List of Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles managers

Last updated

Kazuhisa Ishii is the current manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. K ishii20210522.jpg
Kazuhisa Ishii is the current manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles are a professional baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. The Eagles are members of the Pacific League (PL) 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] Since their inaugural season in 2005, the Eagles have employed nine managers. Under the franchise's first manager, Yasushi Tao, the team finished last in the PL and was the first PL team in 40 years to lose over 90 games in a single season. Despite being signed to a three-year contract, Tao was dismissed after the Eagles' inaugural season. [3] He was replaced by Hall of Famer Katsuya Nomura for the next season. During his four-year managerial tenure, Nomura accumulated 256 wins and a .459  winning percentage. Despite leading the team to its first Climax Series appearance in 2009, Eagles' management decided not to renew Nomura's contract. [4] Instead, he was retained as an honorary manager through the 2012 season. [5]

Contents

Marty Brown, Nomura's successor, signed a two-year managerial contract, however he was fired after only one last-place season with the Eagles. [6] Instead, long-time manager Senichi Hoshino was hired and signed to a one-year, ¥150 million contract for the 2011 season. [7] After a fifth-place PL finish and the positive development of the team's younger players, team owner Hiroshi Mikitani requested that Hoshino stay on as manager for the next few seasons. [8] In the 2013 season, the Eagles' ninth, he went on to lead the team to its first PL pennant, first successful Climax Series run, and first Japan Series title. [9] The following season, however, Hoshino missed two months with the team because of back problems and the Eagles finished in last place. At season's end, he stepped down as manager despite ownership wanting him to return for a fifth season. Hoshino and Nomura's four-year managerial tenures remain the team's longest. [10] Hoshino was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017; [11] his copper plaque depicts him wearing an Eagles cap. [12]

Hiromoto Okubo, Rakuten's farm team manager, was named Hoshino's successor following his departure. He only lasted one season, however, as he resigned after the team again finished in last place. [13] The team turned to veteran manager Masataka Nashida to fill the managerial vacancy for the 2016 season. Nashida was the last person to manage the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes before they were dissolved and merged after the 2004 season and appeared to be a natural choice to manage the Eagles, the team created to fill the void left by that merger. [14] He was able to lead the team to its third playoff berth in 2017, however, the next season he resigned mid-season in July when the club dropped to 20 games below a .500 winning percentage. [15]

Coach Yosuke Hiraishi acted as team's interim manager for the remainder of the 2018 season and was promoted to full-time manager for the 2019 season. Hiraishi was the first former Eagles player to manage the team. [16] Despite leading the team to a Climax Series berth in 2019, Hiraishi's contract was not renewed. Eagles' general manager Kazuhisa Ishii was looking for someone capable of rebuilding the team. Hajime Miki, Rakuten's farm team manager, was hired to replace Hiraishi for the 2020 season. The previous season, Miki led the franchise's minor-league affiliate to the Eastern League championship title for the first time in its 15-year history. [17] After only one fourth-place season, however, Ishii sent Miki back to manage the farm team and Rakuten instead appointed Ishii himself to manage the Eagles starting with the 2021 season. [18]

Table key

#A running total of the number of Eagles 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 that did not result in a tie
PAPostseason appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the postseason
PWPostseason wins: number of wins this manager has accrued in the postseason A
PLPostseason losses: number of losses this manager has accrued in the postseason B
PTPostseason ties: number of ties this manager has accrued in the postseason
LCLeague Championships: number of League Championships, or pennants, achieved by the manager C
JS Japan Series: number of Japan Series won by the manager
†Elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
^A This does not include the one-win advantage that league champions are automatically awarded in the second stage of the Climax Series.
^B This does not include the one-loss disadvantage first stage winners are automatically given in the second stage of the Climax Series.
^C The Pacific League pennant was awarded to the winner of a playoff series for the seasons of 1973 to 1982 and 2004 to 2006. After the Climax Series was created in 2007, the team with the best record during the regular season was named the league champion, not the winner of the Climax Series. [19]

