Professional baseball club Seibu has announced that Kazuo Matsui will be its new head coach.
Seibu announced on the 13th that head coach Matsui will succeed Hatsuhiko Tsuji, who has been in command for six years.
Mr. Matsui is 46 years old from Osaka Prefecture.
In 1994, he joined Seibu in 3rd place in the draft from PL Gakuen in Osaka.
After playing for three teams in the major leagues, he returned to the Japanese baseball world and played for Rakuten for seven years before retiring from his old club Seibu in 2018.
His total number of hits in Japan and the United States was 2705.
The year after he retired, he served as Seibu's 2nd army coach, and this season he supported Tsuji as the 1st army head coach.
The new manager is expected to rebuild the batting team, which has the lowest batting average in the league this season, and win the league championship for the first time since 2019.
The president of the Seibu baseball team, Go Okumura, said, "In addition to his achievements as a player, he has a wealth of experience as a coach. In addition, he has been coaching the players as head coach under Director Tsuji this season, and has an accurate understanding of the issues faced by players and teams. In terms of the team's goals of 'constant victory' and 'development', I have judged that he is the most suitable person as a manager.Next season, I will fight to win the league under Coach Matsui and seize the number one in Japan." I put it out.
Seibu will start autumn practice on the 17th of this month, and the director's inaugural interview will be held on the 18th of this month.