Chunichi Tatsunami, the “Athletic of the Showa Era” and “Big Brother” vs.

This season’s professional baseball season ended with a ″battle of the brains″ of the great managers. Orix manager Satoshi Nakajima (54), who won his third consecutive Pacific League championship with the Nakajimagic, and Hanshin manager Akifumi Okada (65), who became the first manager in 38 years to achieve the “thing”, played a back-and-forth game that went all the way to Game 7 of the Japan Series.

Behind the scenes… In fact, both the Central and Pacific League teams had lost managers who had experienced the humiliation of finishing last for two consecutive years this season. They are Kazuyoshi Tachinami, 54, manager of Chunichi, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo, 51, manager of Nippon Ham.

Both managers have been in charge of their teams since 1922, and this season they both finished last for the second year in a row with 82 losses and evenly matched losses. Although they have a lot in common in terms of numbers, their personalities are polar opposites. Tatsunami is the “Showa-era gymnast” type who is strict about discipline and hierarchical relationships. Shinjo is the “big brother” type who is close to the players.

Both are aiming for a comeback next season with different approaches, but which one has the potential to be a great general at this point in time? First, let’s compare their coaching methods.

I absolutely obey the coach’s instruction. That’s the Tatsunami Dragons,” said A, a current Chunichi player, with a wry smile.

One day during the first half of the season, the manager was giving one-on-one instruction to a player he had his eye on to correct his swing. However, it seemed that the swing that the coach had taught him to swing down from above did not fit, and after a while, the player reverted back to his original shape. When the manager noticed this, he was furious and ordered him to be demoted to the second team. Nowadays, it is commonplace to give coaching that fits each individual’s personality, so the players are confused.

Many of them are looking at the coach’s face and thinking, “If I disobey the coach, I’ll be demoted to the second team immediately.
Of course, there are those who open their eyes to the coach’s teachings. Yuki Okabayashi, 21, was selected for the Samurai Japan team, and his 163 hits this season rank third in the league. He was a great success, and was nominated to replace Yohei Oshima (38), a veteran skillful hitter. There are some stoic players like Okabayashi who are happy to practice in an atmosphere of constant tension.

The top-down style of coaching, reminiscent of the golden era of PL Gakuen, is said to be controversial even among the players.

A Nichi-Ham official described the Tatsunami Dragons’ “sporty nature” as “the exact opposite of ours.

A NIHAM official said, “We rarely receive direct instruction from the coach. The players are desperate because they have to think for themselves and take advantage of the limited opportunities they have. It is not a case of, ‘If you follow the coach, you will be let out,’ and if they want to slack off, they can do so as much as they want. For players who don’t use their brains, it is even crueler than Mr. Tachinami’s.

This season, mainstay players such as Nakamasa Mannami (23), who competed for the home run crown, and Kotaro Kiyomiya (24) have grown as hitters, as they are able to understand the manager’s intentions and use both hard and light hitting. On the other hand, players who cannot follow the coach’s vision or lose the coach’s interest are left behind.

Shinjo, who is often thought to embody a laissez-faire, “inspired baseball,” is particular about how he directs his players.

When he was active in baseball, Shinjo delighted fans by making outlandish plays with no signs, but as a manager, he emphasizes discipline because he was loved by Mr. Nomu. He seems to have instructed his players to obey his signs absolutely. For example, when he gave the sign for a double steal with runners on first and third, the third baseman looked at the situation and said, “I’m going to do it while the runner on third is still in play. The third baseman looked at the situation and decided that he would not make it in time and decided not to rush home, but Shinjo reprimanded him.

He said, “The team is still weak, so you don’t have to be so tactful. He seems to think that the ideal is to first instill sign-play into the players’ bodies and then allow them to make decisions on their own, and he sometimes showed his strict leadership by demoting Yushin Shimizu (27) to the second team the next day after he made a lazy play against Hiroshima on June 8,” said Yutaka Takagi, a baseball commentator.

Is there logic in the discipline?

While Shinjo is straightforward about his ideals, there are many things about Tatsunami’s leadership that are puzzling.

On August 25 against DeNA, Tatsunami sent in Ren Kondo (25), who was pitching for the first time this season, in the 9th inning behind by six runs. However, Kondo gave up 10 runs as the DeNA batsmen pummeled him. During this time, Tatsunami did not announce the pitching change, leaving the pitchers in a complete state of abandonment. Fans called out “Go for it, Kondo!” as he pitched with a pale face, and his opponent, Trevor Bauer (32), followed him up with an unusual situation. Kondo managed to get three outs, but his pitch count had reached 62. He could have been crushed.

The above-mentioned Chunichi player A was also upset about Kondo’s subsequent treatment.

Kondo was dropped to the second team and was forced to run between the poles for two days under the blazing sun at Nagoya Stadium. The team explained that the decision was made after discussions with the coach, but there is no doubt that the discovery of the manager’s “sporadic spirit” was behind the decision. Kondo was informed that he was out of the lineup at the end of the season.

Another Chunichi player, B, agrees.

Another Chunichi player, B, agrees. “The same thing happened with the rice riot in Reiwa, which became a hot topic. The manager removed the rice cooker from the snack corner, saying, ‘If you eat rice before a game, you won’t be able to move. It may have been the norm for the director not to eat carbohydrates before a game during his working days, but it does not match the current era, and if he were to remove it, I would have wanted an explanation.

Above all, it was tough to have people start looking for the culprit, saying, ‘Who leaked the information to the evening papers,’ and to have players from other teams make fun of me, saying, ‘It’s tough that you can’t even eat rice (laughs). Just when he thought things were finally over, Ami Inamura (27), a close friend and TV personality who loves baseball, asked him, “Is it true about the rice riot? Inamura Ami (27), a close friend and celebrity who loves baseball, asked him, “Is it true about the rice fiasco? I don’t want to attract disgraceful attention for anything other than baseball.

Tatsunami seems to be struggling both with his leadership and player management, but the aforementioned Takagi says, “There is room for sympathy.

Chunichi has a strange team structure. It is difficult to win with an unbalanced team with 19 outfielders on the roster while the infield is thin. You need a tough commander to revive the team. His true value will be tested only after he continues to lead the team for another three years or so.

At this point, it is Shinjo who is showing glimpses of a great manager.

In his first year as manager, he declared, “I’m not aiming for a championship,” and “I’ll spend a year trying out. In his first year as manager, he declared, “I am not aiming for a championship,” and “I will try out for a year.” He shuffled positions and decided the batting order by fan vote, which was frowned upon by the players and fans, but this season he has been patiently using the players he expected to. The average age of the team is the youngest among the 12 teams, and the team has a lot of momentum, so Nichi-Ham will become stronger in the future.

In the “Japan Series behind the scenes” matchup between the bottom-ranked teams, Shinjo was favored to lead the Dragons. I would like to see Tatsunami, who leads the Dragons, make an “upset” like his alma mater, PL Gakuen, whose specialty was perseverance in the final stages of a game. ……

From the December 1, 2023 issue of FRIDAY