It was learned on the 15th that Masato Yoshii (61), the former manager of Rakuten Eagles Eagles. The team is currently languishing at the bottom of the league with a deficit of 16 games. Since the announcement on the 10th that manager Hajime Miki (49) would be taking a leave of absence, head coach Tatsuya Shiokawa (43) has been serving as acting manager, but Yoshii is expected to take charge from the first game of the season since the league resumes on the 19th against his former team, the Chiba Lotte Marines (at ZOZO Marine Stadium). The team will be looking to turn things around under the new manager, who has been appointed at an unusual time in the middle of the season.

◆Extremely Unusual for an Outside Manager Excluding interim and substitute managers, the only other case of a new manager being brought in from outside during the season was in 1940 when The Eagles (Kuro-Washi) replaced manager Masaharu Yamawaki with Toyoo Sawa in June. Sawa was umpire for the Japan Professional baseball League, and he became a manager from umpire position. The team's record after the change was 26 wins, 38 losses, and 3 ties in 67 games, with a winning percentage of .406, and it was a one-time tenure.

In September 1952, Kintetsu replaced Shozo Fujita, who had been the manager since the team's founding in 1950, with Takeo Akuta, a newspaper reporter and baseball commentator, as their new manager. In 1952, they had a record of 1 win and 1 loss in 2 games. Akuta continued to manage Kintetsu until partway through the 1957 season, but the team's standings from 1952 to 1957 were <7> <7> <4> <5> <5> <7>.