The light and shadow of Shinjo, the battle for the post-Hara era… “Behind the scenes” of professional baseball that reporters can’t write about

Not a day goes by that I don’t see Takashi Shinjo, 49, manager of Nippon Ham, aka Big Boss, on TV. The economic impact is said to be in the tens of billions of yen, but the desk of an evening newspaper pointed out, “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

The evening newspaper desk pointed out that “the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. For example, the violent incident involving Sho Nakata (32). Nakata loved the “victim” player so much that he took him to his parents’ house in Hiroshima and let him meet his parents. It was a common sight to see them poking each other in a joking manner. The reason why this became a problem this time is because it was witnessed by a team executive.

Why the team executives were behind the bench just before the game – no details were given, and Nakata was released. And in the off-season, Haruki Nishikawa (29) and Yasuji Ohta (31) were released in an unnatural way. They said, “We were surprised that they were given free agency without any preliminary negotiations, but it’s not the first time that Nippon Ham has been dry. ……

Both of them are from Nakata’s group. They and other public relations people who were trusted by the players were also transferred in an irregular way. The purge is going on behind the scenes where Shinjo is getting a boost.

It is the GM, Atsunori Inaba (49), who is in charge of organizing the team, but a reporter for a sports newspaper covering Nippon Ham said, “He is just a decoration, and it is the former GM, Hiroshi Yoshimura (57), who is in charge of the team. He’s just a decoration.

It seems that Mr. Inaba’s role is to take the brunt of the situation. When he fired Nishikawa, Ota and others, he used an unfamiliar term, ‘non-tender. When asked by a reporter for an explanation, he said, “It is a result of my belief that it is important for players to be able to choose where to move, including overseas, without restrictions.

However, when the reporter asked him why he decided to make it a non-tender, he answered honestly, ‘I can’t explain in detail’ (laughs). (Laughs.) Mr. Yoshimura told me, ‘Firing him would be bad for your image, so call him a non-tender and smoke him out,’ so I did, but I guess Mr. Inaba himself didn’t really understand.

It seems that he was trying to win the championship with the new team when the new stadium was moved. However, it seems to have been too dry, and the fans may have felt left out.

On the other hand, Tatsunori Hara, the manager of the Giants (63), who was planning to hand over the reins to his successor after his three-year contract expired, has been retained by the Giants.

But the evaluation of Shinnosuke Abe, 42, who was considered to be his successor, has fallen sharply. There are questions about his spartan nature, which makes players run for punishment. The battle for the post was a three-way race with Daisuke Motoki (50), head coach, and Masumi Kuwata (53), pitching coach, who was promoted to chief. Mr. Hara has a three-year contract, but if he can find a successor, he plans to step down and become GM without waiting three years.

It was thought that Yoshinobu Takahashi (46), a former player, could be brought back to the team, but “Yoshinobu has been pushing to be the manager of Samurai Japan,” according to a Giants official.

The reason why the Stove League has been quieter than usual is because Ryutaro Umeno of Hanshin (30) stayed behind without declaring FA.

He was selected for the Samurai Japan team, but Yoshihiro Yano, 53, left him out of the starting lineup in the last half of the game. When asked about Umeno, he would always give orders such as, “I want you to become a catcher who can convince the people around you even when you lose. In contrast, he dotes on reserve catcher Seishiro Sakamoto (28), saying, ‘He has a wide field of vision and the quality of his preparation is high. This is not the first time this has happened, and Umeno, who was fed up with the cold war with Manager Yano, was planning to declare his intentions.

However, DeNA was the only one who made a move behind the scenes, and their conditions were worse than Hanshin. If that was the case, Umeno thought, he should just wait for Manager Yano to leave. If he could hold out for one year, the Yano system would collapse and the Cold War would end. I think he thought that if he held out for one year, the Yano system would collapse and the Cold War would end.

Yakult’s miracle of coming from the bottom of the standings to become the top team in Japan. It is not widely known that the Covid-19 disaster was behind the great leap forward.

