Yomiuri clinches 2nd consecutive Central League title

Friday 10th October, 09:51 PM JST

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14 Comments

romulus3 at 02:31 AM JST - 11th October

romulus3 at 08:23 PM JST - 10th October

looks done really. mid way point and Hanshin down 4-3 plus giants up 3-1. sigh....so close but yet again so far

nice post Romulus. Just a little sad
slappayuki at 04:22 AM JST - 11th October

giants money once again proves other teams don't add up.
cheanjasdotcom at 04:35 AM JST - 11th October

yeay !

but no sale in osaka :p
TeruSensei at 12:29 PM JST - 11th October

All the managers of Kentucky can breathe a sigh of relief at least for one more year.
northlondon at 01:46 PM JST - 11th October

Had enough of Okada. It's a disgace. A 13 game lead ? Kyojin were average yet again and only Okada's incompetence let them in. It's all fine and well resting key players when you have a big lead, but any decent team manager will tell you about the risk of losing your momentum when you do that and that's what happened. The teams who win the Japan Series are the ones with the best momentum in September/ October and Okada won't learn.
romulus3 at 02:06 PM JST - 11th October

Had enough of Okada

Yes. Lets dress him up as the colonel and dump him in the river in dotonbori
ProfessorJ at 02:29 PM JST - 11th October

Yomiuri clinches 2nd consecutive Central League title

The Professor is going to take issue with this English, and say that it is doesn't quite cut it in his book. 2nd consecutive title? This is the second time they've won back-to-back titles or second time they've won two titles in a row? We have English for this kind of thing. Or is 2nd consecutive something something acceptable and I've gone bonkers?
romulus3 at 02:45 PM JST - 11th October

ProfessorJ

You are right. The English is shocking.

what it should read is "Yomiuri crumble under pressure and lose title race to the mighty Tigers and heroic Okada"
northlondon at 03:18 PM JST - 11th October

what it should read is "Yomiuri crumble under pressure and lose title race to the mighty Tigers and heroic Okada"

or even, "Hara the other clown falls into yet another pennant by default from the original clown (Okada)".
eresay at 10:58 PM JST - 11th October

Ahh northlondon, here you are again. Your failure to respond to all my questions regarding your countless erroneous posts has been noted.

Hanshin has failed to hit and get outs in key situations. Kyojin has had an incredibly strong finish after the all star break.

While I dont like Okada, he did not manufacture the collapse. The players failed to step up and Kyojin did. How would have you managed the team differently to prevent this team falling flat at the wrong end of the season?

Oh boy, this will be good...

Lets hear it northlondon!
northlondon at 12:21 AM JST - 12th October

earache,

I totally agree that Hanshin cocked things up by the countless times they struck out this season with the bases loaded. No excuses for that. But when you state that Hanshin's players failed to step up (they didn't need to step up, they just needed to keep things flowing with a 13 game lead) surely that is the responsibility of the coach ? If the coach cannot accept full responsibility for that, then we don't need coaches in baseball. Just leave the players to themselves. Okada did manufacture the [total] collapse. He decided to rest key players and lost the momentum. Good luck to Kyojin But with their salary budget and the players they acquire, they are even more under-achieving than Hanshin. What would I have done differently ? Well, I'm a foreigner, so I wouldn't have held grudges against the foreign players (Aitchison/ Williams) and I would have kept the momentum going with a 13 game lead until the pennant was out of sight. Then I would have rested players.
eresay at 07:40 PM JST - 12th October

OK so lets forget the quaint British terminology for a start, he was their manager not coach. The term "coach" is given to the managers assistants eg bench coach, 1st base coach, pitching coach etc.

You are a newbie to the game so you are forgiven.

We agree on one thing, Okada is not a very good manager. If he is sacked, I wont be shedding any tears. I have rarely seen a manager mismanage his rotation and bullpen as Okada has.

In saying that, a manager doesnt blow 13 games. A bad decision here or there in a tight race could be attributed to the manager costing his team the title but this collapse was a combination of failing to execute fundamentals eg scoring the runner at 3rd with less than 2 outs. Players at this level should be doing this, it is NOT the managers fault.

Kubota and Williams were awful in the bullpen this year as were others but these two you expected to make their pitches and they didnt.
ProfessorJ at 07:57 PM JST - 12th October

If he is sacked, I wont be shedding any tears

He's "retiring" at the end of this season.
BurakuminDes at 09:02 PM JST - 16th October

Well Done Tokyo Giants but Japanese Baseball is merely a feeder for the US leagues.