Irabu Joins Golden League
Sanspo and others have the scoop — Hideki Irabu has signed a deal with the Long Beach Armada of the independant Golden League. There’s an official announcement reportedly coming on the 27th.
Irabu is still a name, particularly on this side of the Pacific, and I think he’ll sell a few tickets for the Armada. We’ll see if he has enough left in his right arm to help them on the field.
03/05/2009 at 8:05 am Permalink
The GBL is quickly becoming a place where Japanese players go to get noticed by the MLB. In addition to Irabu, the league also has another former leaguer (Mac Suzuki), a guy who played on the Kyojin ni gun team, and at least 5-7 other Japanese players who have bounced around some other places (Europe, Japan Indy leagues, etc). We’ll have to see how many make the final rosters in a couple of weeks.
Not sure if it is related, but the GBL also had the all Japanese traveling team managed by Warren Cromartie as well so they have been “Japanese friendly” for a while which makes sense for a league based primarily in California.
I plan on making the drive from my home in Reno to Chico next month when Long Beach (Irabu’s team) visits Nettleton Stadium. One thing about the GBL is that each stadium only has about 500-2000 fans so you can get really close to the action and interaction is high. Maybe I can even get an Irabu autograph!