List of Chunichi Dragons managers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese man wearing a blue and white uniform greets an umpire
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]

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.
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 2021 season

# Manager Seasons GM W L T Win% PA PW PL PT LC JS
1 † 1936 42 19 23 0 .452 — — — — — —
2 1937 105 34 68 3 .323 — — — — — —
3 1938–1939 107 40 61 6 .396 — — — — — —
4 Tokuro Konishi† 1939–1941 224 99 90 7 .505 — — — — — —
5 1941–1942 161 63 92 6 .406 — — — — — —
— 1943 84 48 29 7 .623 — — — — — —
6 † 1944 35 13 21 1 .382 — — — — — —
7 Yoshikazu Takeuchi 1946 36 13 21 2 .382 — — — — — —
8 1946-1948 328 148 172 8 .451 — — — — — —
9 Shunichi Amachi† 1949–1951 387 217 160 10 .561 — — — — — —
10 † 1952–1953 250 145 100 5 .580 — — — — — —
— Shunichi Amachi† 1954 130 86 40 4 .683 1 4 3 0 1 1
11 Akira Noguchi 1955–1956 260 151 108 1 .583 — — — — — —
— Shunichi Amachi† 1957–1958 260 136 106 8 .523 — — — — — —
12 Shigeru Sugishita† 1959–1960 260 127 128 5 .488 — — — — — —
13 1960–1962 263 142 106 5 .540 — — — — — —
— 1963–1964 196 101 92 3 .515 — — — — — —
14 Michio Nishizawa† 1963–1967 480 253 217 10 .538 — — — — — —
— Shigeru Sugishita† 1968 134 50 80 4 .385 — — — — — —
15 1968 75 29 43 3 .403 — — — — — —
16 Shigeru Mizuhara† 1969–1971 390 179 195 16 .459 — — — — — —
17 Wally Yonamine† 1972–1977 780 388 349 43 .526 1 2 4 0 1 0
18 Toshio Naka 1978–1980 390 157 204 29 .435 — — — — — —
19 Sadao Kondoh† 1981–1983 390 176 181 33 .451 1 2 4 0 1 0
20 Kazuhiro Yamauchi† 1984–1986 322 154 142 26 .478 — — — — — —
21 Morimichi Takagi† 1986 130 54 67 9 .446 — — — — — —
22 Senichi Hoshino† 1987–1991 652 348 283 21 .534 1 1 4 0 1 0
— Morimichi Takagi† 1992–1995 522 252 268 2 .483 — — — — — —
23 1995 57 17 39 1 .304 — — — — — —
24 1995 54 25 29 0 .463 — — — — — —
— Senichi Hoshino† 1996–2001 809 418 385 6 .517 1 1 4 0 1 0
25 Hisashi Yamada† 2002–2003 260 128 127 5 .502 — — — — — —
26 Kyosuke Sasaki 2003 20 14 5 1 .700 — — — — — —
27 Hiromitsu Ochiai† 2004–2011 1,150 629 491 30 .562 5 13 14 1 4 1
— Morimichi Takagi† 2012–2013 288 139 130 19 .483 — — — — — —
28 Motonobu Tanishige 2014–2016 396 172 208 11 .434 — — — — — —
29 Shigekazu Mori 2016–2018 325 137 181 7 .421 — — — — — —
30 Tsuyoshi Yoda 2019–2021 406 183 199 24 .451 — — — — — —
31 Kazuyoshi Tatsunami† –Present - - - - - — — — — — —

References[]

General
  • 中日ドラゴンズ 年度別成績 (2005–2015) [Chunichi Dragons Results By Year (2005–2015)] (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  • "Hall of Famers List". The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
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.
Retrieved from ""