One Year Managers

Eagles manager Toshiaki Imae has been let go as manager of the Eagles despite having another year left on his two year contract. By my count, Imae is now the twelfth "one year manager" in NPB over the past 34 years. What's amazing about it is that FIVE of those twelve times were Eagles managers despite the franchise only having been around for twenty years.

I thought it might be interesting to do a post featuring all twelve of the "one year managers" so here they are in chronological order - each card is from the year that the manager was in charge of their team:

1992 BBM #425

1995 BBM #516

1996 BBM #541

2004 BBM 2nd Version #596

2005 BBM 1st Version #165

2005 BBM Eagles Box Set #E03

2006 BBM Buffaloes #Bs01

2010 BBM 1st Version #253

2014 Front Runner Lions Rookies & Young Stars #01

2015 BBM Eagles #E01

2020 Epoch NPB #073

2024 Calbee Series Two #C-10 (Imae)

but first let me explain a little of my methodology. I didn't include in my count anyone who took over as an interim manager mid-season but didn't get the regular job the following season. I think there are only six of these - Ejiri, Whales, 1992; Futoshi Nakanishi, Marines, 1994; Sadayuki Tokutake and Ikuo Shimano, Dragons, 1995 (yeah, that was not a good year for Chunichi); Leon Lee, Buffaloes, 2003 and Hisonobu Watanabe, Lions, 2024. I'm also not counting anyone who started out as an interim manager and then got the regular job for only one season. I think that only leaves out two people - Taira Fujita, Tigers, 1995-96 and Yusuke Hiraishi, Eagles, 2018-19. Including Hiraishi would have made six "one year managers" for the Eagles.

I did include in my count a couple managers who had other stints with the same team that were longer than just one year. There's three of them - Valentine had a second stint with Lotte from 2004 to 2009; Ohgi had previously managed Orix from 1994 to 2001 and Ihara had previously managed the Lions from 2002-03. Additionally Miki is replacing Imae so there'll be a fourth manager with two stints with the team they had a one year stint managing.

Some other comments:

- Ejiri's entire managerial career was the interim stint with the Whales in 1992 and the one year with Lotte in 1996.

- Orix had three "one year managers" in a row from 2004 to 2006 but there's an explanation. Following the 2004 season, Orix and Kintetsu merged to form the Orix Buffaloes and the team replaced Ihara with Akira Ohgi since Ohgi had previously managed both franchises - Kintetsu from 1988-92 and Orix from 1994-2001. Tragically Ohgi passed away in December of 2005, forcing the team to press GM Katsuhiro Nakamura into service. After the Ohgi's eight years at the helm, Orix had seven managers in the next eight years between 2002 and 2009.

- Ihara only managed the Lions for a couple months in 2013 - he abruptly resigned around the beginning of June. It could be argued that he doesn't belong on this list since he didn't make it to a full season.

- The Eagles had been doing the "one year managers" on a five year schedule - Tao in 2005, Brown in 2010, Ohkubo in 2015 and Miki in 2020. Imae is the first out-of-cycle one. But he now clears the way for them to be back on schedule to have yet another one in 2025 (which would make Miki be the second guy to do it twice). All of which goes to show that being Eagles manager has the same life expectancy of a Spinal Tap drummer or a security officer on the Enterprise. Come to think of it, those crimson uniforms are a shade of red, aren't they?