According to an interview with a person concerned, professional baseball Hanshin has unified the candidate for the next director, Mr. Shofu Okada, to replace Mr. Yodai Yano, and is proceeding with final adjustments.
Hanshin entered the season with Director Yano, who was in his fourth year in office, announcing his intention to retire at the end of this season on the day before the camp-in this year, but suffered in the first half of the game, including nine consecutive losses from the opening.
After that, although the team situation improved, they failed to win the league championship, and as of the 26th, they are in 4th place, 0.5 games behind 3rd place.
The team has been selecting the next manager since the middle of the season, but according to an interview with a person involved, the final adjustments are being made with Mr. Okada, who served as manager until 2008, being the only candidate. I understand.
*The upper right of "燿" is "wing"
Biography of Akifu Okada
Akifu Okada is 64 years old from Osaka Prefecture.
He went to Waseda University from Hokuyo High School at the time, played an active part in the Tokyo Six Universities, and joined Hanshin in 1980 as the first draft.
In the Hanshin Tigers, he hit 18 home runs in his first year and won the Rookie of the Year award.
In 1994, he transferred to Orix and played for two years before retiring from active duty. I was appointed as director.
In 2005, the second year of his appointment, he led the team to the league championship for the first time in two years with pitchers Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi and Kei Igawa, and batters Tomonori Kanemoto, Norihiro Akahoshi, and Takashi Toritani. rice field.
After that, he retired as manager of Hanshin in 2008, and was manager of Orix for three seasons from the 2010 season.