The former owner of the Yomiuri Giants, died on Thursday at the age of 98, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun said, proving to me he was not actually a vampire doomed to curse us for eternity.

Joking aside, Watanabe, nicknamed “Nabetsune” was a monumental figure, who because of his quick wit, charisma, and his inability stay away from controversy, made him a constant source of memorable quotes in Japan’s sports dailies. Within the newspaper, he was feared, and people avoided taking chances that might earn his rath, which as a newspaperman at heart, also infuriated him.

Although he didn’t officially become “owner” of the ball club until 1996, Watanabe was by then firmly established as Nippon Professional Baseball’s biggest decision maker.

When pro football in the form of the J-League burst on the scene in 1992 and opened league play in 1993, Watanabe tried to force the league to adopt NPB’s business model. When that failed and when he was unable to get the city of Kawasaki to build his football team, Verdy, an 80,000-seat stadium, Watanabe lost interest.

In Watanabe’s honor, today I want to touch on a few of the things Watanabe touched while in charge of the Giants. There will be more to come.

The free agent debacle

Watanabe first big political success as Giants owner was forcing the other owners to establish free agency using the tried-and-true threat of pulling the Giants out of NPB and starting a new league. Although the players had been advocating for free agency, they only got it because Watanabe wanted to use Yomiuri’s deep pockets and prestige to put other clubs’ biggest stars into Giants uniforms.

Free agency was an urgent necessity after Watanabe brought back Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima to manage in 1993. An incredibly popular player, Nagashima had won four pennants managing the hugely talented club from 1975 to 1980 but lost four Japan Series and had been fired. The need for a talent boost was made all the more clear by the team’s first sub-.500 season since 1979 in Nagashima’s first year back.

Despite annually loading up on free agent talent and the heroics of Nagashima protégé Hideki Matsui, the Giants only won two pennants and one Japan Series between 1994 and 1999. And while free agency made the Giants old, slow and not that much more successful, it hastened the destruction of the Hiroshima Carp’s remarkable dynasty, as their stars left one by one.

Free agency also had another larger unexpected consequence. Based on the 19th-century social Darwinist belief that because Japanese baseball was inferior to MLB, its players could not be as good as MLB’s best, Watanabe pushed forward with free agency confident that no Japanese players would be able to use it to move to MLB.

That notion lasted all of two years.

In 1995, Hideo Nomo proved that Japanese players could too compete against the best in the world, and free agency quickly became an exit visa for Japan’s stars. Although free agency provided for compensation to teams losing free agents to other NPB clubs, teams got nothing when players moved overseas.

So after the debacle of Hideki Irabu’s transfer from the Lotte Marines to the San Diego Padres, an organized system of pre-free agency transfers in a posting system was agreed to that would allow Japanese clubs to receive transfer fees for MLB-bound players.

Watanabe railed against the posting system and called it an abomination while completely ignoring the fact that he was largely responsible for its existence because he’d rammed free agency down the other teams’ throats.

Player agents, and the “trial”

In the late 1990s, the players union began lobbying owners to allow their members to be represented by agents in their annual salary negotiations. Until then, each front office would calculate a player’s value and how little it could get away with paying him while maintaining the team’s salary structure.

The only rule preventing players from sending their agents to negotiate contracts was the owners’ stubborn insistence that it was against the rules. It wasn’t. Watanabe was outraged by the idea of his team having to deal with agents and said he would not permit it.

When free agent pitcher Kimiyasu Kudo’s agent contacted the Giants after the 1999 season and negotiated a contract, Watanabe referred to the individual not as an agent but “an intermediary.”

The owners backed down when it became clear that they were facing a lawsuit they couldn’t hope to win, and said they would generously accept players agents on a “one-year-trial.” The results of said trial were never announced as player agents simply became part of the scenery without the owners ever admitting defeat.

When the trial was first announced, Watanabe in his typical bluster, said, “I’ll be happy to release any Giants player who has the temerity to send his agent to negotiate with us.”

Ace pitcher Koji Uehara promptly called Watanabe’s bluff, sent his agent to the Giants team office, and when Watanabe was asked about it, the big hypocrite denied his team had dealt with an agent, but only with “a friend of the player who was acting as an informal consultant.”

Uehara and Watanabe repeated their farce when the boss denounced the posting system with a similar warning to his players that he would release any Giants player asking to be posted, only for Uehara to take him up on it.

More in the days to come as I need some sleep.