Hiroshi Yamauchi got game. Actually, he's got lots of games, since he's both the president of videogame giant Nintendo and the principal owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.

Nintendo, which Yamauchi has run for more than half a century, isn't doing all that well. With its next-generation videogame console running way behind schedule, the Kyoto, Japan-based company saw revenue drop 7.4% in fiscal 2000 to $5 billion, while earnings fell 34.8% to $528.9 million. Sony, which has now beaten Nintendo to the punch with both the Playstation and the Playstation 2, has grabbed 65% of the market, reducing Nintendo's once dominant presence to 32% in the process.

Yamauchi is doing much better on the baseball front. Last year, when they moved into their new digs at Safeco Field, the Mariners earned $2.6 million, their first profit since Yamauchi led a $125 million buyout of the team in 1992. But he is really making his mark--and changing the game in the process--by bringing top Japanese players to America.

He began by signing legendary relief pitcher Kasuhiro Sasaki prior to the 2000 season. Sasaki, who had been Japan's career leader in saves, appeared in 63 games in his first season with the Mariners, recording 37 saves and earning himself--at age 32--Rookie of the Year honors in the American League.

That turned out to be just an appetizer, however. Last week, the Mariners landed another Japanese superstar, and this time it was history in the making. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who signed a three-year contract (terms weren't disclosed), will be the first non-pitcher from Japan to play in the major leagues.

In the past, U.S. teams have shied away from Japanese position players, fearing they lacked the speed and power to compete with their American counterparts. Suzuki will be out to change that image, and he has the credentials to do it. In seven full seasons with the Orix Blue Wave of Japan's Pacific League, he has compiled a .353 batting average with 118 home runs and 199 stolen bases.

The coming of Suzuki should help make up for the departure of Ken Griffey Jr., the long-time Mariner star who bolted to Cincinnati last season. It also could help mollify Seattle fans if shortstop

Alex Rodriguez, who is a free agent, decides to take his act elsewhere.

Japanese baseball fans can't be happy about Yamauchi's poaching ways, but then he has never been particularly interested in making people happy. An autocratic leader, he regularly insults competitors, and sometimes even customers--behavior that's considered a no-no in the respectful world of Japanese business.

Yamauchi has played by his own rules for a long time. Born in 1927, he took over Nintendo in 1949 from his grandfather. The story goes that he felt he wasn't welcome by the company's employees, so he fired all of the old managers and many of the old workers. Nobody ever questioned his authority after that.

Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a maker of playing cards into a household name. The company's videogames, starring the likes of Super Mario and Pokemon, have helped define adolescent culture around the world.

Yamauchi, whose personal wealth was pegged by Forbes at $2.5 billion, lives in Kyoto in a house reputedly once owned by the emperor's doctor. He runs Nintendo in person, while leaving the day-to-day operations of the Mariners to Howard Lincoln, who used to be chairman of Nintendo USA, the Redmond, Wash.-based North American arm of the company.

Now 72, Yamauchi is past the age when most U.S. CEOs have slipped into retirement. He has hinted on several occasions that he was almost ready to call it quits, but he wants to see Nintendo's next game console become a reality before he does. That means he plans to stick around at least until next July, when the Nintendo Gamecube hits the market in Japan.

A lot of Nintendo fans probably think Yamauchi should have retired before now. In Seattle, on the other hand, Mariner fans hope he's just getting started.