We are establishing a new "prize" here. It is the Baseball Bullet-In "Out of the Blue Award" with recognition given to the player in Japanese pro baseball who has the best season among those virtually unheard of and who came from seemingly nowhere to become a star.The winner of the first annual "Out of the Blue" is outfielder Katsuya Kakunaka of the Chiba Lotte Marines.Whoever would have thought a player in his sixth professional season, and who batted .266 with no home runs and10 RBIs in just 51 games in 2011, would go on to win the 2012 Pacific League batting title?That's what Kakunaka has done, finishing the year with a .312 average to edge Saitama Seibu Lions shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima (.311) and take the crown.Yes, there were some shenanigans during the Oct. 6 Lions-Marines game at Seibu Dome where Kakunaka sat out, and Nakajima was walked twice by Lotte pitcher Takahiro Fujioka. This was explained in Jason Coskrey's excellent "Sports Scope" column in The Japan Times of Oct. 9, and we'll get to that lack-of-class act by the Marines in a moment.Nakajima, expected to leave Japan for the major leagues in 2013, appeared ready to go out with the title under his belt. He led the league during a good part of the year, and as late as Sept. 26 had a five-percentage point lead with a .318 average to Kakunaka's .313. Nakajima slumped toward the end though, and Kakunaka got hot.To point out just how unknown was Kakunaka even back in May during the annual interleague play segment of the schedule, Yomiuri Giants pitcher D.J. Houlton was asked how he would prepare to throw against the Marines in an upcoming game. Houlton had pitched in the Pacific League the past four seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and had faced Lotte on numerous occasions. He thought he was aware of all the key hitters on the Marines roster."I know their lineup," Houlton said. "They have some good hitters...(Tadahito) Iguchi, (Toshiaki) Imae, Saburo (Omura), (Shota) Ishimine, (Tomoya) Satozaki..."What about Kakunaka, though?Houlton scratched his head, saying, "Kakunaka? Kakunaka?" He could not place the 25-year-old left-handed batter who had just begun to heat up as the interleague season was approaching.Obviously, Houlton had never heard of Kakunaka, but here he is, the 2012 PL batting champion, albeit with a low average for a title winner. Not a slugger, Kakunaka hit only three home runs but drove in 61 — the same as his uniform number.For sure, the Ishikawa Prefecture native came out of the blue, but can he sustain this year's performance and prove next year he is no fluke?That question will be answered in due time but, for now, congratulations on a great season.Now, regarding what happened at Seibu Dome last week, this kind of thing has been going on in Japanese baseball since at least the 1960s.In 1964-65, Hankyu Braves American slugger Daryl Spencer was competing for the Pacific League home run title with Nankai Hawks catcher Katsuya Nomura. Down the stretch, Spencer never saw a strike, and it got so bad, he began standing in the batter's box holding his bat upside down by the barrel, with the handle up. Of course, Nomura kept his lead and won the crown both years.Other foreign players who were cheated — if we can use that word — out of a fair chance to win a title or break a Japanese baseball record include Randy Bass, Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Rhodes, in their pursuit of Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run record of 55. Bass fell one short in 1985, while Rhodes and Cabrera somehow were allowed to tie — but not break — Oh's mark in 2001 and 2002, respectively.It is not necessarily a case of jingoism, either. Kakunaka and Nakajima are both Japanese, and a similar situation occurred in 1982 between Keiji Nagasaki of the Yokohama Taiyo Whales and Yasushi Tao of the Chunichi Dragons. On the season's final day with Taiyo playing Chunichi, Nagasaki led Tao by a point in the Central League batting race.As Kakunaka did last week, Nagasaki sat on his hands in the dugout with an average of .3510101, while Tao, hitting .3501006, made a late-game pinch hitting appearance, needing a hit to overtake Nagasaki and capture the batting crown.Had Tao gotten a hit, his average would have gone to .3514056, but he never saw a pitch anywhere near the plate. Of course, both Nagasaki and Tao should have played, batted four or five teams each and been pitched to fairly. The same goes for Kakunaka and Nakajima.The losers in these types of situations are not only the players who are denied their fair chance to compete, but also the fans who paid to see the best players give their best effort at all times.Part of the problem is Japan's system of making up rained-out games at the end of the season. With nothing on the line for the teams after the pennant races, playoff seeds and league standings have been decided, the focus shifts to the individual titles, and the funny business takes over.Had a pennant or Climax Series appearance been dependent on that Oct. 6 game, you can bet Kakunaka would have played, and maybe Nakajima would not have been walked. This is obviously one area in which Japanese baseball lacks one of the most important elements of the game — sportsmanship.Contact Wayne Graczyk at: Wayne@JapanBall.com
Showing posts with label change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label change. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Gruff Ochiai needs to change if return is in cards
The Pacific League's Orix Buffaloes announced on Sept. 25 manager Akinobu Okada will not return to run the club next season, and speculation about his replacement indicates Japanese baseball Hall of Famer and former Chunichi Dragons skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai is one of the candidates who might be appointed as the Buffs' new field boss.
