Leon Lee and the Blue Wave

A quick search for Leon on this site will reveal a thread entitled Leon Lee, the New Orix Manager. That thread has a lot of great information and commentary, and several tangents that you might want to skip.

Nonetheless, the reason that there are two names for manager is because Ishige managed the team for the first month and a half, Lee ever since. You'll find that players traded during the season appear on two teams' rosters as well. I guess I need a field to depict if a player is active. (Then, what do I do with players like Whiteside who have been released in mid-season and not signed by any other teams?)

- Also, Leon Lee must be only the second American manager (Bobby Valentine being the first) to manage a Japanese team, yes?

You really don't follow the Pacific League, do you? Who's the manager the Nippon Ham Fighters signed before this season for three years?

There have been a number of Japanese-Americans who have managed in the past, Chunichi's Yonamine Kaname and Hanshin's Tanaka Yoshio to name two. Don Lee Blasingame (Hanshin), Joe Roots (Hiroshima), Don Blaiser (Nankai), and Bobby Valentine (Lotte) are Katakana names of managers from the past, predating Trey Hillman and Leon Lee this year.

As for whether Leon will be back next year, that's still unknown. At one point during the season Orix said that they were going to extend his contract, but they reconsidered that recently saying that next year's manager is a "blank sheet."

- Don Lee Blasingame (Hanshin), Joe Roots (Hiroshima), Don Blaiser (Nankai), and Bobby Valentine (Lotte) are Katakana names of managers from the past, [...]

Could Don Blasingame and Don Blaiser be the same person? Blasingame's nickname was Blazer, and I think he did manage Nankai at one stage.

Yes, Don "Blazer" is actually Don Blasingame. They just called him "Blazer" here, probably because it's must easier to pronounce than Blasingame.

Also, it's Joe Lutz, not Joe Roots, who managed Hiroshima in the early '70s.

Thanks for the corrections.

Yes, Blazer is Blasingame. Should have figured that out.

I've been entering former managers into my database from Japanese sources, and have only gotten through the Giants, Dragons, Tigers, and Carp in looking up Romanization of names. This will save me looking up Lutz later. Thanks.