someday coaching for, or managing, the Yomiuri team, or perhaps broadcasting for the television network co-owned with the club, Nippon TV. Seeing Matsui torn between his local loyalty and his dreams to play in the States, particularly for the Yankees, the two clubs have discussed a unique arrangement. The Giants have proposed that Matsui go to the Yankees for a pre-arranged number of years, probably three, and then have him return to Tokyo. In exchange for the Yankees' cooperation, the Giants would essentially underwrite Matsui's trip to North America by paying him a salary to report from the U.S. for Nippon TV. The Yankees could then sign Matsui for less than his full market value, certainly less than the $8 million he's making this season. Matsui would still make his money, but only some of it would count against the Yankees payroll.
Just to round out this international version of Machiavellian business, the Matsui deal could be a formal or informal part of two other transactions between New York and Tokyo. If they can get permission from their respective leagues, the Yankees would allow some of their games to be televised on Nippon TV, and would in turn import some of the Yomiuri Giants' broadcasts for the aforementioned YES network. The Giants have also asked Steinbrenner to drop his long-standing ban on having Yankee players participate in the American off-season all-star tours of Japan -- and have even proposed having Yankees manager Joe Torre skipper the touring all-stars.
The story earned two paragraphs inside the sports section of the New York Times. It has met with exactly the same degree of interest that followed reports two years ago that the seven-time Japanese batting champion, Suzuki, was headed to Seattle.
Of course, when Suzuki actually got to Seattle, and hit .350 to win the American League batting title in his first season in the West, media here treated his arrival, and his accomplishment, as if he had sprung, fully grown, from a turnip patch outside Tacoma, Wash.
Why, they were almost as shocked as they were by that unprecedented attack on the Royals' first-base coach, or that unimaginable marijuana scandal on the New York Mets.
About the writer
Salon columnist Keith Olbermann hosts the ABC Radio Network's "Speaking of Sports ... Speaking of Everything."
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