Former Manager Hillman’s Return to Japan After 16 Years” Reveals the “True Intentions” of Nichi-Ham’s Shinjo

Nippon Ham, with Tsuyoshi Shinjo at the helm for the second year, issued a release the day after the first staff meeting of the year was held at the second team facility in Kamagaya, Chiba.

We have reached a consulting agreement with Trey Hillman, former manager of the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Hokkaido.

Hillman, who was manager for five years until 2007, won the Japan championship with Shinjo in 2006, his fourth year as manager, and since 2008 has coached in Major League Baseball and South Korea. His job description was “scouting for new foreign players and counseling with the current assistants and coaches,” and many favorable reports called it a “reunion of the tag team that won Japan’s No. 1 baseball championship with Shinjo,” who won the crown in the manager-player relationship. However, a baseball team official revealed, “This is a message from the head office and the team.

This is a message from the head office and the baseball team. If we don’t get results, there will be no next time. …… Some people think that Hillman is one of the candidates to succeed Shinjo as manager.

The year 2023, Shinjo’s second year as manager, will be a milestone year for Nippon Ham, who will bid farewell to their 19-year home, the Sapporo Dome, and move to Escon Field in Kitahiroshima City this year. However, the mood is a little different from those who are looking forward to a strong start to Shinjo’s second year as manager at the new stadium. A veteran baseball reporter revealed, “Shinjo’s first year as manager has been a little bit different.

Last season, in Shinjo’s first year as manager, the team’s own V record disappeared after 30 games in May, but it was still unofficially decided that Shinjo would continue in his second year as manager. I think it was more the team’s desire to welcome the first year of the new stadium in 2023 with a manager who would be a spectacular and exciting manager, rather than the parental love of “giving him a long look so that he can grow as a manager.

At first, the team was preparing to invite a foreign manager with major league experience to replace Hideki Kuriyama, who had taken over the reins before Shinjo took over. At that time, however, Sho Nakata, the main gun at the time, assaulted a teammate, and the baseball team decided to suspend him from all games for the first and second teams. After that, a trade was concluded with manager Kuriyama asking manager Hara of the Giants for a favor, and many people were critical of the series of events that resulted in Nippon Ham giving Sho Nakata a chance to play, without the team having to come to terms with his violent incident.

Nippon Ham literally sells processed foods such as ham, and they are extremely averse to tarnishing their image to consumers, so they began to look for someone to replace Kuriyama who could dramatically restore the bad image that had been attached to the team as a result of Nakata’s assault. Just at that time, Atsunori Inaba, a NIHAM alumnus, led the Samurai Japan team to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, but he was not a candidate for manager due to the fact that his image was not good due to a weekly magazine report about a previous trouble between Inaba’s wife and the wife of a player belonging to the baseball team. That is why Director Shinjo’s name came up, and the first priority was to restore his image.

In December of the year before last, at his inaugural press conference, Director Shinjo asked the press to call him “Big Boss,” not “Manager,” and declared that he would not aim for victory, successfully attracting media attention with his statements and flamboyant performances that defied conventional wisdom.

Last year’s slogan was “Fans are Treasure. Before the official season opener, the team even went to the games with a “fan-voted batting line,” but when the season started, the team’s own V disappeared after only 33 games. Last season’s attendance also sank, ranking 11th among the 12 teams, and the numbers showed that fans would not come if the team did not win, even if it put on a spectacular performance that caught their attention.

With a fresh start, he would like to attract many customers to his new home, Escondido Field in Kitahiroshima, but he has a difficult task ahead of him. A reporter who actually went to the new stadium to cover the event revealed the following.

The transportation is not as convenient as it was at Sapporo Dome,” said a reporter who visited the new stadium. The Sapporo Dome was a 10-minute walk from the nearest subway station, but it takes less than 20 minutes from Sapporo to the nearest station, Kita Hiroshima Station, and another 20 minutes on foot to get to ESCON Field. Even though the ballpark was visible from the nearest station, there was a large hill to walk up to reach it, which made the walk quite difficult.

The ballpark has a parking lot that can be used by the general public, so many visitors may come by car, but there may be a traffic jam at the exit on the way home. It would be nice if the team keeps winning, but if they start losing, I wonder if there are fans who will become repeat customers…”

Perhaps sensing this situation early on, manager Shinjo has been steering this year’s camp in a very “results-oriented” direction. Last season, he continued to give young players with high potential, such as Kotaro Kiyomiya and Nakamasa Mannami, opportunities to play even without regard to results, but this year he is making it clear that “you are not good enough, so you will be in the second team. I will be an ogre to win.” He has also decided to hold a red-and-white game on the first day of camp, February 1. A source from another Pacific League team analyzed the situation this way.

Kensuke Kondo has moved to SoftBank as an FA, so the only major player from last season who could be a threat is Tsuyoshi Matsumoto, who won the top batting title. I think that the only pitchers in the starting lineup who can be counted on are Uesawa (Naoyuki) in right and Kato (Takayuki) in left. Yuki Nomura, Kiyomiya, and Mannami, who often played at No. 4, have good stuff, but they still lack real power and need to be used patiently. However, if Shinjo repeats the practice of removing players as soon as they fail to produce results, as has been reported in the media, the players may become impatient, which could lead to a vicious cycle of even more failure to produce results.

In his second year as manager, Shinjo finds himself caught between the wishes of the baseball team and the location of the new stadium, over which he has no control. The only way Shinjo can contain the noise from those around him is to “win with the team.