The video game industry is full of curious stories. Nintendo is no exception, and the owner of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Switch has some very curious anecdotes.
For example, it was the first video game company to ‘send’ a game into space, a translation error gave rise to one of the most prolific memes on the internet at the time and it is even said that Super Mario’s pipes are the product of chance.
There are dozens of very interesting stories, although there is one that I particularly like: Nintendo had its own baseball team in the United States.
In 1980, Nintendo opened its US headquarters. It was in the city of Redmon, Washington, and soon became one of its most important operational points
It did not take long to establish itself and create ties with different organizations. Interestingly, one of the closest ties it ended up creating was with the city of Seattle.
Located about 30 kilometers from Redmond, Seattle was very close to its headquarters, which is why it ended up having a very good relationship with it. So much so that it decided to rescue its baseball team when it started to go downhill back in 1992.
The team, in serious financial trouble, tried to find a solution to avoid the closure of the club. That’s when an unexpected figure emerged: Hiroshi Yamauchi.
President of Nintendo between 1949 and 2002, he is one of the most important executives in the company’s history. So much so that he was one of the main people responsible for the company’s current state.
He dared to go beyond Hanafuda, experimenting with taxi businesses, video games and (according to legend) even love hotels. The fact is that he was one of its most expansionist presidents to the point of changing the name of the company from Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to simply Nintendo Co. Ltd.
The fact is that Yamauchi, grateful to the city – as he felt very welcomed by its inhabitants and by the city itself – decided to come to the rescue of the team in a very simple way: he bought shares until he became the club’s largest shareholder.
Thanks to this, he not only cleaned up his financial situation, but also prevented the team from moving to Florida. In other words, he allowed the people of the city to continue enjoying their baseball team even though he did not like the sport at all.
So the Mariners continued to be the Seattle Mariners after Yamauchi unwrapped about $100 million. Many people thanked him, but he never went to the stadium.
He did not intervene much in the team, although it is said that he was quite involved in facilitating the transfer and signing of numerous Japanese players to the American country. Despite this, he never went to one of their matches.
When Yamauchi passed away in 2013, the whole city of Seattle said goodbye to him as a thank you. Tributes were paid to him at the stadium and many mourned his loss, as he was almost a legend in the city. It is logical, since saving a baseball team from relocation is not something that happens every day.
In 2016, three years later, Nintendo sold most of its shares, keeping only 10% of them. It was no longer the owner of the team, but kept that small percentage as a symbolic gesture and a way to remember Yamauchi, one of its most important presidents to date.
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