Bobby Valentine and Japanese Baseball

There was an article in the NYTimes this week about former Mets manager Bobby Valentine who's in his second stint as skipper of the Chiba Lotte Marines in the Japan League.

Bobby's very popular with Marines fans due to his outspokenness and accessibility. After winning Chiba's first league championship in its history, he suggested that his team play the World Series winner of that year. Though he doesn't expect either the owners or players' unions to allow any such thing, Valentine expressed his belief that this would be a far truer test of baseball than the World Baseball Classic, where players are thrown together for a brief period.

Such expressions of free thought publicly contradicting the opinions of one's superiors are not a hallmark of Japanese society and the Marines announced over the winter that Valentine would not be returning next year. Surprisingly, this has sparked a very public protest by fans in Chiba who've started a petition to Lotte and unfurled banners during games supporting Bobby.

Japanese baseball teams tend to have names that reflect their corporate owners rather than that of the city or region they represent. The belief, however quixotic that sports teams are civic institutions held in trust by the owners is not prevalent in Japan it seems.