[Baseball] “Go away and quit being a pro” “Die you fat garbage” – slander on social media is a serious issue even in the baseball world．．． Nohmi fights back with legal action．．． “Thoughtless words hurt me．”
※2024/08/26 08:01 Yomiuri Shimbun In the world of professional baseball, a movement to fight against malicious social media posts that slander and defame players is spreading. In the past, heckling at baseball stadiums was customarily tolerated as “part of baseball culture,” but the number of posts disparaging players and their families has increased sharply, leading players’ associations and teams to take legal action. However, there are many challenges ahead, such as the lack of clear criteria for determining what constitutes defamatory expression. In recent years, there have been a series of posts insulting players who make mistakes during games. Some of the messages expressed hope that the players’ families would get into accidents and even contained racist abuse. Taking the situation seriously, each baseball team has begun to take measures, and in July the Chunichi Dragons announced that “excessive posts may be reported to the police and legal action may be taken.” The person in charge emphasized that “the number of outrageous posts is increasing every year and we cannot ignore this.” Lotte and Nippon-Ham also plan to take similar measures. The Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association established a task force consisting of legal counsel in September last year. In July of this year, it was revealed that a request for disclosure of information about multiple senders of malicious content, including expressions such as “disappear” and “garbage,” had been granted by the court. We will consider filing criminal charges and seeking damages in the future. On the other hand, there is also the issue of the unclear line between heckling and slander. A lawyer for the players’ union said, “Even with the same wording, there were cases where disclosure was permitted and cases where it was not. There is no set standard for what constitutes an insult, and judges appear to have differing opinions.” According to another lawyer, professions such as politicians and entertainers, who earn an income by being in the public eye, tend to have a wider range of comments that are not deemed slanderous, and he commented, “There is also the question of whether this also applies to professional baseball players.” He then questions the idea that “the limits of what people have to tolerate differ depending on their occupation,” saying, “There is also room for debate.” One team official spoke about the difficulty of dealing with social media issues, saying, “There are so many posts that it’s impossible to keep track of the whole picture,” while another team official expressed growing concern, saying, “Social media will become a place where people can’t enjoy professional baseball.” Former Hanshin and Orix pitcher Nomi… “Thoughtless words hurt” We asked former Hanshin and Orix pitcher Nomi Atsushi (45) about his reaction to slander on social media. Continue reading below.
>>3 I once heard a story about a batter who couldn’t hit the ball and got angry at a heckler and yelled, “Then you try hitting it yourself!”, to which a fan yelled back, “I bought a ticket to watch you hit the ball, so I have the right to heckle!”
It was worse in the past. At Hankyu Stadium, people were hurling insults and empty cans were flying. Compared to that, the internet is practically calm. It’s wrong for celebrities and athletes to use social media. If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t do it! Doing things like that is what keeps them from performing well or achieving great results.
>>21 That’s awful I’ve seen the cheering squad rally after losing a game and it was awful They gave the guilty player a nasty nickname and chanted it in unison to the beat.
>>21 The heckling in Kansai is generally brutal, but it seems that Kintetsu fans were especially bad. Many players who were active at the time recall that “Nissei Stadium and Fujiidera Stadium were full of heckling that was beyond words.”
Even if the disclosure turns out to be of a competitor, they should do the right thing and not just let it slide. The Seibu incident should have resulted in an arrest.
I felt sorry for Ito Taikai because he was criticized so much about his face, but Kiyomiya was lucky because he wasn’t slandered even if he couldn’t hit.
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