Little bit of help with some Nintendo trivia needed.

[Dobie]

OK. Here's something that I have been trying to figure out for some time. If any of you out there are Seattle Mariner fans, you may (or may not) know that the owner of the team is none other than Hiroshi Yamauchi--THE main man in Nintendo Corp. Nintendo has played a big part with the Mariners, and promotions they run, and vice versa.

Now, having read up on the Tengen Tetris ordeal, and Nintendo's role, most would agree that a central figure in that legal mess was Nintendo of America's lawyer, Howard Lincoln.

Sooooo..... anyways, again, if any of you are Mariner fans, you are also probably familiar with the name Howard Lincoln, as that is the name of the head CEO of the Mariners.

My question is... are they the same person? The direct Nintendo link would suggest yes, but I'm not 100% SURE. I mean, it seems to me to be a big leap between the video game and pro baseball biz. Its something that has been bugging me for a while, so if any of you out there know for sure, I would LOVE for you to reply.

[kai123]

Yes they are the same person here is a link.
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/s...4/daily16.html

[Anonymous]

Yeah. Hiroshi Yamauchi was convinced by Minoru Arakawa (His son in law, and the recently retired president of NOA) to purchase a majority stake in the Mariners when no one else would so that the Mariners could stay in Seattle. A couple of years ago, there was a big company party to commemorate Howard Lincoln's retirement. He still has his office at Nintendo, and he still plays a part, but it is not in any real official capacity. He did in fact retire so that he could focus on leading the Mariners into victory.

I don't know anything about baseball, but even I know that the Mariners have this fun little habit of doing really well until it really counts.

[Lady Jaye]

And thus, it is no coincidence if the first Japanese player to be signed by a MLB team signed with the Mariners.

There's this GameCube ad in Japan featuring Ichiro Suzuki (star player of the Mariners) in his Mariners uniform.

Now, imagine if Nintendo played out its ownership of the Mariners in the same way Disney does with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks of the National Hockey League. They could have Mario or Link or better still Samus as mascot...

BTW, the history behind Nintendo's purchase of the Mariners is detailed in the book Game Over. There was a lot of controversy back then in Seattle about letting a Japanese company buy an American baseball team (never mind the fact that baseball is extremely popular in Japan).

[Hiroshi Yamauchi]

And now I shall rule Baseball with an iron fist.

MUWAHAHA!

The best thing we ever did was get rid of that dead-weight Ken Griffey, Jr. We got some of the Cincinnati Red's best players, who have performed well for us. What about Griffey? Hehe. Injured almost every year since.

Just you wait, I will have GameCube kiosks set up around the stadium.

MUWAHAHA!

[SoulBlazer]

Actually, if I recall the story right, Nintendo was very carefull to form a PARTNERSHIP with other Seattle-based companies, such as Microsoft, to also pitch in and become part owners of the team. I think Nintendo just has the majority, and does NOTHING to influence the day to day running of the team. Without their help the team would have moved. Sometimes fans want the team to stay, other times they won't notice them gone (like in Montreal right now. )

[Lady Jaye]

Hmm, you weren't in Montreal last series they played here (against the Marlins and the Phillies). The Expos swept the Phillies and the fans were in high numbers, EVEN on a Thursday afternoon!

It isn't that fans don't care, it's that everyone else have assumed that we don't like baseball when in fact we were burned badly in the past fifteen years.

Ask any Marlins fan if they like Jeffrey Loria and David Samson... These bastards are blood-sucking leeches who give out promises and then turn around and stab people in the back. The Expos lost almost all of their employees (except for the actual players and our mascot) when Loria sold the team to Major League Baseball (the employees were transfered to Florida). They even left with computers containing scout reports!!! Heck, they even took over the Expos' spring training camp area (in Jupiter, FL).

I only hope one thing: that the former minority owners of the Expos (who, by default became the minority owners of the Marlins) will win their lawsuit against Loria, Samson and Bud Selig for conspiring to driving baseball from Montreal. They basically finished the job started by Claude Brochu in the late 80s and early 90s.

So, before you draw judgement over the baseball situation in Montreal, I suggest you pay attention to the entire story surrounding it, and how we are certainly not the only team to struggle to make ends meet (geez, let's get rid of all the other teams while we're at it and keep only the handful of rich teams who buy out everyone else).

And if you wonder why there just isn't anyone coming out to buy the Expos and keep the team in Montreal? Let's not forget that it cost A LOT of money to run a baseball franchise. And unless there's a true coalition of local businessmen and politicians willing to inject money in the team, things are not going to change. And as long as Bud Selig is in place (or any of his minions), baseball will continue its decline.

Despite everything, I continue to have the Believer's Fever, even though it's not going to be for this year. Montreal has a tradition of baseball (Does a certain Jackie Robinson ring a bell? What about Gary Carter? What about Tim Raines? What about Vlad Guerrero?), and people don't change so suddenly. But baseball did change. And it's not a pretty change. http://www.savetheexpos.com/

[Dobie]

BTW, the history behind Nintendo's purchase of the Mariners is detailed in the book Game Over. There was a lot of controversy back then in Seattle about letting a Japanese company buy an American baseball team (never mind the fact that baseball is extremely popular in Japan).

Yeah, I know all about the controversy. I've been an M's fan for 15 years now--I'm not just a '95er (and I've read the book too ). As far as I know now, Yamauchi has a fair share of the team, and in its operations. In '96, Yamauchi was given full voting rights (previously he was limited to 49% voting, versus 60% ownership). I think he owns the team entirely now too.

Anybody else notice that in the half-inning Ichiro bats, there is always a GBA SP or Gamecube ad in the scrolling advertisements behind the plate? AND its in Japanese? I bet that's a coincidence.

Hopefully the M's won't keep up with the "winning only when it doesn't count" pattern they've had the last few years. The games over the next two weeks count, and they had better be winning--I am flying up there for the last three games against the A's!! Got SWEEEEET tix too. Bought them in February.