Infamous Moment #2 – Pitcher Bad Mouths Manager, Retires

Many of you are probably aware of the fact that the Hanshin Tigers have a long history of scandal and notoriety. During the weeks before the upcoming season, we will look at ten of the most interesting ones. We continue here with quite possibly the most infamous quote in the history of the spoken language: “ベンチはアホやから” – uttered by a pitcher just minutes after he left the field and just a day before he announced his retirement.

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Futoshi Nakanishi replaced Don Blasingame as interim manager midway through the 1980 season and got the permanent job in 1981. Unfortunately, he did not fare very well. One particular episode is the culmination of a season of frustration from one player in particular.

Pitcher Takenori Emoto and Nakanishi were not on great terms to begin with. It all came to a head on August 26, 1981, when Emoto was on the mound at Koshien against the Yakult Swallows. Through 7 innings, the Tigers led the game 4-1, and Emoto was throwing a gem. However, he was also beginning to tire. In the 8th inning, he surrendered back-to-back one-out hits, and then on his 143rd pitch of the game, he gave up an RBI hit. A strikeout later, he was facing the #8 hitter. Waiting for an intentional walk sign from the bench, or even a reliever to put out the fire, Emoto got no reaction whatsoever from his skippers.

Sure enough, the next hitter brought the two base runners home to tie the game. After the third out, Emoto dragged his body back to the dugout, flung his glove at his manager and coach, and stormed towards the locker room. His good friend and reporter Akira Nishizawa was there waiting for a comment but not realizing how upset Emoto was. “You’ll get them next time, Emo-san.”

The reply he got was an unexpected one, which was heard by all the reporters nearby: ベンチはアホやから野球でけへん。“Nothing but idiots on that bench. I can’t play baseball like this.” Before Nishizawa was able to calm him down, he left the ballpark.

The following day he was called into the team office and was told they were considering suspending him for his outburst. He did them one better and declared that he was retiring from the game. He was just 34. At his retirement press conference, he said that his words were not sudden or spontaneous, but a release of how he had been feeling for a long time.

His words live on in team history, but he has continued to say plenty more since then as a commentator and author. He has also said that he can empathize with his ex-manager more now, and that the two even talked cordially some time after that, but the subject of his infamous words was never broached.

True Tigers fans can finish the quote if you start with the words “Bench wa aho yakara” and now you can, too: “yakyu dekehen!”