Nomura Reviving Eagles

I would question the supposition that Nomura helping the Tigers become the strong team they are today. It took Hoshino and Okada to understand and develop the Tigers fully. Players like Kanemoto, Sheets, and Toritani are all post Nomura. Furthermore, it took Hoshino and Okada to find viable roles for Fujimoto and Imaoka. It is no use finding the talent and then misusing it. Attributing the strength of Tigers to Nomura is really giving credit where none is due.

- It took Hoshino and Okada to understand and develop the Tigers fully.

Yes, why it might have taken Hoshino and Okada to fully develop and understand Hanshin's talent fully, Nomura played an important role nontheless. Nomura might have left Hanshin after three last place years, though weren't Akahoshi and Fujimoto signed during the Nomura years? If I'm not mistaken they are key parts of the Hanshin Tigers. Also, Nomura helped with many other parts that became part of the 2003 team that went to the Nippon Series.

While, many of us may not like Nomura and his attitude for which at times is clueless and shocking, Nomura did for sure leave Hanshin team better off than what they were before he came.

No, Nomura was not the most important person in helping the Tigers becoming the team they are today, nor was he deserving of as much credit as Hoshino or Okada. Though, at the same time it also isn't fair that Nomura deserves no credit for what he did either with Hanshin as he sure did help Hanshin at the same time.

- While, many of us may not like Nomura and his attitude for which at times is clueless and shocking, Nomura did for sure leave Hanshin team better off than what they were before he came.

Nomura doesn't bother to explain himself which is why he appears clueless and shocking. He is actually an astute and clever individual but very blunt. Looking at his comments in depth one realises there is a very great deal of thought that goes into what he says even though he doesn't have the grace and ability to express himself well.

However, it was the Hoshino clean out in 2002 which really laid the foundations for the 2003 victory. When Hoshino took the job he specified that he would be able to do what he wanted and hire and fire who he wanted. He then restructured the Tigers and brought in players who would deliver a pennant. He would have had had to rebuild the team again in 2004 if he hadn't left due to ill health as his team was a one off.

It is stretching things too much to say that Nomura had any role in this except in a peripheral manner. Fujimoto, who you mention, was very poor until Hoshino retrained him. Perhaps the only player that you could say Nomura developed was Akahoshi and so we owe him some thanks for that. His management of Tigers was very detached and the results showed - it took only two years for Hoshino to deliver a pennant team but Nomura only delivered last place finishes and this should be the main factor used to judge his contribution to Tigers.

There are several points about the Nomura Tigers that should be brought up for those who weren't around during those years.

First of all, Nomura-kantoku rebuilt the Swallows in the 1990s with a great deal of success, starting with the catcher position and over-working his pitchers every other year (winning pennents in those same over-worked years more often than not). Nomura-kantoku's "ID Yakyu" worked very well with the Swallows because Nomura-kantoku worked hard at drilling his team to understand it fully.

Nomura-kantoku eventually became burnt out and retired.

However, Hanshin's owner was desperate for a rebuild of his team, and threw a ton of money at Nomura to come out of retirement. Nomura-kantoku said he would if he were given full control over the running of the team. Since Nomura took the job, I figured that that last part, Nomura-kantoku getting a commitment to support baseball operations, was granted. However, the calls appeared to continue to come from Hanshin's front office, not from Nomura-kantoku. For example, the front office still considered Shinjyo the team's most valuable asset, and Nomura-kantoku had no standing to put Prince Shinjyo in his place. As with Fujita-kantoku and others before him, Nomura-kantoku eventually gave up trying to force change that the front office wouldn't allow.

Still Hanshin fans, think back to that first year that Nomura-kantoku had taken over. How did the season start? Why, with the Tigers jumping out to an early lead. The Osaka Shinkansen station was filled with Nomura memorabilia when I had a business trip down in Osaka at that time. The Tigers were running high. It looked to me like Nomura-kantoku could have been elected mayor any day soon.

Of course, that didn't last long, and Hanshin found themselves in familar B-Class territory soon after. But what was the reason for their terrible fall after such a great start?

I'm currently reading "Management by Baseball" by Jeff Angus (ISBN-10 0-06-111907-5). One thing that Angus-san mentions is that many managers come in and get immediate results (in both baseball and business) by making critical changes to issues where their predicessors had failed. This is usually short lived as the new manager has his/her own problem areas, and I think that Nomura-kantoku ran into them after the first few months of the season. The main problem being front office pressure to do things their way, and Nomura-kantoku not knowing how to handle that.

As Christopher pointed out, Hoshino-kantoku made the same request with the front office when he took over the Tigers. That is to say, Hoshino-kantoku insisted that he have full control over team operations. Unlike Nomura-kantoku, Hoshino-kantoku saw to it that Hanshin's front office upheld their end of the bargin. He never surrendered to the Hanshin front office, and that was where he was able to turn things around in the long haul rather than just a brief flash.

- The Osaka Shinkansen station was filled with Nomura memorabilia ... at that time.

