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The story
A weekly magazine survey asking “who fans want as the Yomiuri Giants’ next manager” was reposted on 5ch’s Entertainment & Sports News+ board, sparking a flood of comments. Taking the top spot was “Godzilla” Hideki Matsui, a longtime favorite of former manager Shigeo Nagashima, edging out calls for the return of Tatsunori Hara or Shinnosuke Abe and hopes pinned on rising name Masumi Kuwata—though none of them managed to overtake Matsui for first place. Commenters were divided on several fronts: surprise that a baseball ranking came from such an unlikely source, how much longer the Giants can keep up their long-standing tradition of promoting only “homegrown” players to manager, and what should happen to interim manager Hashigami, who has been filling in since former manager Abe stepped down.
“Ranking: Who Fans Want as Next Season’s Giants Manager” — Beating out comebacks for Hara and Abe and hopes for rising star Kuwata, the No. 1 pick is “the one who carries on Shigeo Nagashima’s will”
Mon, 9/22, 11:00 AM
Taking the top spot is none other than “Godzilla” Hideki Matsui
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
They run a lot of baseball articles actually.
Kind of like girls' schools going co-ed—women's magazines probably need to start pulling in old guy readers too.
Egawa, it's too late for him now.
No on-field coaching experience either.
Same story as Kakefu—he came back to the field too late and never got a manager job.
Maybe people figure he seems mentally fragile, so managing isn't in the cards for him.
Out of the second Nagashima-era's big-three starting rotation, Makihara's name isn't coming up either.
Just let the guy have a shot already.
Well, it was more like "he wouldn't mind doing it"—
that kind of attitude doesn't leave a great impression.
If the next manager gets the same roster and finishes in the second division,
that just exposes how incompetent they are—
what an embarrassment that'd be.
Hashigami turning it down himself—
that scenario's already on the table too.
Matsui's popularity makes him a good fit on paper, but personality-wise, no way he could pull that off.
He's too much of a nice guy—probably can't hack it as manager.
they should've promoted an actual homegrown guy to interim manager the moment Abe quit, instead of Hashigami.
At this point you could say that principle has effectively already collapsed.
And it's become obvious that sticking to the homegrown-only policy is exactly what's made the team weaker,
so there's no point clinging to it anymore.
Sticking to that stuff no matter what is very Yomiuri.
Over at us Hanshin Tigers, Nomura and Hoshino both managed the team. Kanemoto and Yano, who weren't homegrown as active players, became managers too.
– Ace pitcher is cleanup hitter
Whether they can break free of those two unwritten rules is the real question.
Though if you start by ruling out anyone with MLB experience, that knocks out Matsui and Kuwata right away.
– Ace pitcher OR cleanup hitter
Japanese sports still operate on the assumption that your playing-days achievements matter most.
Kyuji Fujikawa, manager.
No way he's coming back to the "Kyo-chin" circus (a mocking nickname for the Giants) lol
Nakahata doted on him too, you know.
He'd go over to Nakahata's place and get fed dinner and everything.
I'm jealous you guys actually have options to choose from.
Over here it's just Arai again.
That's because Arai's the only one willing to take the fall for the team (the post plays on his name with a kanji meaning "bitter," implying he's the one stuck suffering).
If the front office had its act together there'd be plenty of alumni to choose from.
Can't imagine anyone but Arai would even agree to take the job.
He's offered to resign multiple times and the front office talked him out of it every time—
they should be paying the guy something like 300 million yen a year.
Could be interesting if he brought in coaches from the Yankees.
Staffing it wouldn't be a problem at all—
if Yomiuri goes all in, they could put together a dazzling coaching staff stacked with big Heisei-era names.
The real issue is I doubt the man himself even wants the job.
Once Ohtani retires nobody's going to watch MLB anymore.
Matsui or Ichiro becomes a manager, Ohtani comes back and manages too—that'll truly be the last hurrah, and then baseball is completely finished.
NHK-BS's MLB broadcasts are likely ending in 2028,
so a lot of people will probably stop watching once that happens.
Ah right, so "Wan-chan" (a play on "loser dog" from the post above—"wan" is a dog's bark) might be making a comeback after all.
Though I'll deliberately ignore the "Sada-bo" jab.
More like "Oh-chan" (Sadaharu Oh) making a comeback.
Is that really okay? What happened to the tradition lol
If you're going to say that, then Sakamoto's the only one left, isn't he.
Matsui's someone both Watanabe ("Nabetsune") and Nagashima always welcomed.
If Matsui had given the okay, Yoshinobu Takahashi probably could've kept playing a bit longer.
Even among today's alumni association or front office, I doubt anyone would object to him.
There were scenes where he had to ask Imae or Akaboshi, who were sitting with him, or got corrected by them.
As for Kuwata, that tell-all book from his younger days left such a strong impression that I've disliked him ever since.
You can tell from watching related YouTube clips—
Egawa's memory is pretty hazy too.
Background and Key Points of Debate
Since former manager Shinnosuke Abe stepped down, the Giants have continued under interim manager Hashigami, a coach filling in for now, making the official managerial appointment for next season a major point of interest for alumni and fans alike. The Giants have traditionally installed homegrown players as manager, but both Hideki Matsui and Masumi Kuwata have MLB playing experience, and the thread was split over how to even define “homegrown” in that context. Some pointed to the Hanshin Tigers, who have brought in outside managers like Katsuya Nomura and Senichi Hoshino in the past, drawing a contrast that highlighted just how distinctive the Giants’ approach really is. It’s also worth noting the original article came from a survey by the women’s magazine Weekly Josei, and commenters found it notable that such an outlet would run a baseball ranking at all—arguably itself a sign of just how broad baseball’s appeal really is.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment & Sports News+) thread “[Pro Baseball] “Ranking: Who Fans Want as Next Season’s Giants Manager” — Beating out comebacks for Hara and Abe and hopes for rising star Kuwata, the No. 1 pick is “the one who carries on Shigeo Nagashima’s will”.”
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