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The story
On the 29th, Chunichi Dragons manager Kazuki Inoue announced he will step down at the end of this season. With 141 games played, the team sits at 59 wins, 80 losses, and 2 draws — a franchise-worst 21 games under .500 — and is stuck in last place. It amounts to a de facto mid-contract resignation in year two of his three-year deal. Fighting back tears at a media scrum, he said he had “come to the decision to take responsibility, as a matter of accountability.” He’s expected to keep managing through the season finale on October 3. The 5ch thread drew a wide range of reactions, covering potential successors, the team’s organizational culture, and the realities of attendance figures.
9/29 (Tue) 16:05
It was confirmed on the 29th that Chunichi manager Kazuki Inoue will resign at the end of this season. At a media scrum during full-squad practice at Vantelin Dome, he announced his own resignation, saying, “After two more games, I will step down.” “Given that we couldn’t win, I came to the decision to take responsibility — as a matter of accountability — for the fact that our results and standings never improved.” This season the team sits in last place through 141 games, with a record of 59 wins, 80 losses, and 2 draws. A fourth straight loss in the September 26 game against the Yakult Swallows (at Jingu Stadium) pushed the deficit to a season-worst 21 games under .500. Manager Inoue is expected to remain at the helm through the scheduled season finale on October 3, also against Yakult at Jingu.
His second season in charge started rough, with three straight losses to the Hiroshima Carp in the opening series at Mazda Stadium. New import closer Abreu complained of lower back pain and blew a game, kicking off a five-game losing streak right out of the gate. The Dragons were already 10 games under .500 just 18 games into the season, and on May 1 — in the franchise’s 90th-anniversary year — they suffered their 20th loss in just 28 games, the fastest pace to 20 losses in team history. After falling to 13 games under .500, they strung together four straight wins starting April 24 against Yakult (at Vantelin Dome), briefly hinting at a comeback, only to slump again. By the June 13 game against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (at Escon Field), the deficit had ballooned to 20 games under .500. Even so, the team went 12-11 in July — the first winning month of the Inoue era — and in August strung together a season-best five-game win streak. On August 26 they closed to within 1.5 games of third place, but couldn’t close out the crucial games that followed.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Meanwhile Arai (the Hiroshima Carp manager) wants to quit and can't.
Poor Arai, honestly…
These days your final standing only affects your bonus — put up good individual stats and your pay goes way up regardless of team rank. Missing the Climax Series is really the only actual loss.
Getting sympathy for NOT resigning while sitting in last place — that's a new one. Fitting, since it's Arai (a pun: his name sounds like "arai," meaning rough/coarse).
Same story with Nomu-ken (Kenjiro Nomura) and Ogata back in the day. The front office can't even picture a path to a title, so it doesn't matter who's manager — by the end of a manager's tenure, it seems to become about keeping a guy who wants to quit around and subservient, just to put the owner's and GM's power on display.
Just go with Eiji Bando then.
Yeah, you get absolutely trashed the moment you start losing.
Wait, aren't they in last place…? Huh, seems like they climbed up when nobody was looking!?
Funny how Tabuchi's the one who actually nailed it lol
Hari-san won't be around to see how the pennant race turns out.
Funny how Yakult's the only team the pundits all agreed on.
They hit double digits over .500 at one point and had the commentators sweating, but then cratered all the way to the bottom — those pundits are probably relieved now.
Sounds like Grampus (Nagoya's J-League club) crowds are up too — guess Nagoya fans just don't care about winning or losing.
That's the "Tax League" for you — free tickets, lol (a jab at the Central League relying on corporate-expense freebies).
Attendance is really just a function of the economy.
Nagoya acts like a big city but there's not much to actually do there.
LEGOLAND, really? lol
Maybe the dark horse is a foreign manager.
Thought Takeshi Yamasaki would be good — he's a solid commentator too — but then his son screwed up, so…
And thus, Manager "Mocca" is born! (apparent joke nickname for a foreign candidate)
Isn't selling the team the owner's only real path to rebuilding it?
They've got talent though — at least more than Yakult, and probably in better shape than Hiroshima once Hiroshima loses Tokoda and Itakura.
We'll gladly take Tokoda off your hands.
Wonder if there'd even be a buyer lol. The team can't leave Nagoya, and the stadium's got maybe 15 years left before it's hopelessly outdated.
Where were Chunichi's scouts even looking?
Don't expect much from scouts who let hometown boy Ichiro slip away.
Makihara, Kudo, Ichiro, Senga — [all Aichi-born stars Chunichi's scouts missed]
Right before the draft, a Chunichi scout actually introduced Nakano as a top pick(?) on a local Nagoya TV show — so the scout in charge clearly did rate him highly.
You think so? With 6th place being the norm now, it's basically stress-free.
Last place is basically their permanent address, so if anything there's zero pressure. Plus it pays 100 million yen a year.
Then just make Cesar the manager already.
He knew how to build that "we're winning this" atmosphere. Say what you want, but Hoshino really was a championship closer.
Not just that — he also landed Ochiai at Chunichi, Kanemoto at Hanshin, and Kazuo Matsui at Rakuten. The man had a real knack for it.
Maybe that's partly because the parent company is a media company.
He never dodged an interview. Gotta give him credit for that.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Ever since Tsuyoshi Yoda, Chunichi has cycled through managers every few years, and Kazuki Inoue’s departure likewise amounts to a de facto mid-term resignation in year two of a three-year contract. Three straight losses to Hiroshima to open the season, miscalculations with new import Abreu, and other early setbacks piled up the deficit fast, and by May — the franchise’s 90th-anniversary year — the team had already set the record for fastest 20th loss in team history, cementing the slump early on. In the thread, users discussed the team’s odd ability to keep drawing crowds despite poor results, floated potential successors such as Hiroaki Ibata or calls for a foreign manager, and also vented frustration at the scouting department for having missed players like Ichiro and Hanshin’s Takumu Nakano in the past — suggesting the distrust runs deep, extending beyond in-game management to the front office and player-development structure as a whole. Manager Inoue is expected to stay in charge through the season finale on October 3, with his formal departure coming after that.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread ‘[Chunichi] Manager Kazuki Inoue: “I will resign,” fighting back tears — a painful decision in year two of a three-year contract: “As a matter of accountability… I came to the decision to take responsibility”.’
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