Valentine in the air after winning the Japan Series in 2005
“You gotta have Wa” (one of my favorite book of all time) author Robert Whiting has just concluded crazy 4-part series about how once-super-popular Bobby Valentine was almost jettisoned from Chiba Lotte Marines, on Japan Times online.
- Part 1: Clandestine campaign led to Valentines demise
- Part 2: Valentines philosophy brought Marines glory, money
- Part 3: Resentment of Valentines power factored in downfall
- Part 4: History, tradition helped to undermine Valentine
Fascinating, in a nasty way. Sounds like the club went above and beyond trying to make Valentine’s last season hell, hoping to push him out. Great read for people who are interested in Japanese baseball of good and bad. Cooperate style communication (or lack there of) and the mob mentality of Japanese culture is very frustrating. It is almost like bullying. The reason for his firing? Money. He was making more than double of what other managers of NPB make. Quick internet search showed that Valentine was said to make about $4 million a year, where others like Ochiai (Chunichi) and Nomura (Rakuten) made $1.5 million, and Hara (Giants) was at $1 million. (Note: This is probably not an actual figure, since Japanese baseball don’t make those figure public, but you get the idea…)
I thought it was very strange that Valentine made known his intention to make the 2009 season his last with the team before the season, and announcement on his blog during the season (and it appears that it is his last post on the web). He was enormously popular that there even was a small shrine in his honor, but I guess it was dismissed during the season (off the track a bit, but remember Cabrera Jizo? it was for former-Seibu Lions slugger Alex Cabrera). Fans collected petition to keep him as a manager, campaigned against the team. Examples includes nasty blog posting targeting some front-office personnel especially Yoko Yoneda (1, 2), and banners protesting the parent company’s decision in the stands.
Here are some excerpts from his announcement. He keeps it classy. But Now I read it, the frustration can be found in between the lines of those words:
…But this season many people around me and I were presented with a very challenging and confusing situation. Last week Acting Owner Shigemitsu came to my office and I had a chance to speak privately with him one-on-one for the first time since last July. I thanked him for visiting me and apologized for the poor performance of the team. We reassured each other that our friendship remained the same and I felt grateful for it. And most importantly, I came to feel that for me to leave the team at the end of the 2009 season is best for the Shigemitsu family and for the Chiba Lotte Marines, and so I wanted to make this announcement about the decision as soon as possible.
…(SNIP)…
Please view this announcement as my determination to make Chiba Lotte Marines baseball fun once again, for our fans and for each member of the team. I have always felt victory was shallow–and true victory was impossible–if the attempt to gain it was not fun. This year has not been fun for anyone who truly loves the Chiba Lotte Marines, so I will make a renewed effort to make this 2009 season the most fun that it can possibly be, and one that we will all remember and cherish for our lifetimes. To help me with this effort and to inspire the team, I would like you, the greatest fans in the world, to cheer for us more than ever.
He concludes with “Lets play fun baseball again.” That positive attitude, like focusing on the “fun” of it, was probably why he was so successful, in the world of “no pain, no gain” Japanese baseball.
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Also, from what I heard they went all out after Valentine’s support team, the people he brought in(Larry Rocca, etc), and everyone else to make his last year a living hell and to prevent him from actually being successful on the field, which would then corner Chiba Lotte into not being able to get rid of him.
From what I read of Whiting’s 4 piece set: is like Hirooka before, Setoyama came to resent Valentine for ignoring him. Chiba’s head honcho, Akio Shigemitsu, also seemed to grow tired of Valentine. New manager, Norifumi Nishimura, seemed to take a swipe at Valentine’s laid back approach with the players that made them so great.
This is such an epic fall for someone Chiba was ready to nominate “manager for life” after the 2005 season and had his face on every Chiba product. Larry Rocca sums it up good I think:
It proves things are hard to change in NPB. Though why do I have this feeling that Bobby Valentine will be back in NPB and Setoyama will go the way of Hirooka? Maybe, I’m the only one with this feeling, maybe I’m not, but its my gut feeling that Chiba Lotte will come crawling back to Valentine one way or the other. Or some other NPB team will come calling for him sooner or later.