More than 200 people attended the "Marty Kuehnert-Shi Iwai GM Shunin to Saranaru Nippon Yakyu Kai no Hatten o Negau Kai" (Party to Congratulate Mr. Marty Kuehnert on His Appointment as General Manager and Praying for the Success of Japanese Baseball) at a Tokyo hotel on Friday, Jan. 21, in honor of the former sports columnist of The Japan Times and current general manager of the expansion Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League.
Hosted by Baseball Magazine, the soiree was attended by the family and friends of Kuehnert, and the list of those present includes an impressive array of radio and television personalities, comedians, company presidents, former pro ballplayers and sumo wrestlers, rakugo storytellers and educators.
The evening event served not only as a kind of pep rally and a send off to Sendai for Marty, but also as a get-together to recognize the expected rejuvenation of the game which passed through a 2004 crisis that threatened to reduce the number of teams and saw Japan's first players' strike, a two-day work stoppage, last September.