Managers

Statistics current through the 2022 season

#Manager Seasons GMWLT Win% PAPWPLPTLCJSAwardsRef
1 Yasushi Tao 2005 13638971.281—————— [20]
2 Katsuya Nomura † 2006–2009 56825630210.45913300— [21]
3 Marty Brown 2010 14462793.440—————— [22]
4 Senichi Hoshino † 2011–2014 57627927720.502184011Best Manager Award (2013)
Matsutaro Shoriki Award (2013)		 [23] [24]
[25]
5 Hiromoto Okubo 2015 14357833.407—————— [26]
6 Masataka Nashida 2016–2018 3491601827.46814400— [27] [15]
7 Yosuke Hiraishi 2018–2019 2231081096.49811200— [28] [15]
8 Hajime Miki 2020 12055578.491—————— [29]
9 Kazuhisa Ishii 2021–present28613513318.50410110—

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles</span> Baseball team in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, Japan

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, often shortened as the Rakuten Eagles, are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping company Rakuten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazuhisa Ishii</span> Japanese baseball player

Kazuhisa Ishii is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher and manager and general manager. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yakult Swallows and Saitama Seibu Lions and in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senichi Hoshino</span> Japanese baseball player and manager (1947–2018)

Senichi Hoshino was a Nippon Professional Baseball player and manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katsuya Nomura</span> Japanese baseball player and manager (1935–2020)

Katsuya Nomura was a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) catcher and manager. During his over 26-season playing career mostly spent with the Nankai Hawks, he became one of NPB's greatest offensive catchers. He was awarded the Pacific League MVP Award five times, became the first NPB batter to win the Triple Crown in 1965, and holds the record for second-most home runs and RBIs in NPB history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marty Brown (baseball)</span> American baseball player

Marty Leo Brown is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He is a former Major League Baseball third baseman who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1988–89) and Baltimore Orioles (1990). He is also the former manager of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan's Central League, where he played for three seasons from 1992 to 1994, and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masataka Nashida</span> Japanese baseball manager and former player

Masataka Nashida is a former Nippon Professional Baseball catcher and manager. As a player, he played for the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1972 to 1988. After playing, he went on to manage three NPB teams. First, Nashida was the final manager of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes before they were dissolved and merged after the 2004 season. He then went on to manage the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from 2008 to 2011. Finally, he went on to manage the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the team created to fill the void left by the Buffaloes merger. He was able to lead the Eagles to their third-ever playoff berth in 2017, however he resigned in July the next year when the club dropped to 20 games below a .500 winning percentage. After his resignation, Eagles' coach Yosuke Hiraishi acted as team's interim manager for the remainder of the 2018 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katsunori Nomura</span> Japanese baseball player and coach

Katsunori Nomura is currently a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) coach for the Hanshin Tigers. Before coaching, he played in NPB from 1996 to 2006, primarily as a second or third-string catcher. Nomura was drafted in 1995 by the Yakult Swallows, the team managed by his father, catching-great and long-time manager Katsuya Nomura. Over the course of his playing career, his father managed him for five seasons with three different teams—two with the Swallows, two with the Hanshin Tigers and one with the Golden Eagles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsuyoshi Yoda</span> Japanese baseball player and manager

Tsuyoshi Yoda is a Japanese professional baseball player and manager. He managed of the Chunichi Dragons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) between 2019 and 2021.

Yasushi Tao is a Japanese retired Nippon Professional Baseball player. He was raised in Osaka. After playing, Tao managed the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. In his one year as manager, the Eagles finished in last in the PL and was the first PL team in 40 years to lose over 90 games in a single season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiromoto Okubo</span> Japanese baseball player and manager (born 1967)

Hiromoto Okubo is a former Nippon Professional Baseball catcher. After playing, he turned to managing and coaching. In 2015, Hiromoto was promoted from Rakuten's farm team manager to Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles full-time manager. He only lasted one season, however, as he resigned after the team again finished in last place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hajime Miki</span> Japanese baseball player

Hajime Miki is a former Nippon Professional Baseball infielder and current manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. In 2019, Miki led the Eagles' farm team to the Eastern League title for the first time in its 15-year history. He was then promoted to manager of the Eagles for the 2020 season with an emphasis on rebuilding the team. After one season it was announced that Miki would again return to manage the farm team.

The 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment was a series of events that occurred during the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball season that changed the landscape of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In June of that season, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave announced that, due to financial difficulties, the two teams planned to merge into one for the start of the 2005 season. Both teams were in the Pacific League (PL), and a merger between the two would result in a team imbalance with the PL's opposing league, the Central League (CL). Soon, it was announced that a second merger was being explored between two of the remaining four PL teams. With the possibility of the PL losing a second team, discussion about possibly restructuring NPB's two-league system into one ten-team league began. PL and CL executives continued to discuss the merits of both systems until it was finally decided that the two-league system would remain intact and interleague play would be introduced in the 2005 season.

