By Jim Allen,
In his three full seasons in charge of the Orix Buffaloes, Satoshi Nakajima has led a team that was once the joke of the Pacific League to three league pennants and one Japan Series championship, something first-year import Marwin Gonzalez attributes to the skipper's calm demeanor.
Gonzalez, who has played in 1,139 MLB games, joined Orix this season and has been pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere Nakajima has created within the club.
"I can only say great things about him (Nakajima). He's a great manager, with great vibes, a positive energy on him all the time," Gonzalez said Sunday prior to Japan Series Game 2.
"You don't see the pressure on him. It's really important. The positive vibes give the players confidence to go out and play and try and perform the best way they can every day. We don't get any expression of bad vibes from the coaches or the manager. He's an open guy. He enjoys what he does. You can clearly see it."
"He gives the players confidence and I think that's why this team has been successful the last three years."
Nakajima, spent time in the United States as a minor league instructor with the San Diego Padres after he hung up his catching glove, and has adopted some of the attributes one commonly attributes to a more American-style of coaching, namely a focus on letting the players find their own way.
"It's more bottom up than top down," said Orix coach So Taguchi, who played in MLB and who was for a time pursued by the Arizona Diamondbacks as a potential coach.
For Gonzalez, Nakajima demonstrated his willingness to try anything using a young player of limited experience as his leadoff hitter in the first game of the Japan Series, a move that received some criticism.
"That's just the way he is," Gonzalez said. "He doesn't care. I played six games at short when I wasn't expecting to play short. He told me to practice 'just for fun' one day and the next day I was at short."
"There are some guys I hear from whose teams are still old school, but what I see here is totally different. It's more fun. You still have to play hard, but that doesn't take any fun out of what you do every day."
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