Police on Tuesday sent papers to prosecutors on Chunichi Dragons manager Senichi Hoshino and two of the professional baseball team's players on suspicion of shoving an umpire during an argument at a game in May, breaking his ribs, but recommended that they not be indicted, police said.
In sending the papers, police asked that prosecutors not seek charges against the 53-year-old manager of the Nagoya-based team and the two players — Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, 30, and Takayuki Onishi, 28 — as the umpire, Atsushi Kittaka, had decided not to press the case, they said.
The investigation was launched after two baseball fans filed a criminal complaint on May 12 demanding that police pursue criminal charges against the three.
The three men were ejected in the seventh inning of a May 6 game against the Yokohama BayStars at Nagoya Dome for violently shoving Kittaka after arguing a called third strike.
Kittaka was later diagnosed with broken ribs and a bruised left shoulder.
Hoshino was slapped with a five-day suspension by officials of the Central League, to which Chunichi belongs, along with a 500,000 yen fine.
Tatsunami was given a five-day suspension and a 200,000 yen fine, while Onishi was fined 200,000 yen and given a 10-day suspension.
Arrests over death
Several teenagers have been arrested in connection with an assault in Tokyo's Ota Ward in May, in which an 18-year-old boy died, police said Tuesday.
About 20 "bosozoku" hot rodders, including the young suspects, allegedly assaulted a group of 11 youths in the parking lot of a bowling alley in the Ikegami district on May 13, after mistaking them for members of a rival bosozoku group.
The suspects hit the youths with baseball bats, seriously injuring four, police said.
The 18-year-old boy was taken away in a car by the bosozoku group. He was released in Chofu, western Tokyo, but died later.