Nagashima Announces Retirement
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Hara to Take Over
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Sep 29, 2001 10:29 AM
| YBS Fan
]
Hey, maybe we won't be killed with "Who will take over" articles until January after all. Nagashima-kantoku named Haru as his successor, and Watanabe-owner is all smiles behind it (page 3 of today's (9/29) Nikkan Sports).
Nikkan Sports goes on to state that NTV sports annalyst Egawa will take over as head coach and retiring veteran pitcher Saitoh will team up with Kattori as pitching coaches next season. Also of note, retiring veteran catch Murata Shinichi will stay with the team as battery coach. With Yoshimura as one of the batting coaches, it looks like the main coaching staff (Egawa excluded) will be made up of people who were all playing as recently as 3 years ago.
Nikkan Sports goes on to state that NTV sports annalyst Egawa will take over as head coach and retiring veteran pitcher Saitoh will team up with Kattori as pitching coaches next season. Also of note, retiring veteran catch Murata Shinichi will stay with the team as battery coach. With Yoshimura as one of the batting coaches, it looks like the main coaching staff (Egawa excluded) will be made up of people who were all playing as recently as 3 years ago.
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Needless to say, this came as a huge shock to most as even today's Nikkan Sports talks about how Watanabe-owner is sticking with his #1 man to lead the Giants again next season with Hara at his side as head coach.
He's the 4th manager to announce his retirement this season. Ohgi-kantoku said that he's stepping aside to allow a rejuvination of the team with a younger manager.
Next, Hoshino-kantoku gracefully announced his plan to retire as head Dragon between Nori's M1 gyakuten home run and Kitagawa's clinching gyakyu manrui home run. (He didn't want to take the headlines away from Kintetsu.)
With the pennant decided, Higashio-kantoku followed, being the first Lion manager to not win a pennant three years in a row for the past 20 years.
Now Nagashima-kantoku has announced that he's stepping down. You know he'll get more coverage than the other three managers put together in tomorrow's paper. And more than Yakult reducing their magic number to 3 this evening. Through the remainder of Yakult's countdown, the number one story is going to be, "Who will replace Nagashima"? Even Matsui stealing the home run crown from Petagine (after tying him with 3 home runs in a row last night!) will be pushed aside for this national hero's retirement.
I would like to thank tokyotodd for pointing out here that being a Nagashima-kantku fan is not something to be ashamed of. While I'm a BayStars fan and can be considered somewhat anti-Giant, I still admire the living legend, and am proud to say so. I belive that Nagashima-kantoku will be missed by fans and bad-mouthed oyaji alike.
Otsukaresama, Nagashima-kantoku.