The sudden departure of famous coach Takuro Ishii reveals the “special nature” of the Giants

It was a departure that caused a stir.

Takuro Ishii, 51, the Giants’ third-string fielder’s coach, will leave the team at the end of this season. Ishii is known as a great coach, having trained Yoshihiro Maru, Seiya Suzuki and Ryosuke Kikuchi in Hiroshima, and Munetaka Murakami, this season’s homerun king, in Yakult.

“He has also revived veteran Hiroyuki Nakajima at the Giants. He gives not only technical but also mental advice and treats each player carefully and gently. He always stands in the shoes of the players and gives his opinion to the manager if he is not satisfied with something.

He is highly trusted by the players. He was a good conduit between the management and the players. Even though his two-year contract will end this season, it would be natural to ask a coach of Mr. Ishii’s caliber to stay on next season. However, it is said that Mr. Ishii has asked to leave the team.

Some say that one of the reasons for his departure may have been due to the inexplicable personnel changes.

Some say that one of the reasons he left the team was due to a mysterious personnel change. “At first, Ishii-san was in charge of all hitting, defense, and base running as the first-team fielding coach. He was in close proximity to Manager Hara and was also in charge of signaling. On October 5, he was suddenly reassigned to the third team, and Hara, who considers the first through third teams to be “one team,” probably wanted to stimulate him by changing the leadership.

However, from a general standpoint, a transfer to the third team is a demotion. There was a lot of speculation. There are rumors that he may have clashed with Mr. Ishii, who also expresses his opinions to his superiors, or that he may have been held responsible for the poor performance of Maru and Sho Nakata.

After Ishii moved to the third team, the Giants lost 10 games in a row. After Mr. Ishii moved to the third team, the Giants lost 10 games in a row and were completely out of the championship game.

“I’m sure Mr. Ishii had his own thoughts. I’m sure Mr. Ishii must have had his own feelings, but even if he was dissatisfied, he never said so. He denied to those around him that he was in conflict with manager Hara or that he was responsible for the poor batting line. He said, “That’s not true at all. As for the reason for his departure, he said, “I wanted to finish my two-year contract,” and thanked the team.

Mr. Ishii was transferred to the 3rd team, and Shinnosuke Abe was moved from the 2nd team to the 1st team instead. I’m sure you’ll be able to understand why.

“This appointment exposed the ‘peculiarity’ of the Giants. There is a tendency to give preferential treatment to those who joined the Giants as rookies, such as Abe, Niioka, Kazuchika Miyamoto and Masumi Kuwata. Manager Hara, who was called the “Young General” when he was active and served as the No. 4 player for many years, took pride in leading the Giants as a leader without moving to another team after his retirement. Now that he has been given full authority, I can understand why he would be tempted to use a ‘natural’ player.

On the other hand, I feel that his attitude toward Mr. Ishii and other “outsiders” is somewhat cold. Along with Mr. Ishii, Haruhiro Kataoka, the third-team fielding coach from Seibu, has also decided to leave the team.

It is said that Mr. Ishii is likely to return to his old team DeNA as a coach next season. If he does, it will be his first return to DeNA since 2008, when he was an active player. He is also said to be positive about becoming a coach in order to revive the BayStars, who are in the bottom of the standings this season. Now that he knows what the Giants are capable of, I wonder how he will attack the Giants next season.