Last in a two-part excerpt of updated "You Gotta Have Wa"
In 2007, despite losing several key members of his team, Hillman led Nippon Ham to a second straight pennant, juggling his lineup and pitching staff with reinforcements from the farm team. One critic called it one of the finest pieces of managing ever seen over the course of a single season.
This time, however, the Fighters lost the Japan Series in a repeat matchup with the Dragons in five games. The series closer was a perfect one, thrown by two pitchers. In a memorable demonstration of wa, a twenty-nine-year-old spot starter named Daisuke Yamai, excused himself after eight innings ostensibly because of a small broken blister on his pitching finger, despite leading 1-0 and having set down twenty-four consecutive batters on a such a dazzling array of breaking pitches that Nippon Ham batters could barely make contact. Manager Hiromitsu Ochiai brought in his ace closer to retire the side in the ninth. Ochiai later confessed he had also made the move because he was worried whether or not Yamai could have handled the pressure of pitching the final inning. No one in Nagoya, least of all Yamai, questioned the decision.