When Daisuke Miura was a pitcher for the BayStars, which he was for 25 seasons, the game was often in his hands.
Of all the complexities that can go into winning and losing a baseball game, sometimes it was as simple as the way the ball flew out of Miura’s right hand and what he could make it do in the space between the pitcher’s mound and batter’s box. If Hama no Bancho was feeling good, then it might be a good day for the BayStars. If he didn’t have his stuff, things might not go Yokohama’s way.
As the DeNA manager, Miura doesn’t exert the same control. He’s still effectively running the show, but the ball is physically in someone else’s hands. Miura won 172 games as a pitcher for the BayStars from 1992 to 2016 — he won his first on Sept. 4, 1993. On Sunday, he finally won his first game as the team’s manager after coming up short eight times.