“He was always very kind to me and I really appreciated the fact that he had confidence in me from 1982 when I first met him to now. I can still see him sitting in the conference room in Kyoto with that kind smile. It’s really a sad day.\”

Seattle Mariners\’ chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln remembers fondly his friend and the man who is not only credited with saving Seattle professional baseball, but also turning Nintendo’s playing-card company into a global gaming behemoth, Hiroshi Yamauchi. The former president of Nintendo recently passed within the last week.

In 2004, Yamauchi transferred his team ownership to Nintendo of America, ensuring the team’s stability in the future. With Yamauchi gone nine years later, Nintendo of America has no plans to disrupt this stability and will continue to maintain majority ownership of the Mariners.

Lincoln, who is also a member of the NoA board of directors, confirms that the commitment originally put forth by Yamauchi will be sustained by Nintendo as a whole – even Yamauchi’s successor Satoru Iwata is committed to maintaining the Mariners ownership.