It’s not just “dissatisfaction with the system”…Reiwa’s rice riot and other incidents… Why there has been a string of “information leaks” from the Tatsunami Dragons?

There has been no shortage of topics in professional baseball in the off-season, such as the “power harassment” scandal involving Rakuten’s Tomohiro Anraku. This year’s off-season has been relatively quiet, but the Chunichi Dragons, led by manager Kazuyoshi Tachinami, have garnered a great deal of attention outside of their play during the season.

In August, manager Tatsunami ordered the removal of rice cookers from the cafeteria because he believed that the players were slowing down due to eating too much white rice. In the same month of August, Ren Kondo also made headlines for his “exposed throwing,” in which he gave up 10 runs but was not ordered to be replaced. Trevor Bauer of Yokohama also commented on his YouTube channel, “I really felt sorry for him.

When the rice riot incident was first reported, some people on the Internet said, “This is indeed a false story. However, it was later revealed to be largely true, as evidenced by a photo report and a radio interview with Ami Inamura, a TV personality, who said that she had directly contacted Director Tatsunami and received a response such as, “It’s true.

The “rice riot” was not the only leak of the team’s internal affairs. There was also a story that the players got excited in the locker room listening to a song from the anime “Touch” that made fun of manager Tatsunami, and that the manager was upset that Shingo Usami’s wife, who was transferred from NIHAM, was a member of Momoiro Clover Z. “I don’t want that guy! He was also reported to have said, “I don’t want that kind of person! Of course, we do not know if all of this is true or not, but it is unusual for such a “shameful part” of the team to be reported to this extent.

One of the reasons for this “leakage of information” is no doubt that the team is filled with dissatisfaction with the current system. The team has finished last in the league for two consecutive years, and the second team has also finished last due to the collapse of the pitching staff. Complaints about the team’s leadership are also swirling, such as the forced trades that have continued since last offseason, the “over-hunting of the second baseman” in the draft, and the inexplicable “bunt game” in the draft.

However, the reason for the many leaks of information is not only “dissatisfaction with the system and leadership.

Director Tatsunami himself is quite talkative, and I think that is one of the reasons. Tatsunami comments to the media on a wide range of topics, from his coaching intentions to his draft strategy. Of course, he pays lip service to the media, but he even talks about things that would be detrimental if other teams knew about them, such as how he plans to draft this year’s team.

Hanshin manager Akifu Okada, for example, is very clever in this regard, and he “chats” with his teammates in a calculated manner. Before the draft, he would say, “The catcher is a high school student. We have to bring up a catcher.” Before the draft, he hinted that he would pick a high school graduate catcher, but when he opened the draft, he did not pick a single catcher, including a developmental catcher. Tachinami himself has been blabbing on and on about various things, and I think that in addition to his dissatisfaction with the current system, there is an atmosphere of ‘it’s OK to talk a little bit’ among all the team members.

In the end, it is a “coach problem. Next year will be the third year that Mr. Dragons has been at the top of the administration. I hope that he will be able to show the same strength in taking chances that he showed during his playing days, and that fans expected him to “handle it if it’s Tatsunami.