When Hanshin Tigers manager Akihiro Yano stunned everyone just before the 2022 season by announcing he would step down at the end of the year, it was not immediately clear which direction the Tigers would go after his departure.
Hanshin finished that season in third place in the Central League, though did so with a losing record. Shortly before the end of the campaign, Akinobu Okada — who had managed Hanshin from 2004 to 2008, but had been out of the dugout since his last season with the Orix Buffaloes in 2012, and was approaching his 65th birthday — was hired to take over.
If there were any doubts about the hire then, they are long gone now. Even if there were doubters left, it was impossible to hear them on Thursday. Especially with Tigers fans, who accounted for most of the largest crowd (42,468) of the NPB season (per Daily Sports), loudly and passionately chanting Okada’s name after a 4-3 win over the Yomiuri Giants that gave Hanshin its first Central League pennant in 18 years.