I recall there was a gold statuette of Nomu-san made, and it went on sale for a price in the millions. I assume someone bought it; I wonder what they think of it now.

I also remember that at the end of his third year when the tax evasion issues involving Nomura-kantoku's wife arose, Hanshin were trying hard to keep him on. He's one of the true greats of NPB, no doubt, and perhaps those weren't the best of circumstances to leave in, but it was time for Nomu-san to go.

It looks like the Giants are doing their best to prove Jeff Angus' theories. They certainly seem to fit the model very well.

With regard to Nomura and Hoshino, I can well imagine Hoshino refusing to accept what the front office wants. Nomura would make a fuss but would eventually accept the situation.

Hoshino had it a little easier, I think. Nomura was a real breakthrough for the Tigers' front office in that he wasn't a former Tiger(!) and he had just spent the last few years managing against the Tigers. I can't imagine the entire Tigers organization being behind him 100%, and I can't think they were too broken up to see him fail.

After Nomura, perhaps the Tigers' ownership had a more realistic view of the scale of its problems, so it not only turned outside the organization again to get Hoshino, who had also managed against them, it actually made good on its promises.

Hoshino is also a different character. Nomura might be a grumbler and complain, but he does what he is told eventually. Hoshino doesn't follow this pattern. He will fight and will not accept any interference. This was the big difference. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of his position and was able to leverage them to the full.

Furthermore, Hoshino also had the personal backing of Nozaki-san (Tiger's then president) and Kuma-san (Tiger's then owner). That alignment alone would have been enough to overcome any opposition to Hoshino's plans, but most of the time it wasn't needed as Hoshino himself had the necessary authority to dictate what he wanted.

Nomura needs to hang them up. I'm tired of reading quotes from him talking bad about his players. Especially his foreign players.

Also, I recently read an article that he didn't like that he had to announce his starting pitcher the day before and that he was going to start sending a guy out there for one batter then put his starter in just to show that he objected to the rule. That's rule smart! Burn a reliever and take your starter out of his rythym to start the game.

Let's go old man. Move on with your side show. The game is not about you. It's about the players. The fans are not paying to watch your fat *** sitting on the bench.

- Let's go old man. Move on with your side show. The game is not about you. It's about the players. The fans are not paying to watch your fat *** sitting on the bench.

Easy there. Let's not forget that you're talking about one of Japan's all-time great managers - 4 CL pennants and 3 Japan Series titles in the 1990s means the man deserves respect, regardless of what you think of his methods (especially considering the small market team that the Swallows are/were).

In my opinion, what Japanese Baseball needs are more strong/interesting characters like Nomura. Most Japanese managers are about as interesting as a bowl of corn soup. This applies to most of NPB's players, too.

Some of the negative things that Nomura says are actually hidden positives. When he says a player is doing something wrong, he means that he sees potential. Saying Jose's approach to the plate is wrong is his way of saying Jose can increase his homers by 10-20.

I also think Nomura has a different attitude. He starts a lot of arguments he doesn't really care about so he can lose a few that don't matter, but win the ones he wants to win. Or such is my theory.

I really didn't like Nomura at all at first, mainly because I couldn't understand a word he said. I became more of a fan in the mid-1990s, when I came across a brilliant interview with him by Greg Starr (?) in Tokyo Journal. I haven't been able to track it down since, but it portrayed him as a very astute, very shrewd leader. I think Greg was up front and said he was a fan, but it didn't come off as a hagiography.

The one issue I've ever had with Nomura is Katsunori. Can he really care about winning that much if he always wastes a roster spot on his son? Does his son have any special value as a player?

This guy is a true sign that things need to change in Japanese baseball. People that think along the same lines of Nomura-san are the reasons there are problems with the Japnese game. The game could be a lot better here. There is a lot of talent, but it seems as if some of these coaches don't give these players enough freedom or belief in themselves to go out there and play the game the right way.

- People that think along the same lines of Nomura-san are the reasons there are problems with the Japnese game.

The major problem with the game in Japan is Nabestune and the way many corporations run the teams. Second, many scandals such as the Murakami Fund scandal don't help either.

Watanabe is the major road block to any reform in Japan. While, Yomiuri's power isn't as strong as it once was, Nabestune isn't quietly going anywhere.

Getting back to Nomura though, he's a welcome sign to Japanese baseball and to a team who almost lost 100 games. So far this year, Rakuten has quietly competed, and the Orix breakdown is slowly creeping closer and closer as Katsuhiro Nakamura has no clue whatsoever.

Orix is slowly waiting for an apparent collapse, as there is no sign of consistency with Nakamura. You might not like Nomura's ranting and complaining, but his managerial career has been a success, regardless of how you want to look at it or believe about Nomura.

Personally, I believe Nomura is one of the major reasons they're doing way better than last year, and Iwakuma is supposed to be coming back from a Eastern League rehab soon, I believe. Iwakuma will definetly help Rakuten. As Ichiba has pitched better this year, and Ryan Glynn has been great.