Sayonara Hillman-san

2010, Yukan Fuji – Robert Whiting

Hillman left Japan at the end of the 2007 season, after winning two Pacific League pennant and a Japan Series crown for the Nippon Ham Fighters, saying that five years was the maximum a man should manage a baseball team, especially if that manager was a foreigner managing a team in Japan. He may wish he had stayed a bit longer, however, because his time with the Kansas City Royals, the team he left Nippon Ham to manage, did not end well and the lessons from his experience were not pleasant.

There had been genuine enthusiasm for Trey Hillman in Kansas City when he was first hired to take over the Royals prior to the 2008 season. People liked his confidence, his easy way with people, his integrity, his baseball knowledge, and the fact that he had succeeded in Japan using Japanese methods—which Hillman said he would attempt to introduce to major league baseball. 

When Hillman said he thought American baseball players were not as good as the Japanese in the fundamentals, and that American pitchers were too pampered and should have higher pitch counts, people nodded their heads in agreement and anticipation he would do something to change that situation.

But what happened was something else, as Hillman’s attempt to instilling the Japanese style work backfired. During his first spring training, for example, he lectured the entire team on the field for 15 minutes after an exhibition game in full view of the opposing team and departing fans. It was Hillman’s attempt at the common Japanese practice of post-game “hansei-kai” (self-reflection conference) but it was not well-received. At least one Royals player called it “bush league.” 

Hillman had some success his first season. After a rocky few months, during which Yabuta, Hillman’s import from Japan, was a disaster and had to be sent to the minor leagues, the Royals caught fire and were the hottest team in the American League in the final month of September. 

However, there was an unfortunate rash of injuries to several key players over the next two seasons and Hillman’s Japanese style of managing came for intense criticism. 

For example, Hillman allowed $55 million starting pitcher Gil Meche to stay in a game against Arizona last June, after 8 innings, much as he had done with Darvish and Yagi and other Nippon Ham pitchers in Japan. Meche finished with 132 pitches that night, but gave up nine runs in his next start and soon began complaining of a sore arm. Hillman continued to overuse Meche, who eventually went on the Disabled List and never regained his top form again. His ERA since then has been over 8 runs a game.

Hillman also used aging outfield star Jose Guillen in every game except one when, observers say, periodic rest was called for. Guillen was hitting .318 with a .635 slugging percentage when given his first start in the outfield on Tampa’s artificial surface. He showed up the next day in obvious pain, but continued to play. His batting average sank 70 points and his slugging average dropped 150 points.

Finally, Hillman’s promise to improve Royals’s defensive fundamentals by holding special lengthy Japanese style pre-game practice sessions for the players never really yielded results. Players in Japan would put up with that sort of thing. But Americans, weren’t about to tolerate it. They complained to their agents who in turn cried abuse and, as a result, Hillman’s special pre-game sessions never extended beyond 15 minutes. 

Under Hillman, in fact, the Royals defense actually seemed to get worse. The players lack of excellence in the fundamentals was best illustrated by a shameful moment in Texas where the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton forgot to tag up — as if he didn’t know he had to — and no Royals player or coach noticed. Their lack of defense was also illustrated by two dropped pop-ups in the game.  Whatever Hillman was teaching, the players were not listening. 

Of course, there was enough blame to go all around. The Royals owner could have spent more money acquiring players. And nearly all the ones that GM Dayton Moore did sign up proved to be flops. Indeed, the Royals have gone through 3 GM’s and 5 managers over the past 15 years without any noticeable rise in the standings.

But, as Kansas City Star reporter Sam Mellinger said of Hillman, “The manager from Japan’s message was not well-received.” It was complicated by the fact he seemed insecure and too deferential. 

Hillman never appeared comfortable with his position, observers said. 

American managers in Japan have had their difficulties adjusting to the Japanese culture.  After initial success, the easy-going Valentine way proved self-destructive to the Chiba Lotte Marines. Team discipline fell apart, team harmony was ruptured and Valentine was finally fired last year in 2009. His Japanese replacement, Norifumi Nishimura reinstated traditional Japanese practice methods and made “wa” the new official team motto. Terry Collins quit after a little more than a season, frustrated that the players would not follow his instructions to rest more.

Hillman, for his part, was praised for being the first American manger in Japan to make the switch from American “besuboru” approach, to employing the Japanese method of “yakyu”, leading the Nippon Ham Fighters to two pennants and a Japan Championship, in the process. 

But he would soon find that Japanese style managing was not very transportable to the United States.

An unhappy ending to a sad, sad tale.