The 2019 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) was a post-season Climax Series playoff consisting of two consecutive series that determined which of the three teams who finished in the top three during the 2019 regular season would represent the Pacific League in the Japan Series. The First Stage was a best-of-three series played between the second-place hosts Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the third-place Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The series was played between October 5 to 7. The Hawks defeated the Eagles 2–1 and advanced to the Final Stage to face the pennant-winning Saitama Seibu Lions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season</span> Professional sports season in Nippon Professional Baseball

The 2020 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season was the sixteenth season of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles franchise. The Eagles played their home games at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in the city of Sendai as members of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League. The team was led by Hajime Miki on his first and only season as team manager.

The history of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) began in 2004 when two Pacific League (PL) teams, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave, merged to create the Orix Buffaloes. After the league's first and only players strike on September 18–19, team representatives agreed to ease the rules of entry for new teams into NPB and that one would be allowed to join the following season to fill the void left by the merger. Beating out Livedoor, Hiroshi Mikitani's internet services company Rakuten was selected to create a new PL team to be based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. The new club was named the "Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles" and they would play in the newly renovated Miyagi Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season</span> Professional sports season in Nippon Professional Baseball

The 2021 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season was the 17th season of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles franchise. The Eagles played their home games at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in the city of Sendai as members of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League. The team was led by Kazuhisa Ishii in his first season as team manager.

The 2021 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) was a set of two consecutive playoff series in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The First Stage began on November 6 and the Final Stage concluded on November 12. The First Stage was a best-of-three series between the second-place Chiba Lotte Marines and the third-place Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Final Series was a best-of-six with the Orix Buffaloes, the Pacific League champion, being awarded a one-win advantage against the Marines, the winner of the First Stage. The Buffaloes advanced to the 2021 Japan Series to compete against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, the 2021 Central League Climax Series winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season</span> Professional sports season in Nippon Professional Baseball

The 2022 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season was the 18th season of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles franchise. The Eagles played their home games at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in the city of Sendai as members of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League. The team led by Kazuhisa Ishii in his second season as team manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season</span> Professional sports season in Nippon Professional Baseball

The 2019 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season was the fifteenth season of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles franchise. The Eagles played their home games at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in the city of Sendai as members of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League. The team was led by Yosuke Hiraishi in his first and only season as team manager.

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. ↑ "Golden Eagles throw in the Tao". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. September 27, 2005. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Eagles want to hire Brown: sources". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 24, 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  5. ↑ "球団名誉監督に関して" [Regarding the honorary manager of the baseball team]. Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. December 12, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Eagles eye Hoshino: sources". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 6, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Hoshino makes return with Eagles". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 28, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Eagles want Hoshino for third year". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. August 8, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  9. ↑ Coskrey, Jason (November 3, 2013). "Eagles blank Giants in Game 7, capture first Japan Series title". The Japan Times . Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Eagles manager Hoshino to step down at season's end". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. September 14, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Ito, Hoshino, Hiramatsu inducted into Hall of Fame". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. January 16, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  12. ↑ "殿堂レリーフ「捕手かぶり」の矜持　野村克也さん一周忌" [The first anniversary of Katsuya Nomura's death, proud of "catcher cap" on Hall of Fame relief]. Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). February 11, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Eagles skipper Okubo won't return for 2016 season". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. September 22, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  14. ↑ "New Eagles manager Nashida eager to lead PL club". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 8, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  15. 1 2 3 "Eagles manager Masataka Nashida steps down". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. June 16, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Eagles promote interim manager Yosuke Hiraishi to manager". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 5, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Eagles promote farm team skipper Hajime Miki to manager". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. October 11, 2019. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Eagles appoint former big-leaguer Kazuhisa Ishii as manager". The Japan Times . Kyodo News. November 13, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
  19. ↑ "CL to follow PL playoff model". The Japan Times . September 5, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Yasushi Tao Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Katsuya Nomura Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Marty Brown Minor & Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Senichi Hoshino Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  24. ↑ "2013年度 表彰選手（パシフィック・リーグ）" [2013 Awarded Players (Pacific League)] (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball . Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  25. ↑ "歴代正力松太郎賞" [Successive Matsutaro Shoriki Awards]. Sankei Sports (in Japanese). Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  26. ↑ "Hiromoto Okubo Japanese & Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  27. ↑ "Masataka Nashida Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  28. ↑ "Yosuke Hiraishi Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  29. ↑ "Hajime Miki Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.