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The story
It has come to light that Hiroshima Toyo Carp manager Takahiro Arai conveyed his intention to resign to the club three separate times over the course of this season. The club reportedly rejected each request and plans to keep him on for a fourth year at the helm next season. The decision comes at the end of a year dominated by fallout from player misconduct, including the so-called ‘zombie cigarette’ scandal. With the team mired in last place yet its manager apparently unable to quit, 5ch commenters piled on with theories about the club’s culture and past precedents, from ‘maybe there’s just nobody willing to take over’ to ‘they did the same thing to former manager Nomura — he wanted out too and got stuck there for five years.’
[Hiroshima] Manager Takahiro Arai to Return — Offered to Resign Three Times During the Season Amid Turbulent ‘Zombie Cigarette’ Scandal; Aims for Fundamental Rebuild with Strong Leadership in Year Five
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Nobody wants the job anyway.
I could get it in year one or two, but this is year four — that's genuinely abnormal.
It's like refusing to let (Chunichi Dragons manager) Tatsunami go.
'Nomuken' tried to quit in year one too, but got told 'are you running away?' and ended up stuck there for five years.
This isn't some new phenomenon. (Nomuken = nickname for former Carp manager Kenjiro Nomura)
Being stuck in old-school regional cronyism and throwing the whole Central League out of step isn't a joke — it's doing serious damage to the sport as a whole.
Use this chance to just disappear.
If anything, isn't baseball going the other way right now — the old model of big-name-corporation-owned national teams is what's outdated, and everyone's saying the future is local roots?
Turns out he was talking about himself.
If this were a manga, that twist would get rave reviews.
Who'd want to manage a weak, badly-behaved trash team anyway.
Not even (former Carp manager) Tatsukawa would touch it.
Of course he has to stay.
Quit whining.
The zombie cigarette thing, there's not much he could've done about.
But the cigarette-burn hazing — that had a code name, 'goma-gyo' (a Buddhist fire ritual) — so yeah, he's very much on the hook for that one.
Is this payback for Arai leaving via free agency back in the day?
Oooon and oooon and oooon
Think of yourself as the cleanup crew and grit your teeth.
That's just cruel.
Guess all he can do now is stage a boycott or throw a free-agency punch 👊
It was only ever used as a code name for the hazing, so no foul there.
Leave the LINE group, power off my phone, and go on a trip.
For a regular person, sure, but someone as famous as Arai pulling that would turn into a missing-person news story.
That's basically Kadokura 😅 (former pitcher Ken Kadokura, known for once going missing)
So this is how scary drugs are… (joking that the club is as addictive/inescapable as a drug)
Ogata's said he wants to do it.
And since Nomuken just left his TV show yesterday, people were saying that might open the door for him too.
Humans have this bad habit — once they hit despair over the worst-case scenario, they convince themselves it surely can't get any worse.
But this isn't the end.
Waiting just ahead: free agency season for what little decent core talent the team has left.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This is Arai’s fourth season at the helm. With the team mired in last place, he’s reportedly been consumed by dealing with player misconduct — including the ‘zombie cigarette’ incident mentioned in the headline, as well as the ‘cigarette-burn hazing’ referenced in the thread (said to have been referred to internally by the code name ‘goma-gyo,’ a Buddhist fire ritual). Commenters noted that it isn’t unusual in Japanese pro baseball for a club to talk a manager out of resigning even after he’s expressed intent to quit, citing the case of Kenjiro Nomura, who tried to resign in his first year as manager but was persuaded to stay and ended up serving five years. At the same time, some suspected the real reason for keeping Arai on is simply that nobody else wants the job, and opinion was split over who truly bears responsibility for the players’ misconduct. Note that the detailed circumstances behind the ‘zombie cigarette’ and ‘cigarette-burn hazing’ incidents haven’t been explained beyond the original article, and the club had issued no official statement as of this thread.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] Takahiro Arai Tells Club ‘Let Me Quit’ Three Times, Gets Rejected, Stays On Next Season wwwwwwwww“
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