Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai & Mitsunari Takahashi’s “W Ace Outflow” infuriates team sponsors… “It will be difficult for us to cooperate with them.

On the second yellow card.

The “double ace drain” crisis of Seibu, which finished fifth in the league this season, is casting a dark shadow over the team. After the season ended, the team approved the posting of pitchers Tatsuya Imai (27) and Mitsunari Takahashi (28) to challenge for Major League Baseball in the U.S. “Both Imai and Takahashi have been given yellow cards,” said Seibu manager Koichiro Oguchi.

Both Imai and Takahashi made 24 starts this season, winning 10 and 8 games, respectively. If both Imai and Takahashi were to leave, their 18 wins in a season would be wiped out. This must be the biggest headache for manager Fumiya Nishiguchi (53), who is in charge of the field.

A Seibu staff member lamented, “Why would the front office approve posting all at once when they are already short of talent? The team’s decision to respect the two players’ desire to try out for the majors is admirable, but it is a pity for the field.

The team’s situation is so critical that the team’s rivals feel sorry for it, and the team’s sponsors, who spend huge sums of money on the team every year, are feeling a great sense of crisis.

Seibu Holdings, the parent company of the baseball team, is selling off unprofitable businesses and restructuring its organization, so the team is even more indebted to its sponsors than before.

In the midst of this situation, a major sponsor is furious at the recent string of approvals for posting. Although unofficially, they have told the team, ‘If the situation in which key players always leave the team is not improved, it will become more difficult for us to cooperate with them in the future.

Looking back, we can see that the stars who play the central axis have been allowed to leave one after another, such as Takayuki Kishi (40) in 2004, Eito Asamura (35) in 2006, Shogo Akiyama (37) in 2007, and Tomoya Mori (30) in 2010. Seibu has allowed its star players to leave one after another.

It may be a bit rough to discuss FA and posting in the same context, but from the sponsor’s point of view, the fact remains that the team has lost its star players.

This sponsor is widely known for his strong opinion that when one of the main players had a scandal over a male-female relationship in the past, “Why didn’t they even strongly retain the other main players, but this time they want to keep him?” He is widely known for his strong opinion. Since the company has a large number of female customers, it is only natural that they do not like trouble with women. At the time of the incident, the company had given Seibu a “yellow card,” saying, “If the baseball team does not take appropriate action, we will no longer cooperate with them. I hope this time it won’t be a cumulative two red cards. ……

The team is in the doldrums, and if even the major sponsors are not happy with the team, the damage to the team’s management is immeasurable. We absolutely cannot afford to offend them.

However, there is a rapidly growing view within the baseball team that if the team falters next year, not only will Koji Hiroike, 52, the team’s general manager, be fired, but also owner Takashi Goto, 76, who hails from Mizuho Bank and is reluctant to reinforce players, will be held accountable. Attendance at this season’s games was 1,732,073, ranking fifth in the league. If the next season goes on like this, the team faces a difficult situation that could see it fall to the bottom of the standings in terms of box office.