Attitude adjustment: Hiromitsu Ochiai's surly disposition won him few admirers during his time as a manager. KYODOOrix is scheduled to play its final game of the year on Monday, and Japanese teams usually do not delay in naming new managers, what with the amateur draft coming up in less than three weeks and a fall camp to be run.In considering Ochiai, the Buffaloes — or another Japanese team that might be looking for a new man to run the team, for that matter — will have to weigh his proven success as a manager against a reputation as a media-unfriendly guy who did not appear to emit a positive image as a symbol of the Chunichi ballclub.Sure, in eight seasons (2004-11) at the Dragons' helm, he led them to four Central League pennants and a Japan Series championship in 2007 after finishing second and winning the Climax Series. His Nagoya team narrowly lost last year's Japan Series in seven games to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and, with that kind of a record, the 58-year-old Ochiai should still be directing traffic from the Dragons bench.However, he was let go, and that decision was made in September of last year, even before Chunichi completed its 2011 season. The said reason for the team's parting with Ochiai was the fact his image was not helping the team's public relations and attendance figures for home games at Nagoya Dome.Having covered Japanese baseball for more than 37 years, I can tell you Ochiai has changed a lot since he broke in as a young infielder with the Lotte Orions in 1979. He soon became a star but would always say hello, pose for a photo if requested, and he was always polite and sociable.After winning three Triple Crowns with the Orions and achieving superstar status, he was traded in 1987 to the Dragons where he continued to perform as one of the best offensive players in Japanese baseball. He maintained his pleasant personality and continued friendly relations with the fans and media.Then he became a free agent and signed with the Yomiuri Giants in 1994, playing as the regular first baseman on that year's Japan Series-winning team. Ochiai seemed at that time to distance himself somewhat from his surroundings.In 1995, he banged out his 2,000th career hit but refused to join the Meikyukai Golden Players Club supposedly because he had been criticized during his career by Masaichi Kaneda, one of the leaders of the GPC. Ochiai wound up his brilliant playing career as a designated hitter with the Nippon Ham Fighters in 1997-98 before retiring as an active player.He later became part of the media himself, serving as a radio-TV commentator before being appointed the Chunichi manager in October of 2003.At the Japan Series that year, played between the Daiei Hawks and Hanshin Tigers, I happened to run into him in the press box at Fukuoka Dome a few days after he got the new job. As I passed behind where he was sitting, I tapped him on the shoulder and offered a few words of congratulations."Omedeto gozaimasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," I said, meaning, "Let's have a good relationship from next year."To my surprise, he responded with a backward wave of a hand that seemed to be shooing me away. He did not say anything.Except at press conferences when Chunichi played in the 2007 Asian Series, I never once had the opportunity to speak to him during his tenure as the manager of the Dragons. I often wondered if, by chance, I had passed him one-on-one in a corridor of the ballpark, he would even say hello.Ochiai seemed to make minimum appearances on the field during pre-game batting practice and, when he did come out of the dugout, he would head straight over and stand behind the batting cage, not making eye contact with beat writers and other media members hoping for the chance to ask a question or have a chat.Most Japanese managers "hold court," inviting radio and TV announcers and writers to join them on the bench during the pre-game warm-ups in a sort-of mini-press briefing for 10 minutes or so. I never saw Ochiai do this, but his successor, the current Dragons field boss Morimichi Takagi, does it all the time.For those eight seasons, the media covering Chunichi games must have had it tough, needing to write without being able to get comments from the team leader, and I wonder why Ochiai did not seem to be very cooperative.He is not a bad guy and, if he does get hired as manager by Orix or another Japanese team now or in the coming years, it would be great if he could somehow reverse the change he made several years ago and return to the smiling, amicable Hiromitsu Ochiai I knew as a player with Lotte those many years ago.I would like to congratulate him again if he gets another job and shake his hand. Next time, though, I would hope for a smile and a response on the order of something like, "Thanks, and I'll see you at the ballpark."Contact Wayne Graczyk at: Wayne@JapanBall.com
