A new project announced by the Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association on the 17th is facing unexpected criticism. Although the club pledged to support players’ second careers and tackle slanderous comments, many people seemed uncomfortable with the fact that the club asked fans for donations and that there were no concrete business plans. Donations are being collected from individuals and corporations, but… The “Fantomo” project was launched by the players’ association to “connect fans and players and pave the way for the future of professional baseball.” On its official website, the group lists the following initiatives as its areas of focus: 1) supporting second careers, 2) addressing defamation issues, and 3) contributing to society and participating in community activities. In order to maintain the system and expand its activities, “we solicit membership from individuals and corporations in the form of donations,” and the website also makes a big appeal for donations. Donations can be made from 1,500 yen and are renewed every three months (automatically renewed). The gifts will be announced in March of next year. However, immediately after the announcement, fans posted a number of harsh comments on the official players’ association account. 〈Generally speaking, it seems like the players’ association should raise money and make an investment (just like a labor union)〉 〈Why should we donate to an association that has players who earn much more than us〉 〈It’s interesting that the first thing they do with the money collected from fans is to establish a system for filing lawsuits against slander and support second careers〉 〈Shouldn’t they start with mutual aid savings〉 〈I wonder how they managed to raise donations with such vague content〉 〈Normal people use their own savings to get qualifications and study for their second careers. Nobody is going to donate. >
On the special website, examples of future measures include “Providing online career training videos for current and former players,” “Establishing a program to send professional baseball players to enliven the local area, such as participating in baseball classes and local revitalization activities,” and “Establishing a platform that allows players and fans (local areas) and players and former players to connect,” but the budget size and timing are not known at this point, so the impression that only the form calling for donations stands out may have been given. That said, all of the issues and initiatives for baseball that the players’ association has set out are important. Attention is focused on how the project will come to fruition in the future.
>>1 If it’s just a donation people will complain, so why not live stream the game on YouTube or something and ask for super chats? If they can show off some fine play, more people will donate money all at once.
>>25 I can understand why the victory parade was organized by the local government But this time, I really think they should have done something about it themselves.
Normally, they should take a percentage of the highly paid players and use it to support second careers. It’s strange that America, the home of capitalism, has much stronger unions and mutual aid systems. Japan is more winner-take-all and there is no industry support.
He probably just started doing it because he saw lowlifes throwing money at people on YouTube who earn hundreds of times more than him and wondered if that’s what it was like.
>>60 The scale is different from the majors, so it’s not worth discussing. You can’t get a major league pension unless you pitch a certain number of times in the majors (you can’t get one in 3A no matter how much you play).
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