From the Daily Sports Online column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから
If you take a quick look at Marty Kuehnert’s life in Japan, you’d think he was a real-life Midas. Does everything he touches turn to gold? It’s got to be fiction. Oftentimes, though, the most fantastic narratives are straight-up truth.
Marty grew up in California, but had his eyes on Asia from a young age. He made his first foray to Japan in 1965 in a student exchange between his university (Stanford) and one of the top private institutions in Japan (Keio). That two-month experience was enough to draw him back to Tokyo for his senior year, and instead of attending his graduation ceremony back home, he stayed in Japan. He started as many foreigners do, teaching English, but thanks to his Japanese language abilities, he landed one of sixty coveted positions as an interpreter/guide for the American Pavilion at the World Exposition Fair in Osaka in 1970. That job set his life on an entirely new and exciting course.
Already armed with a strong sports background, Kuehnert was given the responsibility of assisting athletes who visited the fair, including San Francisco Giants legends Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Bobby Bonds. Tsuneo ‘Cappy’ Harada, who helped revive baseball in Japan after World War II, was also part of the circle that Marty took care of at the Expo. The result of this connection was that Harada invited Marty to become general manager of a single-A baseball team back in Lodi, California. Ultimately, this was parlayed into a subsequent offer to work for the front office of the Taiheiyo Club Lions in Fukuoka in 1974.
Back in Japan, it was not long before Marty found himself helping Descente Ltd. with licensing rights for products related to major North American sports franchises. Marty deftly worked all of those deals, making Descente a pioneer in the industry. Descente gave him a generous expense account, and on business trips to the United States, he was able to take numerous executives out for dinners at the fanciest restaurants in the land. However, many of them were more interested in frequenting sports bars than fine dining establishments.
This was how Marty got the idea to start up an American-style sports bar in the heart of Kobe. It was the first of its kind in Japan, and attracted all sorts of traffic. You would be hard-pressed to name a foreign baseball player who did not stop in for a drink or two while in the Kansai region. It also received visits from legends like Jimmy Connors (tennis), Payne Stewart (golf), and Matsutaro Shoriki (Yomiuri newspaper). Years of this level of customer traffic made for wonderful anecdotal material while he did commentary for Japanese baseball broadcasts on several television stations. The Attic was also where Kuehnert first met Randy Bass, legend of the Hanshin Tigers. But we’ll get back to that friendship later.
Interlude: In the early 1990s as Japan’s bubble economy was at its peak, Marty became the part-owner of the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, the Birmingham Barons. That may not sound like fits the success story narrative. But in 1991, Bo Jackson, a genuine two-sports man whose unparalleled raw athletic ability has taken on mythical status, found himself in a Barons uniform trying to make a comeback after excruciating hip surgery. Three seasons later, someone else tried to become a two-sport man and found himself in Birmingham batting cages. Right. Michael Jordan stepped down from his throne as king of the basketball universe and was (in a sense) an employee of Marty’s. Golden touch, indeed.
Back in Japan, though, fate redirected Marty’s life path. On January 17, 1995, at 5:46 am, the Great Hanshin Earthquake left much of Kobe, including The Attic business, in ruins. Having hoped to leverage his profits from his Kobe sports bars into a new restaurant in Tokyo, Kuehnert was actually not in Kobe and did not physically feel the temblor. That said, his world was badly shaken. In the aftermath of the tragedy, no one in Kobe was going out anymore to eat, drink, and be merry. Thus, the Kobe Attics had to close their doors, and The Attic Tokyo became a casualty as well.
But if you think that kept Marty down, think again. Even before all of this went down, Marty had written multiple insightful books about education and the baseball world, particularly how Japan lacked the vision to prosper the way MLB was starting to. He was also on multiple television programs (Japanese broadcasts of major North American sports, game shows, and more). He also won several acting roles, including one on an NHK morning drama called Sakura in 2002. Despite being no stranger to TV, he says his role on Sakura made him “more recognizable than anything [he] had done to this point in [his] sports broadcasting life.” It was almost enough to make one forget about The Attic closures.
And things were just getting started. In 2004, NPB was looking to add a twelfth baseball franchise to make up for the merger between the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes. Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, asked Marty to take the role of general manager if his bid to land a new team were successful. It was, and that fall, Marty was given the tall task of not only arranging for an old stadium to be renewed in time for the 2005 season, but also assembling a coaching staff and roster. While the rest of the baseball world was taking a bit of a breather, Kuehnert and the Eagles personnel worked around the clock and made their debut a successful one (results on the field notwithstanding). Unfortunately, it was the on-field product that led to his premature dismissal.
But that did not keep Marty down. In fact, after just a few short years in Sendai, he was already Vice-President of Sendai University and advisor to the chairman of Tohoku University as well. And in 2018, he made history as the first man in Japan to ever become the general manager of professional teams in two different sports. The Sendai 89ers (Japan Professional Basketball League) benefited from Marty’s experience and ability for four years, and though he is no longer GM, he still holds the post of senior advisor.
Now at age 76, it’s time to slow down, right? Think again. When I met up with Marty in early June, he said he has never been so busy. When you wear as many hats as Marty does, that does not come as much of a surprise. But it was something else that was taking up his precious time. This is where our Hanshin Tigers legend steps in. Despite a premature exit from Japan back in 1988, Randy Bass continues to enjoy legendary status here. Countless offers come his way to appear in commercials, do interviews, play in charity baseball games, and more. None of that would come to fruition were it not for his agent.
You can easily see where this is going, right? Marty Kuehnert is Bass’ point man, and Bass’ recent election into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame has brought about a renewed surge in his popularity. The development that is keeping Marty so busy in 2023 is that an American film company is making major strides towards producing a documentary movie about Bass’ life. The 1985 Nippon Series championship pole-vaulted Bass into immortality, and the ensuing Curse of the Colonel and Bass’ untimely dismissal in 1988 make for wonderful viewing material. So in order to put this movie together, negotiations need to take place between the movie company, the Hanshin Tigers, and all the companies that own the rights to the archive film footage and photographs of Bass’ heroics. You can guess who’s actively involved. Marty Kuehnert.
I am really looking forward to the movie (which will also have Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams director Ema Yamasaki on board), but perhaps more than that, to see what is next on the horizon for the man who seems to have no end to the wealth of experiences he has had in Japan. When all is said and done, if I can accomplish ¼ of what Marty Kuehnert has done, I will be a happy old man.
Don’t sleep on the Kuehnert narrative, folks. It indeed seems that whatever Marty touches turns to gold. As a foreigner with 25 years’ experience in Japan and hopes for another 35-40 prosperous years ahead, Kuehnert’s life story has touched me… does that mean I will become golden soon? Here’s to hoping so! Thanks for the inspiration, Marty.