List of Chunichi Dragons managers

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Hiromitsu Ochiai is the most successful manager of the Chunichi Dragons. Hiromitsu Ochiai.jpg
Hiromitsu Ochiai is the most successful manager of the Chunichi Dragons.

The Chunichi Dragons are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The Dragons are members of the Central League (CL) in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager, or more formally, the field manager. The duties of the team manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field. [1] [2]

Contents

Since their inception as Nagoya Club in 1936, the Dragons have employed 30 managers.

As one of the founding members of the NPB, the team has employed 30 managers (including four on an interim basis only), winning two Japan Series titles and eight Central League pennants. The franchise's first manager was hall of famer, Yutaka Ikeda, who managed the team for one year and who won 19 games in 42 attempts. Chunichi's most successful season came under another hall of famer, Shunichi Amachi, who led the team to Central league victory in 1954 with a winning percentage of .683 to claim the team's first Central League and Japan Series crowns. He was the first manager with no professional baseball experience to do so in Japan. It took another 53 years for Chunichi to win its second Japan series in 2007, under the coaching of long-term manager Hiromitsu Ochiai. Ochiai would prove to be the Dragons' most successful manager, with four Central League pennants to go with his Japan Series win. [3]

Former Chunichi ace pitcher and Eiji Sawamura Award winner Senichi Hoshino is the longest serving Dragons' manager, having had two stints with the team for an accumulated 11 years in the hot seat. He led the Dragons to the Central League pennant twice, in 1988 and 1999. [4]

Long serving catcher and NPB appearance record holder Motonobu Tanishige became manager of the Dragons while still playing professionally in 2013. [5] He retired in 2015 to focus on managing the team. [6] Tanishige however was relieved of his post following a series of disappointing results on the 9th of August, 2016 with head coach Shigekazu Mori taking control of the team as interim manager [7] and eventually as full-time manager. [8]

Hall of famer and NPB doubles leader, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami is the current manager.

Table key

#A running total of the number of Dragons managers. Any manager who has two or more separate terms is only counted once.
GMNumber of regular season games managed; may not equal sum of wins and losses due to tie games
WNumber of regular season wins in games managed
LNumber of regular season losses in games managed
TNumber of regular season ties in games managed
Win% Winning percentage: number of wins divided by number of games managed
PAPlayoff appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the playoffs
PWPlayoff wins: number of wins this manager has accrued in the playoffs
PLPlayoff losses: number of losses this manager has accrued in the playoffs
PTPlayoff ties: number of ties this manager has accrued in the playoffs
LCLeague Championships: number of League Championships, or pennants, achieved by the manager
JS Japan Series: number of Japan Series won by the manager
Elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame

Managers

Statistics current through the 2022 season

#ManagerSeasonsGMWLTWin%PAPWPLPTLCJS
1 Yutaka Ikeda 19364219230.452
2 Kaishi Masu 193710534683.323
3 Yukisato Nemoto 1938193910740616.396
4 Tokuro Konishi 1939194122499907.505
5 Chikayoshi Honda 1941194216163926.406
Kaishi Masu 19438448297.623
6 Daisuke Miyake 19443513211.382
7 Yoshikazu Takeuchi 19463613212.382
8 Kiyoshi Sugiura 1946-19483281481728.451
9 Shunichi Amachi 1949 1951 38721716010.561
10 Michinori Tsubouchi 1952 1953 2501451005.580
Shunichi Amachi 1954 13086404.683143011
11 Akira Noguchi 1955 1956 2601511081.583
Shunichi Amachi 1957 1958 2601361068.523
12 Shigeru Sugishita 1959 1960 2601271285.488
13 Wataru Nohnin 1960 1962 2631421065.540
Kiyoshi Sugiura 1963 1964 196101923.515
14 Michio Nishizawa 1963 1967 48025321710.538
Shigeru Sugishita 1968 13450804.385
15 Itsuro Honda 1968 7529433.403
16 Shigeru Mizuhara 1969 1971 39017919516.459
17 Wally Yonamine 1972 1977 78038834943.526124010
18 Toshio Naka 1978 1980 39015720429.435
19 Sadao Kondoh 1981 1983 39017618133.451124010
20 Kazuhiro Yamauchi 1984 1986 32215414226.478
21 Morimichi Takagi 1986 13054679.446
22 Senichi Hoshino 1987 1991 65234828321.534114010
Morimichi Takagi 1992 1995 5222522682.483
23 Sadayuki Tokutake 1995 5717391.304
24 Ikuo Shimano 1995 5425290.463
Senichi Hoshino 1996 2001 8094183856.517114010
25 Hisashi Yamada 2002 2003 2601281275.502
26 Kyosuke Sasaki 2003 201451.700
27 Hiromitsu Ochiai 2004 2011 1,15062949130.56251314141
Morimichi Takagi 2012 2013 28813913019.483
28 Motonobu Tanishige 2014 2016 39617220811.434
29 Shigekazu Mori 2016 2018 3251371817.421
30 Tsuyoshi Yoda 2019 2021 40618319924.451
31 Kazuyoshi Tatsunami 2022 Present14366752.468

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References

General
Specific
  1. "Manager: Definition | Dictionary.com". Dictionary.Reference.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 2006. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
  2. Dickson, P. (2009). The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. p. 530. ISBN   978-0-393-06681-4.
  3. Jason Coskrey (25 November 2011). "Ochiai bows out after eight years in charge of Dragons". Japan Times. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  4. Jason Coskrey (23 October 2013). "Veteran skipper Hoshino continues quest for elusive title". Japan Times. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  5. Wayne Graczyk (19 October 2013). "Tanishige to become rare player-manager for Dragons". Japan times. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  6. "Dragons manager Tanishige to end playing career". Japan Times. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  7. "Dragons manager Tanishige ordered to take leave of absence". Japan Times. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  8. "Mori staying put with Dragons". The Japan Times. 29 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.