Japan baseball players will strike
TOKYO, Japan -- Japanese baseball players have gone on strike for the first time in the 70 year history of the game after last minute talks ended without an agreement.
The clubs' management rejected a demand by the players that a planned team merger be shelved, and the players' union decided to strike on remaining weekends in September.
The two days of talks have gripped the nation, where the sport was once undoubtedly its favorite.
"I apologise to the fans who were looking forward to seeing the games this weekend," Atsuya Furuta, chairman of the Baseball Players Association, said.
The management sharply criticised the players' decision.
"We believe that the strike is illegal and inappropriate," said management representative Ryuzo Setoyama.
During the talks, management proposed allowing new entries from 2006. But the players, who don't want to see the number of teams cut next year from the current total of 12, were not satisfied.
A glimmer of hope appeared earlier this week for the players when two young Internet-related firms jumped into the fray, saying they wanted to set up new baseball clubs starting next season.
Livedoor Co Ltd, a company specialising in Internet services, applied on Thursday with baseball's governing body to set up its own team, and online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc also said it planned to do the same.
The players hoped to avoid contraction by postponing the merger by a year until the Internet companies set up new teams.
The strike would deal a serious blow to Japanese baseball, which has recently seen falling attendance and TV ratings and the exodus of stars such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui to U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB).
The walkout would also mean less income for both management and the players. One estimate has the total economic loss from the labour action amounting to over 10 billion yen ($91.20 million).
The owners say that with most of them in the red, the merger between the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave, both based in western Japan, was unavoidable.
The players insist the merger would just accelerate falling interest in the sport.
Most fans have appeared to stand on the side of the players during the controversy. The media have painted a picture of arrogant team owners making decisions behind closed doors, ignoring the voices of the fans and the players, some of whom will lose their jobs as a result of the merger.
But some baseball analysts said the strike may serve as a badly-needed wake-up call for both sides to address the problems facing Japanese pro baseball.
The players and management said they planned to hold talks again next week in a bid to end the strike.
Games on weekdays would go on and the players have not decided on whether to continue the walkout next month.
Professional baseball in Japan is now made up of the Pacific League and the Central League, which each have six teams.
