The FA system dramatically improved players’ rights

When I see the Japanese national team winning the WBC and Shohei Ohtani playing in the majors, I think about the source of this prosperity. It was the Professional Baseball Players’ Union that was born in 1985.

Yasushi Tao (the first manager of the Rakuten Eagles) had this to say about the time before the union was founded:

“The world of professional baseball may look glamorous, but in reality it is a very restrictive world, and the only right a player could exercise was to quit.”

The unified contract prepared by the organization was overwhelmingly disadvantageous to the players. As the chairman of the Chunichi Dragons’ player association, Tao had persistently conveyed his teammates’ requests to the team, but he was rejected by the team representative at the time, and despite having led the league in hits for four consecutive years and being loved by the fans, he was traded to Seibu just before the start of training camp.

Since the draft was introduced, players no longer have the freedom to choose the team they work for, and there are many cases of players being released or kept on the sidelines for extremely arbitrary reasons.

This changed dramatically in 1985. Player rights improved dramatically. The free agent system was approved, annual salaries increased dramatically, and transfers became more active. As a result, the gap between the Central and Pacific Leagues was narrowed.

What is most important is that the players’ opinions are now being conveyed to the organization, and the players’ independent will is now being clearly communicated.

In 2004, when baseball was being restructured, the then Yomiuri president, Tsuneo Watanabe, insulted Furuta Atsuya, who said, “It’s just the players!”, and then the strike that was carried out. Furthermore, in 2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, Arai Takahiro, the current president of the Hiroshima Carp, appealed to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to postpone the opening of the regular season.

These efforts were only possible because of the organizational foundation of the players’ union. If their opinions are accepted, it naturally increases the players’ motivation and leads to improved performance.

We will unravel the foundations of this epoch-making “labor union” and explore how players’ rights were won.

“Yeah, it was a struggle. It took a lot of time to make it happen, and we had to do everything behind closed doors. That was really difficult.”

Kiyoshi Nakahata, the driving force behind the establishment of the players’ union and its first chairman, recalled memories from 38 years ago in an interview at his home.