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The story
Chunichi Dragons manager Kazuki Inoue has announced he will step down at the end of this season, and reports say former ace pitcher Kimiyasu Kudo is the frontrunner to replace him. Kudo, a 200-game winner, also has ties to the team through his alma mater, Aichi Technical University Meiden High School. Meanwhile, the thread argued over which homegrown Dragons alum is actually eager to return to the dugout — every time Masa Yamamoto’s name came up, it set off clashes between fans blasting the front office for never reaching out to him and others insisting he simply doesn’t want the job.
“Going through a whole career without ever managing or coaching…”
Chunichi Dragons manager Kazuki Inoue (55) has announced he will resign at season’s end, and the club is now searching for his successor. Inoue was promoted from the farm team to replace former manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami (57), and spent two years running the first team.
“At the Hanshin Tigers, he was brought in by his close friend, former manager Akihiro Yano (57), and served stints as first-team head coach among other roles. Expectations were high for him as a man who knew the Central League inside and out. After retiring as a player, he spent years as a TV commentator and liked to call himself a ‘communication monster.’ But once he became Chunichi’s first-team manager, that reputation seemed to backfire — young players reportedly gave him the side-eye, saying things like, ‘Manager, you’re kind of… out of step with us.’”
Source: friday.kodansha.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Thought so too.
This article reeks of BS, honestly.
If he were that into coaching or managing, he'd be a lot more involved already.
He just does the occasional guest-coaching gig and otherwise lives the easy life.
He's actually said on YouTube and elsewhere that he wants to do it, but nobody's ever approached him about it.
A-anything but that… please, I beg you…
The last time he coached was with Yomiuri, right? His reputation was awful both during and after that stint — they finished in the B-class (lower half of the standings).
Maybe it'll go as smoothly as breeding stag beetles or rhinoceros beetles
What team's hiring a guy whose last team finished dead last?
Multiple outlets are already reporting it, so it's basically confirmed.
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASVB802JLVB8UTQP004M.html
who's he going to bring in as first-team head coach and pitching coach, I wonder.
He surely wouldn't take the job just to keep things exactly as they are.
I want him to install Hashigami as head coach just to troll the Giants lol
Both reached 200 wins, but Masa ranks third all-time in wins against the Giants, behind only Kaneda and Hiramatsu.
By the stats, you could call him the greatest pitcher in Chunichi history.
>Both reached 200 wins, but Masa ranks third all-time in wins against the Giants, behind only Kaneda and Hiramatsu.
>By the stats, you could call him the greatest pitcher in Chunichi history.
Seriously, throwing Masa Yamamoto and Shinji Imanaka at the Giants back-to-back should've been illegal.
Matsui apparently said Imanaka's fastball looked way too fast right after facing Yamamoto lol
Kuwata's born early in the year, so by school grade it's actually four years
If he can get Ichiro to come, now that'd be something
Run differential is 3rd-best in the Central League
And yet 40 come-from-behind losses — that's just bizarre, no way Kudo would let that happen
Too busy with his RC cars
Why doesn't the team bring in a guy who's done this much for them, not even as a coach, let alone manager?
The guy's got brains for both pitching and baseball in general.
This is exactly why Chunichi gets hated on.
Maybe back in the early Heisei era, sure, but these days he's got money, fame, and plenty of hobbies outside baseball keeping him busy.
Why would he go out of his way to take a job where all you get is criticism…
Probably because he just doesn't want it
He's basically a regular on that BS satellite show, so younger folks probably think of him as 'the horse-racing guy'
Can't imagine young people even watch BS (satellite TV) anymore
If he really wanted it, he'd need to be out there pitching himself for the job.
Masa made a huge profit selling off cars from his collection, you know
'Half' is way too generous.
Even 3% credibility feels like a stretch
While we're at it, let's call up Makihara too
Being from the area IS the tie, isn't it?
In the '90s they had maybe five real shots at the pennant.
There was the infamous 10.8 game, sure, but they also got overtaken late in the season several other times.
That's how strong the two aces, Imanaka and Masa, were.
Matsui really struggled against them. Kiyohara, though, made a habit of feasting on Masa in his later years.
>Kiyohara, though, made a habit of feasting on Masa in his later years.
Masa's pitching tells are pretty easy to read, lol
And yet lefty batters still couldn't hit him
Go ahead and become Devilman, Kudo-chan (a teasing nickname casting him as the 'traitor' for leaving SoftBank)
Kudo's first phone call sure isn't going to be to SoftBank
Background and Key Talking Points
Manager Kazuki Inoue was promoted from the farm team to succeed former manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, and his run atop the first team ends after two seasons. The leading candidate to replace him, Kimiyasu Kudo, is a Fukuoka native with ties to the team through his alma mater, Aichi Technical University Meiden High School, and boasts a pitching résumé of 200-plus career wins — among the best in the sport. The thread split over differing enthusiasm for "bringing back team alumni": one camp criticized the front office for never reaching out to Masa Yamamoto, while another defended the club, arguing that Yamamoto himself simply isn’t interested. Yamamoto holds the third-most career wins against the Giants of all time and, alongside Shinji Imanaka, was a feared presence against the Giants in the 1990s — but his recent visibility on horse-racing shows and his well-known car-collecting hobby make it easy to overlook that he hasn’t shown strong interest in returning to the dugout. Some posters also voiced skepticism simply because the original source was the tabloid FRIDAY, noting its credibility should be weighed against reporting from other outlets like The Asahi Shimbun.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Baseball] Chunichi Dragons: “Kimiyasu Kudo to become new manager” looking all but certain… the name of the one homegrown alum who was “totally fired up” for the job [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★].”
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