The Meaning of Ichiro (40 page)

The Marines won their next six games in a row, with Ejiri and company not hesitating to take full credit. Had it not been
for that practice session, who knew what might have happened? On the other hand, they also lost three of their last five,
an outcome Valentine attributed to their running out of gas.

The season ended with Lotte in second place and a record of 69-58-3. It was the best finish the team had had in 11 years.
The pitching staff had an aggregate ERA of 3.27, down significantly from 4.50 a year before. Irabu had won the ERA title,
with Komiyama and Hillman third and fourth. Hatsushiba won the RBI crown. Hori finished second in the league in batting. Franco
was third. Hatsushiba was fourth. Three Marines were chosen on the postseason sportswriters’ All-Star team. Many reporters,
fans and baseball people thought the Marines were the best team in the entire league in the second half of the season. In
fact, in terms of winning percentage, they were.

Lotte deputy owner Shigemitsu expressed great satisfaction with the way things had turned out. Unaware of the internecine
vitriol, he had been highly impressed with Valentine’s bubbly, media-friendly persona and press support, which he thought
was good PR for the company. He noted with satisfaction that attendance had increased nearly 20 percent and was of the belief
that his eternally downtrodden baseball franchise was on the cusp of historic change.

For his part, Valentine was accepting congratulations for a fine season and basking in accolades from the press. He had been
feeling so good about things, in fact, that before Lotte had played its final makeup games, he wrote a letter to Shigemitsu
suggesting steps that could be taken to improve the team, which included seven recommendations about jettisoning certain members
of the coaching staff and otherwise limiting outside interference. A shortened autumn camp was also on his agenda. What he
didn’t realize, perhaps, was that such a move was an enormous breach of etiquette in a culture that emphasized consensus and
bottom-up decision-making, and where a lot of careful oral preparation (what the Japanese call
nemawashii,
or laying the groundwork in advance) normally precedes the formality of committing such things to writing.

He attended a final, season-end meeting with Hir
ka and Shigemitsu where he had expected an invitation to come back the following year. When one was not forthcoming, he adopted
a more conciliatory tone.

“If you want to continue the same way next season with Eto and Obana and the rest that’s okay with me. Let me be the one to
suffer again. I don’t mind.”

“I want to talk with the other coaches before I decide,” Hir
ka told him solemnly.

“Does that mean you’re going to talk with House and Robson too?”

“I don’t need to do that,” he replied. “They already favor you. I need a more objective opinion.”

“Are you going to take a vote?” Valentine joked.

“Maybe,” said the GM, never changing expression.

“What if it’s a tie?” Valentine grinned. “Who casts the tie-breaker?”

Hir
ka neither smiled nor responded, but Valentine had his answer soon enough.

In a subsequent audience with Shigemitsu, Hir
ka reportedly said, “We could have won the pennant if we’d had a different manager. But we won’t be able to do that with the
one we have now. If you don’t want to win next year, then don’t make any changes. But, I warn you, there are three Japanese
coaches who will resign if he stays.”

Shigemitsu was persuaded.

At a press conference convened on October 17th, Hir
ka announced the termination of Valentine’s contract and the appointment of Ejiri as the team’s new manager; he stressed “philosophical
differences.” Valentine’s letter to Shigemitsu was also mentioned as a reason for the decision.

“Extra practice was needed so that the players could fully develop their potential which, in my mind, had not been completely
reached,” Hir
ka declaimed. “But Valentine didn’t want that. He wanted them to rest.”

Later, a Marines spokesman, Kazuhito Maruyama, cited Valentine’s “emphasis on winning games rather than training and building
up the team,” as a major factor in Valentine’s firing, implying that the all-important
process
had been neglected.

The announcement was a huge shock to the baseball world at large, unaware that the internal squabble had become so serious.
Back home, Valentine did not know what hit him. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “Here I was expecting champagne and flowers
and they gave me the axe instead.”

A survey showed that 70 percent of the team’s fans wanted Valentine back. In fact, at a postseason event held at Chiba Marine
Stadium—Fan Appreciation Day (where players got dressed up in funny costumes and frolicked with celebrities)—fans booed when
Ejiri was introduced as the new manager, loudly chanting “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.” The head of Lotte’s largest fan organization
sent a petition signed by 14,000 fans to the front office, calling for Valentine’s reinstatement. Julio Franco quit in sympathy.

Said center fielder Morozumi, speaking for many of his teammates, “I loved playing for Bobby. He did not require that we practice
until we collapsed.” Added Hori, “He taught me how to enjoy the game. I take baseball seriously, but Bobby’s approach was
fun. I wish I could play for him again.” They had all come to believe that baseball should be fun, not simply work. A lot
of players on Lotte liked this approach. In fact, they thought that Hir
ka’s way—the “way of the samurai,” said one player dismissively—belonged in a different era. They wanted to enjoy themselves
playing baseball and under Valentine, they could.

Some pundits, both Japanese and American, charged that Hir
ka had fired his American because he was jealous that Valentine had been getting all the credit. As one associate put it,
“Hir
ka wanted to be recognized for his genius in bringing in a foreign manager. But when Valentine began to monopolize the limelight,
he resented it. Valentine obviously presented a threat to Hir
ka’s image and authority, that was why he had to go.”