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The story
Regarding the Hiroshima Toyo Carp’s “zombie cigarette” scandal reported by Weekly Bunshun, it has emerged that active players have lost trust in how the club has handled the matter. Because the club avoided giving a clear explanation, suspicion has reportedly spread even to players who had nothing to do with it. On 5ch, threads buzzed with criticism of the club’s weak initial response, speculation about how the scandal came to light, and frustration with how mainstream media has covered the story.
Active Player Speaks Out, Owner Confronted — Something’s Wrong with the Hiroshima Carp: The Zombie Cigarette Scandal Won’t Go Away, Players Say They “Distrust the Club”
Weekly Bunshun Editorial Team
“In the zombie cigarette scandal, the players themselves have lost trust in how the club has handled things. The club may have thought it could ride this out, but because it didn’t respond properly, even players who had nothing to do with it ended up under suspicion.”
Source: bunshun.jp / Original article here
What people said
If you're not even going to name names, don't write "active player" like that.
classic zombie-movie stuff.
What's happening to Hiroshima?
this is genuinely turning into psychological horror lol
The club's acting like some shady organization
not disclosing things properly and all.
Probably because it's still just at the "allegation" stage.
If they went big on national broadcast over a mere allegation and it turned out wrong, they'd be facing a defamation lawsuit for sure.
If a player actually gets arrested, they'll surely report it then.
is it because cases that used to get quietly buried are finally leaking out?
NPB carrying on with business as usual, fans casually showing up to cheer at the stadium, media not criticizing any of it
the whole baseball world has gone insane.
just retire that "C" logo already. (a joke that schools/teams sharing a similar "C" emblem are getting guilt by association)
so the suspected players will just stay in a gray zone.
Right?
By trying to protect the guilty ones, they ended up turning the innocent ones gray too. ("kuro"/"shiro" — black/white — is Japanese shorthand for guilty/innocent)
・ Players who did it before it was even illegal
just name them publicly.
No punishment for them.
But if they stay silent and it surfaces later, fire them.
They've got a track record — last time, with the online gambling scandal, they said "come forward and you won't be punished," then fired the guy who did anyway.
That's why nobody's coming forward this time.
That quote says it all.
Mr. Matsuda is an elite — Hiroshima University Attached High School, then Keio University.
He surely has plans, ambitions, and a vision that us ordinary people could never imagine; he's probably treating this season as just a warm-up lap.
Keep your hopes up for next year and beyond.
According to an admin of one fan site, Hiroshima's recent winning streak is thanks to a performance boost from "zombification," and he wants the club to hurry up and officially confirm it.
If it actually boosted athletic performance, it should be classified as a banned substance.
And on top of that, you get stuck paying the entire bill after losing some macho game of rock-paper-scissors. ("otokogi janken" — a hazing game where the loser foots the whole tab)
Background and Key Points of This Topic
“Zombie cigarettes” is the nickname for a drug-related scandal that surfaced in NPB this season; as of September it remains at the “allegation” stage, and there are no reports of any player facing criminal punishment. As pointed out in the thread, media coverage appears to be deliberately restrained, since prominently naming still-unconfirmed suspects would expose outlets to defamation risk. Meanwhile, the Carp has a history of punishing players from a past online-gambling scandal who failed to self-report, and some argued that this precedent created an atmosphere where the most suspicious players are the least likely to come forward. Opinions were split between those demanding accountability from the club and those worried about reputational damage to uninvolved players, with reactions varying depending on which concern people weighed more heavily.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Bunshun] Active Player Speaks Out — Something’s Wrong with the Hiroshima Carp: The Zombie Cigarette Scandal Won’t Go Away, Players Distrust the Club.”
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