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The story
In 2026, the year the Chunichi Dragons mark the 90th anniversary of the club’s founding, they look all but certain to finish dead last in the Central League. By contrast, the Yomiuri Giants won the league in 2024, their own 90th-anniversary year, and the Hanshin Tigers did the same in 2025, their 90th-anniversary year — the stark contrast became a hot topic on 5ch’s general sports board. Threads split between defiant defenses like “the money’s the same whether you finish 5th or last” and “finishing last helps in the draft,” and criticism aimed at the team’s frequent come-from-ahead losses, bullpen management, and debate over whether a managerial change is warranted.
What people said
Chunichi Dragons
So the Giants and Tigers win it all, and Chunidora (fans' nickname for the Dragons) livens things up by finishing last?
Hiroshima and Yakult are on a whole different level of terrible, so they'll just lose their way down on their own.
Chunichi won't have to do a thing and will end up climbing to 4th by the end.
Is it really much of a "sideline view" though?
This isn't a team that can actually make use of that advantage though
They get the draft advantage and still finish last three years running — is that some kind of joke?
Calling it an advantage when their 2nd-round pick is effectively a 3rd-round pick
Reason unknown
It's the underdog effect
2025, 90th anniversary: Tigers win the Central League
2026, 90th anniversary: Chunidora wins the "Be-League" (a pun on "biri," meaning last place) ←New!
What's the "Be-League"?
By the way, DeNA's made the A-class (top-half finish) five years running
Winning like a normal team would be boring, you know
This isn't a club that does something so dull
Sandora was saying the same thing —
home runs up from 80 to 120,
runs scored up from 400 to 480,
so the "wing effect" (likely from a stadium renovation) is steadily paying off
Shimizu → broken down
Hashimoto → broken down
Yoshida → worn out, on the verge of breaking down
Matsuyama → looking a little shaky
Next year's pitching coach has their work cut out for them
They'll boo Ogasawara but chicken out on Inoue — that's seriously lame
No consistency at all
Apparently they're around .500 at home, so fans there are satisfied enough with that
But their road win rate is only about .300, so you can count on jeers and curses flying since they lose almost every time
What matters isn't the managerial hire — it's new imports, free-agent signings, the draft, and developing young players
They don't get it at all
Their memory genuinely doesn't last — by the time the draft's over they're already seriously dreaming about winning it all next year
They don't get it — that's why you've got idiots out there looking only at team WAR and bashing Inoue's in-game management
Yakult ("Gokiruto," a mocking cockroach pun on the team's name) though, man
Come on, leave him alone, Fuji~n
It wouldn't change
What matters in baseball isn't the manager, it's the front office
If the front office has no drive, the team stays weak forever
Swap out Inoue and that changes, so they'd win a bit more
Bosler's probably still got time left on his contract, right
Mejía's still pitching in the farm league even at this point in the season, so he'll probably be back next year too
You can tell just by watching footage of Blanco's grand slam
People kept going on about Ochiai's lack of fan service, but honestly I don't really get it
Maybe it's just Nagoya's economy?
They used to be strong with pitching-is-everything baseball
but now the pitching coach might as well be an amateur
Adding those terrace seats made them forget what actually mattered
so why does all the blame get dumped on the position-player-turned-manager
while the pitching coaches, scouts, and front office get a free pass?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Chunichi had already been finishing last in prior years, and this would make it three years running. Under NPB rules the last-place team gets priority in the amateur draft, which is why some in the thread argued that “being weak actually pays off in the draft” — though others pointed out that the team’s recent draft picks haven’t panned out, so whether they’re actually cashing in on that structural advantage is a separate matter. It’s also worth noting that figures tossed around in the thread, like “40 come-from-ahead losses” or a “home win rate of .500 versus a .300 road win rate,” reflect posters’ impressions rather than confirmed official statistics. The debate over whether replacing the manager would change anything also spilled into deeper territory — the front office, scouting, and player development — framing the problem as structural rather than simply a matter of poor in-game management.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G) thread “[LOL] Chunichi Dragons Set to Finish Last in Their 90th Anniversary Year.”
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