Behind the retirement of Sho Nakata of Nakanichi: “The breakdown of trust with manager Kazuki Inoue”… Young players “rebel” against the team’s disloyalty.

‘Can’t we give a distinguished baseball player a proper send-off?

On August 15, Sho Nakata, 36, an outfielder for the Chunichi baseball team, held a press conference at the Bantelindome Nagoya and announced that he would retire at the end of this season.

The announcement of Nakata’s retirement is unusual since the team is in fourth place in the Central League with a chance to advance to the Climax Series after a long absence, but behind the scenes, a “feud” with manager Kazuki Inoue (54) and the team can be seen.

At the press conference, Nakata explained that he decided to retire “about two months ago. Nakata explained that he decided to retire “about two months ago.” “I couldn’t swing to my satisfaction, and my body wasn’t moving the way I wanted it to, so I felt I had to retire, and I made the decision on my own,” he said.

In the off-season of 2011, when he was with the Giants, Shinnosuke Abe, 46, who had just been appointed manager of the Giants’ first team at the time, effectively eliminated Nakata from his regular rotation plans. Having nowhere to go, Nakata exercised his opt-out, which allowed him to break his contract, and decided to move to Chunichi, which was suffering from a lack of long-ball hitting ability. He signed a two-year contract through this season with an estimated annual salary of 300 million yen.

Due to repeated injuries, he played only 62 games in his first season with the first team, and he spent much of his time on the farm. The manager who took charge of the team was Inoue, who was the manager of the second team at the time. ……

Inoue-san’s most important task was to inspire the players as a motivator, and his coaching policy was not to question results too strictly. Nakata, who knew the rigors of the professional game, was not comfortable with that. Nakata was a three-time batting champion, and as a player, he was completely “superior” to Inoue. It must have been difficult for both of them to work together.

Nakata started the season at the first base camp and started the first game of the season, but he missed the second game and played only as a substitute in the third game, and on May 13 he was struck from the roster due to back pain and poor performance. After that, he spent time at second base, and was called up again on August 7, …….

Even after returning to the first team, he was given a substitute position rather than a starting position. And after only three at-bats, I was given up on. This completely destroyed the relationship of trust, and he decided to retire.

The team tried to console him during the pennant race for the CS, but he would not budge.

Nakata’s juniors, including Yudai Ohno (36), who was one year Nakata’s senior, came to the press conference as a surprise and presented him with a bouquet of flowers.

Nakata’s violent outbursts at Nichi-Ham have always stood out, but basically he is a big brother who loves his juniors. Some of the Chunichi players, especially the fielders, are angry, saying, ‘What is a baseball team doing if it can’t send out one of the world’s greats in a proper manner? Many are distrustful of manager Inoue and the team’s front office.

The sudden retirement of a rare slugger in the middle of summer is likely to have repercussions in various fields in the future.