Beppu City takes flak for displaying Ohtani-donated gloves, instead of giving them to kids

Putting those gloves on display was crass.

Slow news day in Japan

"...they would be delivered around between December and March."

This could be interpreted to mean the baseball gloves were delivered for next year's baseball season beginning in April, 2024... (In which case, the Mayor of Beppu City possibly did not mean to withhold the gloves for the tail end of this year's season.)

This could be interpreted to mean the baseball gloves were delivered for next year's baseball season beginning in April, 2024... (In which case, the Mayor of Beppu City possibly did not mean to withhold the gloves for the tail end of this year's season.)

Only said by someone who knows nothing about elementary school baseball in Japan! There is no "season"!

The kids play year round! The 6th graders typically finish in February or early March, but the rest of the kids continue throughout the year.

The ONLY thing this is interpreted to mean is that the mayor was trying to get some points by associating himself with Otani!

The maker of the gloves, which Ohtani has signed with, said each school would receive a total of three -- two for right-handers and one for left-handers -- and that they would be delivered around between December and March.

While its kind of cool that he gave some gloves, its weird the way they are distributing them 3 per school. In order to have a team each school will need dozens of players, what are they supposed to do, share them? Give them to just 3 kids while the others all have to buy their own? It makes no sense at all.

 Give them to just 3 kids while the others all have to buy their own? It makes no sense at all.

In the bigger picture kids typically purchase their own gloves for baseball here. Not mentioned though is the type of glove that Otani donated.

Usually, leastwise down here, and a few other places I personally know of, the ES team has one 1st baseman's mitt and one or two catchers mitts that are used by everyone who plays the position. Those gloves are more expensive, and all the kids take care of them.

Odds are the gloves wont go to any individual kid, but to the team.

Why don't we display his salary for 6 months to share the good feeling.

There have been other cases where municipalities displayed the gloves at their offices until they were ready to send them to schools.

Outside of putting them in a box and writing an address on the box, I can’t think of what else needed to be done. But then these are bureaucrats so…

@Yubaru NO!! I think most would interpret the mayor doing as exhibiting "CONTROL" while creating excitement!!

The ONLY thing this is interpreted to mean is that the mayor was trying to get some points by associating himself with Otani!

In the bigger picture kids typically purchase their own gloves for baseball here. Not mentioned though is the type of glove that Otani donated. 

Usually, leastwise down here, and a few other places I personally know of, the ES team has one 1st baseman's mitt and one or two catchers mitts that are used by everyone who plays the position. Those gloves are more expensive, and all the kids take care of them.

Odds are the gloves wont go to any individual kid, but to the team.

Yeah, but this was kind of my point. If you look the story up in Japanese you’ll find pictures of the gloves in question and they are not catchers or first baseman’s gloves, they are just regular gloves. And yes, every kid on every team already has their own regular glove, so what is the point of giving three of something they already have to every team? It makes no sense whatsoever. 20,000 teams now have 3 superfluous gloves that they don’t know what to do with. Gloves by their nature are an individual rather than a team asset so there really isn’t any logical way to make fair use of them, especially given that you aren’t giving enough for every player to get one.

It would have made way more sense to give them something like a supply of balls, or just donated money for individual teams to buy whatever they need. Giving every team an arbitrary number of something most of them have no use for seems like a grossly inefficient way of doing it. I say this as a former player for my high school team.

Gloves by their nature are an individual rather than a team asset so there really isn’t any logical way to make fair use of them, especially given that you aren’t giving enough for every player to get one.

Not when it comes to elementary school baseball here. Sure individuals purchase gloves, but specialty gloves like the first baseman and catcher's mitts are usually bought by the team, as individuals would not purchase 2 gloves.

A coworker's son's team has received the gloves. They are new balance gloves and evidently the 6th graders are taking turns using them and breaking them in!

Not when it comes to elementary school baseball here. Sure individuals purchase gloves, but specialty gloves like the first baseman and catcher's mitts are usually bought by the team, as individuals would not purchase 2 gloves.

Yes but as I said, these are not first basemen or catcher's gloves we are talking about, they are regular gloves which are not usually "team" property.

A coworker's son's team has received the gloves. They are new balance gloves and evidently the 6th graders are taking turns using them and breaking them in!

Thats cool I guess, but it brings me back to questioning the utility of this. A baseball glove is a highly individualized piece of equipment, every player has their own and they break them in to suit their own hand. Giving teams three regular gloves (again, these are not specialized ones like catchers mits, etc) just doesn't make much sense. Giving them bats or balls, which players make common use of, would have made way more sense.

I realize I'm nitpicking here, but good gloves are expensive (like 20,000 Yen or so, I bought one for my son last year in that range) so this must have cost Ohtani several hundred million Yen. I'd question the overall value he got from that in terms of providing something useful to ES teams, compared to other things that could have bought.

So people are mad that they displayed 3, 3 signed gloves? Or am I missing something?

So people are mad that they displayed 3, 3 signed gloves? Or am I missing something?

Those gloves werent his to display!