Attitude adjustment: Hiromitsu Ochiai's surly disposition won him few admirers during his time as a manager. KYODOOrix is scheduled to play its final game of the year on Monday, and Japanese teams usually do not delay in naming new managers, what with the amateur draft coming up in less than three weeks and a fall camp to be run.In considering Ochiai, the Buffaloes — or another Japanese team that might be looking for a new man to run the team, for that matter — will have to weigh his proven success as a manager against a reputation as a media-unfriendly guy who did not appear to emit a positive image as a symbol of the Chunichi ballclub.Sure, in eight seasons (2004-11) at the Dragons' helm, he led them to four Central League pennants and a Japan Series championship in 2007 after finishing second and winning the Climax Series. His Nagoya team narrowly lost last year's Japan Series in seven games to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and, with that kind of a record, the 58-year-old Ochiai should still be directing traffic from the Dragons bench.However, he was let go, and that decision was made in September of last year, even before Chunichi completed its 2011 season. The said reason for the team's parting with Ochiai was the fact his image was not helping the team's public relations and attendance figures for home games at Nagoya Dome.Having covered Japanese baseball for more than 37 years, I can tell you Ochiai has changed a lot since he broke in as a young infielder with the Lotte Orions in 1979. He soon became a star but would always say hello, pose for a photo if requested, and he was always polite and sociable.After winning three Triple Crowns with the Orions and achieving superstar status, he was traded in 1987 to the Dragons where he continued to perform as one of the best offensive players in Japanese baseball. He maintained his pleasant personality and continued friendly relations with the fans and media.Then he became a free agent and signed with the Yomiuri Giants in 1994, playing as the regular first baseman on that year's Japan Series-winning team. Ochiai seemed at that time to distance himself somewhat from his surroundings.In 1995, he banged out his 2,000th career hit but refused to join the Meikyukai Golden Players Club supposedly because he had been criticized during his career by Masaichi Kaneda, one of the leaders of the GPC. Ochiai wound up his brilliant playing career as a designated hitter with the Nippon Ham Fighters in 1997-98 before retiring as an active player.He later became part of the media himself, serving as a radio-TV commentator before being appointed the Chunichi manager in October of 2003.At the Japan Series that year, played between the Daiei Hawks and Hanshin Tigers, I happened to run into him in the press box at Fukuoka Dome a few days after he got the new job. As I passed behind where he was sitting, I tapped him on the shoulder and offered a few words of congratulations."Omedeto gozaimasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," I said, meaning, "Let's have a good relationship from next year."To my surprise, he responded with a backward wave of a hand that seemed to be shooing me away. He did not say anything.Except at press conferences when Chunichi played in the 2007 Asian Series, I never once had the opportunity to speak to him during his tenure as the manager of the Dragons. I often wondered if, by chance, I had passed him one-on-one in a corridor of the ballpark, he would even say hello.Ochiai seemed to make minimum appearances on the field during pre-game batting practice and, when he did come out of the dugout, he would head straight over and stand behind the batting cage, not making eye contact with beat writers and other media members hoping for the chance to ask a question or have a chat.Most Japanese managers "hold court," inviting radio and TV announcers and writers to join them on the bench during the pre-game warm-ups in a sort-of mini-press briefing for 10 minutes or so. I never saw Ochiai do this, but his successor, the current Dragons field boss Morimichi Takagi, does it all the time.For those eight seasons, the media covering Chunichi games must have had it tough, needing to write without being able to get comments from the team leader, and I wonder why Ochiai did not seem to be very cooperative.He is not a bad guy and, if he does get hired as manager by Orix or another Japanese team now or in the coming years, it would be great if he could somehow reverse the change he made several years ago and return to the smiling, amicable Hiromitsu Ochiai I knew as a player with Lotte those many years ago.I would like to congratulate him again if he gets another job and shake his hand. Next time, though, I would hope for a smile and a response on the order of something like, "Thanks, and I'll see you at the ballpark."Contact Wayne Graczyk at: Wayne@JapanBall.comThursday, June 2, 2011
Bryant's role won't change: Brown
El Segundo, Calif. — Phil Jackson is retired, the triangle offense is out, and Mike Brown is in. And the Los Angeles Lakers are still Kobe Bryant's team.Brown made it clear Tuesday during his introduction as Jackson's successor that Bryant's role won't change under his regime. He said his first meeting with the superstar who owns five NBA championships "went very well.""This is still his team. We'll make sure that he'll have the ball in the sweet spots that he likes," Brown said. "He has a great understanding of my vision and he's onboard."Bryant, Derek Fisher and Andrew Bynum had publicly supported longtime Lakers assistant Brian Shaw in his bid to replace Jackson, who retired after Dallas swept the two-time defending champions out of the second round.Besides meeting with Bryant and talking on the phone with his wife, Vanessa, Brown said he's talked to Fisher and his wife, Pau Gasol, Bynum and Ron Artest.Public reaction to Brown's hiring has been mixed."Everybody is entitled to their opinion, I respect that," he said. "Winning will cure all of that."
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
NPB eyes posting change
Japanese baseball will approach Major League Baseball about changing the posting system after talks between Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma and the Oakland Athletics ended in failure over the winter.At NPB's executive committee meeting on Monday, Rakuten, which put Iwakuma up for bidding this past offseason only to see him come back for another year, proposed allowing the three highest bidders from the majors to negotiate with any posted player.
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