The Hiroshima Carp's overpowering pennant run this season is, according to former skipper Kenjiro Nomura, the result of the club's efforts not only on the field but off.
Nomura abruptly quit as skipper in 2014 after twice taking the Carp to the postseason but failing to win the Central League championship or reach the Japan Series. The team, which first took the field in 1950, won its first title in 1975 and had won its sixth by 1991, when Nomura was in his third season as a hard-hitting speedy shortstop.
But Hiroshima's hopes of extending its dynasty died when the free agent era began after the 1993 season. Playing in cramped and obsolete Hiroshima Municipal Stadium, the Carp slowly began to suffer a talent drain that turned them into perennial fifth-place finishers.