◆ Mr. Iwamoto: "It feels like it has to be done." The answers from the nine commentators were...

Despite a close race with Softbank Hawks, Nippon-Ham missed out on the league championship. On the Fuji TV One program "Professional baseball News Year-End Review SP" broadcast on the 16th, nine commentators made predictions about whether the team would regain the championship next season.

Six people answered that they want to win, and three that they don't. Tsutomu Iwamoto said, "It feels like they have to do it," but Yasushi Tao spoke about the difficulty of winning, saying, "Softbank Hawks stumbled this year, but they've been crawling back up since then. They've saved up over 30 points, even though they've hardly ever had all of their regular players ready. When you think about whether they can beat a team with that strength, it's inevitable..."

Furthermore, Tatsukawa Mitsuo looked ahead to next season's management, saying, "Manager Shinjo said that he would try to fight with a fixed lineup next year, but this year he put the right players in the right positions and made good use of players who were in good form. Manager Shinjo is the type who doesn't change things once he's made a decision, so we'll have to see how long he can hold out." Tateyama Shohei pointed out, "The teams are getting used to playing baseball at ES CON FIELD, so they'll probably start keeping an eye on the players soon. I don't think there will be as many complete game as there were this year."

☆ Cooperation: Fuji TV ONE "Professional baseball News 2025"