Time Machine: Gaijin Kantoku era over

This story originally appeared in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2010.

TOKYO — The era of the gaijin kantoku is over. Marty Brown got the axe at the end of this season, meaning that the fourth and last gaijin kantoku of the post-millenium era in the NPB is now gone.

The first to leave was Trey Hillman, who left Nippon Ham in 2007, after winning two pennants and a Japan championship, because he was homesick for America. The next was Terry Collins, who resigned from Orix, irate that no one would pay attention to his orders about not practicing so much. And following him was Bobby Valentine, who, as you may recall, was invited to leave Lotte, after relations between him, team president Ryozo Setoyama and owner Akio Shigemitsu, soured.