<figure id="attachment_469105" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-469105" style="width: 2806px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2666a388"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/05/6ddbca63571e302e95ff3c59618c96c0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-469105" class="wp-caption-text">Manager Inoue often has a particularly stern look on his face this season</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Do you think baseball is stupid?</h2>
 Although the pundits&#8217; predictions were good before the season opener, Chunichi has been sinking to the bottom of the standings due to a string of injuries and a lackluster performance by the manager. Manager Kazuki Inoue (54), whose departure after the season is already being discussed, is said to have another problem.
 Inoue was called upon by former Hanshin manager Akihiro Yano (57) to take over as first-team coach of the Hanshin team, but left the team at the end of the 2022 season. For the next year, he continued to watch the games from behind the net.
 In the off-season of the same year, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, whom he admired as &#8220;Big brother! In 2024, he spent a year at the Nagoya Baseball Stadium, helping to nurture young players. At that time, Koutarou Ueda (23), the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, was pitching for the team.
 After failing to produce any results, he left the team at the end of that year and returned to his hometown of Toyama. At his first trial on May 11, he confessed to the charges and said that he sold the bag to a recycle store for 80,000 yen because he was in need of money.
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 Ueda is a graduate of Kyoei High School, a strong baseball school. He went from a developmental player to a managerial staff member, and in 2022, he started all eight games he pitched for the first team. However, while he was trying to develop his baseball talent, his personal life was in shambles.
 He drank heavily and prioritized drinking parties over games and practice. As soon as he got a paycheck, he would go on a spending spree. I didn&#8217;t sense any sense of planning at all. Manager Inoue, who was also in charge of guiding the younger players, often told Ueda in a stern tone, &#8220;You&#8217;d better grow up,&#8221; but this is exactly what he meant when he said, &#8220;A horse&#8217;s ear is a mirror of the truth. He left the team without changing his mind.
 A former colleague of mine recalls Ueda&#8217;s blunder as follows: &#8220;That was the end of the 2022 season.
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 Kosuke Fukudome (49) played his retirement game at the Bantelin Dome at the end of the 2022 season, and Ueda was asked to start that game. Manager Tatsunami wanted to send him off with high hopes that he would do well next season, but the night before he was to start, he went to a club in the Nishiki entertainment district, where he was drinking tequila and trying to pick up beautiful women.
 He returned home to his dormitory adjacent to the Nagoya Baseball Stadium after the sky had brightened, but he was late for first-team practice, and his commanding officer said to him, &#8220;Are you a baseball snob on the day of an important game? He was given a hard time for this. As you can imagine, he was scared to death. &#8230;&#8230;
 On May 18, the Toyama District Court sentenced Ueda to one year of confinement with a three-year suspended sentence.
 Mr. Inoue, who has a strong sense of responsibility, seemed to sincerely regret the sentence, saying, &#8216;My coaching was lax. Even just the team has a lot of troubles, so I&#8217;m worried about the future of the team. &#8230;&#8230;
 We hope that the Chunichi players will work hard to bring a smile back to manager Inoue&#8217;s face.

 Kyodo News

 Despite the high expectations of the pundits, Chunichi has fallen to the bottom of the standings due to a string of injuries and a lack of leadership. Manager Kazuki Inoue (54), whose departure at the end of the season is already attracting attention, is said to have another source of concern.

The “arrest scandal” and “past failures” of a student of Chunichi’s manager Kazuki Inoue are troubling him.

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