Players' Adjustment from Overseas to U.S. Sports

Last week, Jon Weinbach of The Wall Street Journal wrote an article called "From Japan, With Mixed Results". The article describes the hurdles an overseas player must get past in order to succeed. Weinbach also talks about the adjustments an athlete must make. Although this article is written about baseball, it certainly can apply to basketball and the NBA.

Below is an excerpt from this article:

Unlike American players, who are mostly selected through the amateur draft, or prospects from Latin America, who often sign contracts with ball clubs as teenagers, most Japanese players are brought over as seasoned stars with long track records of success in the Japanese leagues, which are just below the major leagues in quality. The 14 Japanese imports on big-league rosters this year were 27 years old, on average, when they made their debuts.

According to coaches, team executives, scouts and Japanese players, the key to success in North America isn't just how well a player performed in Japan or whether he can conquer homesickness. It's the ability to recognize subtle differences in the way baseball is played here, and the willingness to make small adjustments to account for them -- even if it means breaking some deeply ingrained habits.

Those who do, like Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners -- who has led the American League in hits three times -- can become larger-than-life stars. Those who don't can end up as brief footnotes. Once considered the best third baseman in Japan, Norihiro Nakamura went cold at the plate for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005 and lasted all of 17 games.

"It's a leap of faith," says Andrew Friedman, the general manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who recently acquired Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura. While team officials always try to evaluate the risks before signing a Japanese player, he says, they are well aware of the uneven track record. "Every player is a little different."

The entire article can be found by going to:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118549191926479608.html

Ichiro's Unique Contract

The Seattle Mariners and their star rightfielder, Ichrio Suzuki, recently came to terms on a very unique and unprecedented agreement. Below is the Associated Press story, which describes in-depth the terms of the contract.

"M's to defer $25 million of Ichiro's deal"
Associated Press Posted

The Seattle Mariners will be paying Ichiro Suzuki for at least a quarter century.

The All-Star outfielder's new contract extension calls for the team to defer $25 million of the $90 million he is owed, money that the team will not have to fully pay until at least 2032.

Suzuki, MVP of last week's All-Star game, gets a $5 million signing bonus and annual salaries of $17 million from 2008-12 under the terms of last Friday's deal.

Seattle will pay $12 million in salary each year and defer $5 million per season at 5.5 percent interest. Suzuki, who turns 33 in October, will receive the money in annual installments each Jan. 30 starting with the year after his retirement from the major leagues.

Because of the deferred money, the average annual value of the contract is discounted to $16.1 million under the provisions of baseball's collective bargaining agreement.

In addition, he gets a housing allowance of $32,000 next year, an increase of $1,000 from this season, and the amount will rise by $1,000 each year. He also will be provided with either a new jeep or Mercedes SUV by the team, which also gives him four first-class round trip tickets from Japan each year for his family. Provisions for the Mariners to give him a personal trainer and an interpreter were continued.

When asked Wednesday how appreciative he was that the Mariners went far beyond a basic contract for him, the 33-year-old Suzuki said through his interpreter: "I spoke about the contract on the day I signed. I would not like to talk about that any more."

Two Mariners executives also declined comment before Seattle's game against Baltimore, citing the team's policy of not revealing contract details.

A baseball official with knowledge of Suzuki's new contract — and his current one that ends this fall and is paying him $11 million this season — said the perks of a team-provided vehicle, plane tickets, a personal trainer and an interpreter were also in Suzuki's previous deals and were not a major negotiating issue this time around. The official requested anonymity to honor the Mariners' policy of not discussing contracts.

Suzuki, who would have been eligible to become a free agent after this season, began Wednesday with a .352 batting average and a major league-leading 133 hits.

The seven-time All-Star and six-time Gold Glove outfielder maintains the same limited no-trade clause he had in the $44 million, four-year deal he signed before the 2004 season. In his current deal, Suzuki can pick 10 teams to which he can't be traded without his consent.