It’s Monday and time to play Japan baseball catchup. Tsuyoshi Shinjo said some more stuff, while one of the former BIGBOSS’ bosses is stepping down over the Fighters’ ballpark issue, Japan sets its WBC roster, and two NPB players have been picked to play for Cuba, which is going to make the Asian side of the draw extremely interesting.
I also wrote something about the really stupid plan to replace Jingu Stadium.
Let’s get to it.
Meet the new Boss
Tsuyoshi Shinjo, who spent his first year at the Nippon Ham Fighters’ helm dubbing himself “BIGBOSS” and vowed at his introductory presser 15 months ago that he would focus on entertaining the fans didn’t believe in saying the team was aiming to win the pennant unless by chance his team was in late season contention, took another step toward conforming to Japanese baseball norms on Monday.
He arrived in Okinawa ahead of the start of spring training on Tuesday, and said he’s going to focus less on his individual showboating for the fans and focus on winning.
At this month’s online manager’s conference, Shinjo talked about picking the six teams in each league out of a hat every year to mix things up, but also said he would attempt to manage in a more orthodox fashion.
On Monday, he said, “The only thing that matters is winning. I’m going to be relentless for the first 50 games, I want to go 50-0.”
OK, so it’s still bullshit, but it’s the kind of bullshit we’re accustomed to from other managers over the years.
Nippon Ham president to step down
The Nippon Ham Fighters’ president, 62-year-old Koji Kawamura, who introduced Shinjo at his opening press conference in 2021, told media Friday he intended to step down from that post and as president of the company managing the club’s new ballpark in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido. One reason given for his move will be the team’s failure to meet Nippon Professional Baseball specs by having the backstop too close to home plate.
The Fighters will need to reconfigure their park after the 2023 season to meet rules that should have instead been reconfigured, since NPB’s rule, which is supposed to be a translation of MLB’s specs was discovered recently to be a mistranslation. But rather than correct the true wrong, the mistranslation, and benefitting from the lesson, NPB’s 11 other owners have conformed to Japan’s version of quality control by happily punishing Nippon Ham, for breaking a rule that shouldn’t exist.
Japan’s WBC roster unofficially official
Samurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama announced the remainder of his “expected roster” on Thursday. No names were there that had not been reported previously. While Lars Nootbaar has never played baseball in Japan, he’s got an interesting Japanese baseball connection, that would have made it very cool if Masahiro Tanaka, who said he wanted to play for Japan, had been picked.
Kuriyama said there could still be more surprises since a lot can happen between now and the March 21 final in Miami, and he has yet to name his reserves.
New Mets pitcher Kodai Senga, who has backed away from his enthusiasm for playing, has asked not to be listed among Japan’s reserves, while Japan and South Korea have no word on when their MLB players will be available, but it is unlikely they will arrive for the start of Japan’s training camp in Miyazaki on Feb. 17.
Moinelo, Martinez to join Cuban MLB stars
Cuba announced it will allow defectors to play for its national team in the WBC, with third baseman Yoan Moncada and center fielder Luis Robert of the White Sox as well as former Met Yoenis Cespedes and two Japan players, SoftBank Hawks lefty Livan Moinelo and new Nippon Ham Fighters catcher Ariel Martinez.
The extra power gives Cuba a solid chance of getting out of Pool A and into the semifinals for the first time since the 2006 WBC. Cuba is grouped with Taiwan, two-time semifinalist the Netherlands, Italy and Panama. The top two teams from their round-robin will take on the two top finishers in Tokyo’s Pool B, where Japan will slug it out with nemesis South Korea, Australia, China and the Czech Republic.
Jingu Stadium plan really sucks
The more one learns about the plan to redevelop Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien district by knocking down the spiritual home of Japanese college baseball and a Tokyo landmark, Jingu Stadium, and Tokyo’s main rugby venue, neighboring Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, the more one realizes what a great idea it is for developers, and what a terrible idea it is for Tokyo and its history.
I wrote a story about steps activists are taking to fight this incredible waste.
