Japan: Baseball lifts lifetime ban

[AmericanErrorist]

Japanese professional baseball has opened the way for former players who received lifetime bans to return to its fold. This revision of the professional baseball convention has attracted attention because it makes it possible to cancel punitive action even in cases against players implicated in fixed games or gambling.

Losing a game intentionally for money or betting on baseball are acts by players that betray the fans' trust. The professional baseball associations both in Japan and the United States have adopted a stern attitude toward such players....

Pete Rose, the career hits leader in the majors, remains outside of baseball after he was banished in 1989 for gambling on baseball games. Although there have been times when suspended ballplayers have returned to the majors, there has been no case of a pardon for players involved in fixed games or gambling. Even Rose is no exception.

In the United States, baseball means more than just entertainment. Kazuo Sayama, a nonfiction writer who is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, says that baseball is a sport that is ``free both in terms of time and space and has been meaningful as a means with which to learn and convey the spirit of liberty and equality in the United States.''

The baseball society in Japan, however, has taken a new turn in this regard. Although the baseball association says the recent revision of the baseball convention was made for no particular player, it has apparently in its mind Masaaki Ikenaga, a former pitcher with the then-Nishitetsu Lions, who was banished for gambling on baseball.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200503220083.html

[ProudToBeLiberal]

1. If that ever happens in the U.S. baseball would be ruined

Baseball is all about integrity. Integrity among the players and even integrity among stats.

[hijinx87]

2. agree completely.

avoiding the lifetime ban just isn't that difficult.