Contra Costa Times– April 7,  2018

Concord, CA

Local county Sherriff Daniel Diemer has publicly announced his resignation from office. While this is not the first time a sherriff has stepped down in the middle of a term, the circumstances here are a little bit different.As it turns out, he was offered a lucrative overseas deal to become the General Manager for a Japanese professional baseball team called the Kawaguchi Transmitters, which plays in the League of the Rising Sun. When asked why he did this, Mr. Diemer responded, “Well, I can’t very well manage a Japanese baseball team from California, can I?”   

Mr. Diemer has moved around a lot in his professional career. And while most of those transitions make sense, this last move is puzzling. Diemer grew up on a farm in land-locked Illinois, so joining the Navy right out of high school seems to make sense. In the Navy he operated a nuclear reactor on a submarine. After an honorable discharge, he used his knowledge on how to fix and repair expensive machines and equipment to land a job at a printing company in Oakland, California.In a recent interview, Mr. Diemer devulged that he missed protecting and serving; so after a few years at the printing office, he took a job as a Sherrif’s Deputy for Contra Costa County, working his way up to Sherriff in an unprecidented five years.

Knowing this background, then, it is easy to understand why this recent annoucement sent shockwaves through the local community. The closest thing Mr. Diemer has to baseball experience is playing in the police slow pitch softball league. His managing experience is also relatively slim (it is, in fact, non-existent when it comes to managing an entire organization). Diemer is, in short, a seemingly poor candidate for the job.

The Transmitters were not available for comment at this time, perhaps because they were asleep in their dojos. The Transmitters captured two LRS championships before the league was incorporated into the PEBA in 2010; but the team has not reached the playoffs since.The Transmitters, in fact, are now dangerously close to aquiring the league‘s all-time worst winning percentage. Perhaps ownership wants someone to instill military disipline into their ranks. Or maybe the Transmitters just want a political figure-head who has, in fairness, proven to be a wonderful public speaker so that when they lose the fans can be won back to the ballpark. It is also possible that Mr. Diemer is wanted in Japan only for his nuclear knowledge and that the Transmitters are being paid off by the Japanese government. The only thing for certain is that Mr. Diemer is unlikely to make the Kawaguchi Transmitters worse. And, so, on his last night ashore, Contra Costa County wishes Mr. Diemer a happy voyage to the League of the Rising Sun.