Manager Shinnosuke Abe’s Astute Strategy in Media Interaction and Handling of Former Players Key to Giants’ Success

The Giants, who have undergone a complete change in atmosphere with the appointment of new manager Shinnosuke Abe (45) and have performed well in their opening games, have a number of events lined up, including a friendly in Taiwan on March 2-3 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the team and the opening of the Taipei Dome.

Abe has been learning the lessons of the emperor as manager of the second team and head coach of the first team since the reign of Tatsunori Hara, 65, who led the team for five years starting in 2007. However, in the camp, he showed his “out of the Hara administration” attitude in many places.

I think he has done a passable job in starting a new regime. During Hara’s tenure as manager, the communication between the second and third teams was poor, and there was little communication between them. For this reason, this camp, on a day off for the first team, a red-and-white game between the second and third teams was held.

The team announced in advance that Manager Abe would be observing the game, and allowed the media to photograph him, Masumi Kuwata (55), the second team manager, and Norihiro Komada (61), the third team manager, communicating together on the field. We succeeded in appealing that communication was smooth,” said an alumnus of the baseball team.

As a representative of the Giants, Abe also makes an effort to communicate with the media.

When I was working for the Giants, I had a strong image of being unfriendly, swearing at the reporters in charge, but that has changed since I became manager. But that has changed now that he has become a director. He has been communicating with reporters from newspapers and TV stations, for example, by having dinners with them.

He is also actively meeting with the executives of TV stations, which he neglected during the previous administration, despite the fact that there is a TV station in the group company. It seems that he is faithfully following the instructions of the baseball team executives to communicate with them.

(Sports newspaper desk) “Manager Abe, who has been the face of the Giants from a young age, seems to be painfully aware of the ties of a traditional baseball team.

He is desperate to take care of the alumni who were not able to join the Cabinet this year. He is an “attendant,” chatting with them and guiding them to the salon. It’s hard to imagine him as the “ora ora” character he was when he was a member of the team.

Abe has succeeded in reforming the team by bringing up the younger members. Will he be able to regain the championship with his communication skills, which the previous administration lacked? Let’s see how he does.