Hara to Manage Giants?

Hoshino was never going to take the Giants job, even if it had been offered (and there are question marks as to whether it existed beyond newspaper speculation).

Hara had serious issues with Nabetsune which is why he quit, and these would probably cause him to be cautious.

As for other candidates, I would believe Nakahata or Egawa would be more likely than Horiuchi again.

- Hoshino was never going to take the Giants job, even if it had been offered (and there are question marks as to whether it existed beyond newspaper speculation).

I agree, the Hoshino rumors might have been a ploy by Nabestune to boost falling rankings with the Giants. I found it funny that Hoshino would ever manage the Giants as critical of Watanabe that he is. In my opinion it looked like it was a desperate ploy by Tsuneo Watanabe to spark interest in the Giants.

Hoshino said to the Kyodo News on Tuesday September 6th, that he flatly denied recieving an offer from Yomiuri. So I also believe that the rumor is questionable at all if it really existed. [Full Story - Japan Ball]

He went into greater detail on his website in which he also mentions that very early on in the affair that he had informed the Tigers' management of his wish to stay with the Tigers. He also says he didn't want to dignify the lies with a response, but they wouldn't go away.

- So I also believe that the rumor is questionable at all if it really existed.

Well of course the rumor was real. Maybe not the job offer, though.

Actually I think the Giants were simply floating the idea unofficially to see what the reaction would be. Then if Hoshino rejected it out of hand, they wouldn't lose face.

But what a sad state of affairs for the once mighty Kyojin. It seems nobody wants the job. Can you believe it?

- I agree, the Hoshino rumors might have been a ploy by Nabestune to boost falling rankings with the Giants. I found it funny that Hoshino would ever manage the Giants as critical of Watanabe that he is. In my opinion it looked like it was a desperate ploy by Tsuneo Watanabe to spark interest in the Giants.

I can't agree more. Funny that all this speculation was dominating the headlines just as the Giants threatened to fall into last in the CL (yet another bad run by Hiroshima saved them from that), and Hanshin and Chunichi were battling out a very tight pennant race (Hanshin seem to have drawn ahead now). Strange coincidence

But what Yomiuri really needs IMHO is not just a new manager, but a new pitching coach and some decent pitchers. They can hit all the home runs they like, but with no decent starters, how can they expect to win?

When I read about Microsoft's trying to hire Eric S. Raymond last week, the whole Yomiuri trying to hire Hoshino incident came to mind. (Despite some harsh language, I really enjoyed Raymond's response.)

And I have a hard time accepting the statement that Hara "quit" after the 2003 season. He was forced into retirement after a disagreement with Watanabe. Hara did make the fatal error of giving Nabetsune an ultimatum, demanding change or he'd quit. Watanabe turned that on him and accepted it as Hara's resignation request. It was very clear that Hara didn't want to step down at the end of 2003, but had no way of backing out of it.

What I found interesting about the whole incident in 2003 was that all of the coaching staff that didn't quit (or weren't released) along with Hara turned in their resignations the day Horiuchi was announced as manager. That told me that Horiuchi's reign would be a rocky one. Nobody wanted anything to do with Horiuchi-kantoku.

I read Nikkan Sports daily, and while the headlines seem pretty sure that Hara will be next, the articles have no meat to them (typical for page 1). It's like the people who write the headlines don't even read the articles they're writing for. Judging from Hara's TV commentary spots, it appears that he has been enjoying watching Nabetsune struggle with the whole Hoshino "offer."

I don't know why Nakahata keeps getting passed up for the managerial job. He has the charisma to do well as the Giants' manager, perhaps the most important attribute for the top spot of that team. He also strikes me as an effective motivator, something that I don't think Egawa will be able to do.

Since choosing Nakahata will be the best thing for the Giants to do, they won't do that. They'll select somebody else based on politics - especially looking at the factor of how well the new manager takes orders from Watanabe. (That would pretty much rule out Egawa, I would think.)

I couldn't agree more about both Hara and Nakahata. I believe Hara was forced to resign after the 2003 season so that the Giants wouldn't have to officially fire him and therefore save face. I think there was some disagreement about what to do with Hara's coaching staff and that's what ultimately did Hara in.

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but I had a feeling that the Giants were going down the toilet when this happened. Hara had just led the team to the Japan Series title the year before, but just because the team faltered the next season they forced him out and brought in Horiuchi who doesn't seem like much of a leader.

This is all hearsay, but I heard that the Giants under Horiuchi were divided into factions and had serious chemistry problems.

As a lifelong Giants hater, I love seeing them down in the dumps like this, especially after picking up one high-priced free agent after another. When they "received" Kokubo for free from the Hawks, my hatred for the Giants went up tenfold.

However, even though I've always hated the Giants, I've always admired certain players on their team, like Hideki Matsui and Kiyoshi Nakahata. I also think Nakahata would make a good skipper, but it seems to me like Giants fans don't necessarily like him too much, especially since his tenure as batting coach ended in failure.

I, too, hate the Giants for being so evil and corrupt, despite the few quality players on the team. So I would like to nominate Kiyohara as the skipper next year. He can make sure the whole team is on the juice and that they never workout again for the rest of their careers. Also he could teach them how to always stike out on curveballs. And get fat. And stop running. This would insure continued failure for the richest team in the NPB and its biggest embarassment today.

Seeing the success that Ochiai has had in Nagoya and how he has been something of an iconoclast as a player, I can see how they would entertain somebody like Egawa, though I would hope that Suguru would be smart enough to stay away from the horror show that is the Yomiuri mound staff (why in God's name are they bringing Kuwata back?).

I suspect, though, that Watanabe has burned so many bridges that his range of choices is rather limited. Given that Nakahata, like Horiuchi, was part of a Nagashima coaching staff, and that Nakahata was the head coach of the Japanese Olympic team in Nagashima's absence, he will likely be the go to default.

There was no good reason to hire Horiuchi, who lacked the people skills to effectively run a ballclub, and he certainly never delighted the press, who gave him his old nickname of Warutaro.