Kintetsu Buffaloes?

Sounds like you left just before all the excitement started at the end of 2004.

In short:

• The Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes announced that the two teams would merge into a single team. (Both had red ink issues and were competing for Tiger scraps.)
• Several owners wanted to contract the league further by merging two more teams.
• Nobody in Japan other than a few of the powerful owners (Watanabe) liked the idea.
• A charismatic owner of Internet blogging site LiveDoor named Horie popped up and offered to own an expansion franchise.
• The players threatened and carried out a weekend strike with the full support of the public.
• The owners caved in and created the expansion team in Sendai, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. (Rakuten is an Internet online shop.)
• Horie was investigated and found guilty of insider trading. This was his punishment for messing with the powerful Watanabe.

Google Japanese baseball contraction 2004 for a good place to start.

Was Horiemon's downfall directly linked to what he tried to do with NPB? (You mentioned Watanabe.) I had never heard that connection before. Can you give more details about that? (I'm not denying it, just curious to know more about this connection.)

I'm afraid that that's pure speculation on my part. (Perhaps I should have labeled it such.)

What I did observe in the press at the time was Watanabe giving Horie a really hard time, reaching for anything that make him look bad. I remember Watanabe's biggest fear about having Horie join the NPB was how the NPB would be perceived if someone were to post porn on LiveDoor. Watanabe asked, "What measures do you take to prevent young people from seeing porn on your site?" I wanted to ask Nabetsune, "What measures to you take to make sure that young people don't see the slut ads in the back of Sports Hochi?"

I couldn't believe this double standard. Or that Watanabe could play the moral high ground on any issue.

Nonetheless, there was a huge smear campaign against Horie during the time period leading up to the selection of who would be rewarded the expansion team. In politics, certain phrases often popped up in the press by Bush's cronies. The same slurs against Linux pop up in the tech press that Microsoft initiates. And the accusations that Watanabe was slinging at Horie were echoed in much of the Japanese sports media.

No, I know of nothing that directly links Watanabe to calling for an investigation of Horiemon. But it seems like an awfully big coincidence that such scrutiny was suddenly brought against him. And so soon after his losing bid for the expansion team; a bid that he worked hard to put together and Mikitani seemed to just copy for Rakuten's bid. Horie helped to save Japanese baseball from contraction, but Mikitani got the expansion club without much effort. Everything surrounding that just seemed very odd.

What I still don't understand is why the BlueWave and Buffaloes merged and an expansion team was created rather than Rakuten simply buying the Buffaloes and moving them to Sendai?

Because that is too logical. Supposedly to "save face." The decision was made; they couldn't go back and admit their mistake. NPB wound up with a weak expansion team, but the good thing is the players and fans were heard. Watanabe and Kyojin's power has decreased while attendance has increased.

Since 2005 it is the "actual" attendance number reported compared to the fantasy numbers of the past. Also, the regionalization of NPB rather than corporate allegiance has grown particularly in Hokkaido (Fighters), Kyushu (Hawks), and Tohoku (Golden Eagles).

It is interesting that the new president of Livedoor came from the Yomiuri group after Horie was forced out. Both Horie and Murakami (who tried to buy the Tigers) were targeted because they challenged the established order. The insider trading charges, which brought his downfall, always looked a bit suspect. Mikitani, despite being head of Rakuten - a new industry - is seen as a 'safe' businessman and a suitable person to take over a franchise. He also has strong links with Watanabe.