In the off-season of 2008, Yakult signed Tetsuto Yamada (29) to a seven-year, approximately 4 billion yen contract, and spent a large sum of money to retain Yasuhiro Ogawa (31) and other FA players. The team, which had a stingy image, rarely participated in FA and picked up cheap foreign players and players who were out of contention for other teams. The reason why they can now play big is because their parent company is doing well. The reason why the team has been able to make such a generous offer is because its parent company is doing well. Perhaps it is because of the influence of Covid-19, but sales of dairy products, which are expected to boost immunity, have been strong, and the company’s earnings are expected to reach a record high.

In the midst of their efforts to become a winning team, they are reportedly experiencing some skirmishes with the watchdog reporters.

As the team strives to become an all-time winner, there have been some skirmishes with reporters. For example, the ace on the left, Keiji Takahashi (24). His wife is Tomomi Itano, 30, a former member of AKB48, and the media has been ordered not to mention her. In fact, when she came to the stadium to cheer on her husband at a game and he was being interviewed as a hero, the TV camera pulled out her waving to him and the station was given a stern warning. Itano herself posted on social media, ‘I watched the game with Tetsuro Degawa,’ but what’s the point?” (Takahashi)

Depression on the Hawks bench

In the Pacific Coast League’s ever-victorious SoftBank, “the tense mood on the bench seems to have affected the manager’s appointment,” said a sports newspaper desk.

I’m afraid of former head coach Hiroki Kokubo, 50, who joined the club as a candidate for the top job. Especially veterans such as Nobuhiro Matsuda (38), who played with him when he was an active player, were conscious of him. The good thing about the Hawks is their cheerfulness. One of their strengths was that the benches didn’t turn into a wake even when they were losing.

However, the bench, with Kokubo at the helm, turned into a wake. The Hawks’ energetic player was Keizo Kawashima (38). Even when the opponent was Seiichi Uchikawa (39), Kawashima was able to soothe the benches by boldly teasing him. This off-season, such a mood maker has been removed from the team. Fans wondered, “What? But it seems that Kawashima was involved in the “Kokubo Resistance. The details are unclear, but it is rumored that he gathered sympathizers and spread bad publicity in order to lose his position. …… Gradually, the people around him started to lose interest, and the baseball team found out about it and cut him.

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A Carp alumnus commented on Seiya Suzuki (27), the main gun of the Samurai Japan team, who is aiming for the majors through the posting system.

In the past, Hiroshima had an annual salary of 200 million yen, and once a player reached that level, he had to leave the team through FA or other means. Seiya’s annual salary is estimated to be over 300 million yen. I was impressed by the fact that the Carp had completely changed their mindset and their pockets, and that they would keep Seiya even if he was loaded with money.

However, this off-season, Suzuki’s challenge to the major leagues was decided without a hitch.

I’m sure you’ll be able to understand why. I’m sure they were anticipating the transfer fee for posting Seiya. They were both paid barely less than 200 million yen a year (laughs).” (Evening newspaper desk)

The Chiba Lotte team is probably the most stingy. It’s no secret that they were protested by the Professional Baseball Players Association for setting a “flat 25% down” as the starting line for contract renewal. The team denied it, but Takahashi explained, “There are people who say they did it last off-season, too.

The team and its parent company are both suffering from the Covid-19 disaster, and the players were satisfied with their performance last off-season, but when they were asked to start down for the second year in a row, they couldn’t keep quiet, and the younger players appealed to the players’ association and it became public. There may be some amateur players who say, ‘I don’t want to go to Lotte.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a thing. I’m not sure what to make of it.

He is the trump card for Seibu. I’m sure they want to make it a winning team before entrusting it to me. The first step in strengthening the team is to invite Yosuke Hiraishi, 41, a former SoftBank hitting coach with a reputation for leadership. SoftBank tried to keep him, offering favorable terms, but he could not refuse the offer from his senior in the PL, Akio.

In the draft, he boldly selected Chihiro Sumida (22), the number one left-handed pitcher in college, and won after competing with four other teams. His fastball of up to 150 km/h and a variety of breaking pitches can be used immediately in the first team. The team is being reformed at a rapid pace, including a complete revamp of the assistant staff.

If you keep in mind the thoughts of each team and follow their moves during the stove league, you will enjoy the upcoming 2010 season tenfold.

From the January 21, 2022 issue of FRIDAY