Excerpts From the Naha Shisa Manager’s Journal

As compiled by Naha Shisa correspondent Koukyo Juunin

10/4/2010: Naha, Japan – I have been given permission by Naha Shisa manager Kijuro Yoshida to publish some of his thoughts from a journal that he’s been keeping this season.  Yoshida and I have bonded this year and I have his complete trust.  The main source of our bond is our mutual contempt for GM Tom Fees. 

Fees knows about our lack of regard for him, but there has been a delicate balance of power present in the Naha Shisa management structure.  Fees has the support of the owner, Iyou Seigyoki, but not of the fans and the team.  Even though he didn’t hire the team’s current manager, Fees dares not fire the very popular Yoshida lest he be physically run out of town.  Instead, the unscrupulous GM resorted to treachery and hired his own man as the new bench coach.

Now please do not get me wrong.  Former manager Takashi Yamane has the respect of everyone in baseball.  He is matchless at teaching hitting and knows his way around young players very well despite his advanced age of 61.  The trouble lies in a mismatch of management styles.

Yoshida is a young manager at 38 and is very much the consummate players’ manager.  He makes sure everyone gets playing time and that his men are very well rested.  He is something of a maverick and will not hesitate to try new strategies.  He has even ordered his two top power hitters, Ton Nakamura and Masamune Matsui, to never bunt.  This is very unusual in Japanese baseball.

Yamane, on the other hand, is a strictly by-the-book manager who believes in winning at all cost.  It was obvious from the outset that there would be friction, and the following are excerpts from Yoshida’s personal journal:

August 29, 2010 — Well isn’t this a kick in the teeth?  I’ve spent all season developing marvelous clubhouse chemistry for the stretch run and now Fees goes and hires that old traditionalist Yamane as my bench coach.  I had the perfect replacement in mind but Fees was intractable.  We really don’t need this distraction right in middle of a pennant race.  We are only 2½ games ahead of Fushigi Yugi and I’m not comfortable with that small of a lead.

September 8 — As expected, Yamane came in here with his own agenda, and now the clubhouse is in chaos.  Where we were once a loose bunch of guys having fun, now we are on edge.  Fushigi Yugi has pulled a half game ahead of us for the wild card spot and tempers are flaring.  He is openly second guessing my every move and where we once had unity, now we are a clique-ridden catastrophe.  I am at a loss on how to correct this situation.

September 22 — Okay, one could say that Fushigi Yugi was a steamroller, going 17-2 in September so far, but I still blame Fees for destroying the morale of our team.  We are 5½ games behind in the wild card spot and the clubhouse is a tomb.  You could hear a gnat fart.  Even after we win, everyone showers and leaves as soon as they can.  Before Yamane came along, nobody wanted to leave.  Additionally, without my permission, he’s trying to completely change Razan Sanu’s approach at the plate.  As if the young guy isn’t overwhelmed enough.

October 3 — Well, we took three out of four from Fushigi Yugi, but we are still 5½ games behind with only ten games to go for us, eleven for them.  It will take a minor miracle for us to make the playoffs now.  I give my boys credit.  They pulled themselves together somewhat and played .500 ball down the stretch, but we were capable of so much more.

Baseball America just came out with their new top prospect list.  We only have four prospects in the top 100, none higher than 27^th.  Our one shining star prospect, Razan Sanu, is a train wreck.  He’s been over-coached and doesn’t know which way is up.  Our head scout says he’s worse now than when the season started, so it looks like some winter ball is in order.  The team is in financial trouble… I’m telling you, the future’s so bright, I need a seeing-eye dog.