I’m back in Korea now if anyone cares. The most surprising thing I saw during my trip to America? The fact that Billy Ray Cyrus’s daughter is currently bigger than Jesus.
Another surprising thing is that this Bonds to Japan talk has persisted. Most recently the Rays have been linked to Bonds, and while that idea does make quite a bit of sense for both parties, I think if it doesn’t happen we could see Bondszilla invade Japan.
Firstly, here’s Rays manager Joe Maddon admitting there have been some talks between the Rays and Bonds, and then here’s the compulsory denial.
“It’s hard to conjecture. … I don’t know this man. I only know what I read, and I’m very much open to meeting people and drawing my own conclusions about people. I don’t necessarily believe everything that I read,” Maddon said.
That’s Maddon from the ESPN article. I just threw it in because it’s such a terrible use of the word conjecture and because he says he doesn’t believe everything he reads, which is also fairly dumb.
With that out of the way, here’s the main Bonds to Japan piece people are looking at. It comes from the Metro, a newspaper based in Canada.
“He’s not retiring,” Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, told Metro yesterday. “He intends to play somewhere. If a door doesn’t open for Barry in the major leagues, as unbelievable as that possibility sounds, then Japan certainly is an option.”
Bonds in Japan would be an absolute freakshow. Personally, I don’t see how you could take the All Time Special Treatment MVP and put him in Japan. That said, the NPB has never seen a foreign player of Bonds’s talent. I think the best comparison would be Bob Horner. Horner is no Bonds.
That said, I’d love to see it happen.
As it stands now, according to MLB Trade Rumors Bonds’s agent is driving around Florida in an attempt to generate interest. If the Rays don’t bite I say Bonds is officially blackballed from Major League Baseball. If that’s the case I put his chances at landing in Japan at around 30%. The other option would be to either wait for a team to sign him, or sit out the entire season.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Simon Currie // Feb 26, 2008 at 10:14 am
I can’t see Bonds in Japan, although as much fun as that would generate. This whole rumour is started by his agent in a bid to drum up any sort of interest in his client from big league ball clubs, or at least that’s the way I see it. As there’s nothing of note about this in the Japanese media.
2 Stamf // Feb 26, 2008 at 3:06 pm
If Bonds goes to Japan it will be a circus. I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of attention the guy would create. I was living there during the Bob Horner era and you would have thought the baseball world had exploded. You couldn’t walk ten yards without seeing his photo on a poster, newspaper or billboard.
Bonds in Japan would be Horner times 100. He’d be there to “challenge” Oh’s record, and they’d never let him near it. Actually, come to think of it, the whole thing would probably end up pissing me off.
3 HYO // Feb 26, 2008 at 10:15 pm
It seems to me the only teams that would sign Bonds would be lower tier clubs looking to put butts in seats (Orix comes to mind). But a team like Orix doesn’t have the money to sign Bonds. Unless he came at a severe discount.
4 westbaystars // Feb 26, 2008 at 10:21 pm
The above quote by his agent made a single paragraph article on page 4 of today’s (February 26, 2008) Nikkan Sports. No new information, just quoting the North American media and pointing out that Borris-san is touring Florida looking for a taker.
The total lack of tying this into anything Japanese (other than the possibility of coming here) suggests that it’s a PR piece issued from MLB.
5 ken // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:33 am
I hope this happens if for no other reason than to read the eventual Robert Whiting book.
6 Shinsano // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:10 am
Funny you say that Ken. I’m reading “You Gotta Have Wa” right now.
7 Gary Garland // Feb 27, 2008 at 2:58 pm
This is one of those agent generated pieces of pr bs like we saw with Sammy Sosa. Think about it: only three teams could afford the $10-15 million a year he would want, Softbank, Yomiuri and Hanshin. Only one of those has the DH available to them, but if Bonds stiffs, the front office people are going to get canned and they know it. This would be Kevin Mitchell on crack. The public and press criticism would be deafening. So not going to happen.
Yomiuri has no openings in the outfield and Tomoaki Kanemoto is not going to move out of left at Hanshin. The Tigers have had their problems with high priced additions such as Mike Greenwell and Esteban Yan, so that alone should make them gun shy.
That is before you get to the possiblity of Bonds finishing his career in an orange uniform for Joliet or one of our other fine federal league outfits. Japanese tend to avoid controversy, being naturally risk averse, and Bonds will take that with him wherever he goes.
Instead, let’s focus on Ichiro getting to 3,000 hits this season (he needs 216 to become the all time Japanese hits leader, surpassing Isao Harimoto) as well as the looming free agency of Koji Uehara and the posting of Yu Darvish (Nippon Ham’s GM has approved this, according to reports in the last couple of weeks).
8 Shinsano // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:51 pm
This would be Kevin Mitchell on crack.
Hilarious.
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