BASEBALL Japanese players move to majors

America offers more freedom for Japanese players.
TOKYO (AP) -- Orestes Destrade went from the major leagues to Japan and back. He expects more Japanese players to make the move to North America, and not necessarily because they want to.
"It's more a result of the way the players are treated here by management," said Destrade, who spent parts of four major league seasons with Pittsburgh, Florida and the New York Yankees.
"They're like salaried workers, the way they have to go in and negotiate their own contracts, the way they don't really have agents," he said before the Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays opened the major league regular season today at the Tokyo Dome.
Japanese players have to wait 10 years before they become free agents. Almost all represent themselves in contract negotiations.
Starting a trend
Hideo Nomo got out of his contract sooner, taking advantage of the standard Japanese baseball contract that allows players to go elsewhere by retiring.
Robert Whiting, who wrote "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" and has a book coming out on Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, said that when Nomo became the first to depart for the majors, Japanese baseball forever changed.
"Nomo leaving through the voluntary retirement loophole has had a big impact on the game here," Whiting said.
Japanese players have already achieved success in the majors. Nomo won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1995 with Los Angeles, and former Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki duplicated the feat in the AL five years later.
Suzuki took it a step further in 2001, winning the AL MVP award, as well as being selected as the league's top rookie.
Two of Japan's most popular players, who share the same last name, have made an impact on the two New York teams the past two seasons. Outfielder Hideki Matsui, known as "Godzilla" in Japan for his slugging prowess, was an All-Star in his rookie season with the Yankees.
Shortstop Kazuo Matsui, nicknamed "Little Matsui," was a seven-time All-Star in Japan before leaving to join the Mets this winter.
Impressed
Major leaguers in Japan have also been impressed with the Japanese players.
Former Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who now manages the Pacific League's Lotte Marines, has said several times that he thinks almost every player on his team could make a major league roster.
But there are some who have struggled in the majors. Hideki Irabu, who pitched for Hanshin against the Devil Rays, struggled while with the Yankees. Outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo, also back in Japan, never really caught on with the Mets or San Francisco Giants.
After leading Seibu to three straight Japan Series championships from 1990-92, Destrade joined Florida but couldn't duplicate the success he had overseas. But he predicts that Japanese players who make the move will have an easier time adjusting than he did.
"The players are bigger," Destrade said. "They have always been fundamentally sound, but now they are bigger and stronger."