As the season winds down

The title says it all. With the pennant won and Tigers basically having no chance of a Climax series berth players are not exactly exerting themselves. In a short two game series against the Swallows at Koshien we saw this in full play. The first game was error ridden with both catchers used Sakamoto and Haraguchi committing errors which rank among the best. Harguchi started first base before switching to catcher after Sakamoto's latest poor performance. Recently Sakamoto has only been going five or six innings and has been dropped to bring Umeno up. Swallows feasted on the Tigers offerings and ran out game winners by 9-1. Fans were not happy.

They did get a better performance with the second game. Haraguchi started as catcher and with Iwasada delivered a complete game shutout. It snapped the Tigers losing streak and provided some solace. Kanemoto is felt to be too ego driven to make a good manager and there is evidence to support this view. However, don't expect any movement on the management side soon. The back office is not going to replace an incompetent manager - that just isn't Tigers style. Hague left for shoulder treatment in the US recently. He will not be back next season according to sources in the know.