12/1/2013: Kuwana, Japan – In a sport in which getting a hit three times out of ten is considered successful, failure is part of the game.  Yet after three straight playoff losses at the hands of the Edo Battousai, Steel Dragons Scouting Director Tomiichi Wada decided to hang it up and call it a career.  Even more shocking was his revelation to the Kuwana Times recently that the front office as we know it is a fraud.

The group that purchased the Kuwana Steel Dragons prior to the 2010 PEBA takeover was said to be led be Anthony Esposito.  According to Wada, Esposito is nothing more than an actor.  The real owner of the Steel Dragons is 46-year-old Michael Chance from Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.  Wada goes on to tell us that the reason for this sham is because Chance has a severe case of social anxiety and is afraid that the Japanese culture will not accept him for his handlebar mustache.

Despite his shy and self-conscience personality, Chance orchestrated a brilliant plan to rebuild the struggling franchise, said Wada.  Esposito was a slick talker.  Having him serve as the face of the front office was imperative in the early years.  He was the key player in the Winter Caravan of 2010-2011, an event that started the snowball of change.  Then-General Manager Hiro Tanaka came as advertised.  He was a great baseball mind that made all of the key decisions to elevate the team.  The fourth player was Wada, well respected as one of the better talent evaluators in the LRS.

Things went great as the blueprint was executed to perfection over the first few seasons.  Kuwana went from a team that never had a winning record to being a perennial playoff team.  Suddenly things went sour after a third straight early exit at the hands of the Edo Battousai.  New GM Alan Ehlers was forced to take the pedestal and answer the hard questions.  The fans wanted to know who was responsible for giving Sozui Kawashima one of the most lucrative contracts in the history of slappy singles hitter.  They wanted to know why the team listened to a six-year-old kid and gave $9 million to an over the hill Kirby Gibson.  Esposito ordered Ehlers to throw Wada under the bus and call the moves ill-advised.  The real answer is that Esposito thought they’d be great moves in building the Steel Dragons “brand”.  The disagreement led to Wada quitting the team.

With everything out in the open, Kuwana has turned to rookie Scouting Director Tatsuzo Ono.  If the name sounds familiar, it should.  Ono was a member of the Fushigi Yugi Celestial Warriors in 2007-2008 as well as playing minor league ball for the Evas organization.  The journeyman infielder will look to have more success as a scout then he did as a player.  He already knows most of the LRS from his playing days and he was worked as an international scout for the past two seasons in Kuwana.  He is noted for being instrumental in the signing of Dean Jefferson.  Critics are quick to point out that Ono may have lost touch with the younger Japanese players, both amateur and in minor leagues.  Only time will tell if he is the mind that can help bring Kuwana the Neo-Tokyo Cup.