Oh and Nomura on Hoshino Japan

The day after Team Japan failed miserably out of Beijing Olympic baseball competition by losing to the US in the bronze medal game, NPB resumed action after a short 2 day Olympic finals break. But its been rainy lately in Japan, and many games were cancelled, including the first meetup with the Japanesebaseball.com guys we had planned for the Tigers-Swallows game at Jingu Stadium, and the Hawks-Eagles matchup up in Sendai.

Once the game was officially cancelled at Sendai, Sadaharu Oh went to pay a visit to Katsuya Nomura, both legendary players and managers in NPB history. With the press present, naturally, the talk quickly turned to why manager Senichi Hoshino‘s team failed to even medal, let alone gold.

Here’s a snippet of their conversation as reported by Sports Hochi.

Nomura: Olympics was a failure, wasn’t it?

Oh: Yes, it was disappointing. It’s difficult. One loss means it’s all over.

Nomura: It’s difficult to select players. The heart of the order, 3-4-5 hitters need to be solid.

Oh: It’s always difficult for batters when they face new pitchers for the first time. But ours (Tsuyoshi Wada and Toshiya Sugiuchi) got hit pretty hard. (Comment: Wada and Sugiuchi both pitched 2 games each, Wada 4.82 ERA in 9 1/3 IP and Sugiuchi 0.84 ERA in 10 2/3 IP, so it was only Wada who got hit moderately hard. Olympic stats here.)

Earlier before Oh’s visit Nomura had already criticized Hoshino Japan, that the team was “unable to make use of all its data. Totally wasted a good thing there. I thought things got off to a bad start when they chose a group of friends to manage the team (Hoshino is friends with coaches Tabuchi and Yamamoto). Managers who used to be pitchers don’t know what position players go through either.” (Comment: Hoshino pitched for the Dragons, peaking in the 70’s.) Oh also commented on the overall team strengths of Korea, Cuba, and USA.

Oh: They didn’t swing at any balls. Great plate discipline. Once again, we saw how important great batting eyes are. (Comment: says the man who has NPB leading 2390 career walks and an astounding .446 career OBP. At Beijing Japan only walked 24 times, other teams were Canada 15, Cuba 37, Korea 30, Taiwan 30, and USA 34.)

Nomura: The batters swing without taking big steps.

Oh: They wait for the ball, and still get distance on the balls they hit.

Nomura: Different muscles.

Oh: It’s difficult for starters to pitch relief. Though, I understand that it’s also difficult to select middle relievers on Team Japan… and on top of that the roster size is only 24 players. (Comment: MLB is 25, while NPB uses a 28 man roster with lots of leeway.)

Nomura: Kids these days are weak. They have the gall take 10 days off by fouling pitches off themselves. I didn’t want to lose my job, so I even played with broken bones.

Oh: Well, we are 1st and 2nd in all time games played so we were tough, but there are players who give in easily to pain.

Nomura: You are a man of integrity. I lack integrity. That there shows up in our difference of 200 homeruns. (Comment: 868 v 657 career homruns for the two living legends.)

The two talked for 40 minutes, but these were the quotes that made it onto Sports Hochi. World’s homerun king Oh, of course, has also led the champion Team Japan in WBC 2006. And Nomura, the greatest hitting catcher in NPB history, managed Cuban manager at Beijing, Antonio Pacheco, when he played at Shidax in the Japanese industrial leagues. Oh has been to the Japan Series 4 times as manager and won twice, Nomura 5 times and won three times. (Comment: Hoshino has been to the Japan Series 3 times as manager but has never won it.)

Note: This is not a word for word translation, but I’ll reprint the original article here before it disappears from the archives.

ノムさん王さん電撃対談…星野ＪＡＰＡＮの敗因分析

8月25日8時0分配信 スポーツ報知

楽天・野村監督、ソフトバンク・王監督が２４日、北京五輪でメダルを逃した星野ジャパンをそろって敗因を分析した。故障者が続出したことについてノムさ んは「メンバー編成が難しい。今の子は痛みに弱いし」とチクリと刺せば、王監督は「キューバ、韓国、アメリカはやっぱりすごい」と冷静に分析。球界の重鎮 にとっても、今回の敗戦は大きな関心事だったようだ。

Ｋスタ宮城での楽天・ソフトバンク戦が雨天中止となり、いつものように報道陣の質問を受けている野村監督の元に、王監督があいさつに訪れた。話題が『星野ジャパンについて』と聞くと、王監督も腰を下ろし“緊急対談”となった。

ノムさん「五輪、ダメだったね」

王監督「残念でしたね。難しいですよ。１つ負けたらオシマイですから」

ノムさん「メンバー編成が難しいよ。（打順の）３、４、５番がしっかりしないと」

王監督「初めての対戦はバッターは難しい。でもウチの（和田、杉内）はよく打たれましたね」

ノムさんは“対談”の前にも星野ジャパンの問題点を指摘していた。「データが生かし切れなかったんじゃないか。宝の持ち腐れ。仲良しグループ（の首脳 陣）を選んだ時点でダメだと思った。投手出身の監督は野手の気持ちが分からないしな」　一方、王監督は韓国、キューバ、米国の総合力の高さに目を見張っ た。

王監督「ボール球を振らなかった。見切りがいい。やっぱり大事ですね、選球眼は」

ノムさん「ステップせずに打つやつばかりやな」

王監督「引きつけて打って、飛距離も出る」

ノムさん「筋肉が違うよ」

王監督「先発が救援するのは難しい。中継ぎ専門を（代表に）選ぶのも難しいですが…それに２４人しかいないのも大変」

ノムさん「今の子は痛みに弱い。自打球で１０日も休む。オレは誰にもレギュラーを渡したくないから骨折しても出た」

王監督「我々は出場試合数が歴代１位と２位ですから頑丈ですが、痛みに弱い選手もいますよ」

ノムさん「人格者だな。オレは非人格者。その違いが（２人の本塁打の）２００本の差だよ」

約４０分間の電撃対談。半世紀にわたって日本プロ野球を支える２人が口にした苦言、提言の根底にあるのは、実力を発揮できなかった日本代表へのもどかしさだったのかもしれない。

◆野村、王監督の短期決戦采配メモ　王監督は０６年、第１回ＷＢＣを指揮して日本を初代王者に導いた。１次リーグで韓国に連敗。一発勝負の厳しさを実感 している。一方、野村監督は０２年１１月に社会人野球・シダックスの監督に就任。翌年９月、都市対抗野球で準優勝するなどトーナメント大会でも指導力を発 揮した。当時のチームには現キューバ代表監督のパチェコらも在籍。また、両監督の日本シリーズの成績は、王監督は４度の出場で２度、野村監督は５度の出場 で３度、日本一になっている。

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