The Black Mist Scandal (Japanese baseball)

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In Japan, the Black Mist Scandal(黒い霧事件,kuroi kiri jiken) refers to a series of game fixing scandals in the Nippon Professional Baseball league between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from these scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; [1] the resulting abandonment of baseball by many fans in Japan also led to the sale of such illustrious teams as the Nishitetsu Lions and Toei Flyers (now the Seibu Lions and Hokkaidō Nippon Ham Fighters).

Nippon Professional Baseball baseball league representing the highest level of professional baseball in Japan

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the "Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club" in Tokyo, founded 1934 and the original circuit for the sport in the Empire two years later - Japanese Baseball League (1936-1949), and surprisingly even continued to play through the dark years of total warfare with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and intervening in the Chinese Civil War in 1937 with the wider Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and into the greater World War II (1939-1945).

Contents

The term "black mist" was a reference to a political scandal that had enveloped the Eisaku Satō administration in 1966–1967; "bribery was said to envelop politics like a black mist." [2]

Eisaku Satō 61st, 62nd and 63rd Prime Minister of Japan

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Japan, elected on 9 November 1964, and re-elected on 17 February 1967, and 14 January 1970, serving until 7 July 1972. As such, he is the longest uninterrupted serving PM in Japanese history and the first Prime Minister to have been born in the 20th century. He is also the only Japanese laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.

History

The scandal had multiple components, involving the yakuza and both professional baseball and professional auto racing. Baseball players and executives were implicated in fixing matches in both sports. The bulk of the revelations around the scandal happened in the fall of 1969 and the spring of 1970. Eventually, more than 15 players and coaches were implicated in game-fixing and baseball gambling, while five players were found to be involved in the race-fixing scheme. Members of nine NPB teams were implicated, with seven players coming from Nishitetsu alone. Ten NPB current and former players — including star pitchers Masaaki Ikenaga, Kentarō Ogawa, and Tsutomu Tanaka — were banned from the game for life.

Yakuza members of traditional transnational organized crime syndicates in Japan

Yakuza, also known as gokudō, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan, while the Yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai. The Western equivalent for the term Yakuza is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization. The Yakuza are notorious for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as "Yubitsume". Yakuza members are often described as males with heavily tattooed bodies and slicked hair, yet this group is still regarded as being among "the most sophisticated and wealthiest criminal organizations."

Auto racing motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition

Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.

Masaaki Ikenaga is a former Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played in Japan for the Nishitetsu Lions. Ikenaga was one of the top pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball before a scandal derailed his career at age 23. Before being implicated in the Black Mist Scandal, he made five consecutive All-Star teams at the beginning of his career, and was in the top 10 in ERA every season of his career.

Game-fixing

On October 7, 1969, the Nishitetsu Lions front office discovered pitcher Masayuki Nagayasu taking bribes from an organized crime family to throw games. The team announced that Nagayasu would be released after the end of the season, and the story was reported in Japanese newspapers the next day. Late in November, the committee of commissioners presiding over the league at the time voted to ban Nagayasu from the league for life, the first time any player had been banned from Japanese baseball. [1]

Pitcher the player responsible for throwing ("pitching") the ball to the batters in a game of baseball or softball

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer.

On April 1, 1970, in an exclusive tape-recorded interview with the Shūkan Post newspaper (broadcast on a Fuji Television news program), Nagayasu revealed that other players on his former team were also involved in game-fixing. The league summoned seven players to testify about their involvement: Nagayasu, team ace Masaaki Ikenaga, pitchers Yoshinobu Yoda and Akio Masuda, catcher Kimiyasu Murakami, and infielders Kazuhide Funada and Mitsuo Motoi. Yoda and Masuda admitted their involvement. Ikenaga claimed to be uninvolved, but had not returned the 1 million yen he had received from Chunichi Dragons pitcher Tsutomu Tanaka (a former teammate — Tanaka pitched for Nishitetsu from 1961–1967) as an invitation to cheat. [1]

Catcher defensive position in baseball and softball played behind home plate, facing the field

Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his/her turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher is also called upon to master many other skills in order to field the position well. The role of the catcher is similar to that of the wicket-keeper in cricket.

