List of Yomiuri Giants managers
The Yomiuri Giants are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The Giants 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] The team has employed 11 different managers since the formation of a professional baseball league in Japan. The current Giants manager is Tatsunori Hara.[3]
Since their inception as the Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club in 1934, the Giants have employed 13 managers. The franchise's first managers were Japanese Baseball Hall of Famer Daisuke Miyake and Yoshio Asanuma. After forming an All-Japan team in 1934 to play a Major League Baseball All-Star team in Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun-owner Matsutarō Shōriki kept the team together to create the Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club in December 1934.[4] The team then traveled to the United States to play against various Minor League and amateur teams in 1935.[5] Encouraged by the success of Shōriki's team, other Japanese teams were formed and Japanese Baseball League was established in 1936.
In the 59 seasons since the NPB was formed, the Giants have had seven different managers. Starting with the NPB's inaugural season, Shigeru Mizuhara managed the team for 11 seasons, earning the team its first four Japan Series titles. Mizuhara's total winning percentage was .638, the highest of any manager in the NPB-era. Following Mizuhara, Tetsuharu Kawakami began an 14-year managerial tenure in 1960, the longest in franchise history. Under Kawakami, the team won 11 more Japan Series titles, including 9 consecutive titles from 1965 to 1973. Kawakami won 1,066 games as the Giants' manager, the most in franchise history.
Table key
# | A running total of the number of Giants managers. Any manager who has two or more separate terms is only counted once. |
---|---|
GM | Number of regular season games managed; may not equal sum of wins and losses due to tie games |
W | Number of regular season wins in games managed |
L | Number of regular season losses in games managed |
T | Number of regular season ties in games managed |
Win% | Winning percentage: number of wins divided by number of games managed |
PA | Playoff appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the playoffs |
PW | Playoff wins: number of wins this manager has accrued in the playoffs |
PL | Playoff losses: number of losses this manager has accrued in the playoffs |
PT | Playoff ties: number of ties this manager has accrued in the playoffs |
LC | League 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 2011 season
# | Manager | Seasons | GM | W | L | T | Win% | PA | PW | PL | PT | LC | JS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sadayoshi Fujimoto† | 1936–1942 | 604 | 422 | 168 | 14 | .715 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
2 | Haruyasu Nakajima† | 1943 | 84 | 54 | 27 | 3 | .667 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
3 | Hideo Fujimoto† | 1944–1946 | 140 | 83 | 53 | 4 | .610 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
— | Haruyasu Nakajima† | 1946–1947 | 224 | 120 | 98 | 6 | .550 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
4 | Osamu Mihara† | 1947–1949 | 393 | 224 | 162 | 7 | .580 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
5 | Shigeru Mizuhara† | 1950–1960 | 1,409 | 881 | 499 | 29 | .638 | 8 | 22 | 24 | 2 | 8 | 4 |
6 | Tetsuharu Kawakami† | 1961–1974 | 1,866 | 1,066 | 739 | 61 | .591 | 11 | 44 | 18 | 0 | 11 | 11 |
7 | Shigeo Nagashima† | 1975–1980 | 780 | 387 | 338 | 55 | .534 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
8 | Motoshi Fujita† | 1981–1983 | 390 | 211 | 148 | 31 | .588 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
9 | Sadaharu Oh† | 1984–1988 | 650 | 347 | 264 | 39 | .568 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
— | Motoshi Fujita† | 1989–1992 | 520 | 305 | 213 | 2 | .589 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
— | Shigeo Nagashima† | 1993–2001 | 1,202 | 647 | 551 | 4 | .540 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
10 | Tatsunori Hara | 2002–2003 | 280 | 157 | 118 | 5 | .571 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
11 | Tsuneo Horiuchi† | 2004–2005 | 284 | 133 | 144 | 7 | .480 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
— | Tatsunori Hara | 2006–present | 866 | 468 | 371 | 27 | .558 | 5 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
References
- General
- 読売ジャイアンツ 年度別成績 (1936-2012) (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - "Hall of Famers List". The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
- Specific
- ^ "Manager: Definition | Dictionary.com". Dictionary.Reference.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 2006. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
- ^ Dickson, P. (2009). The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-393-06681-4.
- ^ 読売ジャイアンツ 年度別成績 (1936-2012) (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|trans_title=
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suggested) (help) - ^ Reaves, Joseph A. (2004). Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia. Bison Books. pp. 76–77. ISBN 0-8032-9001-2.
- ^ Fitts, Robert K. (2008). Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball. University of Nebraska Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-8032-1381-6.