Keiichi Yabu officially joins Hanshin Tigers coaching staff
by Gen on Dec.17, 2010 @ 5:18 pm, under NPB
The Hanshin Tigers announced today, via press conference, that Keiichi Yabu will be joining the team as a Ni-gun pitching coach. This officially marks the end of Yabu's career.
UPDATE (12/18 135pm JST): it's a one-year deal wroth 15M yen.
In other team related news:
The Tigers and Kyuji Fujikawa agreed to a 2011 salary of 400M yen today (no change from this past season). Regarding his desire to play in the Majors, GM Shoji Numasawa told reporters the team has a general rule of not using the posting system for any players.
The team would like to color the stands in red whenever Matt Murton steps up to bat (red = Murton). And in order to make that happen, they're thinking about selling red mufflers (scarves) next season. The Tigers are also considering a t-shirt featuring the phrase Kamisama-wa watashi-no chikara-desu (or God provides me with strength). Murton merchandise has apparently sold well -- just this past October, the Tigers sold a limited edition photo panel featuring Murton for 15,750 yen and sold out on all 214 of them.
