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The story
On September 19, 2026, a thread on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyō G board (a big general sports-chat forum) about the Yokohama–Chunichi “must-win showdown” blew up into a debate over the Central League’s basement race. The centerpiece was a chart showing Chunichi hasn’t made the Climax Series (CS, Japan’s version of the postseason) even once since 2013 — drawing comments like “NPB needs to fix this” about a team that still can’t qualify even though 3 of the league’s 6 teams make the playoffs. The talk also branched into draft-lottery luck and the state of the farm system’s young pitchers, going well beyond a simple standings discussion.
What people said
wait, are the Chunidora [nickname for the Chunichi Dragons] leading this thing off?
Except the gate money all goes to the 1st- and 2nd-place teams, so it's nowhere near actual competitive balance.
Makes for a better tearjerker that way, doesn't it.
Not impossible, I guess.
You know the rest, right?
Wait, Dorin's retiring?
Sounds like something's actually going on and he's making an exit, huh?
You mean 'Sensei' Yano [likely former Hanshin Tigers manager Akihiro Yano] — the guy Kinmoto [Hanshin's Kohei Kinmoto] literally cried tears of joy over finally being free of when he retired?
Come to think of it, Inogori [nickname, exact reference unclear] was under Yano too.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/c04436e233a5154872c04156d816711d10790907
Hanshin's still got a winning record all-time, at least.
Chunichi's all-time games-above-.500 total has dropped under 200…
It's been sinking every year since Joinasu's [nickname, likely a former manager or executive] second season — certified weak franchise, no question.
Were you asleep this whole month?
Could he get released over this?
Guess he's a position player again starting next year.
Nah, their lottery luck is insane, so the draft actually favors them —
and finishing B-class every year means they get an early 2nd-round pick too.
*Most recent Climax Series appearance, all 12 teams:
2025: Tigers, DeNA, Giants, SoftBank, Nippon-Ham, Orix
2024: Lotte
2023: Carp
2022: Yakult, Seibu
2021: Rakuten
2020: —
2019: —
2018: —
2017: —
2016: —
2015: —
2014: —
2013: —
2012: Chunichi
That's honestly wild.
NPB needs to do something about the fact that this isn't even treated as a problem.
Three out of six teams get in, and this is still the result — genuinely impressive, in the bad way.
This year's two are probably no exception.
Nah, the position players have done alright.
The pitchers, not so much — but even so, this year's Suzuki is on a different level from guys like Nakanishi.
four straight college 1st-round pitchers, and not one has ever won 10 games in a season.
Ohno [veteran Chunichi ace] will come through.
This way they can land Oda at 1st and Watanabe at 2nd.
Watanabe's going to get sniped in a lottery draw too, watch.
Chunichi hasn't made the CS a single time since 2013.
Color-wise it's really more like the Blue Jays or the Royals.
And hey, they won the World Series last year, and back in 2015 too.
Background and Talking Points
The Climax Series (CS) is a postseason format introduced in 2007 that lets each league’s top three regular-season teams advance to a playoff. It’s meant to keep more games meaningful late into the pennant race, but as post #15 notes, gate and TV revenue from the CS mostly flows to the 1st- and 2nd-place teams, so lower-ranked clubs see little financial upside from the system itself. Per the timeline posted in the thread, Chunichi hasn’t reached the CS since their last league title in 2012 — and going 13 straight years without qualifying, in a format where half the league (3 of 6 teams) makes the cut, is a striking number. The thread split between two camps: one arguing the format itself is too lenient, the other that Chunichi is simply bad at roster-building and player development — a divide over whether to blame the system or the front office. Commenters also disagreed on whether Chunichi’s habit of landing high draft picks (a perk of finishing low) is a blessing or just proof of how deep the team’s problems run; the thread reached no consensus either way.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G) thread “[Breaking] Chunichi Dragons, Today’s Finally the Big Showdown wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” (the string of “w”s is 5ch shorthand for laughter, like “lol” repeated).
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