An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field.

Tsutomu Tanaka was a Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played in Japan for the Nishitetsu Lions and the Chunichi Dragons. Tanaka was a top pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball shortly before scandals derailed his career. A 23-game winner in 1966, he also is one of the few NPB pitchers to ever throw a perfect game.

A month later, Toei Flyers pitchers Toshiaki Moriyasu and Mitsugu Tanaka were revealed to be under suspicion of throwing baseball games. A subsequent report revealed that Kintetsu Buffaloes front-office official Akira Yano had been coerced into throwing games as a player during the 1967 season.

On May 25, 1970, the commissioner committee issued the following punishments to Nishitetsu players:

In June the commissioners banned the Buffaloes' Akira Yano from baseball for life.

In July, Kintetsu Buffaloes outfielder Masahiro Doi was prosecuted for illegal gambling. He was later suspended by the league for a month.

On July 30, 1970, the commissioner committee issued the following punishments for the Toei players:

On November 30, Hanshin Tigers pitcher Yutaka Enatsu received a stern warning from the Central League president due to "involvement with persons in baseball gambling."

On January 11, 1971, Nankai Hawks pitcher Kiyohiro Miura received a stern warning for receiving an invitation to throw games from teammate Kimihiro Satō and not reporting it. On January 29 of that year, Taiyō coach Takashi Suzuki and pitcher Shōji Sakai were barred from playing in Nippon Professional Baseball for their involvement with the Yakuza. Finally, on February 15, 1971, Lotte Orions pitcher Fumio Narita was suspended for a month for his involvement with bookmakers.

Race-fixing

On April 22, 1970, an auto racer under investigation for rule violations in a race revealed that baseball players were involved in a scheme to fix the results of races. Three men were arrested under suspicion of participating in the scheme: Chunichi Dragons pitcher Tsutomu Tanaka, Taiyō Whales pitcher Isao Takayama, and yakuza member Hirotaka Fujinawa. A few weeks later, Kentarō Ogawa, star pitcher for the Dragons, was arrested for also taking part in the auto-race fixing. Later on in May, Hanshin Tigers infielder Takao Katsuragi was arrested in the auto-race scandal.

In June, the commissioner committee banned Dragons pitcher Ogawa from baseball for life; they suspended the Tigers' Katsuragi for three months.

On September 8, 1970, Yakult Swallows infielder Takeshi Kuwata (who had been the 1959 rookie of the year) was arrested for his role in the auto-racing scandal. He would later receive a three-month suspension from the league, but his involvement effectively barred him from signing with another team, and he retired at the end of the year.

Ikenaga's reinstatement

Lions pitcher Masaaki Ikenaga's banning was fiercely contested by both Nishitetsu's front office and Ikenaga's family. His case was not taken up by Nippon Professional Baseball until March 2005, when commissioner Yasuchika Negoro and team owners agreed on a bylaw that allowed banned players who have reformed themselves to petition for a removal of the ban. [4]

Ikenaga requested a removal soon afterwards, and on April 25, 2005, he was allowed to return to baseball.

Timeline

1969

1970

1971

Players implicated

Warned

Suspended

Retired

Banned for life

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References

  1. 1 2 3 McKenna, Brian. Early Exits: The Premature Endings of Baseball Careers (Scarecrow Press, 2007), p. 17.
  2. ↑ Johnston, Michael. "Influence Markets", Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2005), ISBN   0521618592, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Associated Press. "3 Suspended for Baseball for Life," The Day (May 28, 1970).
  4. ↑ "Japan welcoming back players who fixed games", Yomiuri Shimbun (March 23, 2005). Archived on MarlinsBaseball.com.
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