It turns out that Shinji Sasaoka, who led professional baseball and Hiroshima for three seasons until this season, has told the team that he plans to resign as director due to poor results. The team has accepted the offer to resign, and plans to proceed with the selection of a future OB-focused successor.
Director Sasaoka is 55 years old from Shimane Prefecture.
During his 18 years as an active player, he recorded a total of 138 wins, 153 losses, and 106 saves.
In his first season, he finished in 5th place, and in his second season last season, he struggled to finish in 4th place due to a stall in the inter-league race.
This season, Seiya Suzuki, who has supported the team as a main player, has transferred to the major leagues, and we fought to advance to the Climax Series until the end of the season, but I think the expected results of the pitchers start not getting better and there were injuries. I couldn’t pick up a winning star.
Hiroshima lost to Yakult on September 30th, and 5th place in the league was confirmed before the last game of the season on the 2nd, and the team could not progress to the top series for the fourth consecutive year.
According to people involved, Director Sasaoka has told the team that he intends to resign as director due to poor results by the 2nd.
The team has accepted the resignation request and will make an official announcement soon, and plans to proceed with the selection of successors, primarily OB.
